Rockfleet Castle

Rockfleet Castle, or Carrickahowley Castle (Irish: Carraig an Chabhlaigh), is a tower house near Newport in County Mayo, Ireland. It was built in the mid-fifteenth century, and is most famously associated with Grace O'Malley, the 'pirate queen' and chieftain of the Clan O’Malley. The castle has been speculated as her place of death. It is also known as Carraigahowley, which means "rock of the fleet".

Rockfleet Castle has four floors and is over eighteen metres in height looking out towards the drumlins of Clew Bay. Though entry to the castle was once available to the public, it is now strictly prohibited for safety reasons. The castle was installed with a metal walkway in 2015, from its adjacent grassland surrounding to its door due to the sheer inconvenience of accessing its entrance during high tides. In 2017, the exterior masonry was pointed.

Text adapted from “Rockfleet Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Rockfleet Castle ranks #2,361 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #30 of the 173 mapped in Ireland. Founded c. 1550, it is older than 39% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,799 times in the last 60 days, more than 74% of the atlas. 2 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Galway, 79 km away. See how Ireland compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗