Kilkeedy Castle

Kilkeedy Castle stands on the highest point of a small ridge in County Clare, its north wall still rising fifteen metres above the grass. Mahon O'Brien owned the tower in 1574, but English commissioners took it after his failed rebellion and death in 1586. It returned to O'Brien hands by 1636, only to become embroiled again when Protestant settlers accused the family of despoiling them in 1641. The Cromwellian Commissioners may have destroyed it in 1654, leaving behind a skeleton of coursed limestone, a barrel-vaulted guardroom, and a spiral staircase that no longer needs to hide anyone.