Home to the de Burgo family for 250 years

The Claregalway Friary & Castle are situated on the banks of the River Clare. The Friary was commissioned in 1252 by John de Cogan, a Norman knight who took possession of the area following the Norman conquest of Connacht. It flourished until the reformation in the mid-16th century when forces under the command of Lord Leonard Gray ransacked and looted the abbey while on a march to Galway. It came into the possession of Sir Richard de Burgo in 1570, Sir Richard Bingham, and then to the Earl of Clanrickarde. The Franciscans reoccupied the abbey in 1641 but by 1838 the building was in a ruined state with only 2 monks. The nearby castle was the chief fortress of the powerful de Burgo family between the early 1400s to the mid-1600s. It has been fully restored and is the original home of the Brian Boru Harp – the national symbol of Ireland which is now located in Trinity College Dublin.