Hidden in Portmagee and standing watch over Valentia Harbour is the hybrid site of Reencaheragh Castle and fort.
Reencaheragh was held by a minor O’Sullivan sept called Clan Crehan or Meic Crimthainn (MacCrehan or MacCrohan in English). Amongst other possessions, they held the fishing rights of Beal Inse (from which the name Valentia comes, but which really means the eastern entrance to Valentia harbour). Their lands included Reencaheragh, what is now Portmagee, Letter (where they had another castle which no longer exists), and Reenard.
Due to its access to the sea, Reencaheragh castle was probably built to police the MacCrohan fishing rights – as at the end of the sixteenth century large numbers of Spanish and French boats were fishing herring off the Southwest coast of Ireland.
Following the defeat of Hugh O'Neill in the Nine Years War, the Gaelic world was transformed. Much land was confiscated. The large Munster lordships of MacCarthy Mór and O’Sullivan Mór were gradually broken up. Some of the MacCrohan O’Sullivans went to Spain. Large amounts of land were mortgaged or sold to newcomers, while Trinity College obtained much confiscated land. Then came the 1641 uprising, and the Confederate and Cromwellian wars of the 1640s and early 1650s. In this maelstrom, Reencaheragh was abandoned and the MacCrohan O’Sullivans disappeared. The gatehouse still stands, ignored by the tourists and forgotten in the popular histories. However, it still has much to tell us. In fact, this ruined structure can shine an interesting light into a forgotten past.
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