Glencastle

Glencastle Gleann Chaisil
Townland
Glencastle Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 54°11′N 9°53′W
Country	Ireland
Province	Connacht
County	County Mayo
Population  (2011)	38
	(Glencastle townland only)

Glencastle is a small village and townland in the north-west of County Mayo, Ireland. It is also an electoral area. In 2011, about 38 people lived there. The land is around 2,337 acres (about 9.5 square kilometres).

Location

Glencastle is in a narrow valley between mountains and steep hillsides, with brooks running through it. The area was once called the 'Gates of Erris', as the gateway to the Mullet Peninsula, since it sat on the only big road into Erris and the Mullet.

The land is green and quiet. Trees like hazel and birch grow on the hills. From the high ground, you can see Broadhaven Bay and Blacksod Bay. A grassy mound of rock rises at the valley's heart, once the site of a great fort. To the north stands a large mountain that looks down over the valley.

There are many old stone works in the area, like ring forts and stone burial mounds called cairns. In the 1800s, during road building, a cromlech (an old stone altar) was broken. This was once thought to be a “druid altar.”

History

The fort in Glencastle was called Dún Domhnaill, which means “Fort of Domhnall.” It was also known in local tales as Doolough Castle and stood at the “Gates of Erris,” watching over the only main road into the area. In old times, people had to pay a toll to pass.

Domhnall, a chief of the Gamanraige tribe, was said to live there. He may have been part of the old Irish tale Táin Bó Flidhais, and he was believed to close the gates of Erris at night. His fort stood strong on the high rock in the middle of the glen. Today, it is marked by three big grassy mounds, but no full dig has ever been done there.

In the time before the Normans came in the 1100s, a clan called the O’Caithnaidhs ruled the land from Glencastle. Later, the O’Connors took over the fort, but in 1303, the Barrett family (who came with the Anglo-Normans) seized it.

The Barretts held the fort for many years, and by 1540, the area was so well known that the English called it “Irrus Domnann,” which came from the Irish name for the fort. In the 1500s and 1600s, Glencastle became the stronghold of the Barons of Irrus. The most well-known was Sir Edmund Barrett, who lived at the fort until 1619.

The three mounds at Glencastle

The Barretts stayed in the area for nearly 200 years. Some of them rose to high rank, such as Bishop of Elphin and, of course, Baron of Irrus.

The land around Glencastle still holds many signs of this deep past—old forts, stone mounds, and the remains of a once-great castle where chiefs and barons once stood guard at the Gates of Erris.