Castle (in ruins) — Crughwill

On the NE-edge of a large bawn (CL010-016001-) now a farmyard, in level pasture with a modern house to the E. Named ‘Castle (in ruins)’ on the 1840 and 1916 editions of the OS 6-inch map. Described by O’Donovan (1839) as ‘the Castle of Crughwill’ also known as ‘Kreagwill’ and ‘Criuchmhuil’ and ‘so injured that its ruins are not interesting’ (Comber 1997, 36). Recorded later by Westropp (1898-1900, 362) as fragmentary remains. According to Ua Cróinín and Breen (1995, 60), the castle’s name derives from ‘An Crochaill - The Overhanging Cliff’ and the earliest known historical reference to it is from 1574 when it was recorded as being in the ownership the O’Loughlins of Burren. They also state that most of the castle was dismantled before 1940 to provide building stone locally but that, according to local information, a surviving portion (est. H c. 5m) with a square shaft within it (likely a garderobe) was removed in the 1970’s (op. cit.). No visible surface trace of the castle was recorded on a field inspection in 1999. See attached document CL010-016----_01.jpg with details from Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen, The Castles and Tower-houses of Co. Clare (unpublished report).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. Summary by: Gearóid Conroy and Lynda McCormack Date of upload: 13 December 2022