Pirate Queen’s castle expected to reopen in June 2026

It was one of those glorious days that Van Morrison sings about.

The sun glistened across the water as holidaymakers Fionnuala O’Malley and Anthony Caulfield peddled around the bend towards Carrickahowley (Rockfleet) Castle, outside Newport.

As an O’Malley, whose father hails from Aghany, near Roonagh, Fionnuala has a connection to the area and was surprised how well hidden the castle is, as you don’t see it until you are right up close.

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Renowned biographer, Anne Chambers, explains that Fionnuala’s observation was spot on as Grace O’Malley “could see and not be seen. That was always the way with the O’Malley castles. Every one of them, including the one of Clare Island. When you're going there on the ferry, you don't see the castle until you're honestly upon it. And when you go up to the top of the castle on Clare Island, you can literally see out towards America.”

This weekend, she will take 150 members of the O’Malley clan to visit the castle where Gráinne Mhaol died, as part of the annual international O'Malley Clan Rally. This clan visit will be the first in a number of years to see a castle without scaffolding.

One of the first things they are likely to notice is a new lime render on the outside of the building.

A drain pipe now runs down from the side of Rockfleet Castle, which had all scaffolding removed from the building recently

While people might find it unusual to see the exposed brickwork covered by a lime render, Michèle O'Dea, MRIAI, Senior Architect on the Heritage Services Conservation at the OPW, explains that “all of these medieval buildings would have had a protective cover on them, like their raincoat of either a lime render or a lime wash. So we're bringing it back to what it was, and the evidence was there of this lime render on the fabric of the building.”

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Vacuum

“It stops the damp and acts as a vacuum and sucks the damp from in the building. Lime is brilliant, it works as a vacuum from the inside”, Kieran Reid, district works manager with the OPW, describes the benefits of the coating.

The installation of drainage pipes to the side of the building as well as lighting conductors will also catch the eye of visitors. The OPW have said that these additions are important to protect the building from water damage and lightning.

The current steel ramp at the front of the building will be replaced, as will the internal ladder linking the ground floor with the first floor.

The lack of any land around the castle also makes any prospect of an onsite carpark or toilet facilities very unlikely. The rural location of the castle means that there is unlikely to be any external uplighting of the castle.

The OPW was extremely grateful to the Curley family for the use of a nearby field as a compound for the restoration project. Michèle O'Dea said that without their help, the project could not have happened.

Reopening?

Will the castle reopen to the public? The length of time the restoration project has taken has proved a local talking point. The conservation project at Rockfleet Castle commenced in Autumn 2019 and the main exterior works to the Castle were completed just last month. The internal works, or Phase 2 as it is known, is awaiting Ministerial consent before it can get going. It is hoped the internal work will be complete within the next eighteen months.

Once the internal work is complete, the OPW has said that “further assessments will be required before any final decision on public access can be made. The OPW will continue to review opportunities for safe public access as the project progresses.”

The location, the weather, Covid restrictions and the wider public benefit of using the project to train the next generation of apprentices in the crafts of stone masonry and carpentry all contributed to lengthening the completion of the project.

The location was excellent defensively for the Pirate Queen but created challenges for the maintenance and conservation of the building.

“It's subjected to high levels of salt-laden wind, and it's very exposed. The ground floor level of the castle floods and high tides come in the front door,” the Senior Conservation Architect told The Mayo News.

For the lime rendering to set properly, the temperature needs to be in or around four degrees. This obviously would have added time to completing the project.

Complex scaffolding

The work has largely been undertaken by the OPW’s direct-labour workforce and the cost of materials, supplies and specialist technical services associated with the project is approximately €470,000 to date.

Crossmolina firm, AGS Scaffolding, won the €40,000 tender and built the enclosed scaffolding around the castle.

“It was a very specialist design. It was a scaffold which cantilevered over Clew Bay, because it's tidal. It had to have an over sailing roof as well. It had to be both an access and working scaffold and it had to provide protection while we were repairing the roof and doing all the structural work because it’s very exposed there”, Michèle O'Dea describes the complexity involved.

Kieran Reid, district work manager with the OPW, standing in the doorway of the top floor of Rockfleet Castle

Proud Straide man Kieran Reid is district work manager for Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon and Donegal. His team of twenty eight people maintain over one hundred buildings across the five counties, over thirty of which are in Mayo.

Following in his late father’s footsteps in conservation, his passion for “protecting and respecting” building is palpable.

“This building was in dire condition. The walls were rotting away. It would have collapsed into the sea in a storm in the next thirty years. We have secured it and preserved it for the next hundred years.”

A veteran of the OPW apprenticeship himself, Kieran was delighted the OPW selected Rockfleet Castle to train apprentices in the crafts of stone masonry and carpentry.

Master mason Dominic Fanning was joined by apprentices Joseph Slattery, Emmet Farrell, Steve Feeney, Michael Maloney and Sean O'Reilly in hand cutting the stone on top of the roof. The skills developed at Rockfleet Castle are already being put to use on Clare Island and it is hoped they will benefit many other future OPW projects into the future.