| Oranmore Castle | |
|---|---|
| Native name Irish: Caisleán Órán Mór | |
 | |
| Type | tower house |
| Location | Oranmore, County Galway, Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°16′5.72″N8°56′6.25″W / 53.2682556°N 8.9350694°W |
| Built | 15th century |
| Owner | Leonie Finn [1] |
  Location of Oranmore Castle in County Galway  Oranmore Castle (Ireland) | |
Oranmore Castle is a castle in Oranmore, County Galway, Ireland.
Oranmore Castle was most likely built some time around the 15th century, possibly on top of an older fortified house. [2] The Clanricardes, a notable family from Galway, used it as a stronghold. In March 1642 the town, Oranmore, joined Confederate Ireland in a rebellion, against which the owners of the castle, the Marquess and the fifth Earl Clanricarde, held out. [2] Clanricarde supplied the Fort of Galway from the sea until 1643, when, without the Marquess's sanction, Captain Willoughby Governor of Galway surrendered. [2] [3]
While ownership was temporarily lost, the 6th Earl regained possession, and in 1666 leased the castle to Walter Athy, whose descendants kept control of Oranmore until 1853. [2] It was then abandoned. [4]
The castle, which had fallen into disrepair, was reroofed after Anita Leslie purchased it in 1947 for £200. [5] [6] Her daughter Leonie inherited the castle upon Anita's death. Leonie and her husband, Irish folk musician Alec Finn (1944-2018) have lived there since. [7]
The castle, a rectangular towerhouse, has four storeys, a square staircase turret, and gunloops on the bottom floor. [8]
Oranmore Castle was featured in the 23 March 2001 episode of Scariest Places on Earth . [4] It was also used for the shooting of Alfred the Great , [9] as well as a film location for the Jack Taylor film The Pikeman. The exterior of Oranmore Castle is seen in the TV series Reign, as a French donjon.
Earl of Clanricarde is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of Ireland, first in 1543 and again in 1800. The former creation became extinct in 1916 while the 1800 creation is extant and held by the Marquess of Sligo since 1916.
Oranmore is a town in County Galway, Ireland, 9 km (5.6 mi) east of Galway city on an inlet of Galway Bay. At the 2022 census, Oranmore had a population of 5,819.
Sir William Óg de Burgh was an Anglo-Irish noble and soldier who was the ancestor of the Earls of Clanricarde and the Mac William Iochtar.
The Burke/de Burgh Civil War was a conflict in Ireland from 1333 to 1338 between three leading members of the de Burgh (Burke/Bourke) Anglo-Norman family resulting in the division into three clans.
Sir Uilleag (Ulick) de Burgh (Burke), 1st Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and noble who was leader of one of the three factions who fought the Burke Civil War in the 1330s. By the end of the conflict he had established himself and his descendants as Clanricarde, also known as Mac William Uachtar, independent lords of Galway. He was succeeded by his son, Richard Óg Burke, 2nd Clanricarde (d.1387).
Clanricarde, also known as Mac William Uachtar or the Galway Burkes, were a fully Gaelicised branch of the Hiberno-Norman House of Burgh who were important landowners in Ireland from the 13th to the 20th centuries.
Ulick John de Burgh, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde, styled Lord Dunkellin until 1808 and the Earl of Clanricarde from 1808 until 1825, was a British Whig politician who served as British Ambassador to Russia (1838–40), Postmaster General (1846–52) and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal (1858).
Frances Burke, Countess of Clanricarde, Dowager Countess of Essex was an English noblewoman. The daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's Secretary of State, she became the wife of Sir Philip Sidney at age 16. Her second husband was Queen Elizabeth's favourite, Robert Devereaux Earl of Essex, with whom she had five children. Two years after his execution in 1601, she married Richard Burke, Earl of Clanricarde, and went to live with him in Ireland.
Richard Burke, 4th Earl of Clanricarde PC (Ire), styled Lord Dunkellin until 1601, was an Irish nobleman and politician.
General John Thomas de Burgh, 13th and 1st Earl of Clanricarde PC (Ire), styled The Honourable until 1797, was an Irish peer and soldier who was Governor of County Galway (1798–1808) and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland (1801).
Ballymore Castle in Lawrencetown, County Galway, Ireland was originally a 15th-century tower house belonging to O'Madden. A house was added in 1620, and the castle has been much altered since then.
Commander William Donald Aelian King, DSO & Bar, DSC was a British naval officer, yachtsman and author. He was the oldest participant in the first solo non-stop, around-the-world yacht race, the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, and the only person to command a British submarine on both the first and last days of World War II.
Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde, styled Lord Dunkellin until 1582, was an Irish peer who was the son of Richard Burke, 2nd Earl of Clanricarde and Margaret O'Brien.
William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde, PC (Ire), was an Irish peer who fought in his youth together with his brother Richard, 6th Earl of Clanricarde under their cousin, Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde against the Parliamentarians in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. He succeeded his brother as the 7th Earl in 1666.
John "na Seamer" Burke, Baron Leitrim, also known as John of the Shamrocks, was one of the notorious half-brothers called the meic an Iarla, whose conflicts with each other and their father, Richard Burke, 2nd Earl of Clanricarde, caused devastation to south Connacht several times between the late 1560s and early 1580s.
Geoffrey Browne was an Irish lawyer and politician.
Máire Lynch, Countess of Clanricarde, fl. 1547.
Ulick Fionn Burke, 6th Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and noble.
Ulick Ruadh Burke, 5th Clanricarde or Mac William Uachtar was an Irish chieftain and noble who was the son of Ulick an Fhiona Burke, 3rd Clanricarde (d.1424).
Anita Theodosia Moira King, generally known as Anita Leslie, was an Irish-born biographer and writer. She was a first cousin once removed of the British wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.
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