Qualla: Ballymote Castle

Ballymote Castle: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The.Q, CC BY-SA 3.0. Red Hugh O'Donnell paid four hundred pounds and three hundred cows for Ballymote Castle in 1598. It was, by the standards of late medieval Ireland, a reasonable price for a fortress that controlled the southern approaches to County Sligo. From Ballymote, O'Donnell would march south to the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 -- a defeat that broke Gaelic Ireland. The castle, like so much else, would pass to English hands. But before that, it had already changed owners more than a dozen times in three centuries, its walls absorbing the ambitions and failures of every faction in Connacht.

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Image: The.Q | CC BY-SA 3.0

Ballymote Castle: The Red Earl's Fortress

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Willie Duffin, CC BY-SA 2.0. Ballymote Castle was built around 1300, the last Norman castle constructed in Connacht. Its builder was Richard Og de Burgh, 2nd Earl of Ulster, known as the Red Earl, who needed a stronghold to protect his newly won possessions in County Sligo. The design was formidable: a large...

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Image: Willie Duffin | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ballymote Castle: A Castle of Constant Exchange

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Djm-leighpark, CC BY-SA 4.0. The catalogue of ownership reads like a who's-who of medieval and early modern Ireland. The O'Connors of Sligo took it in 1317. The Mac Diarmada seized it during local power struggles in 1347. By 1381, the McDonaghs had it. It passed to Tadhg MacDermot, one of the last Kings of M...

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Image: Djm-leighpark | CC BY-SA 4.0

Ballymote Castle: From Kinsale to Ruin

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Stephen Armstrong, CC BY-SA 2.0. It was from Ballymote that Red Hugh O'Donnell departed for the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, the climactic confrontation between the Gaelic lords and the English crown. The battle was a catastrophe for the Irish. When the O'Donnells surrendered Ballymote to the English in 1602, the ...

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Image: Stephen Armstrong | CC BY-SA 2.0

Ballymote Castle: Walls That Remember

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Willie Duffin, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Office of Public Works has carried out preservation work on Ballymote, but it remains a ruin -- and a powerful one. The massive walls still stand to considerable height, the corner towers still visible, the gatehouse foundations still marking where the double-towered entrance...

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Image: Willie Duffin | CC BY-SA 2.0