Glenquin Castle

Glenquin Castle is a tower-house in Killeady, about 9km south of the town of Newcastle West. The tower-house was built by the O’Hallinan Family sometime in the late 15^th or early 16^th century. According to local tradition it was built on the site of an earlier fortification constructed by the O’Brien’s in the 10^th century.

The place name, Glenquin, comes from the Irish name Gleann an Choim (The Sheltered Glen). The castle was originally a typical tower-house with three floors. The ground floor would have been a kitchen, food storage area, and possibly service quarters. The first floor had a banqueting hall with barrel vaulted ceiling, whilst the top floor would have been the living quarters for the O’Hallinan Family. The upper two levels were later subdivided with new wooden floors installed on both levels, converting the tower house into a five storey building, and new windows were added. The corbel stones that supported these two floors can still be seen on the upper levels. There is a murder hole on the first floor immediately above the entrance door. If an enemy succeeded in entering the castle during an attack this would have been used to pour boiling water down on any attacker, or alternatively to drop large rocks or shoot arrows at intruders. The north gable on the top floor also features two archer’s perches to protect bowmen during battle.

Glenquin Castle was briefly taken from the O’Hallinans by the O’Briens before it came into the possession of the Fitzgerald Earls of Desmond. When the Fitzgeralds rebelled against the English Crown during the First Desmond Rebellion of 1569 -1573 Glenquin Castle was captured by the English and granted to Sir Walter Ralleigh in 1571. Ralleigh is said to have demolished part of the castle, presumably to prevent it being used by the rebels. After the Second Desmond Rebellion of 1579 -1583 the castle was granted to Sir William Courtney, the Member of Parliament and Sheriff of Devon who gained control of the Fitzgerald’s former estate at Newcastle West.

According to local tradition the castle was last occupied in the late 17^th Century.  In the early 19^th Century Alfred Furlong, the land agent for William Courtney the 10^th Earl of Devon, carried out extensive restoration works on the castle, which was later followed by further conservation works by the Office of Public Works.

During the 1916 Rising Glenquin Castle, which was then vacant, served as the rallying point for the local members of the Irish Volunteers who mustered there in anticipation of a shipment of arms from Germany. When the arms shipment failed to arrive the poorly armed rebels dispersed without taking offensive action against the British forces. In 1966 a plaque was unveiled near the castle to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the 1916 Rising.

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This national monument is protected in accordance with the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014