What is recorded here

Knockmaa carries Finvarra's Castle, an early 19th-century folly built among older stones on the Galway summit. Its square chamber, double circular walls and ruined steps make a invented palace out of memory, exposure and ambition. People may have climbed it to mark the hill, perform grandeur or simply enjoy the view before the storm took much of it back.

On the summit of Knockmaa, c. 130m WNW of the largest cairn (GA042-064002-). What survives is a large amorphous mass of stone crowned by 'Finvarra's Castle', an early 19th-C folly (OFlanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 127-8). The latter consists of a square drystone structure surrounded at a lower level by two concentric circular drystone walls (overall D c. 29.75m). A series of steps at NE, five of which survive, give access to the top of the much-collapsed central structure. The surrounding walls, c. 3m apart, are extant from ESE through S to WNW; elsewhere there is total collapse. A folly (GA042-063----) lies 285m to WNW. (Killanin and Duignan 1967, 305; CUCAP ATF 28) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

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