Castle Hackett

Castlehacket
Caisleán an Haicéadaigh
Part of Ancient Gaelic Kingdom of Maigh Seola
County Galway, Ireland
The ruins of Castle Hacket (tower house) in County Galway
Site information
Open to the public
No
ConditionRuin
Location
Coordinates53°29′21″N 8°58′10″W / 53.4891°N 8.9695°W / 53.4891; -8.9695
Site history
Built
  • 13th century (core structure)
  • 16th century (later additions)
In useUntil 18th century

Castle Hackett is a ruined 13th-century tower house at the base of Knockma Hill, 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-west of Tuam in the parish of Caherlistrane, County Galway, Ireland. It is located near Belclare in the townland of Castlehacket (Irish: Caisleán an Haicéadaigh).

History

The castle was originally built by the Hacketts, a Norman family. In Castles and Stronghouses of Ireland (1993), Mike Salter suggests that the structure may have originally been a 13th century hall house with the building's two upper storeys added during the 16th century. By the late 16th century, the tower house was in the possession of 'Ullig McReamon [Burke]'.

The Kirwans, one of the tribes of Galway, purchased the Castlehacket estate in the late 17th century. The Castlehacket branch of the Kirwan family had been established in the mid-17th century by Sir John Kirwan. The tower house, which was occupied until at least 1703, was abandoned by the Kirwans during the 18th century and they built a new three-storey house nearby.

The 18th-century house, known as Castlehacket House, was burned in 1923 during the Civil War; it was subsequently rebuilt. In 2016, it was renovated to operate as a bed and breakfast. It is included in the Record of Protected Structures maintained by Galway County Council.

Folklore

In the introduction to his Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888), William Butler Yeats mentions the Hackett family and the castle, writing, "Each county has usually some family, or personage, supposed to have been favoured or plagued [with fairy-seeing abilities], especially by the phantoms, as the Hackets of Castle Hacket, Galway, who had for their ancestor a fairy".

See also

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Hackett Castle". visitgalway.ie. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
  2. ↑ "NMS mapping data - GA042-085----" – via heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com. GA042-085---- : Castle - hall-house : Castlehacket [..] It is four storeys high with a gabled attic. The SE corner is destroyed [..] the castle walls are now so densely overgrown with ivy, that [..] few of the features noted above can be seen. A number of trees are growing on top of the ground-floor vaults
  3. 1 2 Salter, Mike (1993), Castles and Stronghouses of Ireland, London: Folly Publications, p. 28, ISBN 1871731151
  4. ↑ O'Flaherty, Roderic (1846). A Chorographical Description of West Or H-Iar Connaught, Written A.D. 1684, p. 148, at Google Books
  5. 1 2 Nolan, J. P. (1900), "The Castles of Clare Barony", Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, 1 (1): 30–31, JSTOR 25535006
  6. ↑ Nolan, J. P. (1901), "Galway Castles and Owners in 1574", Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society, 1 (2): 118, JSTOR 44970909
  7. ↑ "Kirwan (Castlehacket)". Landed Estates Database. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  8. ↑ "Castlehacket House". visitgalway.ie. Retrieved 3 July 2026.
  9. ↑ Galway County Development Plan - Appendix 6 - Record of Protected Structures (PDF), Galway County Council, 2021, p. 15, retrieved 3 July 2026 – via consult.galway.ie
  10. ↑ Yeats, W.B. (1983). Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland. Macmillan Publishing Company. p. 4. ISBN 0-02-055640-3.