Castle in ruins — Castletown (burren By.)

On a low limestone outcrop in pasture near the SW edge of Carran Turlough, and controlling a narrow E-W routeway between two small, fertile valleys to E and W. Labelled ‘Castle in ruins’ on the both first edition (1842) and later, Cassini edition (1920) of the OS 6-inch map. The castle is depicted as a rectangular structure (L c. 17m N-S; Wth c. 15m E-W) with a projecting NE angle on the first edition map but only an L-shaped portion of the N (L c. 9m) and W (L c. 6m) walls are shown surviving on the Cassini edition. Named ‘Caisleán Boirne (Ó Lochlain)’ on Robinson’s map of the Burren (1977). According to Ua Cróinín and Breen (1997), in 1574, this tower house was in the hands of the O’Loughlins but with the occupancy changing several times through the 17th century between members of that clan and the related O’Brien family, Earls of Inchiquin. A document of 1607, by Mahon son of Rory O’Loughlin of Castletown, described ‘the lower half of the castle of Castletown, i.e. the two sollers [cellars or chambers] the roome called the porters roome [a small room inside the entrance] the rooms above the sollers comonely called Gystallagh [possibly ‘the hall of the mercenary soldiers’ - Ua Cróinín and Breen op. cit.] the roome comonely called seomra i vohowna [Mahon’s room] and the roome comonely called the house of office otherwise called a private house…’. In 1703, the land at Castletown was sold by the High Sheriff to Patrick Burrell of Ranaghan, Co. Clare, to pay debts incurred by the Earl. By the 1770s the area was said to have become very remote and wild, with very little contact between the owner and their tenants for the previous 50 years (ibid.). The tower house was still occupied in 1808 and 1837 (ibid.), but by 1839, the Ordnance Survey Latters recorded that it was ‘much injured’ with only its N side in ‘tolerable preservation’ (Comber 1997, 36). Rising out of a grass-covered, subcircular mound of collapsed rubble and earth (diam. c. 16m N-S; H 5.5m) – which also fills the interior to the top of the, formerly vaulted, ground floor – only the NW corner survives (N wall L c. 9m; W wall L c. 6m; H c. 11.5m; wall T 1.3-1.4m) and is built of roughly coursed, mixed undressed and roughly dressed limestone blocks, but with finely cut quoinstones (Ua Cróinín and Breen, 1997), some of which are robbed out from the lower 1.7m of the angle. There are two loops on the N wall, and a crude angle loop between this wall and a projecting corner wall at NE. There is evidence for rendering on this wall, and its base (H 2m) is steeply battered but the batter has been robbed out at the centre and E. There is another damaged loop in the W wall, which is also battered. A well-carved stone head projects from a quoinstone on the NW angle. Another stone head was, apparently, found nearby in the late 20th century, during the removal of several old buildings (ibid.). On the inner wall faces, the lintels over the loop-embrasures are cracked due to an absence of relieving arches above (ibid.). ‘Cahersavaun’ cashel (CL010-067----) lies c. 130m to the NE. See attached document and images: • CL010-066002-_01.PDF Extract 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. • CL010-066002-_01.JPG Aerial view of monument from N (Photo: Markus Casey, March 2007). • CL010-066002-_02.JPG View of monument from W. • CL010-066002-_03.JPG View of monument from NW. • CL010-066002-_04.JPG View of monument from SE. • CL010-066002-_05.JPG Section of N wall viewed from N. • CL010-066002-_06.JPG Internal NW angle viewed from SE Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 26 May 2023