Lydacan Castle (in ruins)

In a low-lying area of outcropping limestone with a good deal of thorn tree and scrub cover; the area immediately to the SW is subject to flooding. In 1574 it is recorded that this rectangular four-storey high tower house (13.3m E-W; 10.7m N-S), with a cap house at the SW corner, was in the possession of ‘Owen Mantagh Oheyne’ (Nolan 1901, 114). It is constructed of roughly dressed and coursed limestone blocks and well-dressed quoinstones. There is a slight base-batter. Access is gained through the round-headed doorway in the W wall. This leads to a lobby with an overhead murder-hole. The guardroom is to the N, the spiral stairs to the S and the main ground-floor chamber to the E. The latter is floored with rough cobbles. A stone vault exits between this floor and the first floor. The rest of the floors were wooden and corbels in the N and S walls indicate their levels on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The first and second floors comprise one main chamber with a subsidiary chamber, running N-S, along the W side of the tower. There is just one large chamber on the third floor, which could only be viewed from the stairwell. A partially destroyed E gable wall is set inside the tower wall suggesting the presence of a wall-walk. The cap house is inaccessible. An intramural chamber at the W end of the main first-floor chamber leads to a garderobe. Just one large plain fireplace was noted in the N wall on the first floor. Windows comprise rectangular and ogee-headed twin lights, narrow rectangular and single ogee lights, slit lights and a cross-cut loop on the ground floor of the spiral staircase. Projecting corbels visible at the top of each wall-face would have supported machiolations. An unusual feature of the N wall is the lack of windows in its E half. Near the ground level of this wall the scar of a roof line is visible, indicating that a building was subsequently constructed against it, however, no trace of it survives. A possible bawn (GA113-165002-) is also associated. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 29 November 2018

Lydacan Castle was built as a defensive tower house, likely by a local Gaelic lord or Anglo-Norman family in the late 16th century. Its importance lies in its historical record from 1574, reflecting the turbulent political landscape of the time in west Ireland.