What is recorded here

Ballynalackan is a wide limestone bawn on a steep cliff in County Clare, holding a tower house in its southwest corner and a pointed gateway on the west. Its wall walk still has shot holes aimed at the entrance, while the flat top now serves as a clay pigeon gallery above hilly pasture. The place remains visibly occupied by human habit, changing from defensive residence to recreational use without losing its sharp outline.

Encompassing the flat top of a prominent steep-sided limestone outcrop with a tower house (CL008-032----) in its SW corner, in an area of hilly pasture and woodland. Depicted on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. Described by Ua Cróinín and Breen (1997), this large subrectangular bawn (c. 130m ENE-WSW; c. 33m NNW-SSE) was defined at W-E by a stone wall (Wth c. 1.5m) which was mostly intact. At N-E this wall was built at the edge of the outcrop cliff (H c. 15m at N; H c. 30m at E); at the W the land sloped moderately down to the W of the wall. There was an intact square corner turret at the NE corner. (According to Cunningham (1980, 15), at the end of the 19th century, Westropp described the corbelled pier of a postern gate here.) A series of non-contiguous boulders followed the top of the cliff at E-SW. The large intact pointed-arch gateway at the bawn's W side was not original. It had four double corbels over it, to support a no longer extant machicoulis (Ua Cróinín and Breen 1997). On the S interior of the gateway was a stone door-eye and large bolt recess. To the N of the gateway were steps up to the wall walk, where there were four embrasures for shot holes overlooking the gateway. Within the bawn a line (L c. 25m) of long non-contiguous boulders (L c. 1.5-4m) outside the N and E sides of the tower house (CL008-032----) may have functioned as an inner bawn wall. An inspection of the bawn in 1998 found it unaltered in the interim, being used as a shooting gallery (clay pigeon), and enclosing a level, well-maintained lawn and overgrown along the edges. See attachments: • CL009-032002-_01.PDF Details from Ua Cróinín R. and Breen M. 1997, The castles and tower-houses of Co. Clare, 6 vols. Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. • CL009-032002-_02.jpg Aerial view of bawn from south-east, with towerhouse (CL008- 032001-) visible in background. (Marcus Casey, 2007) • CL009-032002-_03.jpg View of gateway to bawn from west. Summary by: Conn Herriott and Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 24 November 2022

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