What is recorded here

Shanganagh Castle stood above Bride's Glen from 1408 until fire consumed it in 1763, leaving only an ivy-strangled western wall and northwestern corner behind private hedges. The Lawless family built that granite tower to watch the glen, but time and flame stripped it back to a vaulted shadow and two deep recesses in the stone. What remains is not a ruin for display but a boundary marker: a house reduced to the minimum shape needed for memory to hold.

The fragmentary remains of this tower house are located in private grounds at Beechlands. It is situated in a prominent position above Bride's Glen. It was built in 1408 by a member of the Lawless family and it was destroyed by fire in 1763 (Turner 1983, 85-6). The ivy covered W wall and NW corner are all that survive. The later rises to three storeys. There is a chimney stack present. The tower house is built of roughly coursed granite masonry. There is a high base batter on the section of N wall. The ground floor is vaulted on an N-S axis. There are two deep recesses with wicker-centring in the ground floor W wall (int dims. L 8.4m; Wth 2.15; Wall T 0.9m), (Ball 1902, 117-18, 123, 125-6; Mc Dix 1897, 39, 6). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy. Revised upload on: 14 April 2018.

Shanganagh Castle was built in 1408 by a member of the Lawless family, a prominent Gaelic-Irish clan in the region. The castle is remembered for its strategic position above Bride's Glen and as an example of late medieval tower house architecture in Ireland.

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.