|
Page 7 of 14
Introduction
While there is no percise information on when the Claregalway castle was actually built, the indications are that it is probably late 15th century and may have been built on the site of an older wooden structure. It’s situated on the lowest crossing point of the Clare River before it flows through bogland into the Corrib. While commonly referred to as a castle, technically it is more accurately described as a tower house. They were fortified residences that also served in a military capacity.
View of Claregalway Castle, as seen from the West
Brief History of the Castle
References to Claregalway and its castle keep cropping up because it was an important strategic point in the defence of the city of Galway itself. Some of these references are fragmented and it’s difficult to get a clear picture, but nevertheless we get some idea of what life was like in those times.
The Normans built a number of castles along the Clare River. The De Burgos were the first of the Normans that came into Connacht. In 1225, King Henry III of England granted the province of Connacht to Richard de Burgo. They secured their territories by building stone castles. They later became known as Burkes and they split into two opposing families, the McWilliam Íochtar (the Mayo Burkes) and the McWilliam Uachtar (the Galway Burkes), who eventually became known as the Clanrickards.
1470 : The combined forces of O’Donnell of Tirconnell and the Mayo Burkes ‘encamped for a night in Claregalway and then burned it and continued for a while laying waste the country round about.’
View of the Castle from the East, with the river Clare flowing by in the foreground and the Friary in the Background
1504 - Battle of Knockdoe : Knockdoe is about 2 miles from Claregalway and it was where the forces of Garret Mór Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, who was the Lord Deputy of Ireland, fought the Clanrickard, head of the Burkes. Garret Mór Fitzgerald led his army from Leinster to thwart the ambitions of Clanrickard. The Burkes had a number of Irish chiefs fighting with them and they also had engaged Scottish mercenaries known as Gallowglasses. It was the first time that guns were used in Ireland to do battle. According to reports they were not sure how to fire them and they used them as clubs instead. Clanrickard was defeated and thousands were killed.
Claregalway is mentioned twice in connection with this battle. The night before the battle, the Burkes ‘played cards in the castle ‘till late hours of the following morning and they were drinking.’ After his victory, Garret Mór marched towards Galway, looting Claregalway castle en route, and taking as prisoners the two sons and a daughter of Ulick Burke.
1538 : Lord Gray on behalf of King Henry VIII attacked Claregalway castle with 250 regular troops and artillery. This artillery included cannons such as a half culverin, a saker and double falcons. Lord Gray took the castle and handed it over to Ulick Burke, it is said, for cash.
1571 : Sir Edward Fitton, the President of Connacht, was camped outside Claregalway and he reported that ‘we are refused at the Earl’s castle by the Earl’s son where the rebel is the constable of the castle and upon hearing of our coming to pass by it to Galway, he burned the town, uncovered the castle and offered plain resistance.’ This action may appear strange, but an important tactic in defending a castle was to burn the town so the army coming in would not have any shelter or food and to unroof the castle, which was made of thatch, so as to prevent archers from firing burning arrows into it. They could defend it perfectly when it was unroofed. However it was reported that Fitton captured the castle and put the garrison of sixteen men to death.
1572 : The Earl of Clanrickard had two sons, John and Ulick who were wild and uncontrollable and caused a lot of turmoil and destruction around Athenry. They were described as ‘the most executable evil-doers, doing destruction across Loughrea, Athenry and so on.’ The mayor of Galway wrote to the Lord Deputy complaining about the two sons.
1576 : Under the English Surrender and Regrant policy, the Earl of Clanrickard surrendered the castle to Queen Elizabeth and she regranted it back to him.
1603-1625 : King James I made a number of grants to local lords to hold fairs and markets in order to boost the local economies. Cattle trade became very important. The Earl of Clanrickard was granted a licence for a weekly Wednesday market at Claregalway.
1641-1651 : In October 1641, rebellion against the English rule broke out in Ulster and soon spread to the rest of the country. For the next eight years, England was the scene of a fiercely fought civil war between King Charles I and the extreme Protestants or Puritans led by Oliver Cromwell. The fighting soon spread to Ireland where armies supporting both sides fought each other. The Catholic rebels, who included Old Irish and Anglo-Irish, formed the Federation of Kilkenny. The Earl of Clanrickard, who was the King’s Governor of Connacht, eventually became involved but was a reluctant rebel.
1642 : Claregalway castle was strongly garrisoned by Clanrickard and he used it as a base for operations to overcome Galway. It was there he received the proposals for the surrender of Galway as signed by the mayor Walter Lynch and delivered by Dominic Browne and others. In 1643 the castle was surprised by Captain Richard Burke of Anbally, through the treachery of a tenant, the carelessness of the warders and the collusion of a Franciscan friar. Its giving up was one of the conditions of the treaty for the surrender of Galway.
1648 : The Papal Nuncio was in Galway and he wrote to Clanrickard about the capture of Thomas McKiernan of the Franciscans in the castle and he asked that he be released.
1649 - Onwards After the execution of King Charles I, William Cromwell landed in Ireland in 1649 with a big army with the purpose of putting down the rebellion. He quickly captured a number of towns and departed in May 1650. Sir Charles Coote, a Cromwellian, seized Claregalway castle in 1651. Galway was the last stronghold to surrender to the Cromwellians. Thus ended about ten years of warfare, which was then followed by the Cromwellian Plantation.
The route of the Clare river was altered so as to flow closer to the Castle offering it protection and fresh water
Architecture
Claregalway castle is a well preserved rectangular five-storey tower. Its dimensions are 12 metres in length and 9.75 metres in width. The castle entrance is by a pointed arched doorway of cut stone near the northern end of the southwest wall. The presence of opposing vertical grooves in both of its jambs indicate that it was protected by a portcullis. The portcullis is a heavy latticed iron grating in the gateway, which could slide up and down in grooves in the doorjambs and was used for protecting the ordinary wooden door of the castle. There is a small apartment above the door into which the portcullis rose and where the lifting machinery was located.
This doorway opens into a small lobby with a guardroom to the left and a spiral stone staircase to the right. This staircase ascends for the first 35 feet and then a straight narrow staircase leads from the south side of the castle to the top. Directly above the lobby is a small rectangular opening known as the ‘murdering hole’. This was used to pour hot liquids down on unsuspecting attackers.
A stone vault exists between the second and third floors. Mural passages occur in the northeast wall on the first floor and in the southeast wall on the third floor. There are mural chambers in the southwest wall on the first floor and in the southeast, southwest and northwest walls on the third floor.
The castle is located beside the Claregalway bridge over the Clare river, alongside the N17 (Galway-Tuam) Road
Garderobes (used for sanitation) survive inside the southeast wall on the second and third floors. Fireplaces are visible in the southwest wall on the first floor and in the north east wall on the second floor. Traces of the wall-walk survive as well as remains of the parapet along the southeast and southwest walls. The parapet was a low wall alongside the exterior edge of the wall-walk that protected guards as they patrolled.
Protecting corbels centrally placed on top of the walls formerly supported machicolations at parapet level. Corbels are projecting stones, firmly imbedded in the walls, which were usually intended to carry a wooden beam or in this case machicolations. A machicolation was a projecting parapet on the top of a castle wall with openings in the bottom through which missiles could be dropped or discharged on attackers. They protected defenders who were trying to attack the assailants at the base of the castle wall. There was at least one positioned directly over the castle entrance.
There is no part of the roof remaining. It was probably made of oak and thatched, as lead roofs were not common in Irish castles. There were no windows in the lower 20 feet, only loopholes. The castle was originally designed to be defended by archery and was never modified to meet the requirements of firearms. The loopholes are narrow slits that were wider on thel inside to give the defender an advantage when shooting arrows or guns. A variety of window types occur in Claregalway castle. Many display Gothic-like features incuding pointed arches, ogee heads, an intricate curved design and one that is mullioned and transomed (vertical and horizontal stone bars).
The ruins of Cloghmoyle Castle in Carnmore
Cloghmoyle Castle (Cloch Mhaol)
The poorly preserved remains of this castle are located in flat open pastureland in Carnmore West. This rectangular shaped building (length 10.3m, width 7.2m) contains two surviving storeys. There is no trace of a doorway but there are two large gaps in both the north and east walls (1.05m thick). At the southwest and northeast corners are the poorly preserved remains of what appear to be foundations for two turrets. These turrets were tower-like structures. The ground storey is divided internally by a later wall that has blocked a single-lighted window with wide internal splay. This tower house was probably built in the 15th Century by the Normans (De Burgos). Local history also refers to it as being a convent!
Lydacan Castle
This towerhouse was sited on a natural rise overlooking Claregalway. It was originally a three storey rectangular building that was later incorporated into a 19th Century house (Greated's). Until recently traces of a spiral staircase plus a pointed arch doorway were visible. Numerous cut-stone fragments from the towerhouse were incorporated into the later addition.
Lissarulla Castle
Sited on slightly elevated area in a generally low-lying region. All that remains of this castle is a small portion of the south wall. This surviving part indicated that it had at least two storeys with traces of two window openings at first storey level. A number of large fragments of masonry are strewn about the site.
Kiltrogue Castle
Kiltrogue Castle (Cill Torroige)
A fine five-storey towerhouse (length 10.3m, width 7.2m) built on the east bank of the Clare River with a small stream gushing out from a few yards of its walls. In fair condition except for the top portion which is in a very ruinous condition. The four walls are still standing but almost all floors are missing. The east end, which comprises the staircase and subsidiary chambers was six storeys high, while the rest of the tower is five storeys high. A lean-to shed has been built against the north wall. The main entrance is a pointed arch doorway, which is centrally placed in the east wall. Inside a guardroom and spiral staircase are evident with the latter being in a poor state of preservation. A stone vault exists between the first and second floors. This vault is arch shaped. A fireplace is visible in the north wall on the first floor. Corbels, which supported a machicolation over the doorway, are visible on top of the east wall.
The castle was probably built at the end of the 15th Century by the De Burgos and was owned by John Blake FitzRicard. Tirlagh Caragh McSwine owned it in 1574.
|
