Best Castle in County Cavan, Ireland - Map and Reviews

Clogh Oughter Castle is located on an island on Lough Oughter in Killykeen forest park near Cavan. The castle is a circular Anglo-Norman tower on a man-made island. The water level may have reached the foot of the walls originally, but the water level has fallen due to drainage work in more recent times. The tower is about 15m in diameter and juts over18m high. The southern side is badly damaged and the remains of the wall stands only about 1m tall. The original was a circular tower with an entrance at the first floor level. The first floor level has two other doorways which would have led to attached walls or towers which have long since gone. The fireplace and cobbled floor on the ground level were probably added in the 17th century. Facilities Clogh Oughter Castle is accessible only by boat. Clough Oughter was built by the de Lacy family in the early 13the century. The castle was taken over by the O'Reilly's after a siege in the 1220s. The O'Reilly family held Clough Oughter until the end of the 16th century. The castle was an important fortress and prison. In the early 17th century, Clough Oughter became a royal castle during the plantation of Ulster in 1608 to 1609. The castle was granted to Captain Hugh Culme, who took up residence in house on the lakeside opposite the castle. During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the Irish rebels captured the castle, capturing Captain Culme who was imprisoned in the castle. The castle was used to house captured officers after the battle of Benburb in 1646. Oliver Cromwell's forces besieged and captured the castle in 1653, badly damaging the southern side in the process.

Castle Saunderson is a historic country estate and the site of Ireland's national Scout centre, located in County Cavan near the border with County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The property is one of the most significant outdoor activity and scouting destinations on the island of Ireland, managed by Scouting Ireland and opened as a national campsite in 2012. It sits on approximately 200 acres of mixed woodland, parkland, and riverside terrain, making it both historically rich and practically valuable as a venue for youth development, adventure activities, and environmental education. The estate combines the romantic decay of a ruined Anglo-Irish country house with the vibrant energy of a working Scout centre, creating an unusual and compelling atmosphere that draws visitors from across Ireland and beyond. The history of Castle Saunderson stretches back to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when the Saunderson family — a prominent Anglo-Irish Protestant family — constructed a grand castellated Gothic Revival mansion on land they had held for generations. The Saundersons were deeply embedded in the political and social fabric of Ulster and Cavan; the most notable family member was Colonel Edward James Saunderson, a founding figure of Irish Unionism in the late nineteenth century and the first leader of the Irish Unionist Alliance. He was a passionate, theatrical speaker in the Westminster Parliament and a central figure in the political dramas surrounding Irish Home Rule. The family's fortunes declined in the twentieth century, as happened with so many Anglo-Irish estates, and the house itself eventually fell into ruin. The roofless shell of the mansion that stands today is an evocative reminder of that era of landed gentry, ivy creeping across its castellated towers and empty windows framing the sky. The ruined castle itself is a striking Gothic Revival structure with towers and battlements that give it the silhouette of a romantic fairy-tale fortress. In person, walking around the ruins conveys a powerful sense of faded grandeur — thick stone walls still standing firm, ornate window surrounds carved in limestone, and the sense of a once-grand interior now open to the elements. The surrounding grounds include mature woodland with some very old specimen trees, open meadows used for camping and activities, and the River Finn winding along the edge of the property. The sounds of the estate shift depending on the season: birdsong and rustling leaves in spring and summer, the rush of the river after rain, and in busier periods the laughter and activity of Scout groups going about their programmes. The landscape around Castle Saunderson sits right on the Irish border, straddling the cultural and historical boundary between Cavan and Fermanagh. The nearby landscape is characterised by the classic Irish drumlin belt — rounded, glacier-shaped hills interspersed with small loughs, wetlands, and hedgerow-lined fields. The Upper Erne waterway system is close by, and the broader region is associated with the Cavan Lakelands, a popular destination for angling and water-based tourism. The town of Belturbet is only a few kilometres to the southeast, while Cavan town lies further south. Across the border, Enniskillen and the celebrated landscapes of Fermanagh are within easy reach, making Castle Saunderson a useful base for exploring both jurisdictions. For visitors and Scout groups wishing to use the centre, the site is accessed via rural roads off the main N3/N54 route network in County Cavan. The centre is primarily oriented toward organised Scout groups who book the extensive facilities in advance, which include camping fields, an indoor accommodation building, a dining hall, and a wide range of adventure activity infrastructure such as climbing walls, zip lines, kayaking, and orienteering courses. Day visitors who are simply curious about the ruins and the landscape can sometimes access the grounds, though it is advisable to contact Scouting Ireland in advance given that the site's operations are centred on group bookings. The best times to visit are late spring through early autumn when the grounds are at their most accessible and the activities are in full swing. One of the more unusual aspects of Castle Saunderson is the way it holds together two seemingly contradictory histories on the same ground — the story of the Anglo-Irish unionist establishment in the form of the Saunderson family, and the thoroughly all-Ireland, inclusive ethos of modern Scouting Ireland. The choice of this border location was itself symbolically meaningful: Scouting Ireland was formed through a merger of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and the Scout Association of Ireland, and the national centre straddling the historic border with Northern Ireland carries an implicit message about reconciliation and shared identity. The ruined mansion, rather than being demolished or hidden, is embraced as part of the site's character, and plans have at various times been discussed for its partial restoration or heritage interpretation. It remains one of the more quietly powerful places in Ireland for thinking about history, landscape, and what it means to build something new on complicated ground.

Cloughoughter Castle is one of Ireland's most dramatically situated medieval tower houses, rising from a small island in Lough Oughter in County Cavan. The castle's setting is extraordinary — a circular stone tower perched on a tiny, almost entirely artificial-looking islet in a sprawling, island-dotted lake system — and it is this combination of architectural solidity and watery isolation that makes it one of the most photographed and memorable ruins in Ulster. The structure is a cylindrical keep, built in a distinctly unusual round form that was relatively rare in Irish medieval architecture, lending it a brooding, almost romantic silhouette when seen from the lakeside or approached by boat. It is a National Monument in State care, recognized as one of the finest examples of its type in Ireland. The history of Cloughoughter Castle stretches back to the early thirteenth century, when it was likely constructed by the Anglo-Norman de Lacys as a means of controlling movement across Lough Oughter. However, it quickly passed into the hands of the O'Reilly clan, the dominant Gaelic lords of County Cavan, who held it for centuries and used both the lake and the castle as a formidable defensive stronghold. The O'Reillys adapted and extended the structure over time, and the lake itself — a complex, reedy waterscape formed by the upper reaches of the River Erne — served as a natural moat of enormous proportions, making the castle virtually impregnable to conventional assault. The castle's most historically significant moment came in the 1640s during the Irish Confederate Wars, when it served as a prison for the Protestant Bishop of Kilmore, William Bedell, who was held captive here. Bedell, a remarkable scholar who had translated the Old Testament into Irish, died in captivity in 1642, and his death drew condemnation even from many on the Confederate side. The castle was also the last place in Ulster where Confederate Irish forces held out against Cromwellian forces, finally surrendering and being slighted — deliberately damaged to prevent further military use — in 1653. Physically, the castle is a compelling ruin. The round tower stands to a considerable height despite centuries of neglect, with its limestone walls scarred by weather and time, thick clumps of ivy occasionally gripping the stonework and birds nesting in the upper courses. The interior is roofless and exposed to the sky, giving visitors who manage to reach it the sense of standing inside a broken chimney with the clouds drifting overhead. At its base the walls are enormously thick, tapering slightly toward the upper storeys, and the arched doorways and window embrasures give a sense of the sophisticated craftsmanship that once made this a residence as much as a fortress. The surrounding water laps quietly at the base of the island, and on calm days the castle's reflection shimmers in the dark, peaty waters of the lough. Birdsong from the surrounding wetlands and woodland is almost constant — herons, ducks, and various waterfowl inhabit this landscape in great numbers. The landscape around Cloughoughter is part of a vast and ecologically rich drumlin and lake country that defines much of County Cavan. Lough Oughter itself is not a single defined body of water but rather a labyrinthine network of interconnected loughs, channels, and islands formed by countless drumlins — the smooth, elongated glacial hills that characterize this part of Ireland — partially submerged by the River Erne system. The Killykeen Forest Park lies immediately adjacent to this area and is one of the most beautiful forest parks in Ireland, offering walks through mixed woodland along the shoreline, with the castle visible from several vantage points. The surrounding countryside is quintessential Cavan: quiet, green, somewhat melancholy in mist, richly wooded in places, and dotted with the kind of small farms and winding boreens that feel unchanged for generations. Visiting Cloughoughter Castle requires a little effort, which is part of its appeal. Because it sits on an island, it is not accessible on foot, and visitors typically reach it by rowing boat from the shore near the Killykeen Forest Park. The forest park has car parking and is managed by Coillte, the Irish forestry service, and the walk through the park to the lakeshore from which the castle is most visible and accessible is a rewarding one in itself. Boat hire has historically been available at or near Killykeen, though visitors should check current availability before making the trip. The castle can also be admired from the shore and from various points within the forest park without crossing the water, and on clear days the view across the lough to the tower is deeply satisfying. The best time to visit is late spring through early autumn, when the forest is in full leaf and the light on the water at morning or evening is particularly beautiful. Winter visits have their own austere charm, with mist often settling on the lake and the bare trees offering clearer views of the ruined tower. A detail that adds an unusual layer to the castle's story is the fate of Bishop Bedell, whose Irish-language Old Testament — completed despite enormous difficulties in getting it printed — eventually survived and was published posthumously, remaining one of the most significant works in the history of the Irish language. The man who helped rescue the manuscript from the chaos of the 1641 Rebellion was himself a remarkable figure, and the connection between this remote Cavan lakecastle and a cornerstone of Irish literary and religious heritage gives Cloughoughter a significance that extends far beyond its architectural interest. There is also a quiet local legend that the O'Reillys used the castle not merely as a fortress but as a treasure vault, with the surrounding lake protecting whatever valuables the clan needed to keep secure during periods of conflict — a story that has never been confirmed but has never entirely disappeared either.