Cloghan Castle, Loughrea, Galway

It was a castle of the MacHubert Burkes - a branch of the Clanricard Burkes who were the principal lords in Co Galway. The MacHubert Burkes appear to have been based at Isert Kelly Castle (a 15th-century tower house and bawn) and then seem to have built other, smaller tower houses nearby in the 16th century (including Cloghan and Deerpark). These two later tower houses were built using 'sectional construction' - a modern term to describe a tower house being built in two parts, one narrow section containing the entrance doorway and the spiral stair being built first and then the larger, section second being built soon afterwards. They are a particular type of tower house confined to Galway, Clare and Limerick and appear to date to the sixteenth century - the suggestion that Cloghan dates to 1239 (found on the Cloghan Castle website) is nonsense - it's is out by about 300 years! It is actually unclear if the larger, second half of the building was ever built at Deerpark or Cloghan - similarly, the little castle in the middle of Galway Racecourse at Ballybrit is actually just half a tower house, the second section being absent (knocked or never built? Hard to tell...)

For a brief mention of Cloghan in the list of castles from 1574, see J.P. Nolan's paper 'Galway Castles and Owners in 1574' which was published in the Journal of the Galway Archaeological And Historical Society volume 1 (1900-01), p.109-123

For a discussion of sectionally constructed tower houses, see R Sherlock's paper 'Cross-cultural occurrences of mutations in tower house architecture: evidence for cultural homogeneity in late medieval Ireland?' which was published in the Journal of Irish Archaeology in 2006 - available online here