Clifden Castle

On W-facing slope, on the S edge of a farmyard, surrounded by mixed tillage and pasture. There are good views from SW-W-N. Indicated on the Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Gowran in Rathgarvan townland (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). The terrier accompanying the parish map of Blackrath and St Martins describes, ‘on Rathgarvan a Castle in repaire’ and lists ‘James Blanchfield’ as the proprietor in 1640 (NLI MS720). According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 417), ‘Richard Blanchville, their [the family’s] representative in Cromwell’s time, forfeited the family property, and, with his wife and six infant children, was transplanted to Connaught in 1654’. A three-storey, rectangular tower house (int. dims. 5.25m N-S x 4.7m E-W) constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble with larger cut and roughly dressed blocks employed as quoins. The crenellated battlements survive with a machicolation at the S end of the W wall. The tower house has been modified in relatively recent times with later brick window surrounds in the W wall. The tower house was entered through a doorway, now modified, at the N end of the E wall which gives access to the ground-floor chamber. It was lit by a flat-headed loop, centrally placed in the W wall, and another in the E wall, with remnants of a third window in the S wall. There is a large pointed-arch recess in the N wall and a small wall-cupboard in the W wall. The first floor was carried on a timber floor, supported on corbels, with two projecting from both the E and W walls. It is accessed via a mural stair rising in the N wall and lit by a flat-headed loop, now blocked. A flat-headed doorway (H 1.6m; Wth 0.8m) leads into the first-floor level which has a pointed vault and is lit by a single-light window set into a deep, slightly splayed embrasure in the S wall. The second floor, also accessed from the mural stair, was divided relatively recently into three chambers by two partition wall (one extending E-W creating N and S chambers; the other extending N-S bisecting S chamber). This floor was lit by a pointed window, now collapsed, in the E wall and a ruinous window in the S wall. There is a fireplace with mantle corbels in the E wall and a small wall-cupboard in the N wall. An opening at the S end of the W wall provides access to the machicolation. A narrow doorway at the E end of the S wall leads to a mural staircase which rises to the wall-walk. Corbels at second-floor level give additional support to the wall-walk. Externally the gable line of an adjoining building is visible on the N face. A possible 17th-century house (KK020-037002-) lies a short distance to the NE. See attached: KK020-037001-_01 extract from Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Gowran (Hib. Reg., courtesy of Trinity College Dublin Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 7 December 2020

Clifden Castle was indicated on the Down Survey (1655-6), suggesting it was built or held by a significant landowner prior to this period. Its strategic location on a west-facing slope with good views from southwest to northwest highlights its importance for surveillance and defense in medieval times.