Bawn, Lydacan, Co. Galway
At Lydacan in County Galway, the remnants of what appears to be a bawn can be found connected to a local tower house.
Bawn, Lydacan, Co. Galway
These grassed-over walls, standing roughly 0.8 to 0.9 metres high and measuring 2 to 2.5 metres thick, extend northward from the tower’s northern wall, though they weren’t originally bonded to it. The structure likely measured around 55 metres from north to south and approximately 40 metres from east to west, forming a substantial defensive enclosure typical of Irish fortified homesteads from the late medieval and early modern periods.
The walls that remain today offer a glimpse into how these defensive structures were organised. An internal dividing wall, running east to west, can still be traced through the grass-covered ruins, suggesting the bawn’s interior was partitioned for different purposes; perhaps separating areas for livestock, storage, or other domestic activities. Bawns like this one served as fortified courtyards that protected both people and animals during times of conflict, forming an essential part of the defensive architecture that dotted the Irish landscape during turbulent centuries.
While time and weather have reduced these walls to subtle earthworks covered in grass, they remain an important archaeological feature of the Lydacan landscape. The fact that the bawn walls weren’t bonded to the tower house suggests they may have been added at a different time, reflecting the evolving defensive needs of the site’s inhabitants. Such modifications were common as local families adapted their fortifications to changing political circumstances and threats throughout Ireland’s complex history.