Carrigaholt Castle is strategically located at the mouth of the Shannon Estuary. The five storey tower house was built around 1480 by the MacMahons, the chiefs of what is now called the Loop Head peninsula.

Reflecting its turbulent history, the castle features murder holes and a bartizan. Beseiged several times throughout its history, it managed to survive intact, even after capture by Cromwells’s army in 1651.

Lived in until the late 19th century it is now under the stewardship of the Office of Public Works and National Monuments.