History

  This 13th century tower house is located close to Belclare, in county Galway, about 10 kilometres south-west of Tuam [1-3]. Initially built by the Anglo-Normal family of the Hacketts, it was occupied by the local Kirwan family in the 15th century [1-4]. During the 18th century, the Kirwans abandoned the tower house and moved to a three-story manor house nearby, called Castlehacket House, that was burned during the civil war in 1923 and then rebuilt [1-4].
  As often happens with Irish castles, also this tower house offers the perfect scenario for some mysterious legends [1, 2]. In fact, it is said that the fairy king Finvarra lives under Knockma Hill [2]. Is this true or not? We can’t answer. However, in his Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888), William Butler Yeats reports the following statement about Castlehacket: “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…” [1, 4]. And we have no title to contradict what William Butler Yeats says.

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Tips

  Misterious Hackett castle, is a little more than just a ruin and gives you such a pleasant feeling once you manage to reach its top floor.
  Although it is not open to the public, the tower house can easily be accessed from the road leading up to the wonderful forest trail of Knockma Hill. Don't be an adventurer and please wear long pants: the place is full of nettles. We remember it very well, as we both fell victims to its stinging properties.