, location=

County Sligo County Sligo ( , gle, Contae Shligigh) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the Border Region and is part of the province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the an ...

Connacht Connacht ( ; ga, Connachta or ), is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms ( Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, Conmhaícne, and Del ...

, nearest_town=

Ballymote Ballymote () is a market town in southern County Sligo, approx. 24 km south east of Sligo town in the province of Connacht, which is located in the north-west of Ireland. Ballymote lies in the barony of Corran. A commuter town with a st ...

, country=

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, image=Co. Sligo, Ballymote Castle 2, 1792.jpg , alt=The castle in the 1790s , caption=The castle in the 1790s , pushpin_map=Ireland , pushpin_map_alt=Location in Ireland , pushpin_map_caption=Location in Ireland , coordinates = , type=Norman castle , ownership=

Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) ( ga, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of o ...

, open_to_public=No , condition=Ruined , built=1300ish , builder= Richard de Burgh , used=1300-Late 17th Century , fate=Fell into Ruin , battles= Irish Nine Year's War , embedded = Ballymote Castle (Irish: ''Caisleán Bhaile an Mhóta'') is a large rectangular keepless castle, built around 1300. It is located in the townland of Carrownanty on the outskirts of

in southern

. This area was known historically as ''Átha Cliath an Chorainn'', which roughly translates as ''The Ford of the Hurdles of

Corann Corann was an ancient Irish túath in northwest Connacht represented now by the present barony of Corran in County Sligo. The name is derived in legend from Corann, the harper of Dian Cecht of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Organisation Ballymote ...

''. It is the last of the

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

castles in

. It was probably built in order to protect the newly won possessions of Richard Óg de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster (also known as the ''Red Earl''), in County Sligo, some distance from an earlier

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

Construction and design

Ballymote castle is a large enclosure castle, the most symmetrical of all the Irish "keepless" castles. It has many similarities with

Beaumaris Castle Beaumaris Castle ( ; cy, Castell Biwmares ), in Beaumaris, Anglesey, Wales, was built as part of Edward I's campaign to conquer north Wales after 1282. Plans were probably first made to construct the castle in 1284, but this was delayed d ...

, in

Anglesey Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...

, Wales, built by King

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...

. The entrance, with a double towered gate, is in the north wall and had twin D-shaped towers. It has a gatehouse typical of the period, the outer portions of which have almost completely disappeared. The castle, however, remains an impressive structure. The interior measures about . There are three-quarter round towers at all four corners and also in the middle of the east and west walls. A

postern A postern is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege, a postern ...

gate, which was planned for the centre of the south wall, was never completed, probably because of the events of 1317, when the castle was lost to the O'Connors. A small square tower had protected this gate. The walls are about thick and flanked with six noble towers. Passages of about wide ran through the centre of the walls all around and the passages were built in such a way that they gave access to the towers, and to the intervening curtain walls at different heights, thereby meeting the needs of attack or defence. No traces of the interior domestic buildings survive. Local folklore suggests that underground passages connected Emlaghfad church with the castle and with the nearby

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

Abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

, though such stories are common throughout Ireland and are unlikely to be based on fact. The Red Earl is also credited with building the ancient road from

Boyle, County Roscommon Boyle (; ) is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Curlew Mountains near Lough Key in the north of the county. Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, the Drumanone Dolmen and the lakes of Lough Arrow and Lough Gar ...

Collooney Collooney or Coloony () is a town in County Sligo, Ireland. Toponymy Collooney is thought to derive from . Reverend Terrence O'Rorke has previously also suggested ''Culmaine'', as Collooney is designated this way in such works as ''the annals ...

, known as ''Bóthar an Corann'' and as the ''Red Earls Road''.

History of occupation

The castle changed hands many times since construction. It was captured by the O'Connors of Sligo in 1317, but was taken by the

Mac Diarmada Mac Diarmada (anglicised as MacDermot or McDermott), also spelled Mac Diarmata, is an Irish surname, and the surname of the ruling dynasty of Moylurg, a kingdom that existed in Connacht from the 10th to 16th centuries. The last ruling king was T ...

, during the course of local struggles, in

1347 Year 1347 (Roman numerals, MCCCXLVII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, and a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Proleptic Gregorian calenda ...

. By 1381 it had passed to the

McDonagh The surname McDonagh, also spelled MacDonagh is from the Irish language Mac Dhonnchadha, and is now one of the rarer surnames of Ireland. Mac Dhonnchadha, Mac Donnchadha, Mac Donnacha or Mac Donnchaidh is the original form of McDonagh These sur ...

s. Although owned by Tadhg MacDermot, one of the last of the

Kings of Moylurg The Kings of or Moylurg were a branch of the , and a kindred family to the Kings of Connacht. Their ancestor, , was a brother to , King of Connacht 967–973, ancestor of the O Connor family of Connacht. is said to have made a deal of some nat ...

in 1561, it appears to have passed to the O'Connor Sligo by 1571, at which time he surrendered the castle and had it regranted to him by

James I of England James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland as James I from the Union of the Crowns, union of the Scottish and Eng ...

. In 1577, the castle fell into English hands for a short period and then more permanently in 1584, when it was taken by the Governor of Connacht Richard Bingham. A lack of occupation levels implies that the building was virtually abandoned during the above period (from 1317 to 1584). The O'Connors, O'Hartes and

O'Dowd O'Dowd ( ga, Ó Dubhda) is an Irish Gaelic clan based most prominently in what is today County Mayo and County Sligo. The clan name originated in the 9th century as a derivative of its founder Dubda mac Connmhach. They descend in the paternal ...

s sacked the castle in

1588 __NOTOC__ Events January–June * February – The Sinhalese abandon the siege of Colombo, capital of Portuguese Ceylon. * February 9 – The sudden death of Álvaro de Bazán, 1st Marquis of Santa Cruz, in the midst of pr ...

. The English surrendered it in 1598 to the MacDonaghs who sold it shortly afterwards to

Red Hugh O'Donnell Hugh Roe O'Donnell (Irish: ''Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill''), also known as Red Hugh O'Donnell (30 October 1572 – 10 September 1602), was a sixteenth-century leader of the Gaelic nobility of Ireland. He became Chief of the Name of Clan O'Donn ...

(one source says he bought it for £400 and 300 cows). It was from here that Red Hugh O'Donnell marched to the disastrous

Battle of Kinsale The siege of Kinsale, or Battle of Kinsale ( ga, Léigear/Cath Chionn tSáile), was the ultimate battle in England's conquest of Gaelic Ireland, commencing in October 1601, near the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and at the climax of t ...

1601 This Epoch (reference date)#Computing, epoch is the beginning of the 400-year Gregorian leap-year cycle within which digital files first existed; the last year of any such cycle is the only leap year whose year number is divisible by 100. Jan ...

. When the O' Donnells surrendered it to the English in 1602, it was already in a bad state of repair. In 1633, the Taaffes owned it for a short time, but had to surrender it again to the English Parliamentary forces in 1652. In the

Williamite wars The Williamite War in Ireland (1688–1691; ga, Cogadh an Dá Rí, "war of the two kings"), was a conflict between Jacobite supporters of deposed monarch James II and Williamite supporters of his successor, William III. It is also called th ...

the castle was held by Captain Terence MacDonagh for King James II, but he had to surrender it to Lord Granard in the face of an artillery attack in 1690. Soon afterwards the fortifications were made harmless, the moat was filled up and the castle fell into ruins. In more recent years the

have carried out preservation work on the castle.

Access

The castle is on the R296,

Tubbercurry Tubbercurry or Tobercurry () is the second-largest town in terms of both population and land area in County Sligo, Ireland. It lies at the foot of the Ox Mountains, on the N17 national primary road. The village is twinned with Viarmes in Fra ...

road, opposite the

Ballymote railway station Ballymote railway station serves the town of Ballymote in County Sligo, Ireland. History The station opened on 3 December 1862 with the Midland Great Western Railway extension from Longford to Sligo. The current station building is listed an ...

, and just past the Catholic church. Access is through the grounds of the Ballymote Community nursing unit. Open from 9am – 5pm Monday to Sunday.

References

{{Castles in Connacht Buildings and structures completed in 1300 Castles in County Sligo Ruins in the Republic of Ireland National Monuments in County Sligo

Construction and design

History of occupation

Access

See also

References