Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

On level ground, formerly part of the demesne of the Castle Taylor estate. O'Doherty (1985, 3)
noted that the old name for Castle Taylor was 'Ballymacgrath'. This ties in with the 1574 list of castles in Co. Galway where 'Ballymicrahe' castle was then in the possession of 'Moyler Oge' (Nolan 1901, 113). It consists of the fairly well-preserved ruins of a four-storey high rectangular tower house. In the early 19th century it was incorporated into the NE end of Castle Taylor House (GA104-105002-), a rectangular three-storey country house, which is now also in ruins (Bence-Jones 1978, 75; O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 2, 601). The original doorway, in the NW wall, gives access to a lobby with an overhead murder-hole. Further doorways off it lead to an intramural stairway and the spiral staircase in the N corner, and the main ground-floor room to the SE. The main features in this room are a large triple-light window in the NE wall and a fireplace (inserted) in the SE wall. A later doorway in this wall provided access to the house. The original wooden floor between the ground/1st floor has been removed. Stone vaults exist between 1st/2nd and 2nd/3rd floors. A subsidiary chamber in the NW wall at 1st-floor level, above the doorway, houses the murder-hole. Another subsidiary chamber in the NE wall on the 2nd floor accesses the main chamber at this level. Another modern doorway in its SW wall provided access to the house. On the 3rd floor the main room was accessed through a subsidiary chamber in the NW wall. Another large three-light window is visible in its NE wall. A chimney in the SE wall serviced the fireplace on the ground floor and there is also a small fireplace in the SW wall. An intramural staircase rises from the large window embrasure to a short spiral stairs that accesses the battlements. The roof, parapets and turret on the N side also appear to date from the 19th-century remodelling. O’Doherty (1985, 4) claims that the large three-light windows originally came 'from one of the churches at Kilmacduagh' but according to Bence-Jones (1978, 75) they are 18th-century tracery windows. (Fahey 1893, 299)

Compiled by: Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 16 September 2021

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

Bence-Jones, M. 1978 Burke's Guide to Country Houses: Volume 1 Ireland. London. Burke's Peerage Ltd.

O'Doherty, T. 1985 Taylors and Shave - Taylors of Castletaylor. Muintir Amhaín - Muintir Ardrahan.