This fortress, sometimes called Carrickaquicy, is situated five miles west-south-west of Limerick City, in the same county, in the barony of Pubble Brien. It stands on an abrupt basaltic rock which has forced itself through the limestone, and is surrounded by low marshy ground called Corkass land which stretches away to the Shannon.

O’Donovan states that the name signifies “rock of the O’Connolls,” but it is more popularly believed to mean “rock of the candle,” and several versions of the following legend are related to account for the designation:—

The site of the castle was formerly supposed to be inhabited by a hag of gigantic form called Grana, and every evening she lighted a candle in her habitation, which from its elevated position was visible for miles round, and every one who saw its light died before morning.

The great Finn hearing of this scourge ordered a man called Ryan to go and extinguish the light, and presented him with a charmed cap to accomplish the mission. This covered his eyes until he had scaled the rock, seized the candle, and thrown it into the Shannon.

The witch in a fury was about to grasp him when he took a jump of two miles westward, and she was only able

to vent her rage by hurling a rock after him, which is still pointed out with the marks of her fingers on it to indicate the “Hag’s Throw.”

The castle ruins comprise one or two towers and part of the ramparts. It was finally destroyed by gunpowder, and huge masses of masonry lie about in all directions, indicating its once extensive proportions.

A great ash-tree adorns the centre of the pile.

William de Braose had large estates in Ireland when he was driven into exile in 1210, his wife and son starved to death, and his Castle of Carrigogunnel granted to Donogh Cairbreach O’Brien for a yearly rent of 60 marks.

This O’Brien had done homage to King John at Waterford, but he seems to have been shortly afterwards deprived of his land.

In 1535 Lord Leonard Grey marched to Limerick and Mathew O’Brien surrendered him the Castle of Carrigogunnel on condition it should only be garrisoned by Englishmen. It was said at this time to have been in undisturbed possession of the O’Briens for over two hundred years.

The Deputy garrisoned it under the command of George Woodward, “an honest and a hardy man.”

In the meantime the fortress was given by indenture to Donough O’Brien to hold for the King. He was son-in-law to the Earl of Ossory, and had long been fawning on the Government with offers to besiege the castle for them, if provided with a hundred men and a piece of ordnance.

The governor of the castle, no doubt regarding this arrangement as a violation of the conditions on which the castle had been obtained, handed it back to its former owner, Mathew O’Brien, which the State Papers describe as losing it “by treachery.”

This was in 1536, and the same year Lord Butler appeared before it to regain it for his relative, Donough O’Brien.

It was garrisoned partly by followers of Desmond and partly by those of Mathew O’Brien.

A messenger was sent to them offering them their lives, but otherwise no quarter. They returned no answer, but imprisoned the bearer.

A breach was soon made with a battering piece, and after several attempts, the castle was carried by storm.

The besiegers lost thirty killed and wounded, while seventeen of the defenders were killed in the attack, and forty-six were afterwards put to death.

A few of the principal O’Briens were conveyed to Limerick, tried for high treason, and executed. Large ransoms were offered for these men but were refused.

The fortress was then committed to Lord Butler, and he transferred it to Donough O’Brien, who, it is stated, “became a scourge to the citizens of Limerick.”

James of Desmond besieged Carrigogunnel in 1538, and the following year great complaints were lodged about the plundering of the neighbouring country by the castle garrison.

Towards the close of the year these charges became so serious that Donough O’Brien was deprived of his possession.

The castle was in the hands of Brien Duff O’Brien, chieftain of Pobblebrien, in 1590, and is described as being very strong and “a most dangerous place if the enemy were seized thereof.”

Donough O’Brien is mentioned as of Carrigogunnel in 1607, yet Brien Duff O’Brien surrendered his possessions and the castle to the Queen and received a patent for the same. He was knighted, and died in 1615.

Daniel O’Brien forfeited the castle and lands for taking part in the rebellion of 1641. Charles II. granted Carrigogunnel and four plowlands to Michael Boyle, Lord Archbishop of Dublin.

In Thomas Dineley’s Journal he states that it belonged to His Royal Highness, and was at the time rented by the Primate and Chancellor of Ireland.

Archdale says that it at one time belonged to the Knights Templars.

In 1691, during the second siege of Limerick, after the battle of Aughrim, it was garrisoned by a Jacobite ward of a hundred and fifty men. Baron Ginle sent a strong party and four guns, under the command of Major-General Scravemore, to summon the castle, which was relinquished without a blow. An historian of the time, commenting upon this, says: “Which seems to have been rather from want of instructions what to do than courage to defend it; for, to give the Irish their due, they can defend stone walls very handsomely.”

The garrison were marched as prisoners of war to Clonmel, and the following month both the Castle of Carrigogunnel and Castle Connell were blown up. Dean Story received £160 to purchase gunpowder for their demolition.

During the Whiteboy disturbances frequent meetings were held amid the ruins.

Mr. and Mrs. Hall relate at length a sad tradition about the daughter of a Palatine who was in love with one of the conspirators, and whose father, having tracked her to the ruins, was only saved from being put to death by her lover, whom she shortly afterwards married against her parents’ wish.

Upon returning to bid farewell to them before going into exile with her husband, who was obliged to fly for his life, her father detained her. Her husband was unable to come openly to the house, and so she never saw him again, but gradually pined away, and died under the ash-tree growing among the castle ruins, where she used to meet him before their marriage. Since then her ghost is said to frequent the spot after nightfall.