Overview
After 1655, captured Catholic priests from all over Ireland were held in this star fort on a small tidal island, waiting to be shipped to the West Indies. That’s the weight Cromwell’s Barracks carries: an austere five-pointed fort guarding the eastern side of the entrance to Inishbofin’s harbour, its stone walls still standing up to three metres in places.
The catch for visitors is the tide. The fort sits on Port Island, cut off from the rest of Inishbofin except for a couple of hours around low water, when a rough natural causeway is exposed. Get the timing wrong and you either can’t cross or, worse, get caught. So the single most useful thing to do here is check the tide before you set out – or take the guided tour, which handles the timing for you. The reward is a genuinely atmospheric ruin and a view back across the whole harbour mouth.
A dark history
Local tradition gives the site a colourful prologue: a Spanish pirate, Don Bosco, said to have been an ally of Grace O’Malley (Granuaile), supposedly kept a castle here opposite her own Dún Gráinne, and between them they strung a chain boom across the harbour mouth to trap ships. Whatever the truth of that, the harbour’s strategic value was real.
The fort itself is Cromwellian. Inishbofin was one of the last places in Ireland to hold out against Cromwell’s forces, falling in 1652; the Cromwellians then built the star-shaped fort around 1656, using local stone with granite quoins. Its purpose turned grim almost at once. After the English Statute of 1655 branded Catholic priests guilty of high treason, the barracks became a holding pen for clergy rounded up across the country, kept here before transportation to the West Indies and other colonies. The last of them were released only after the Stuart Restoration in 1662.
It saw service again in the Jacobite war: Irish forces held the fort until after the Battle of Aughrim in 1691, when they surrendered to the Williamites on reasonable terms. After that it slid into the ruin you see now.
Getting across – and the warning
The causeway is a natural seabed of uneven rock, shells and seaweed, slippery at the best of times and worse after rough weather. Wear sturdy, closed-toe boots with grip; it’s no place for wheelchairs, prams or uncertain footing, and there are no facilities of any kind on the islet, so carry whatever you need.
Take the tide seriously. The water comes back quickly, so never start across once it has turned, and don’t linger on the island as it rises. If you’d rather not gamble on the timing, Inishbofin Experiences runs pre-booked guided tours that cover the fort’s architecture, the imprisoned priests and the island’s maritime history, and manage the tide window for you. The fort is a protected national monument: stay on the path and don’t climb the walls.
The island and what’s nearby
Inishbofin lies about 8km off the Connemara coast, reached by the year-round ferry from Cleggan; the barracks is a walk round to the harbour mouth from the pier. The island rewards a longer stay than the fort alone: the Westquarter, Cloonamore and Middlequarter looped walks give you coastal views, famine roads and chapel ruins, there’s a seal colony out at Stags Rock, and the Inishbofin Heritage Museum fills in the island’s story. Just east of the barracks, the curve of a medieval harbour shows itself at spring tides.
Before anything else, find the low-tide time for the day you’re going – everything here turns on it.