Castle Kirk, also known as Hen’s Castle, is situated on a very small island between Doon and Maam in an area of Lough Corrib that is free of Islands. This Norman keep, placed in the direction of the cardinal compass points, was built early in the 12th century, by the sons of Roderick O’Connor, last High King of Ireland, aided by their then ally, William Fitz-Adelm, the first de Burgo. This castle which occupies almost the entire island had a troubled history, being stormed and besieged many times, not the least of which was the celebrated occasion when Grainne Mhaol (Grace O'Malley) personally defended it. It continued to be occupied as a castle until it finally succumbed to the Cromwellian soldiers in 1654.
The island is approximately half a mile from the shores, although a three mile boat Journey from the pier next to Keane’s in Maam. The CASHOTA designator or Castle Kirk is EI-005-C, the WAI square is L95 Co. Galway and the locator is IO-53-FL.
Galway VHF Group Members Gerry, EI8DRB, Steve EI5DD, and Enda, EI3IS decided that the long overdue activation of Castle Kirk should take place over the long weekend of 31st of July to the 1st of August.
The plan was to meet at the pier in Maam and load equipment into Enda’s lake boat at 8 am and then journey down the Bealnabrak river and into Lough Corrib; a journey of approximately 3 miles. It is unwise to make this journey if there is a strong breeze as the lake can get pretty rough. On arrival the weather was terrible with a strong breeze and stormy conditions. After a 2 hour wait the poor conditions subsided and it was decided to make a move. If things did take a turn for the worse we could always abort whilst on the river as it was fairly well sheltered. The journey down river was approximately 20 minutes and the last quarter of a mile was spent negotiating a safe passage to the small pier in shallow water.
The requisite equipment for running the stations was carried up to the castle. Inside the ruins, the castle had been p
artially renovated with an oak beam floor supported on girders. From this location there was an excellent view of the lake and surrounding landscape. A large tent was pitched in this area and equipment stowed in case there were more showers. Power was supplied by a Honda generator.
The 20 metre station was assembled and comprised of a Yaesu FT847 feeding a vertical dipole. At the time 20 metres was yielding contacts into Europe and occasionally into the States. Our initial attempts to erect a top band dipole were thwarted by the fact that the island was not large enough to accommodate it. An 80 metre doublet was hoisted instead giving plenty of room to orientate it and bring it to a good height. The station used on the LF bands was a Yaesu FT 897D with a MFJ tuner. Conditions on 80 and 40 metres were in a poor state. Quick survey showed that the longest antenna possible would be an 80 metre doublet along the length of the island. A 40 metre dipole would just fit the width of the island. Perhaps a multi-band vertical antenna would be another option for a future visit.
The weather continued to be variable during the day with occasional showers as darkness fell the weather finally cleared. At 8 pm 80 metres opened and there was a fair interest shown in our activation of Castle Kirk. Operation on 80 metres tends to be more relaxed with more detail and information about the Castle given in each QSO. Enda, EI3IX and Steve EI5DD operated this station. During one QSO there was a little difficulty getting the information and the castle name across to an operator in the UK. After spelling the castle name “KILO, INDIA, RADIO, KILO” a few times without success, we added the bit on the end “as in Captain James T”. Amazingly the penny dropped and this became the catch phrase for the rest of the operation. 20 metres was working well and continued into the night and 80 metres worked well until 1 am when band conditions began to change.
To facilitate an early start, we decided to bunk down for the night. It was uncomfortable sleeping on hard wood floor. The midges were at their worst and seemed to have an affinity for both Enda and Gerry. They actually never bothered Steve - presumably word got around their community that he didn’t taste very nice!
A 7am am start had 20 metres up and running with Gerry, EI8DRB, on the mike. Conditions were very strange with stations from the UK coming in strong and then suddenly favouring the States with cycles back and forwards from there onwards. 80 metres was dead to the world with a few weak and watery signals. 40 metres was not fantastic but there was activity between the UK and Europe and until 10:30 am.
20 metres continued to yield plenty of activity and once we were on the cluster, there was a continuous queue of stations 
called in. Plenty of Russians were competing with the shorter skip UK stations for a call. There were quite a number of special event stations taking full advantage of the contest free weekend. Tuning to the IRTS news frequency did not reveal the normal number of stations tuning up just prior to the news transmission. When the news was transmitted by Sean, EI7CD, the signal was weak, watery and almost non-existent. There were very few stations heard calling in afterwards. This was our only opportunity to work the Irish stations but conditions on 80 metres were not going to make this possible. We tried several calls but there was no reply.
We decided to eat at this time and the decision was taken to close down as the conditions were now worsening. It would appear that there had been a major M Class flare and conditions were failing fast. Weather conditions were changing and there was a light breeze which was evident by the choppy conditions on the water.
We seemed to dismantle the equipment much faster than getting it on air. The gear was loaded onto the boat in no time at all and then we made our way back towards Maam. At this stage the conditions were changing for the worse with rough conditions on the water. The trip up river was uneventful and calm. Our equipment was off-loaded to the quayside and then divided up into the relevant vehicles.
A well earned debriefing session in Keanes Bar was in order and this was conducted over a cool pint and toasted “special”. Ham Radio Deluxe performed well. There was a problem with the LF station in the form of noise from the computer used for logging. Removing the power supply from the computer seemed to cure the problem. The use of the Noise Phaser seemed to remove most of the problem. Perhaps a different Laptop would solve the problem. Steps to cure the cross talk between stations would have to be taken for future operation where there is close proximity. It would appear that there are commercial units on the market and possibly homebrew filters may suffice. Despite the poor conditions and crosstalk, over 400 contacts were made. Gerry produced some excellent cuisine on this occasion from basic resources. Hopefully this trip will be made on a regular basis. A special card was designed for this occasion.
