When the antiquarian Holt surveyed the site in 1912, he found tantalising hints of a forgotten past: traces of old foundations that suggested a small castle with its accompanying bawn and bailey, likely built atop an even older Gaelic fortification. The site sat along the old road heading west from Clarinbridge, with what appeared to be the castle’s defensive bawn stretching southward and a compact bailey extending to the west.

What made Holt’s discovery particularly intriguing was an exposed opening that revealed a souterrain; one of those underground passages so characteristic of early Irish defensive structures. These subterranean chambers, found throughout Ireland, served various purposes from storage to refuge, and their presence often indicates a site of considerable antiquity. Despite these promising archaeological clues, no historical records of this particular castle have survived, leaving its builders, inhabitants, and ultimate fate lost to time.

By March 1993, when archaeologist Olive Alcock returned to document the site at Knockawuddy, the landscape had changed considerably. The visible traces that Holt had recorded eight decades earlier had vanished entirely from the surface, claimed by time, weather, and agricultural activity. Today, the pastureland shows no sign of the structures that once stood here, though beneath the grass, the foundations of this mysterious castle may still lie waiting, keeping their secrets about this small but intriguing piece of Galway’s medieval landscape.