Castle Ruins near Ballyconneely/Bunnowen Pier in Connemara

ShiverinEskimo

Spent a long weekend in Connemara with friends and while driving around aimlessly we ended up driving out to The Connemara Smokehouse on Bunnowen Pier.

On the way out about a click out of the pier we drove past fairly large castle ruins to the left but couldn't find any access to check them out and can't find any info about them online when I search for the place names or that.

Anyone able to shed any light?

the_syco

I "drifted" along Google maps, and found this castle. Is it the one you're on about?

/edit
http://www.connemara.net/history/ballyconneely.aspx

ShiverinEskimo

Yea that seems to be it. Cheers. Strange there's no way to access it that we could see. Must be on private land or was never considered for making safe for tourists. Such a shame because it looked really well set against the peninsula. And the smokehouse was closed on a Saturday. :rolleyes:

johngalway

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

Anyone able to shed any light?

That's Bunowen Castle, the O'Flaherty's built it in the late15th or early 16th century. There's a page about it, and the hill of Doon, in Michael Gibbons book "Connemara, visions of Iar Chonnacht". Tim Robinson might mention it in one or other of his books also but I can't say that for sure.

The people in the cottage own the land there now. I don't know them personally but I do know they don't like people going on the land, used to have several signs up but I don't know if they're still there.

ShiverinEskimo

Yea the one road that looked like it led to it was gated with a private sign. We tried the other roads around it but couldn't get close and didn't want to go trapesing through people's fields.

It seems like one of the bigger castle ruins in the country - very strange that it ended up in private ownership and inaccessible for such a tourist-driven region. We thought we hit the jackpot when it came up on the horizon having driven out to the smokehouse as much for the craic as anything else. We drove out to another 'castle ruin' marked in a tourist brochure closer to Letterfrack and it was this tiny column of stone with one wall missing. Bunowen castle would dump all over this one as an attraction if it was made accessible.

the_syco

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/15959254
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/631879

Click the links to get zoom into the pictures. It does look like quite a nice castle.

Riamfada

Did you not go to Kylemore if you were looking for Castles around Connemara. There is a nice Towerhouse in Renvyle also.

Actually I drove myself mad looking for the field from the movie, the field. Mad.

ShiverinEskimo

We were at Kylemore aswell yes. It was lovely. Did the cheesey garden tour aswell.

We just went for a drive aimlessly and came across Bunnowen Castle and started wondering about it.

the_syco

Did you have a compact camera, or a big SLR camera? I ask as if you have a SLR slung around your neck whilst asking could you take photos of anything, people are usually more accommodating about letting you on their land.

People seem to think
Compact = tourist
Big SLR = professional

ShiverinEskimo

Nope. Poxy little Lumix job. Been dreaming of an SLR and was on the verge of splashing the cash until the turbo fell apart in my car.

When I get an SLR I'm going to have revisit a lot of places. Been on a mission to see more of Ireland these last couple of years. Been to Wexford, Kilkenny, Malin Head and now Connemara for long weekends/a week here and there. Plenty of nice stuff to see and do and an SLR camera would complement it nicely.

the_syco

ShiverinEskimo wrote: »

When I get an SLR I'm going to

You don't need a SLR to take good shots - many decent compacts can do a good job if you know all the manual functions of the camera, but the SLR has a good few extra options that are more easy accessible.

Got my own 450D SLR off kerso1123@msn.com or check the price list on www.facebook.com/pages/Flash-Camera/137974529592642?ref=ts (he has a paypal page, but any business on it is 1.5% dearer).