This fortified structure, known as a bawn, was built during the plantation era when English and Scottish settlers arrived in Ireland during the 16th and 17th centuries. The term ‘bawn’ derives from the Irish word ‘bábhún’, meaning cattle enclosure, though these structures served a far more defensive purpose than their name might suggest.

The bawn at Pallas would have originally enclosed a tower house or castle, creating a secure compound where settlers could retreat during times of conflict. Its high stone walls, likely reaching up to 15 feet in places, would have been topped with defensive features such as bartizans or corner towers from which defenders could survey the surrounding landscape and repel attackers. Within these protective walls, daily life continued with relative safety; cattle were kept, crops were stored, and families went about their business whilst the ever-present threat of raids from dispossessed Irish clans loomed beyond the fortifications.

Today, the remains at Pallas offer visitors a tangible connection to this contested period of Irish history. The surviving walls, though weathered by centuries of Atlantic storms, still convey the sense of isolation and vulnerability that plantation families must have felt in what was, to them, a hostile landscape. Archaeological evidence suggests the site remained occupied well into the 18th century, adapting from its original defensive role to become part of the agricultural landscape that characterises modern Galway.