What is recorded here

Ballinafad Castle, built in 1590 by Sir Richard Bingham to guard the Curlew Pass, still wears four corner towers and east and north chimney stacks. Red Hugh O’Donnell damaged it in 1595, and in 1641 its owners surrendered when water ran out. The OPW repaired it in the 1940s after decades of disuse, leaving a place where mountain wind, military pride and human desperation all still seem to breathe through the stones.

Ballinafad Castle is recorded as a castle in County Sligo. Its open map record supplies this location and any linked names or public references.

Ballinafad Castle, located in County Sligo, was likely built in the 15th or 16th century by the O'Connors of Sligo, a prominent Gaelic Irish family. It is remembered as an example of late medieval Irish castle architecture and as a symbol of local Gaelic power before the English plantations.