Overview
The guns here never fired a shot. Kilkerrin Battery was one of six forts built between 1811 and 1814 to throw a corridor of cross-fire across the Shannon Estuary, and by the time the masonry was finished Napoleon had lost at Waterloo and the threat was gone. What survives is a detached six-bay, single-storey limestone blockhouse on the Kilkerrin Peninsula outside Labasheeda in West Clare – the best-preserved of the chain, and free to walk around at any hour.
From the ramparts the estuary opens out across Clonderlaw Bay to County Kerry. The fort is a 10-minute walk or a short cycle from the village.
History
The British government commissioned the Shannon battery forts after a French landing scare in 1803, and bought the Kilkerrin site in March 1811. The finished fort held around 20 soldiers and was armed with 24-pounder cannons and 5½-inch howitzers on traversing platforms. It stayed garrisoned through much of the 19th century even after the war ended. Troops grew vegetables in the surrounding fields and, local tradition has it, signalled meeting invitations by flag-semaphore across the water to the sister fort at Tarbert.
After the garrison left, the building decayed. In 1973 the nine-acre plot was sold to a local farmer. A community restoration in the 1980s stabilised the walls, cleared the moat and fitted a steel cable as a lightning conductor after a training exercise had cracked a wall. The wider Shannon defence network also took in forts at Tarbert and Carrigaholt.
What to see
- The dry moat and drawbridge – the moat runs about 14ft wide, wider at the rear, and the iron pulleys that once raised the drawbridge are still in place.
- The blockhouse – 54ft by 33ft, with walls 6–7ft thick that slope inward toward the parapet in Martello style. Musket-loops and gun-loops are visible on both levels.
- Gun platforms – the cannons are long gone, but the traversing rails give a clear read of where the guns swung and what they covered.
- The bat roost – a 2019 survey found a colony of the nationally protected lesser horseshoe bat inside the blockhouse, monitored with the Vincent Wildlife Trust and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Keep away from the crevices where they hang.
If you only do one thing, walk the moat and then climb to the parapet for the estuary view. It is the clearest single lesson in why the British put a fort here.
Practical information
- Getting there: from Ennis, take the N68 west to Labasheeda, then follow local signs to the peninsula. Park at the Labasheeda car park (R462) and walk the last 10 minutes. Public transport is sparse, so a car or bike is the realistic option.
- Opening hours: year-round, 24 hours. The interior is not a museum; the exterior and the ground around it are free to explore.
- Facilities: none on site. The village has a pub and public toilets nearby.
- Safety: the moat edges get slippery in the wet, so wear proper footwear.
Nearby
- Carrigaholt – a fishing village further west with a 19th-century harbour and the ruins of Carrigaholt Castle.
- Scattery Island – an early medieval monastic site out in the estuary, reached by ferry from Kilrush.
- Clare Abbey – medieval abbey ruins near Ennis, worth a detour if you are already passing.