Today, only the faintest rise in the ground surface hints at what was once Beallagharee castle, a fortification that played its part in the complex tapestry of Irish medieval history. The site offers little to the casual observer, yet beneath this unremarkable patch of earth lies centuries of forgotten stories.

Historical records place the castle firmly in existence by 1574, when it was held by one Hugh McTirilagh, though the structure likely predated this documentation. The ownership of such castles often shifted with the turbulent politics of the era, and Beallagharee was no exception. According to the Ordnance Survey Letters compiled by John O’Flanagan in 1927, the castle later passed into the hands of the Blake family, one of the prominent ‘Tribes of Galway’ who wielded considerable influence throughout the region during the medieval and early modern periods.

The complete disappearance of Ballygar Castle serves as a reminder of how thoroughly time can erase even substantial stone structures. What remains is largely academic; the site was formally documented in the Archaeological Inventory of County Galway, compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling in 1999. For those interested in Ireland’s castellated past, the location offers an opportunity to stand where a castle once commanded the surrounding countryside, even if imagination must now do the work that stone walls once did.