This evocatively named fortress, which derives from the Irish ‘An Crochaill’ meaning ‘The Overhanging Cliff’, has been known by various spellings over the centuries, including Kreagwill and Criuchmhuil. The earliest historical mention dates to 1574, when records show it belonged to the O’Loughlins of Burren, one of the prominent Gaelic families who controlled this region of western Ireland.

By the time antiquarian John O’Donovan visited in 1839, he found the castle already “so injured that its ruins are not interesting”, whilst Thomas Johnson Westropp could only describe fragmentary remains when he surveyed it at the turn of the 20th century. The castle appeared on Ordnance Survey maps from 1840 and 1916, marked optimistically as ‘Castle (in ruins)’, though by then it was clearly more memory than monument.

The final chapters of Crughwill’s physical existence played out in the 20th century when most of the structure was dismantled before 1940, its stones repurposed for local building projects; a practical if melancholic fate for many Irish castles. Local memory recalls that one section survived into the 1970s, standing about five metres high and containing what was likely a garderobe shaft, before it too was removed. When archaeologists visited in 1999, they found no visible trace of the castle above ground, leaving only its location within a large bawn, now converted to a farmyard, as testament to where this clifftop stronghold once commanded the landscape.