The next lecture in the Galway Archaeological and Historical series, will be held next Monday, March 10, at 8pm in the City’s Harbour Hotel.

It will be given by Dr Rory Sherlock and the subject is Isert Kelly Castle, near Kilchreest in South Galway.

The tower house there was built by the MacHubert Burkes in the early 1400s, replacing an earlier castle at Castleboy as their principal seat. It was extensively refurbished in the early 1600s, but fell into disuse later in that century.

Dr Rory Sherlock is an archaeologist who specialises in medieval and post-medieval Irish buildings and landscapes. He is the founder of the Galway Archaeological Field School, which undertook a research excavation at Isert Kelly.

Dr Sherlock will explore current thinking on Irish tower houses and outline how field-based research can increase people’s understanding of the role of the tower house as the dominant building at the centre of a larger castle complex.

The excavations at Isert Kelly, undertaken within the bawn or courtyard, have the potential to change people’s understanding of how tower houses functioned as centres of economic and social life in late medieval Ireland, according to Dr Sherlock.

Monday’s lecture is free, and all are welcome.

The Society is advising people to arrive early, as several recent lectures have attracted more people than could be admitted.

Pictured: Excavations at Isert Kelly.