Ballyvaghan Castle (in ruins) — Ballyvaghan

On a low small, level promontory projecting W into the S neck of Ballyvaghan Bay. Indicated on the 1842 ed. of the OS 6-inch map and named ‘Ballyvaghan Castle (site of)’ on both it and the 1915 ed. Listed as ‘Castle’ in the SMR (1992) and the RMP (1996). The castle is listed in the O’Brien rental of 1380 and was initially an O’Loughlin possession (Ua Croinin and Breen 1996), but it passed to the O’Brien’s after a dispute over cattle in 1540. It was reduced by the Queen’s Deputy, Sir Henry Sidney, in 1569 and after that, passed between the O’Loughlins, O’Connors, O’Briens and Nugents (ibid.). It was still in existence at least as late as 1646, when it was granted to Christopher O’Brien, but by 1837 only remained as ‘some old vestiges’ (ibid.). There are no visible remains of the castle. Several large quay stones (total L 5m) 6m W of the promontory may be the remains of a pier or may be part of seaward fortifications associated with the castle. Westropp (1901, 278) described the site of a ‘peel tower’ which once adjoined a great ‘caher’. There are remains of a large cashel (CL002-053----) which fits his description, but these lie c. 150m NNE. It was in any case already ‘entirely perished’ (ibid.) by his time. The following has been uploaded: CL002-051----_01.jpg Details from Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen, The Castles and Tower-houses of Co. Clare (unpublished report). Uploaded courtesy of R. Ua Cróinín and M. Breen. Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Ros Ó Maoldúin Date of upload: 9 December 2020