Clifden Castle
Ruined Gothic Revival manor house in Connemara, County Galway.
Clifden Castle is a ruined manor house located west of the town of Clifden in the Connemara region of County Galway, Ireland. Built around 1818 for local landowner John D'Arcy, it was designed in the Gothic Revival style. The structure fell into disrepair after becoming uninhabited in 1894 and was quickly reduced to a ruin following its transfer to a group of joint tenants in 1935.
Quick Facts
- Location
- Clifden, County Galway, Ireland
- Client
- John D'Arcy
- Construction began
- c. 1815
- Completed
- c. 1818
Facts from the source article.
History
John D'Arcy, who founded Clifden, had the house constructed for his family around 1818 while he was also developing the town. It served as the main residence of the D'Arcy family for decades, and the surrounding land was among the first D'Arcy drained and reclaimed in the area. Hyacinth proved less capable than his father at managing the properties and dealing with tenants. The famine that began in 1845 brought hunger, starvation, and fever, causing many people to emigrate and drastically reducing the D'Arcys' rental income. On 21 September 1846, Hyacinth's tenants gathered on his front lawn begging for work or food. The estate eventually went bankrupt, and Clifden Castle was put up for sale on 18 November 1850. Thomas and Charles Eyre, brothers from Bath who had been mortgagees of the estate since 1837, bought the castle and most of the town and surrounding lands for £21,245. The Eyre family used the castle as a holiday home. Thomas Eyre eventually bought Charles's share, and on 16 July 1864 gave the castle and Clifden estates as a gift to his nephew John Joseph Eyre of Saint John's Wood, London. After that, a trust administered his estate, and the castle fell into disrepair as the demesne was leased for grazing. Attempts to sell the property were unsuccessful, and all lands except the demesne were eventually purchased by the Congested Districts Board or the Land Commission.
Architecture
The estate faces south overlooking Clifden Bay and was built in the Gothic Revival style popular in the early 1800s. Original features include a rounded tower to the southeast, a square tower, and an entry tower with two round turrets, though most decorative features date from the 1850s and 1860s, added by the Eyre family. A large medieval-style gateway was built in 1815, and four standing stones erected by D'Arcy remain along the path to the house, one of which may be a prehistoric worked stone. To the west, a substantial enclosed farmyard contained a grain store, workers' cottages, stable, and coachhouse, with a walled garden, well, and pond nearby. The demesne also holds remains of a marine temple made of sea shells on the stream east of the castle, and a children's graveyard for three Eyre children who died in the 1880s lies close to the road to the north.
More in Ruined Castles in the Republic of Ireland
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