Carrigaholt Castle is one of Ireland\u2019s best preserved \u201cTower Houses\u201d, built around 1480 by the MacMahons, the last Gaelic Chieftains to rule this peninsula.\u00a0 Strategically located at the Mouth of the Shannon, the castle\u2019s story reflects the turbulence of European politics.<\/p>\n
The 16th century ended with the final conquest of Gaelic Ireland by England\u2019s Tutor Dynasty and the siege of the castle in 1599 by the Earl of Thomond, loyal to the Crown.\u00a0 The notorious rebel chief, Teigue MacMahon lost his estate and was later killed in rebellion on the Beara Peninsula.<\/p>\n
Daniel O\u2019Brien, brother of the Earl of Thomond, was granted the castle in 1602. Surviving the siege by Cromwells\u2019s army in 1651, Daniel\u2019s grandson was made First Viscount, Lord Clare of Carrigaholt in 1662.<\/p>\n
In the late 1680\u2019s, he raised three regiments known as the Clare Dragoons comprising 2600 men to fight in the army of the deposed King James in his attempt to regain the English throne.\u00a0 Defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 by the army of William of Orange, James\u2019 supporters were later granted amnesty to sail to France. The Clare Dragoons of Carrigaholt left Ireland to join the French army in what was known as \u201cthe Flight of the Wild Geese\u201d.\u00a0 The 6th Viscount, Lord Clare, Charles O\u2019Brien, became Marshal of France in 1757.<\/p>\n
In 1697, the estate was granted to the Earl of Albermarle and later sold.\u00a0 The Burton Family acquired the castle and lived here until the end of the 19th century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrigaholt Castle is one of Ireland\u2019s best preserved \u201cTower Houses\u201d, built around 1480 by the MacMahons, the last Gaelic Chieftains to rule this peninsula.\u00a0 Strategically located at the Mouth of..view >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,88],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.loveloophead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}