castles historical ireland

Anglo-Norman motte-and-bailey earthwork castle with added stone tower. Fine views from top of the mound. Free access always. Clough village, at junction of A24 and A25....

Lynch’s Castle was once the home to the most powerful family in Galway. This incredible limestone building is a fine example of an Irish gothic style. The Lynch Family’s Coat of Arms can still be seen today, as can other proprietors of the house Henry and the Fitzgerald’s of Kildare.
Situated between Shop Street and Abbeygate Street, this castle gives us a rare glimpse of old Galway....

Thoor Ballylee Castle is a four storey tower dating back to the 16th century, beautifully situated beside a stream. There was much to enchant William Butler Yeats on his first visit to Ballylee in 1885: the old square castle, the little river and the legend of a most beautiful local woman 'Mary Hynes, the Shining Flower of Ballylee.
He eventually bought the medieval tower, which was built by the Norman de Burgo family, with a cottage and garden for the grand sum of IR35.00 in 1916. The...

A road on the left at Lecarrow leads to a pleasant lakeside amenity area beyond which is the castle standing on a promontory projecting into the lake.

This was built in 1214 but, according to the Annals of the Four Masters, an earlier fortification was built there in 1156. For a time this castle was in the hands of the Knights Hospitallers and is sometimes called St. John's Castle; it is an example of medieval military architecture....

A rectangular castle with a barrel vault at the top of the third storey. There is a well-preserved fireplace in the second storey, and a turret stair leading to the roof. The castle is alleged to have been built in the early 14th century, but it could well be later. The English and Brian O'Toole defeated the Fitzgeralds here in a battle in 1547. Two other castles are said to have existed in the neighbourhood, but nothing remains of these....

Slade castle was built in two stages. The first was the tower at the northern end, built probably by one of the Laffan family in the late 15th or early 16th century. The tower is 56 feet high and is battlemented, and there is a fireplace and a cupboard in a room on the third storey.

The second stage was the addition of a house in the 16th or early 17th century. The house is not as high as the tower and has simple moulded windows on the first floor.

At the east end of the ho...

Drumena is an irregularly shaped stone fort or cashel measuring 132 ft by 108 ft, and with walls 9-12 ft thick (which were partially re-built in 1925-26). The original entrance was probably on the east side, and a confused jumble of stones in the interior may once have formed the foundations of a house. Also inside the cashel is an easily accessible T-shaped souterrain which reaches a maximum height of 7 feet. The whole complex is likely to date from the Early Christian period....

The ruins of Roches Castle and three churches are set in a very natural setting near Glanworth.
Near these ruins is the Thirteen Arch Bridge which was built in 1600.
Built over the River Funcheon, it is one of the oldest of its kind found in Ireland....

Ballindooley Castle, on the Headford road out from Galway, has been fully restored to its former glory....

When built in the mid 13th century, the castle consisted of a strong rectangular, two-storey tower with reinforced corners and a stout irregularly shaped curtain wall with rounded corner towers. Only fragments survive of the curtain wall, which was further defended outside by a rock-cut ditch, from which stone was quarried for the construction of the castle.

The fortress was stormed by the Irish in 1260 and again in 1375, but also by Edward Bruce in 1316. To make it more easily defend...