Castle Carra

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Castle Carra

County Mayo

Castle Carra.jpg
Type: hall house
Location
Grid reference: M17197535
Location: 53°43’17"N, 9°15’19"W
History
Built 13th century
Information
Owned by: Heritage Ireland

Castle Carra is a fortified, rectangular hall house in County Mayo. It is today enrolled as a 'national monument' and is in the care of the state.

The castle stands a mile and a half west of Carnacon, on the east bank of Lough Carra. Within the lough close by this part of the shore is 'the Black Hole', the deepest part of the lake.[1]

History

Castle Carra was built by Adam de Staunton (Staundun), an Anglo-Norman subject of the de Burgo, in the 13th century. The plinth, bawn, outbuilding and gateways were added by the MacEvilly (Mac an Mhilidh).

The castle was surrendered to the Crown in the 1570s and granted to Captain William Bowen, who strengthened the bawn with a circular flanker with gunloops facing inland.

Sir Roebuck Lynch's lands were seized at the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland and he was compensated by lands at Castle Carra during the early seventeenth century.[2] It passed to Sir Henry Lynch, 3rd Baronet in the 1660s, and his descendants held it until the 19th century.[3]

References