Claddagh Castle (in ruins) — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Claddagh Castle belonged to the O'Kellys of Hy-Many, standing as a four-storey tower above bogland before ruin reduced it to fragmentary corner walls. Grose drew its pointed doorway, spiral stairs and machicolations in 1791, but grass has since swallowed most of the plan. The lost chambers may have held lamps, arguments and fear of siege, while the remaining stone still marks the shape of that forgotten household.

On a rise in rolling grassland overlooking bogland to N and E. According to OS Letters (O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 103), this castle 'belonged to the O'Kellys of Hy-Many'. It is depicted by Grose (1791, Vol. 1, 64) as a roughly square tower, about four storeys high, with a notable base batter. Access was via a pointed arch doorway centrally placed in one side-wall. His ground plan shows a spiral stairs to the right of the doorway and a number of chambers on the ground floor. The doorway was surmounted by a double machicolation at parapet level and a second machicolation is also visible on an adjoining side-wall. The windows shown comprised narrow slits and a number of small round-headed examples. Only fragmentary sections of N (L 8.7m) and W (L 6m) walls now survive at NW corner. Otherwise grassed-over foundation lines indicate the outline of a rectangular building (L 12m, Wth 8m). Apart from a possible window embrasure or wall cupboard in W wall, no architectural features survive. Surrounding the castle are traces of an enclosure defined by a low earthen bank from W to N. It may have been originally circular (D c. 70m) but no visible surface trace survives elsewhere. Adjacent to the castle is an irregular series of grassed-over stone walls, mounds and hollows. 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

Claddagh Castle was held by the O'Kellys of Hy-Many in the late 18th century and is remembered as a historic Gaelic stronghold in the Claddagh West area.

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