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Caption: Aughnanure Castle Ireland
Caption: Located just two miles outside Oughterard, approaching from Galway on the N59, is this 16th century Irish Tower House. Aughnanure Castle is one of the grandest fortified tower houses in Ireland and is one of 200 built in county Galway alone. It has six floors, a banqueting hall and an underground stream that was used for bringing supplies in right up to the fortified gates.
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Caption: This was the stronghold of the O’Flaherty Clan whose family motto was ‘Fortune favours the strong’. The O’Flaghertys were the rulers of this entire region before they were ousted from Galway by the Normans in 1256. They spent the next 400 years terrorizing and attacking the people of Galway from this base as they would not accept subjugation. Galway’s citizens even erected a wall that bore the plaintive prayer ‘From the ferocious O’Flaherties, Good Lord protect us’.
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