Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Bastioned fort
Cill éinne, County Galway, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Cill éinne
- County
- Galway
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Site of Arkin Castle
- Latest-edition OS map
- Arkin Castle (in Ruins)
- Coordinates
- 53.10484, -9.66261
- SMR number
- GA119-005001-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
On the seashore at Cill Éinne, on the site of an earlier castle (GA119-005003-). This National Monument, known locally as Caisleán Aircín, was built c. 1652-5 by Cromwellian forces. A manuscript plan of 1796-8 (Dublin Oireachtas Libr. MS 8.H.21; pers. comm. P. Kerrigan) shows it as roughly rectangular in plan with two square towers to seaward and two irregularly placed circular towers to landward. Both of the latter and one of the former are now gone. What remains today is a substantial portion of N wall (L c. 63m, H 5m) built on the rocky foreshore. There is a small tower at SE end and a water-gate surmounted by a machicolation further to N. One of the gun and cannon loops incorporates a cross-slab (GA119-005002-) reused as a lintel, giving credence to the tradition that the fort was built of stones from the old monastery (GA119-006006-) nearby. (O'Flanagan 1927a, Vol. 3, 399-400; Robinson 1986, 239-58; Kerrigan 1980, 135; Walsh 1994, 149-58)
The monument was taken into Ownership under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 - National Monument 43.
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. I - West Galway'. Compiled by Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1993).
Date of upload: 05 August 2010
GA119-005001-_Arkin Castle_002
GA119-005001-_Arkin Castle_003
GA119-005001-_Arkin Castle_006
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.
Robinson, T. 1986 Stones of Aran: pilgrimage. Mullingar.
Kerrigan, P.M. 1980-82 Seventeenth-century fortifications, forts and garrisons in Ireland: a prelliminary list. The Irish Sword 14, no. 54, 3-24, no. 55, 135-56.
Walsh, P. 1994 Arkin Fort: The Military History of a Garrison Outpost on Árainn. In J. Waddell, J. O'Connell and A. Korff (eds.), The Book of Aran. The Aran Islands, Co. Galway. Kinvarra, 149-58.
Nearby in the register
- Castle - unclassifiedunder 1 mi
- Cross-inscribed stoneunder 1 mi
- Rock scribing - folk artunder 1 mi
- Cross - High crossunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.