Achill is Ireland's largest island. It's 13.5 miles
long by 12 miles wide and is reached by the Michael Davitt
Bridge, a single-lane swing-bridge, that crosses Achill
Sound from the Curraun Peninsula on the mainland...{more}
Céidi Fields is Europe's largest Stone Age land enclosure
and one of the oldest known field systems in the world,
going back around five thousand years, predating the Egyptian
pyramids and Stonehenge...{more}
Kildavnet Castle, also called Carrick Kildavnet
Castle, is a fine example of a small 15th century fortified
tower situated beside an inlet from the sea. Gaelic chieftains
at the time copied Norman designs when constructing their
tower houses. While it's associated with the famous pirate
queen Grace O'Malley (Granuaile), the castle was most
likely built by her ancestors in about 1429...{more}
The castle was beseiged by troops sent from Galway in
1574 but the invaders were turned back by pirate queen
Grace O'Malley. After the death of her second husband,
Richard Burke, in 1583, Grace retired to this castle.
It was said that she brought with her "all herown followers
and 1000 head of cows and mares."...{more}
The original Westport House was built by Colonel John
Browne who was a Jacobite and was at the Siege of Limerick
in 1642. It was his wife, Maud Bourke, who was the great-granddaughter
of Grace O'Malley and Richard "the Iron" Bourke...{more}
