CARRIGAHOLT CASTLE
Carraig an Chabhaltaigh (Rock of the Fleet)
Carrigaholt, County Clare

Built around 1480, Carrigaholt Castle is situated on the verge of a cliff that overlooks the Shannon Estuary and was originally the home of the MacMahon's, chiefs of the Corcabascin Peninsula.

This is a traditional tower keep with five floors, spiral stone stairways and a vaulted fourth floor chamber. Some of the more unique architectural features of this keep include pistol loops, dozens of windows and a murder hole over the main entrance. Murder holes were openings where all manner of foul thing could be dropped or poured onto the enemy should they breach the keep, such as boiling oil and human and animal excrement.

Records show that Teige Caech "the short-sighted" MacMahon occupied the castle in 1588, a year when seven Spanish Armada ship were anchored in Carrigaholt Bay.

One year later, Sir Conyers Clifford laid siege against Carrigaholt Castle when Teige Caech refused to back him against the Spanish Armada.

The castle was set upon again in 1589 by the fourth Earl of Thomond, Murrough O'Brien, who captured the keep and bestowed it upon his brother, Donal, or possibly Daniel, O'Brien. It was Donal/Daniel who saw the keep updated, which included installing the many windows and a firelace on the fifth floor which is enscribed 1603.

Admiral William Penn anchored at Carrigaholt Castle on his way to Kinsale in 1646, after having just abandoned Bunratty Castle to Confederate troops.

In 1651, the castle was taken by Edmund Ludlow, one of Oliver Cromwell's lieutenant-generals of horse and second-in-command to Henry Ireton in Parliament's Irish campaign. Ludlow kept a garrison here for a year.

The castle was eventually restored to the O'Brien's in 1666. Donal's/Daniel's grandson, the third Viscount Clare, resided at the castle and raise a horse regiment known as the "Yellow Dragoons" for James II's armies.

By the end of the 1691, the Viscount's massive 57,000 acrea estate was forfieted to the Williamite's and granted to Arnold Joost Von Keppel, Earl of Ablemarle, who sold it immediatley to the Burtons. They retained the castle until the mid-20th century.

Today, the castle is under the care of the Office of Public Works.

Some of Carrigaholt's previous owners --
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~ Free car parking available
~ Private property, please get the owners permission to access
~ Castle is closed to visitors, access is through a pasture, cattle on site
~ Use caution, as this is a ruin - resident crows may loosen stones