Castle - hall-house

The National Monuments Service's description

On flat pastureland that slopes away to the NNW towards a turlough. Described by Redington (1916, 123) as a small 13th-century keep castle. In 1574 it was in the possession of 'Willm McRichard' (Nolan 1901, 113). It consists of a rectangular two-storey high building (16.75m NNW-SSE; 10.6m ENE-WSW), in fair condition, though little of the walls of the 1st floor survive. It is constructed of well-coursed mortared masonry but all the quoinstones and dressed stonework has been robbed out and only small portions of the once prominent base-batter survives. Doorways to hall-houses are generally found at 1st-floor level but here what appears to be the original doorway is on the ground floor, towards S end of NE wall where a large breach still retains fragments of its arch and N jamb. There were four windows on this floor; two in the SW wall and one each in the NE and NW walls. They consisted of a narrow slit set in a wide embrasure. The interior is rubble-filled. Access from the ground to 1st floor was via an intramural stairs in the SE wall. On this floor the base of a window is visible in the NW wall. Only the joist holes survive to indicate the level of the wooden floor between the ground and 1st floor. A church (GA103-031----) lies 100m to the E and a settlement cluster (GA103-198----) c. 165m to the N. (Sweetman 1999, 91)

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 31 August 2021

References

Redington, M. 1915-16 Old church of Ballinacourty, barony of Dunkellin. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 9, 123-5.

Sweetman, D. 1999 The medieval castles of Ireland. Cork. The Collins Press.

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