Fomerla Castle (in Ruins) — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Fomerla Castle stands as a ruined tower house on the highest point of a low hillock in County Clare, built by Rory MacNamara and later held by O'Brien and Delahoyde families. Its walls still show dressed stonework, a stepped embrasure, and a window splay buried under grass, while the Moland survey of 1703 described it as an old house out of repair with an orchard and six cabins. The castle changed hands through favour, dispossession, and tenure, but the stone remains: a small, overgrown marker of power on a flat landscape, where a gun port and a broken window still suggest the shape of the room that no longer exists.

Built by Rory, son of Shane, son of Mahon MacNamara. In 1570 it was owned by Turlough O'Brien, a younger brother of Conor, third Earl of Thomond. Conor was hanged in Galway after 1581, but his son Donagh became the fourth Earl, and Donagh made Formerla over to a Roland Delahoyde in 1585, which was renewed in 1613. In the 1640s Oliver Delahoyde was dispossessed and a John Carroll received Formerla. In 1659 Cnarlse and Donagh Carthy were tenants at Formerla an in the Moland survey of 1703 it is described as a castle out of repair, the remains of an old house, and an orchard and six cabins. Situated at the highest point of a low hillock in a low-lying landscape, and overgrown. One section of the SW wall (L 2.5m NW-SE; H 2.9m; T 1.3m) contains part of an embrasure at the NW end. 4m to the NE are the grassed-covered remains of the NE wall are visible (L 6m), and a collapsed piece of masonry has traces of a window splay and a stepped embrasure of dressed stonework. Compiled by: Leo Morahan and Michael Moore See attached document with details from Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen, The Castles and Tower-houses of Co. Clare (unpublished report).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. Date of upload: 11 December 2014

Built by Rory, son of Shane, son of Mahon MacNamara, Fomerla Castle was held in 1570 by Turlough O'Brien, a member of the prominent O'Brien family of Thomond. It is historically significant due to its connection with the Earls of Thomond, a key Gaelic noble lineage in medieval Ireland.

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