The name Craggaunowen derives from its Irish name Creagán Eoghain (Owen’s little rocky hill). The townland is one of the smallest and least populated within the civil parish of Quin. The heritage park identified with the townland is one of very few open air museums in the country which has re-constructed elements of the past and also tries to re-create the atmosphere of the time. While we will refer to this heritage park in this post, the intention is to focus on the broader townland, although its lack of residents over time will restrict options for research. Available records indicate that only one family, MacNamaras, actually lived generationally here in the past two hundred years.
Craggaunowen is situated almost directly east of Quin village and has an area of:
39.04 hectares / 96 acreas / 0.15 square miles
1841 Census Houses 0, Population 0
1851 Census Houses 0, Population 0
1861 Census Houses 2, Population 16
1871 Census Houses 2, Population 13
1881 Census Houses 2, Population 7
1891 Census Houses 2, Population 14
1901 Census Houses 1, Population 0
1911 Census Houses 0, Population 0
MacNamara Baptism records
5/8/1860 Baptism of Michael MacNamara, son of John & Bridget (nee Moran). Sponsors James & Mrs Woulfe.
16/7/1865 Baptism of Susan MacNamara, daughter of John & Bridget (nee Moran). Sponsors Patt McNamara, Bridget Ward.
7/4/1867 Baptism of Rose MacNamara, daughter of John & Bridget (nee Moran). Sponsors John McNamara, Bridget Ward.
1855 Griffiths Valuation
Reverend William Ashworth-Caswell – Castle, herders house & land, water. See division of properties in 1855 in bottom right map:
Craggaunowen – The Living Past is an archaeological open air museum started by John Hunt. It is based around Craggaunowen Castle, a typical example of a 16th Century fortified towerhouse. The park, comprising of a lake and idyllic woodland, is host to several examples of early historic dwelling places such as a Crannóg, ring fort and examples of replica Fulachta Fia (Bronze Age cooking/bathing/industrial site), Dolmen (Neolithic portal tomb) and Standing Stone (Ogham Stone). The site is also home to ‘The Brendan’, a reconstruction of a leather hulled boat sailed by Saint Brendan, who is reputed to have made the journey from Ireland to Newfoundland in Canada in the mid 6th Century AD.
Craggaunowen Castle – History
The history of this castle tells that of the townland and its owners throughout known history. Thanks to the work of Ua Cróinín & Breen, we will include it in this post.
Craggaunowen Castle was built by Eoghan, (John), son of Síoda MacNamara, and dates possibly to the late sixteenth century. The name Craggaunowen most likely commemorates this castle-builder, ‘Eoghan’. The castle does not appear on the 1570 or 1574 castle lists, and so the building may date to after this time. References to the castle are sparse and it does not appear to have come to the attention of the chroniclers until 1641 when the MacNamaras had given up possession of Craggaunowen, and the townland was in the hands of one Maurice Conroy. Although we cannot be certain that the Conroy family actually inhabited the castle, we do know that two other castles in the region were owned by this family in the sixteenth century. After the 1641 rebellion Craggaunowen was disposed of to Peter Crainsborough. The above ‘Maurice Conroy’, also known as Maurice Mulconroy, or O’Mulconry, was most likely a member of the O’Mulconroy family of Ardkyle in the Parish of Feenagh, to the south of Craggaunowen. Their family seat at Ardkyle was a famous and well chronicled centre of native learning. This bardic school was noted in glowing terms in 1636 in the Annals of the Four Masters by Flann Mac Aodhagáin in his approbation of that work. The O’Mulconroys of Co. Clare were skilled in history, and served as hereditary chroniclers, deputy brehons, and historians to the ruling O’Brien and MacNamara families, and as such held their lands free from rent or tribute, and were exempt from military service. Their family seat at Ardkyle had, in 1618 been forcibly exchanged by the Earl of Thomond for what were considered poorer quality lands at Shandangan, Cullane and Craggaunowen. This most likely explains the presence of the Ardkyle family at Craggaunowen prior to 1641. A perusal of the ‘Books of Survey and Distribution’ shows that ‘Morrish Conroy’ was in fact the owner of lands at Craggaunowen and Shandangan prior to 1641, and that the Earl of Thomond was in possession of Ardkyle. Peter Crainsborough received vast quantities of land in east Clare at this period according to the same source. The 4th Earl, Donogh O’Brien, had coveted the lands at Ardkyle due to the quality of its land, and its proximity to his stronghold at Bunratty. Although the manuscript dealing with this land dispute recorded that it had been transferred by mutual agreement, it was later claimed by Maurice O’Mulconroy’s son Daniel, in 1638, that it was taken by forcible means, and that Maurice was detained by the Earl against his will until he agreed to the land transfer. The disagreement between the Earl and Maurice O’Mulconroy appears to have lasted from 1614 until 1618 when the land was eventually given up. This incident gives us an insight into the changes which were taking place within the old Gaelic order at this time. The O’Mulconroys had, for generations, been held in high esteem by the ruling O’Briens and MacNamaras, who had been their benefactors and patrons during the Brehon period. They had operated their celebrated school at Ardkyle during the Mediaeval Period, and were employed by the ruling class of the time as historians, scribes and chroniclers. With the onset of Anglicisation these hereditary Gaelic positions were no longer required by the incoming administration. The contempt with which these centuries’ old positions had come to be treated in this period can be observed from the treatment by the Earl of Thomond of the O’Mulconroy family. No specific records for Craggaunowen appear from this era as to how the castle itself might have transferred from the family of the reputed builder, Owen MacNamara, to the O’Mulconroy family, or if the O’Mulconroy family actually inhabited the castle, but the details gleaned from the above records give us an indication as to how the land transfer came about.
According to R.W.Twigge, writing in the early 1900s, the stairs appeared to him to be of modern construction, and in an earlier note on the castle in 1880, comment is made on the missing staircase and altered upper chambers. The demolition of the spiral staircase and battlements was a fate was suffered by many of the towerhouses of Ireland during the Cromwellian campaign of 1652/54 in an attempt to render the strongholds of the native population defenceless.
In 1659 and 1661 one William Storine was recorded as being the occupying tenant of Craggaunowen. In the 1675 “Edenvale Survey”, Craggaunowen Castle appears as “Creggans” in “Bunratty Baronie”, (no. 8 in the pictorial survey). The castle is shown as a roofed structure with crenellations on top, surrounded by a bawn wall with its entrance gateway, and a small turret in one corner of the bawn. The castle appears on Henry Pelham’s map of 1787 as “Dromore Cas.”; this error was repeated by Hely Dutton in his survey of 1808.
Craggaunowen Castle was at one time the property of Tom Steele (1788-1848), known as “Honest Tom Steele”, a close associate of the Liberator, Daniel O’Connell. Steele, a classical scholar and a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, intended to someday restore the castle, and it appears that he had partly realised his objective, though this and many other ambitions were set aside in favour of his many other exploits, which eventually culminated in his financial ruin, attempted suicide, and his ultimate demise. While living in Co. Clare, he preferred to spend his time at the ruined keep rather than at his nearby house at Cullane. He had inherited the Studdert property of Cullane on the death of his uncle, and on Steele’s death the property passed back to the Studdert family. According to one writer, Tom Steele’s initials could be seen on one of the quoin stones of the castle in 1911. His name is also remembered in the old turret which he built in the 1820s, known as “Steele’s Turret”, which stood on the hill to the east of the castle. This turret collapsed in the 1980s; only a few foundations remain today. “Steele’s Rock” and “Steele’s Terrace” in Ennis also commemorate the memory of this man, “Honest Tom Steele”.
The Munster Circuit for the year 1880 gave the following interesting account of Craggaunowen’s next incumbent: “A few years ago this ancient chieftain’s stronghold was a mouldering ruin; sheep roamed at will from postern to bastion, the mountain goat cropped the ivy that clustered on its walls, or the grass that grew over the empty moat; but its picturesque site and capabilities attracted the notice of an English clergyman, the Rev. John Harvey Ashworth, and by the expenditure of a very considerable sum of money and an equal amount of architectural skill, he has converted this fast trembling ruin into a strong tower likely to form for ages a comfortable dwelling…….. There was no tower or outwork that I could trace and on gaining entrance we found ourselves in a good-sized hall, fitted up with a modern kitchen range and other appliances for cooking that the MacNamaras or O’Briens of former days had no experience. Instead of the spiral steps of stone leading to the rooms overhead, we mounted wooden steps and soon beheld a goodly apartment, wainscoted with oak richly carved; bay windows of plate glass afforded excellent light and extensive views of the surrounding district. Yet higher we visited small chambers, evidently intended for bedrooms, but the good taste which regulated the rooms below did not soar so high. Common bedroom paper, of poor design formed a poor contrast to the ancient doors and stone casements. Creggan Tower formally belonged to the celebrated associate of O’Connell, Tom Steele. His mansion, Cullane, lay in the valley beneath; but this accomplished and very eccentric individual preferred to occupy the solitary tower, even before its present renovation, to the more comfortable house. He meditated restoring Creggan but his eager desire for political notoriety caused him to abandon house and land and to devote all the energies of his ardent nature to the advance of the cause of what he deemed nationality. This left the restoration of Creggan tower to an English clergyman, whose taste and judgement is most creditable. How I wish other ruins in Clare and other counties in Ireland fell into equally competent hands desiring their restoration”.
The Ordnance Survey Letters of 1839 recorded that the castle was a ruin at that time. As already noted, Craggaunowen Castle passed to the Rev. John Harvey Ashworth who carried out some restorations in 1855 and lived there for a time. From him it passed to Mr. Redmayne of Kilcornan, in the neighbouring parish of Kilmurry, in whose family it remained until at least 1911. Frost recorded that the castle was in perfect repair and inhabited in 1893, though his note on its ownership in 1580 is incorrect, as Craggaunowen Castle does not appear on the castle lists for this period. He recorded the owner of Craggaunowen Castle as ‘Cumeadha, son of John MacNamara’. In the original State Paper containing the castle list, this owner was recorded for the nearby castle of Cullane. Frost was using an inaccurate version of the 1574 castle list which had been incorrectly transcribed and was in circulation in his time. This list was corrected by R.W.Twigge in his paper of 1910. Westropp also recorded that the castle was inhabited when he was writing about the castles of Co. Clare in 1899.
Another interesting description of the castle in the early 1900’s by R.W. Twigge is worth quoting here: “Craigan Eoghain. Built by Eoghan, son of Sioda MacConmarra, has been greatly modernised, but is again fallen into ruin, as it has been deserted for nearly twenty years, and the roof was wrecked in the great gale of Feb 1903. It is beautifully situated on a scarped piece of rock of some height beside a little lake in a wooded glen. Only the lower part is ancient. The tower measures 39’ x 27’. The modern outer door has the three old doors inside, the spiral stair being to the left, the lodge to the right, and the porch defended by a murder hole. The stairs are chiefly modern, and off them are found the usual small vaulted rooms. The main vaulted basement was used as a kitchen. Over it were two storeys with large rooms. Probably one storey with a vaulting under it was removed. The second storey had wood panelling with some well cut floral work, now nearly all gone. Of the outworks, a slight bastion, and a semicircular turret with loopholes in it still remain. The enclosure was from 13’ to 18’ outside the tower. Its name does not appear in the lists of 1570 and1574”.
Members of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland visited the castle and what they called “Tom Steele’s Turret” on one of their summer outings in June 1916, but failed to add any details of its condition at the time of their visit.
Eventually acquired by the Land Commission in 1880s, when the lands were distributed among local farmers, the castle and the adjacent lands were purchased by John Hunt in 1965. To this entrepreneurial individual, the castle as it exists today owes much; as well as restoring its fabric to the condition we can see it in today, he added the extension to the ground floor. This extension was turned into a museum-type display area for some of his priceless collection of Irish and foreign mediaeval treasures which he amassed during his travels around the world. John Hunt died in 1976 and even before his untimely death he had presented his collection to the Irish people.
Letters on the Antiquities of County Clare, 1835 by Eugene O’Curry:
Cragán Eoghain the ruin of a large square tower standing on a rocky craig, though this place is in ruins now, it was inhabited within the last forty years. It is near Daingean and in the immediate vicinity of Culhane or Loch O’Connell the romantic seat of Thomas Steele Esq. I believe this belonged to the MacGraths.
Craggaunowen woodland
The woodland is part of the Craggaunowen historical centre, and some gravelled paths and replica monuments (a ring fort, crannog, etc) occur in and around the wood. The majority of the wood is dominated by ash (Fraxinus excelsior) with an understorey of hazel (Corylus avellana) and hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna) on thin soils over limestone outcrops and pavement. Beech (Fagus sylvatica) and scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) are also common. Grazing by deer is relatively high, and is severe with much bark stripping in an enclosure where wild boar is kept. As a result, the field layer is sparse, characterised by ferns, such as Polystichum setiferum, Dryopteris filixmas and Phyllitis scolopendrium, with other species present, such as Brachypodium sylvaticum, Circaea lutetiana, Geranium robertianum, Carex sylvatica and Veronica chamaedrys. Mosses are more abundant, with Eurhynchium striatum, Hylocomium brevirostre and Thamnobryum alopecurum dominating. Around Craggaunowen Lough, a wet woodland dominated by alder (Alnus glutinosa) with some grey willow (Salix cinerea) on fen peat is present. Field layer species include Angelica sylvestris, Deschampsia cespitosa, Carex paniculata, Iris pseudacorus, Lycopus europaeus, Mentha aquatica and Senecio aquatica. Overall an interesting site due to its largely native status and mixture of woodland types. Management to remove beech and sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), reduce grazing pressure and provide more visitor interpretation would be very worthwhile, given its popularity as a tourist attraction.
