This fragment of the past sits quietly beneath the grand nineteenth-century castle that dominates the landscape today, offering a tangible link to Clare’s turbulent medieval history. The current castle, completed around 1835, was built incorporating or alongside these ancient foundations, a common practice amongst Irish aristocracy who sought to blend their ancestral heritage with more fashionable architectural styles.

Tower houses were the defensive residences of choice for Gaelic and Anglo-Norman families throughout Ireland from the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries, and this possible example at Dromoland would have served as both a stronghold and status symbol for its original builders. The battered base, a characteristic feature where walls slope outward at ground level for added stability, suggests this was once a substantial fortification. Local historians Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen have documented this architectural fragment as part of their comprehensive survey of Clare’s castles and tower houses, noting its significance as evidence of the site’s long occupation history.

Whilst visitors today come to admire the Gothic Revival splendour of the Victorian castle with its turrets and battlements, this weathered section of masonry tells an equally compelling story. It speaks to centuries of continuous habitation at Dromoland, where successive generations built upon the foundations laid by their predecessors, quite literally in this case. The survival of these medieval remains, preserved within the fabric of the later castle, offers a rare opportunity to trace the evolution of one of Ireland’s most storied estates from medieval stronghold to aristocratic mansion.