Qualla: Clarecastle https://qualla.com/clarecastle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/clarecastle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Clarecastle https://qualla.com/clarecastle Clarecastle: Introduction https://qualla.com/clarecastle/ Photo credit The Banner, CC BY-SA 3.0. Most counties take their names from cities. Clare took its name from a village. In 1590, the newly demarcated county of Clare was named after Clare Castle, a Norman fortification standing on a midstream island where the River Fergus narrows to its last navigable bend. The castle's name came either from the Irish Clár - a wooden board, often used for bridges, suggesting the older name Clár adar da choradh, "the bridge between two weirs" - or from the de Clare family of Norman lords who acquired land here in the 13th century. Either way, an entire county now wears the name of a small bridge crossing.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/clarecastle-wp/gc3s-clarecastle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Clarecastle: The Port of Ennis https://qualla.com/clarecastle/ Photo credit The Banner, CC BY-SA 4.0. For most of its commercial history, Clarecastle existed because Ennis - the county town, two kilometres north - could not be reached by sea. The River Fergus, navigable from the Shannon Estuary up to Clarecastle, runs over a series of weirs and shallows above the village that ves...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/clarecastle-wp/gc3s-clarecastle-the-port-of-ennis.mp3 0:06 2 full Clarecastle: Thomas Rhodes Builds the Quay https://qualla.com/clarecastle/ Photo credit The Banner, CC BY-SA 3.0. The main quay structure - 155 metres of stone facing - was completed in 1845 under the supervision of Thomas Rhodes, Principal Engineer to the Shannon Commissioners. Rhodes was the same civil engineer who built much of the Shannon navigation system in the 1830s and 1840s, working...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/clarecastle-wp/gc3s-clarecastle-thomas-rhodes-builds-the-quay.mp3 0:06 3 full Clarecastle: The Slobland Scheme https://qualla.com/clarecastle/ Photo credit DGD-M, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1873, an Act of Parliament empowered the Clare Slobland Reclamation Company to drain approximately 579 hectares of tidal mudflat south of Clarecastle, between Islandavanna and Islandmagrath. The plan was to convert the slob - the soft estuarine intertidal land - into pasture b...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/clarecastle-wp/gc3s-clarecastle-the-slobland-scheme.mp3 0:06 4 full Clarecastle: The Quay Goes Quiet https://qualla.com/clarecastle/ Photo credit The Banner, CC BY-SA 3.0. Commercial shipping at Clarecastle declined through the 20th century as road transport replaced the river. A flood-control barrage built north of the quay - the Clarecastle Barrage - now blocks tidal influence beyond the village, regulating water levels in the Fergus through Enni...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/clarecastle-wp/gc3s-clarecastle-the-quay-goes-quiet.mp3 0:06 5 full Clarecastle: The Magpies and the Pilgrim Path https://qualla.com/clarecastle/ Photo credit Graham Horn, CC BY-SA 2.0. Clarecastle's GAA club, founded in 1884, plays in black and white and goes by the nickname "the Magpies." Hurling is the dominant sport, as it is across much of east Clare. The composer Gerald Barry - whose operas The Importance of Being Earnest, Alice's Adventures Under Ground, ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/3/s/clarecastle-wp/gc3s-clarecastle-the-magpies-and-the-pilgrim-path.mp3 0:06 6 full