Ballynacourty Court (in ruins)

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

Ballynacourty Court was built as a small 13th-century keep castle and by 1574 was held by 'Willm McRichard'. It is remembered as an example of early medieval Irish castle architecture and for its historical association with local Gaelic families during the late 16th century.