What is recorded here

Deerpark Castle stands as a two-phase tower house in County Galway, its southern half preserving spiral stairs and stone vaults while northern foundations hint at lost main rooms. Once tied to the Burke family through the old name Cregarosta, the ruin still holds doorways pointing toward chambers that no longer exist. Rolling pastureland surrounds the structure, keeping the ghost of a grander building alive in the shape of what remains.

On the SW side of road in rolling pastureland and formerly part of the estate of Roxborough House, which lies 1km to the W. The old name for Roxborough was 'Cregarosta' (Fahey 1893, 321), which ties in with the 1574 list of castles in Co. Galway where 'Cragrosty' castle, in the barony of Loughrea, was then in the possession of 'Ullick Caragh Mc Hubberd [Burke]' (Nolan 1901, 112). The castle consists of a two-phase, four-storey high rectangular tower in fair condition. Only the S half or first phase survives, comprising the stairwell and subsidiary chambers (L 8.15m, Wth 4.2m). All that remains of the second phase, which contained the main rooms, are some irregular foundations immediately to the N. The original doorway, in the S wall, gives access to a lobby from which further doorways lead to a small chamber to the E and the spiral stairs (broken) to the W. A doorway to the N, now blocked by rubble, would have led to the main ground-floor room. Stone vaults exist between the subsidiary chambers on the ground/1st and 2nd/3rd floors. There are doorways, opening off the stairs, on 1st-3rd floors in the W wall, and another in the N wall on the 3rd floor, all designed to give access to now vanished second phase. A narrow offset in the N wall between the 2nd/3rd floors, coupled with a notable change in the character of the masonry, indicates that the 3rd floor is a later addition that was probably part of the second-phase work. The surviving windows comprise flat, round and ogee-headed single lights. Traces of a rectangular bawn (GA104-127001-) wall are visible to the N, E and S of the tower. This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 2/1997). Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG Date of upload: 2 January 2018

The castle at Deerpark was likely part of the Roxborough estate, held by the MacDonnell family, Gaelic lords of Antrim, in the 16th century. It is remembered for its historical association with the MacDonnells and its mention in the 1574 list of Gaelic lordships, indicating its strategic or administrative significance in the region.

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