What is recorded here

Meelick Castle in Ruins stands on a raised limestone platform in County Mayo, its square walls reduced to sod-covered heaps that slump into the pasture. The structure sits beside Meelick Lough, where a possible crannog floats in the western water, while a wooded escarpment looms south of the valley. Rough mortared blocks still mark the south and east edges, hinting at a battered wall built to resist both weather and intrusion. The castle may have guarded the wet lowland or served as a seasonal stronghold for whoever controlled the lake and pasture.

In pasture, located on a platform or knoll rising from the floor of a flat-bottomed E–W valley. A lake, Meelick Lough, in the W half of which there is a possible crannog (MA022-019----), is located c. 30m to N surrounded by an expanse of flat, wet pasture. The site is overlooked c. 150m to S by a high, wooded escarpment which defines the S side of the valley. A farmyard is located immediately to W. Indicated as ‘Meelick Castle in Ruins’ on the 1938 and 1929 OS 6-inch maps. The outline of a roughly square, stone-built structure (c. 12m N–S; c. 10-12m E–W) can still be traced. The ruined walls survive as tumbled, sod-covered stony heaps, slumping into and infilling the interior space. In parts on the S, W and N sides, the external wall face of rough, mortared limestone blocks remains intact; this is most clearly seen at the S and SE where there is evidence that the wall (surviving to H c. 2m) was constructed on a slight batter. The castle stands on the W side of the sub-rectangular knoll or platform (c. 34-35m N–S; c. 48m NE-SW; H 2-3m) that may have functioned as a bailey or bawn (MA022-020001-). Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 23 November 2015

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