Ireland · 13th century
Castle Hackett ranks #5,731 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #97 of the 178 mapped in Ireland. Founded c. 1250, it is older than 67% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1091 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Galway, 25 km away. See how Ireland compares in the castle statistics.
Castle Hackett is a ruined 13th-century tower house at the base of Knockma Hill, 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-west of Tuam in the parish of Caherlistrane, County Galway, Ireland. It is located near Belclare in the townland of Castlehacket (Irish: Caisleán an Haicéadaigh).
The castle was originally built by the Hacketts, a Norman family. In Castles and Stronghouses of Ireland (1993), Mike Salter suggests that the structure may have originally been a 13th century hall house with the building's two upper storeys added during the 16th century. By the late 16th century, the tower house was in the possession of 'Ullig McReamon [Burke]'.
The Kirwans, one of the tribes of Galway, purchased the Castlehacket estate in the late 17th century. The Castlehacket branch of the Kirwan family had been established in the mid-17th century by Sir John Kirwan. The tower house, which was occupied until at least 1703, was abandoned by the Kirwans during the 18th century and they built a new three-storey house nearby.
The 18th-century house, known as Castlehacket House, was burned in 1923 during the Civil War; it was subsequently rebuilt. In 2016, it was renovated to operate as a bed and breakfast. It is included in the Record of Protected Structures maintained by Galway County Council.
In the introduction to his Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888), William Butler Yeats mentions the Hackett family and the castle, writing, "Each county has usually some family, or personage, supposed to have been favoured or plagued [with fairy-seeing abilities], especially by the phantoms, as the Hackets of Castle Hacket, Galway, who had for their ancestor a fairy".
Text adapted from “Castle Hackett” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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