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Glinsk Castle
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Williamstown |
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Glinsk
Castle, reputed to be the last castle built in this country,
stands as an impressive reminder of the architectural skills
and styles of the Norman era, while nearby Ballinakill Abbey
holds the remains of the earliest Gothic church in Connacht.
This Castle was the principal residence of Mac David Burke,
lord of Clonconway. It was built in the mid 17th century on
the site of an earlier Castle. |
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This Castle was the principal residence of
Mac David Burke, loard of Clonconway. It was built in the mid 17th century on
the site of an earlier Castle. The landed gentry of Ireland
at that time were starting to build houses instead of
Castles. Really a Tower House, it is an important example of
this transformation from castle to house, The plan is unique
in Ireland, it was one of the last- if not the last Castles
to be built in Ireland.
The Castle has some fine architectural features, the most
outstanding of which are the two fine chimney shafts, each
being a battery of five diagonal stacks which give the
Castle a great sense of elegance, The finely sculpted
mullioned windows are very well preserved. The plan is a
rectangle with tow square towers projecting from the south.
It was once surrounded by a bawn wall with turrets but
little of this now remains.
There was a link between the "Sister" castles of Glinsk and
Donamon. Tradition has it that Nuala Ni Finaghty, who was
know as "Nuala na Miodoige", (Nuala of the dagger) murdered
here husband and married Sir David De Burgo and that through
this unholy alliance, David and his descendants become lords
of Clonconway.
In the decades preceding the 1641 Rebellion, a number of
Irish landowners were building houses that tried to combine
the need for spacious and luxurious living with an adequate
means of positive defence. Inevitably, such houses differed
from contemporary English manors in having fewer windows,
high basements, musketry loops, bartizans and other
defensive features. Nonetheless, many succeeded in
projecting the air of a gentleman's residence, and few more
successfully than Sir Ulick Burke's handsome strong house at
Glinsk, probably begun around 1628.
Glinsk was gutted by fire at an early stage and survives as
an exceptionally well-preserved ruin. It has a three-bay
rectangular plan of three storeys over a raised basement
with an attic floor in its high gabled roof. The exact plan
of the interior is unknown as there were only timber
divisions, but the fireplaces were in the end walls where
the stacks rise with tall, elegant shafts that are
undoubtedly the best examples of their kind in Ireland.
Located 6.5 km (4 miles) SE of Ballymoe off a minor road to
Creggs village. |
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See more Castles in
County Galway
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