Bunowen Castle
| Bunowen Castle | |
|
County Galway | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bunowen Castle | |
| Type: | Castle |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | L59734276 |
| Location: | 53°24’59"N, 10°6’39"W |
| History | |
| Built Early 16th century | |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Ruin |
| Owned by: | Private |
Bunowen Castle, also known as O'Flaherty's Castle, stands as a roofless ruin close to the shore in County Galway, beside the hill known as Doon Hill.
History
This castle, at peace now beside a private beach (which was in its heyday the main access to the castle) was built in the early sixteenth century as a stronghold of the notorious O'Flaherty clan: it is said that in the mediaeval walls of Galway Town bore the inscription 'From the ferocious O'Flahertys O Lord Deliver Us'.[1]
One of the more famous, or rather infamous residents of the castle, was Grace O'Malley, the pirate queen, also known by here Irish name, Gráinne. She married Donal O'Flaherty (Dónal ‘an Chogaidh’ Ó Flaithbheartaigh, known as 'Donal of the Battle') and they lived at Bunowen for sixteen years. Grace bore Donal three children here, before his untimely death in battle in 1560. A few years later, Gráinne left Bunowen and settled on Clare Island in her own county, Mayo.
The castle remained in ownership of the O'Flahertys until the 1650s when it was captured by the Cromwellian army and the O’Flahertys were dispossessed. Bunowen was then given to Arthur Geoghegan whose own lands in Westmeath had been taken from him before he was transplanted to the west of Ireland. In 1808, John David Geoghegan of Bunowen received licence to change his surname to O'Neill, after the family's long pretence to descent from the ancient Kings of Ulster, and in 1830 his son Augustus John O’Neill embarked on an ambitious building programme to enlarge the house. The work on Bunowen overstretched his resources and the Great Famine left him bereft so that in 1853 he sold the castle to Valentine O’Connor Blake of Towerhill, County Mayo who used Bunowen as a summer residence.
The castle was intact a century ago but at some date thereafter abandoned. It now stands a ruin, but with echoes of the grandeur it bore in the days of the wild O'Flahertys.[2]
See also
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Bunowen Castle) |
References
- ↑ Bunowen Castle and its grounds – Bravo Your City
- ↑ Bunowen – The Irish Aesthete]