Rockfleet Castle

Rockfleet Castle, or Carrickahowley Castle (Irish: Carraig an Chabhlaigh), is a tower house near Newport in County Mayo, Ireland. It was built in the mid-sixteenth century, and is most famously associated with Gráinne O'Malley, the pirate queen and chieftain of the clan O’Malley.^[1]

Rockfleet Castle has four floors and is over eighteen metres in height. It can be open to the public year round. If the huge doorhandle on the heavy wooden door cannot be opened, the key can be borrowed and returned to the nearby farm. The tower house castle is built in the sea and at high tide the water makes it very difficult to get into or out of the door without getting wet. Some years ago the castle was restored by its American owner who used traditional building methods and materials throughout to restore the castle back near to its original condition, as it would have been in the 16th century.^{[citation needed]} There is no charge to visit. There is an unusual ladder from the ground floor to access the first floor from where the visitor must use the precariously narrow and steep stone spiral stairwells to get to all the other floors, which are floored with oak beams. The door to the very top storey is padlocked for reasons of safety.