No. 25336
Rockfleet Castle
Ireland
Tower houseIntact16th century
No. 66542
No. 66542 · 53.881 N, 9.946 W
Quick summary
Carrickkildavnet Castle is a castle in Ireland, listed as reference No. 66542.
Carrickkildavnet Castle is a castle in Ireland with origins associated with the 15th century.
See all castles in IrelandCarrickkildavnet Castle, Cloughmore, Ireland, was erected by the Gaelic Ó Máille dynasty, the Kings of Umaill.
The castle was built around 1429 for the Ó Máille rulers and functioned as one of their fortified residences along this exposed coastline. The townland name Carrickkildavnet is recorded in Irish as Cill Damhnait, linking the place to its local place-name tradition.
In the sixteenth century the tower served as a stronghold for Gráinne Nà Mháille, known in English as Grace O’Malley, who lived circa 1530 to circa 1603. Carrickkildavnet appears alongside Rockfleet Castle and Clare Island among the sites associated with her activities and holdings during that period.
The castle occupies a position at the southeast corner of Achill Island, opposite the Corraun Peninsula, and was used to secure the mouth of Achill Sound and the channel that links Clew Bay with Blacksod Bay. In the modern era the site has been designated a National Monument and is recorded as property of the State of Ireland.
Condition
The surviving complex is dominated by a multi-storey tower typical of later medieval Irish fortified houses. The tower rises to an overall height of about 12 metres and contains four distinct floors. The first vaulted ceiling over the ground level forms a clear structural division within the building. A hole cut at a corner of this vault is described as the only internal route to the upper levels, a feature that has been interpreted as part of the tower’s defensive arrangement rather than a routine staircase. The standing fabric is ruinous but retains the basic vertical sequence of rooms.
Defensive features are clearly evident in the masonry. A mural chamber, that is a small room built into the thickness of the outer wall, survives within the tower’s fabric. There is a machicolation, a projecting opening at parapet level designed to allow objects or missiles to be dropped on attackers below, and narrow defensive loops set into the walls for shooting. At the top of the tower there are buttress-style fortifications that reinforce the roofline and provide additional protection. These elements together show the structure was built with active defence in mind.
Surrounding the tower are the remains of an enclosed courtyard wall, commonly called a bawn, which now stands ruined. The enclosure would originally have formed a protected space around the house; today only fragments of that wall remain. Overall the site survives as a ruin with key defensive and structural features still in situ, allowing the building’s original role and form to be read from the standing remains.
Location
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