What is recorded here

Ballyclogh Castle vanished into the townland before human memory, leaving only a mill seat and a roofless shadow in the 1650s. The Bourke and O'Brien families traded its stones across decades while the building decayed, suggesting it stopped being a home long before it stopped being a castle. What remains is a gap in the land where ownership changed faster than identity, a reminder that some places refuse to hold their own shape.

The precise location of Ballyclogh Castle within the townland has not been identified. Castle described by Westropp (1906-7, 86) as following; '1620 Edm. Bourke f. Ric. confirmed in half the C[astle]. and mill of Ballinclohie (Pat. R). 1630 Livery of Ballinaclohy to Turlough mac Kennedy O'Brien (Chan. R.). 1655 Edm. Bourke, &c, unroffed C[astle]. (C.S., xxix., p. 10; D.S.A. 4 exp.). 1680 It belonged to James Whitro; the "etimology" is " Stone town" (Dyneley R.S.A.I. viii., p. 282). 1688 Confiscated as estate of King James (Trustees' Map, 30)'. The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that upon the lands of Edmund Bourke of Ballysimon and James Bourke fitz Rickard there stood 'an unroofed Castle and a Mill Seate' (Simington 1938, 466). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 14 January 2020

Ballyclogh Castle was held by the Bourke family in the early 17th century, as evidenced by a confirmation in 1620. It is remembered for its association with the influential Bourke clan in the region.

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