Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

On a gentle rise in pastureland, this much-ruined tower house (8.2m N-S; 7.1m E-W) overlooks a bend in the Clogharevaun River to the E and commands a crossing point on the river c. 90m to the SSW. It was incorporated into the E wall of an associated bawn (GA097-084002-). Records indicate that it was in existence in 1574 when it was in the possession of 'Hugh McSwyne' (Nolan 1901, 121). Originally four storeys high with a base-batter, it is constructed of roughly coursed blocks; ashlar quoins survive at the upper levels. Its entire S half has collapsed. Only the N wall and adjoining portions of the E and W walls still stand to anything like their full height but following a lightning strike most of the outer wall-face of the E wall has collapsed. The much-collapsed original pointed doorway, set off-centre in the N wall, gave access to a lobby with an overhead murder-hole. From the lobby, further doorways led to spiral stairs in the NE corner and to the main ground-floor room (now choked with rubble). There were stone vaults between the ground/1st floor and 2nd/3rd floors but both are now largely destroyed. There were small chambers to the N of the main rooms on the 1st and 2nd floors. The 3rd floor was undivided. An intramural passage is visible in the thickness of the E wall on the 2nd floor. Remains of vertical loops that lit the stairwell survive at ground and first-floor levels and the only surviving window is a single light with an ogee-head on the 2nd floor in the N wall. Two doorways in this wall, one visible at a height of c. 1.95m and the other at c. 4.3m, connected the tower with an adjoining house that was subsequently constructed against its N face. Little of the latter building survives save a short portion of its W side-wall (Wth 0.9m) which abuts the NW corner of the tower. However, a grassed-over stony surface to the N of the castle, plus the shadow of a gable on its N face, suggest that it was a rectangular two-storey structure (L c. 20m, Wth 7.1m). Two putlog holes above the original doorway to the tower are most likely associated with the house and may have held timber beams or corbels that supported a floor. A field system (GA079-084001-) is associated.

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 5 September 2018

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 2/1995).

References

Cody, E. 1989 An archaeological survey of the barony of Athenry, Co. Galway. Unpublished MA thesis, University College Galway.

Connolly, A. 1995 Archaeological report on the destruction of earthworks in Clougharevaun townland, Kiltullagh, Co. Galway. Archaeological Services Unit, University College Galway. Unpublished report, National Monuments Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.

Nolan, J.P. 1901a Galway castles and owners in 1574. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 1, 109-23.