Castle in ruins — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Ballinduff stands as a four-storey tower in Galway grassland, linked to Lough Corrib by a canal and recorded in 1574 under Thomas McHenry. Its walls still hold vaulted floors, an intramural stair, and a murder-hole that now serves as the entrance because a later annexe blocked the original door. The castle was built to be entered, climbed, defended and lived in, even if most of its rooms have gone. What remains is enough to show that this was not a decorative ruin but a working house shaped by fear, pride and daily use.

In grassland, some 430m N of Lough Corrib and linked to the lake by a canal. In existence in 1574 when it was in the possession of 'Thomas McHenry' (Nolan 1901b, 118). A fairly well-preserved rectangular four-storey tower (L 10.15m, Wth 7.55m). The remains of a later annexe abut ESE wall. Access to the main ground-floor chamber was originally through a pointed arch doorway in ESE wall, this was subsequently blocked up when the annexe was built. However, the murder-hole is visible above and it is now the means of access to the 1st floor. Access to the ground-floor is now via a ruined pointed arch doorway in SSW wall. Stone vaults exist between ground/1st floor and 1st/2nd floors. An intramural passage on 1st floor leads to a garderobe. Intramural staircases rise from 1st to 2nd floors, and from 2nd floor to the roof and wall-walks. Two projecting corbels on top of each wall indicate the former presence of machicolations. Apart from simple slits and one single-light ogee-headed window, most of the larger windows on 2nd floor have been robbed out. A doorway almost directly above the original one in ESE wall indicates that the annexe was at least two storeys high. Traces of NNE wall survive to 1st-floor level; elsewhere only sections of walls or wall foundations survive. Apart from a rectangular window in NNE wall and a wall cupboard in ESE wall, no architectural features survive. Ballinduff Lodge (built 1796) and traces of a village lie to W. (Nolan 1901a, 43; O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 200) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

Built in the late medieval period, the castle at Ballinduff was held by Thomas McHenry in 1574 and is notable for its well-preserved four-storey tower, reflecting Gaelic lordship architecture in the region.

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