What is recorded here

Cregg Castle is a four-storey tower house built by the Kirwans in 1648, now hidden inside a larger Georgian house in low-lying Galway woodland. Broken corbels still mark where battlements stood, and heavy oak beams rest on basement corbels beneath the main hall. The building remains half-revealed, preserving the shape of a defensive tower that later became an ordinary domestic space.

In low-lying woodland. This tower house, built by the Kirwans in 1648, is incorporated into a later house which was altered and enlarged in the Georgian period when two wings were added (Bence-Jones 1978, 94). Surviving features of the tower house include corbels in the basement, which still support massive oak beams of the floor above, the main hall and, in E wing, broken corbels which supported the battlements: these suggest the tower was four storeys high. Hood-mouldings above blocked-up windows are visible on N wall. A semi-pointed doorway in this wall, now partially covered with plaster, may also be an original feature. (O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 271; Killanin and Duignan 1967, 288) 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

Cregg Castle was built by the Kirwan family in 1648 and later incorporated into a Georgian house with added wings. It is remembered as a historic tower house reflecting both early modern and Georgian architectural development in the region.

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