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Gallarus Castle is a four-storey rectangular tower house in Baile na nGall, County Kerry, Ireland and is notable as one of the few fortified structures preserved on the Dingle Peninsula.
Gallarus Castle | |
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Contae Chiarraí Near Dingle/An Daingean in Ireland | |
Coordinates | 52°10′33″N 10°21′21″W / 52.17583°N 10.35583°W |
Type | Tower house |
Height | 4 storeys |
Site information | |
Owner | Knight of Kerry |
Condition | restored |
Site history | |
Built | 15th century |
History
editGallarus Castle was built in the 15th century by the Knight of Kerry, the holder of a hereditary knighthood belonging to the Geraldine Dynasty. It is now an Irish heritage site.
The building has been extensively restored and a new rectangular doorway inserted in the north wall. There is no evidence of a stone stairway below the second floor. A mural stairway rises in the east wall and the ceilings on the third and fourth floor are vaulted.
Gallarus Castle stands about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) away from the better known and more historically significant Gallarus Oratory.[1]
References
edit- ^ Anonymous 1846, p. 228: "Gallerus or Gollerus, a village, and a cluster of curious antiquities, near the head of Smerwick Harbour, parish of Kilmelehedor, barony of Corkaguiney, County Kerry, Munster. The antiquities are a curious hermitage, a tower .. and a castle which belonged to the Fitzgeralds, Knights of Kerry ..."
Sources
edit- Anonymous (1846). The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland. Vol. 2. Dublin: A. Fullarton. – D to M (for Gallerus)