This strong construction was erected about 1238, and had an uneventful history down to 1570, when it was captured by Sir Edward Fitton and a strong British force, who on this trip took all the castles of Kilmaine.

The Saxons kept the field, and with cajolery and treachery held it as far as the Kilmaine chiefs were concerned. Fitton himself was wounded. Wm. Burke occupied the castle, in 1574; John, his son, in 1610; Richard Burke, the Earl of Clanricarde, got the castle and lands to the extent of four quarters about this time, and leased them to Pierce Lynch of Galway. The massacre of Shrule in 1641 has already been referred to.