What is recorded here

Castle is a vanished motte in Claretuam grassland, not a distant fantasy but a human-made mound large enough to carry a tower and a moat wide enough to stop a charging horse. It stands beside a church, suggesting a local lord or cleric claimed the land and forced people to dig, carry soil and obey one household. The mound has disappeared under grass and time, yet its shape still emerges in old plans and map lines.

In undulating grassland. Marked on OS 6-inch maps as an irregular enclosure (c. 50m by c. 30m); on 3rd. ed. (1930) it is shown as partly damaged on S side. A plan of the monument in 1910 by Costello (Topgr. Files, NMI) shows a steep-sided flat-topped 'artificial mound' (c. 45m by c. 36.5m) flanked on N and NE by a feature labelled 'old moat' and 'dyke'; possibly a fosse and external bank. A smaller semicircular area, labelled 'surface partly flat', is also shown adjoining the mound on SW side. No visible surface trace survives, but the morphology and its proximity to a church (GA043-037----) are reminiscent of a motte. 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

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