Ireland · Restored
Aughnanure Castle
Caisleán Achadh na nlúr
Aughnanure Castle is a late-15th-century tower house and double bawn near Oughterard in County Galway, built by the O'Flaherty family and today managed as a historic monument. The site comprises a six-storey crenellated tower, a distinctive round watchtower, a double bawn enclosure with curtain walls, a ruined banqueting hall with relief carvings, and docks on Lough Corrib.
Its prime
1490
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1490
What Aughnanure Castle looked like in its prime.
A six-storey, square-plan stone tower house of weathered grey masonry with crenellated parapet, projecting bartizans and machicolations above the entrance, and narrow vertical slit windows interspersed with larger later-style openings; an arched doorway at ground level; an enclosing double bawn of low stone curtain walls connected to a stout, round watchtower with a conical stone cap; a grassy inner court and the shoreline/docks of Lough Corrib visible nearby; carved water-spouts and relief vine motifs on the adjacent ruined banqueting hall.
Its story
The story of Aughnanure Castle.
The Ó Flaithbheartaigh of Iar Connacht, c.1250–1490
Aughnanure was held by the Ó Flaithbheartaigh (O'Flaherty) chieftains, one of Connacht's most notable Gaelic lordly families, from around 1250, and they raised the tower house itself around 1490. By that time the family controlled most of Iar Connacht, a lordship of some 250,000 acres reaching to the Atlantic seaboard and giving them access to trade with Europe.
Fitton's Capture and the 1572 Grant to Murrough of the Battleaxes
In 1572 Sir Edward Fitton, President of Connaught, captured Aughnanure and granted it to Murrough na dTuadh Ó Flaithbheartaigh — "Murrough of the Battleaxes" — a junior member of the family who accepted the legal formalities of recognising the Crown, thereby dividing and weakening the clan's power and territories. The O'Flahertys subsequently lost control of the castle, regaining it briefly "by stealth" during the rebellion of 1641.
The Cromwellian Siege of Galway, 1652, and After
Aughnanure kept Galway supplied during the Cromwellian siege of 1652, when the castle was held by the Earl of Clanrickard, and it was abandoned once the city surrendered. The O'Flahertys later bought the castle back, but it passed by the foreclosure of a mortgage into the hands of Lord St George.
State Ownership and Restoration, 1932–Present
In 1932 the castle was bought by Peadar O'Flaherty of Enniscorthy, County Wexford, a distant relative of the Aughnanure branch. He donated it to the state in 1952, judging that its archaeological, historical and architectural significance would be best preserved that way, and died shortly after completing the gift. The tower house was fully restored in the 1960s. Aughnanure is now a national monument managed by the Office of Public Works, and is the only intact medieval castle in Connemara open to the public.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1490.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Aughnanure Castle, including 1 interior: ruined banqueting hall with relief carvings (interior). Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Aughnanure Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1490, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Aughnanure Castle.
The families that held Aughnanure Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
O'Flaherty
Built by the O'Flahertys in the late 15th century; regranted to Murrough of the Battleaxes in 1572, and later bought back by the family.
