What is recorded here

Knockfin Castle vanished into a Clare farmhouse, its fifteenth-century wall torn out around 1980 and scattered into a farmyard gate. The MacClanchy brehons once judged beneath it, and later men took it from them after rebellion and invasion. What remains is not a ruin but a shape of stones redeployed, still holding the line of a room nobody drew.

The grounds of a modern farmhouse in pasture are one of several traditionally suggested locations of Knockfin Castle. Knockfin Castle was first mentioned in the castle list of 1570 (Ua Cróinín and Breen 1997), when it was owned by the MacClanchy family, the hereditary brehons of the O’Briens of Thomond. Together with the rest of the family inheritance, this castle was taken and given to Patrick Sarsfield after the Irish Rebellion of 1641 (ibid.); soon after it was given to the Purdon family. After the Cromwellian invasion (1649-1653) the castle changed hands several times, before being rented to the William McNamaras in 1752. At some point before 1787 the castle appears to have fallen into disrepair (ibid.). Local people believe that a high mound across the road from this farmhouse was the site of the MacClancy law school (ibid.). There are no visible remains of the castle. According to the owner of the farmhouse, in c. 1980 he demolished the very wide S gable of the house, which incorporated two narrow loops in splayed embrasures. The stone from this wall was used to rebuild the farmyard entrance immediately to the S. This stone was examined by Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen (1997), who considered it to be typical 15th-century dressed masonry, including three rounded corbels and the base of a late 16th-century square-mullioned window with holes for glazing bars. The following item is uploaded: Details from Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen, The Castles and Tower-houses of Co. Clare (unpublished report). Uploaded courtesy of R. Ua Cróinín and M. Breen. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 17 January 2023

Knockfin Castle was held by the O'Donovan family in the 16th century and is remembered as one of the castles listed in the 1570 survey of Irish castles, reflecting the Gaelic lordships under English scrutiny at the time. Its exact location remains uncertain, with Ballyvoe being one traditional suggestion.

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.