There must be nothing worse than building a castle on an island in order to prevent sneak attacks and then having the water around you freeze over, all the way to the shore, so that any enemy can simply stroll over at leisure and simply slaughter the lot of you.
The castle in the picture above is Hen’s Castle, located at a vantage point at the head of the Maam Valley near the Hill of Doon in Lough Corrib. According to Tim Robinson’s ‘Map of Connemara’, it was built around 1235 by Felim O’Connor, who was then King of Connacht. Ironically, Felim consolidated his power by destroying many other castles in the west built by his relatives during a power struggle, including castles built on islands in both Lough Mask and Lough Corrib. During the latest cold spell, the smaller inlets of the Corrib froze, though I doubt if you could walk on it [and live].
Here is a view of the castle taken 2 years ago from the other side of the lake.
thats just amazing, I’ve never seen anything like that before!
Cool. Where did you take that image from?
This is a fantastic viewpoint and thanks for sharing it. I have only ever walked along the little hills on the lakes northern shore. Lovely to see the island from the ridge above.