Story
Clifden Castle is a ruined manor house that was once the manor house of John D’Arcy. D’Arcy founded the nearby town of Clifden and built the castle for his family in the early 1800s. The wealthy landowner had the castle designed in a neo-Gothic style, complete with mock turrets. The land surrounding the castle was leased to poor tenants, and the rents helped pay the D’Arcy family to live at Clifden Castle for two generations.
John D’Arcy left the castle to his eldest son when he died in 1839. Unfortunately, John had taken out a mortgage on the property a few years earlier and his heir, Hyacinth D’Arcy, did not have the same estate management skills as his father once did.
When the potato harvest failed and famine struck in 1845, the decline in the family’s income from renting the land became almost non-existent. The starving tenants organized a group protest in front of the castle in 1846 to demand food. By 1850, the D’Arcy family was bankrupt and Clifden Castle was sold to the Eyre family.
The Eyres used the castle as a vacation home until the head of the family died in 1894. With no one visiting the property, Clifden Castle soon fell into disrepair. The farmland around the mansion continued to be rented, but no one has lived in the castle since the late 19th century.
A local butcher bought the castle and land in 1917, but the farmers who rented the rolling countryside around the ruins soon sued the new owner for what they believed was an illegal sale of land that rightfully belonged to them. A farmers cooperative was formed in 1921 to take joint ownership of the farm and it has been owned by a group ever since.
The castle is still owned by the Clifden Cooperative, but has been abandoned to the elements.
What to see
The dispute over ownership of Clifden Castle was more about the farmland on the estate than the beautiful stone house. For that reason, the castle is now a roofless ruin to protect it from the elements.
The interior furniture was auctioned long ago, and someone eventually stripped the building of any remaining valuable wood and glass. Most of the exterior walls are still standing, which gives a good idea of what the mansion would have looked like in the 19th century.
One notable feature is the series of standing stones, which John D’Arcy had placed before his home to mimic the thousands of stone pillars that were erected around Ireland thousands of years ago. Many of these large stones have markings dating back to the Bronze Age, but the Clifden stones probably date from the 18th century.
The hike to the ruin offers a glimpse of the Connemara countryside and there are likely cows and sheep grazing nearby. The castle itself faces Clifden Bay, making for a picturesque photo opportunity.
how to visit
Clifden Castle is located just outside the town of Clifden, in the Connemara region of County Galway. The castle can only be reached on foot after walking along a dirt road. Leaving Clifden drive a little over a mile (2 kilometers) until you see the arched gateway. Parking is limited but can be found along the way. Walk back to the front door and follow the unpaved path that leads downhill until you are rewarded with a view of the ruins and glittering Clifden Bay.
The castle is technically on private property, but the walkway is open for tours. There are no guided tours or opening hours, so you can visit the castle at will. However, be careful because the walls are in a questionable state of repair. It is possible to walk through the ruins, but it is not advisable for safety reasons.
What else to do nearby
The Station House Museum is a small museum dedicated to the history of the railroad in the area. Housed within a small building that was once the local station, it also introduces visitors to the role of the pony and the transatlantic wireless messages that were first broadcast nearby.
Take a walk through the swamp to find Derrigimlagh Discovery Point to find the site where Guglielmo Marconi built the radio towers that sent the first wireless message across the Atlantic Ocean in 1907. It was also the site of the crash landing of Airmen John Alcock and Arthur Brown on completing the first transatlantic flight in 1919.
If you arrive in Clifden in August, stop by the Connemara Pony Festival, a historic horse show that was established nearly 100 years ago to preserve and protect the local breed of pony. Other pony shows and parades also take place in spring and at Christmas. A full list of events can be found through the breeder’s society.
Omey Island, located north of Clifden, is a charming rural island that can be reached at low tide. There you will find a small medieval church and a sacred place known as Saint Feichin’s well.
