Kilclooney Bardic School

Kilcloony Castle is a ruined tower house located approximately eight kilometres north of Tuam, Co Galway. It is situated on a ridge surrounded by pasture, and drained by a stream that flows into the River Clare and onto Lough Corrib. It shares its name with its townland, in Irish is given as Cill Chluaine or Church of the Meadow.

Kilcloony tower house is recorded as being occupied by Donell Ó hUigín in 1574 and the connection of the building with the Uí hUiginn clan is of particular significance. A poem by Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn, dated 1550-91, refers to seventeen poets from Ulster having studied their art at Kilcloony.

Bardic schools were places where students, young kinsmen of the ollamh or head poet of the learned family, would travel to acquire knowledge and practice their art. While there once would have been many such schools around the country in the late-Medieval period, few sites have been identified other than from documentary sources.