Kiltartan Castle

Located 2.8 kilometres (1.7 miles) north of the village of Gort, on the west bank of the Gort River, Kiltartan Castle, also known as Castletown Castle and locally as Ballynamantan, was built by the De Burgo (Burke) family in the 1280s during the reign of Edward I of England.

 This roughly square enclosure consists most prominently of the three-storey spiral stairway of a three-storey tower, of which just two storeys partially remain. A number of defensive arrow slits can still be seen in the walls. It was originally surrounded by a moat and a curtain wall, with a gatehouse positioned on the east side. The ruins of three other small defensive towers can be seen in the other corners of the enclosure.

The castle, then in the possession of the Royalist supporter Captain William Macredmond Burke, was ruined in 1652 by Lieutenant-General Edward Ludlow during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The nearby ‘Poll Tuaithbheall’ whirlpool beside the castle on the Gort River once worked four mills.

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