Cloughoughter Castle (Cloch Locha Uachtair, meaning ‘stone castle of Loch Uachtair’)is a ruined circular castle on a small island in Lough Oughter cloe to Killashandra in Count Cavan.
The location of the castle may have been a crannóg, and it may have been fortified early as the sixth century. In the latter part of the 12th century, it was owned by the O’Rourkes, but early in the 13th century seems to have come into the hands of the de Lacy family.
After the land confiscations that followed the Plantation of Ulster in 1610, Cloughoughter was granted to Captain Hugh Culme. In 1641, Philip O’Reilly, a prominent leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1641, seized control of the castle until 1653. During this time it was used as a jail, with Culme himself being one of the prisoners, along with his son-in-law Henry Jones. In 1653, it was besieged by Commonwealth forces and it was the last major Confederacy position to surrender. during the conflict it was damaged caused by cannon shot, which can be seen to this day. it was then left to ruins and became a frequent subject of art in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was described in The Dublin University Magazine in 1852:
It stands on a small island, scarce three hundred feet in diameter, just sufficient to contain the castle and a small margin of rock around it. The island stands in very deep water; the shores are a mile distant, wild, yet thickly wooded. The castle is a beautiful ruin, round, massive, hoary, save where mantled with rich Irish ivy. The walls are immensely thick, with embrasures and coved windows, round which “ruin greenly dwells.” It is unlike most Irish castles, which are square.
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