What is recorded here

St Augustine's Fort rose in 1601 as a massive square earthwork with corner bastions, swallowing the old Augustinian friary and commanding the harbour approaches. It stood for four decades before demolition in 1643 erased every stone, leaving only the adjacent graveyard name to prove the giant ever existed.

On summit at SW end of a steep-sided ridge overlooking Galway town to WNW and the approaches to its harbour and Loch an tSáile to S. Built in 1601-3 on the site of Augustinian friary (GA094-099003-), the church of which was incorporated into its plan. No visible surface trace survives of St Augustine's Fort, as it was known, but early 17th-C plans and various accounts of it exist (Hardiman 1846, 96-8, 108-22). These indicate that it was a massive earth and stone-faced construction (H c. 6m), square in plan (L/Wth c. 60m), with salient angle-bastions at each corner. It was encircled by a fosse, the entrance with gatehouse and drawbridge being situated midway along E side. Completely demolished in 1643: its former existence is preserved in the name of an adjacent graveyard (see GA094-099001-). (Walsh 1981, 64-76, 79-85; Kerrigan 1980, 137) 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

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.