leamaneh castle

The eastern portion of the castle is a 5-story tower built about 1480, with stone vault on the top floor, and a number of holes for guns. A four-storey mansion was added to the west of the tower in the 1640s, and it has some mullioned windows (some of which are modern). Beside the castle was a large bawn, remnants of which can be seen on both sides of the road. The original gate, with an inscription saying that it was erected by Conor O'Brien and his wife Maire Ni Mahon in 1643, was removed and re-erected at Dromoland Castle in the last century. The castle was first mentioned in 1550 when it was granted to Donough O'Brien, who was hanged in 1582. Lord Inchiquin claimed it unsuccessfully in 1603 and again in 1622. It abounds in legends about the Maire, known as Maire Rua, whose name appears on the gate inscription. One story goes that when she saw the apparently lifeless body of her husband being brought back from a skirmish with the Cromwellian general, Ludlow, in 1651, she refused to allow it in saying 'We need no dead men here'.