Castle — Anglo-Norman masonry castle in Rathedmond

The following details have been extracted from the introductory essay in Gallagher and Legg (2012) to which the reader is referred for further information: ‘There is no evidence of substantial habitation [at Sligo], however, until the 1240s when the AngloNorman baron Maurice Fitzgerald, a member of the Kildare Geraldines, constructed a castle in order to control the roads, the bridge and access from the sea. Fitzgerald had been granted large tracts of land in upper Connacht after 1235 and his prime focus was to secure the crossing over the Garvoge and to encourage economic development on his manor of Sligo. It is possible that he replaced the existing wooden bridge with a stone one. Sligo Castle immediately overlooked and secured the bridge, and the two were intimately connected. Fitzgerald used it as a base from which to attack the territory of the O’Donnells to the north in Tír Conaill.’ ‘The repeated destruction and reconstruction of Sligo Castle is symptomatic of the fact that its possession was contested between various Gaelic and Anglo-Norman families. Following a period of dispute between two AngloNorman families, the castle was handed over to Richard de Burgo; he also obtained the manor of Sligo in 1299 as part of a settlement with the Fitzgeralds, who then left Sligo for good. The castle was substantially rebuilt by de Burgo, then lord of Connacht, and may have incorporated remnants of the earlier one built by Maurice Fitzgerald. The location of successive castles at Sligo was a small rise overlooking the harbour, bridge and town in what is now Quay Street, on the site of the nineteenth-century Town Hall.’ ‘By the end of the fourteenth century the O’Connors emerged as keepers of Sligo Castle.’ ‘When Sligo was visited by Sir Henry Sidney, lord deputy of Ireland, in 1566 he noted that the castle was ‘fair and the greatest of any that we have seen in an Irishman’s possession’.’ ‘By 1584 Sir Richard Bingham, in his capacity of chief commissioner of Connacht and Thomond, had reduced the power of the O’Connors Sligo and had fortified the castle with crown forces. A map from 1587 clearly shows a castle with four towers defending the river at Sligo. The importance of the crown’s possession of the castle was re-emphasised in 1588 when the Spanish Armada was blown north from the English Channel and came down the north-west coast of Ireland. William Taaffe was made sheriff of Co. Sligo and took charge of the castle that same year. Bingham reported to the lord deputy that, before leaving, O’Donnell had ‘much broken’ Sligo Castle and the priory. At the end of the year, it was decided that the castle should be restored by the former rebels, ‘nine principal gentlemen of Galway and Roscommon’, and in 1589 it was remitted to Donough O’Connor. Sligo was considered the key to Connacht and, by placing a strong garrison there, it was believed that the crown might pacify Connacht and prevent O’Donnell from returning to the province. A contemporary map of the Sligo area from 1589 shows a roughly sketched castellated structure with two towers, which may be an illustration of the old castle. In June 1595 a cousin of Bingham’s was murdered in the castle and a rebel, Ulick Burke, the first earl of Clanricard, handed it over to O’Donnell. Following Bingham’s attempt to retake the castle, O’Donnell demolished it ‘so that he did not leave a stone of it on a stone, for fear the English might take it without his knowledge’. In 1596, however, Donough O’Connor was given custody of the castle and he endeavoured to rebuild it, although he had meagre resources. Three years later John Baxter issued a declaration concerning the rebuilding of Sligo Castle. In all likelihood the castle was in an extremely ruinous state and untenable. It was described as being ‘in ruins’ and the town burnt in 1602 and there is no sign of it on Baxter’s map of c. 1600.’ ‘In the late 1650s there were also large numbers of soldiers garrisoned in the town and another quadrilateral fort, known later as the Stone Fort, was built on the site of the old de Burgo castle to accommodate them.' (see SL014-065007-). (Gallagher and Legg 2012, 1-3, 14). Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 15 February 2018