Читать книгу Irish Castles - Orna Mulcahy - Страница 16

GORTEENACRA, ATHENRY, COUNTY GALWAY

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This is a fine restored thirteenth-century castle in the medieval walled town of Athenry, about fifteen miles from the city of Galway. The castle was built by the Anglo-Norman lord, Meyler de Bermingham, c. 1237, after he was granted lands following the Conquest of Connaught. Having built an imposing tower surrounded by defensive walls, he then set about developing the town, adding a parish church, a priory, a hospital, streets, houses, and a marketplace. By the end of the thirteenth century, Athenry was a wealthy and important market town with trading links to England and the Continent. Town walls were built in 1316 to protect the inhabitants from the warring Irish, but over the next two centuries the town declined.