What is recorded here

Newtown Castle stands as a circular three-storey tower in flood-prone Galway farmland, occupying the same ground since at least 1574 when Derby O'Shaghnes lived inside its rendered walls. Its double doorway still hides a portcullis groove, while arrow-loops and a spiral stair reveal how guards watched the low water and climbed toward rooms where people likely breathed, heated fires and looked down on the changing land.

In rolling farmland, liable to flooding. In existence in 1574 when it was occupied by Derby O'Shaghnes (Nolan 1901, 114). This fairly well-preserved three-storey high tower house is circular in plan (D c. 13.5m). A gentle base-batter is evident and the walls are rendered. Access is gained through a double doorway facing ENE. The outer doorway is framed with a round-headed arch, while the inner one is pointed. Vertical grooves on either side of the latter indicate that it was formerly protected by a portcullis. This doorway opens into a small lobby off which there are three further doorways. That to the N leads to the guardroom, which is lit by an arrow-loop on the E side; there is a fireplace at its N end. The doorway to the S leads to a rubble-strewn intramural stairway and the spiral staircase. That to the W opens into the main room, which is subrectangular in plan. It is lit by splayed arrow-loops set in deep embrasures at SSE, WSW and NNW. Corbels indicate that the 1st floor was wooden, while there is a vault between the 1st and 2nd floors. One room occupies the 1st floor from where the portcullis would have been raised and lowered. Off the main room on the 2nd floor an opening to the S probably accessed a garderobe; a blocked-up exit chute is visible externally. There is also a small room off it to the NE that would have accessed the machicolation over the doorway. All that survives of it are the corbels that supported it. Windows in the main rooms on the upper floors consist of ogee-headed single lights with recessed spandrels; one on the 2nd floor bears a hood-moulding which bends outwards and tapers on each side, finishing with a carved interlace ornament in relief. Arrow-loops light the spiral stairs. A short stretch of the bawn wall (GA122-043001-) extends off it to the E. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 14 September 2021

Newtown Castle was occupied by Derby O'Shaghnes in 1574 and is a well-preserved circular three-storey tower house. It is remembered as an example of 16th-century Irish defensive architecture in the Castlequarter area.

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