Clifden Castle, Clifden, Co Galway

Clifden Castle, Clifden, Co Galway – ‘lost’

*Clifden Castle, County Galway, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland*

*Clifden Castle, County Galway, entrance front c. 1865, photograph: F.H.Mares,* Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland *by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.*

Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.

p. 84. “(D’Arcy/LG1894 and IFR) A castle built by John D’Arcy who settled here 1815 and developed the town of Clifden from scratch. Two storey; porch tower with slender round turrets; round tower to one side and rectangular tower behind. Gothic windows and doorway. Visited by Thackeray, who described it somewhat inaccurately as “a fine chateau.” Fine pleasure grounds; lawns sloping down to Clifden Bay; grotto with stream running through it; shell house or ‘marine temple.’”

Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.

p. 69. “Picturesque Norman Revival castle built c. 1815 for John D’arcy. Now a ruin.”