Castle

On the E side of Ballina town, located on the E bank of the Moy. This castle, more than likely a tower house, was known as Ardnaree castle and is shown on the Down Survey Barony (Tirreragh) and Parish (Kilmoremoy) maps (1656-58). O’Donovan recorded it in the 1830’s in the OS Letters as follows: ‘I find the site of the Castle of Ardnaree is well known, and that some fragments of the walls are still remaining. It stood on top of the hill which is situated immediately over the Moy to the south of the Church, and which is generally called Castle Hill. The hill is Tulach na Fairscena and the Ard na Riagh of the ancient Irish writers and it has all the appearance of having been the site of an ancient fort before the modern castle was erected, and seems to have derived the appellation Port Righ (Seat of the King) applied to it in the Dinnseanchus.’ (O’Flanagan, 88 (42-3). However, on another occasion, he gives a slightly different account, recording that ‘There is a tradition that O’Dowd built and occupied a castle on a little hill in Ardnaree immediately south of the Church, which stands close to the Moy, and that within a few years past, the very ruins of the castle were totally removed with almost the whole of the fort on which, or at which, it stood.’ (O’Flanagan, 352 (147)). The castle is mentioned a number of times in the Annals of the Four Masters, accounts which give a flavour of its chequered history: 1266 ‘Donall O’Hara was killed by the English while he was in the act of burning Ard-na-riagh’ 1371 O’Dowd (Donall) committed great depradations in Tireragh on the Moy; he ravaged the entire country and took its Castles, viz. the castle of Ardnariagh and Castleconor and drove out all the English who has been in them and he afterwards divided the country among his brothers and people.’ 1532 ‘The castle of Ardnariagh was taken at night by the sons of O’Dowd from the sons of John Burke’ 1533 ‘The castle of Ardnariagh was taken at night by the sons of Thomas Burke from the sons of O’Dowd’ 1586 'They (the Scots)….were pursued by the Governor’s people and an engagement took place at Ardnaree in which the Scots were totally defeated.’ [note: This account does not mention the castle. The Scots (MacDonalds) had come to assist the Burkes in their rebellion against the Sir Richard Bingham, who had been appointed Provincial President of Connacht in 1584. The 'engagement' was a serious and bloody military campaign, known as the Battle of Ardnaree.] There are no upstanding remains of the castle, and its exact location is uncertain but may have been on a small prominent hill overlooking the Moy at approx. ITM 524475 818407 in what is now Carrowcushlan townland. Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy Date of upload: 6 June 2018