Castle - hall-house

The National Monuments Service's description

In SE corner of Dún Formna (GA120-017001-). Known locally as Caisleán Uí Bhriain, it consists of a two-storey rectangular keep (L 13.2m, Wth 7.6m), in fair condition, and now a Nat. Mon. Present access is via a late ope in NE wall. Above this, on 1st floor, is the original doorway, flanked by two beam-holes for external wooden stairs. This doorway gave access to a hall occupying the whole of 1st floor, the vaulted floor of which has largely collapsed. Access to the ground floor basement, of three vaulted chambers, appears to have been via an opening in the roof of the central chamber. Intramural stairs in thickness of SW wall led to the wall-walk and parapets. A number of the tall merlins, pierced by short slits, survive, as does a corbel of a bartizan at N corner. There is a fine single-light trefoil-headed window in SW wall and a decorated projecting corbel on external faces of NE and SE walls. Though early in design, the castle is probably of 14th-C date: it was certainly still in use in 1574 when it was in the possession of 'Domynick Lynch' (Nolan 1901, 115) and was reputedly broken down in 1652 by Cromwell's forces (Hardiman 1846, 86-7). (O'Flanagan 1927a, Vol. 3, 265-6)

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

This monument was taken into Ownership under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 1914 - National Monument 41.

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.

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

Hardiman, J. (ed) 1846 A chorographical description of West or H-Iar Connaught written in A.D. 1684 by Roderic O'Flaherty, Esq. Dublin.