Coolfin Castle, Coolfin, Co. Galway
On a rocky outcrop near Coolfin in County Galway stand the weathered remains of what may be the castle of 'Colyne', a fortification that appeared in a 1574 list of Galway castles under the ownership of one 'Ricor McRedmund'.
Coolfin Castle, Coolfin, Co. Galway
This tower house, built on a natural stone rise that seems to have been deliberately steepened on its eastern side, tells a story of both medieval architecture and modern destruction. Today, only the western wall survives intact, stretching 7.6 metres long and standing three storeys high alongside fragments of the northern and southern walls.
The surviving walls reveal the careful craftsmanship of medieval builders, constructed from regularly coursed dressed limestone blocks bound with mortar and featuring the characteristic base batter common to Irish tower houses. Despite centuries of weathering and deliberate demolition, several architectural details remain visible: an elegant ogee-headed window with cusped spandrels sits almost centrally in the first floor western wall, representing the best preserved feature of the structure. Wall cupboards, a breach marking a former ground floor window, and corbel slots suggesting wooden floor construction all hint at the domestic arrangements within this defensive structure. An unusually large opening near the base of the northern wall may have served as a garderobe chute, though its size raises questions about its true purpose.
The castle’s current ruinous state owes much to early 20th century road building rather than centuries of neglect. According to local accounts, when the adjacent roadway was constructed in 1902, builders demolished the eastern and southern walls, crushing the stone for road metal; a practical if regrettable decision that robbed the structure of half its walls. The northern wall met its end shortly afterwards when it became structurally unsound and had to be taken down for safety reasons. Even the quoinstones, those carefully shaped corner blocks that gave the tower its strength, have been robbed from the southwestern and northwestern corners up to first floor level, leaving this once formidable tower house a shadow of its former self.