Aughnanure Castle

Just outside Oughterard, we made our last sightseeing stop of the day at Aughnanure Castle. Dating back to around 1500, the castle’s name means “the field of the yew trees.” I have no idea if the trees that surrounded the property were yews or not, but there sure were a lot of them.

What made this castle different was the ruins of the round watchtowers ... one on the perimeter wall and another one on what would have been the inner defensive wall.

Since we had time to spare, we wandered up into the tower house for a quick look-see. As has been the case with all of the tower houses we’ve visited so far, there was nothing much to see here, but the view from the banqueting hall made climbing the narrow, circular staircase worthwhile.Read more