There is a tradition, recorded by the Galway historian James Hardiman in 1820 that the walls of Athenry were built out of profits gained from the sale of arms and armour taken from the fallen after the battle of Athenry in 1316, but this is clearly fantasy. The threat occasioned by the battle, however, probably did give rise to a strengthening of the walls, perhaps by the addition of the towers which are not bonded into the wall and thus may be later, secondary additions.
Built of mortared stone, the walls are thin, averaging about 1.1 meters (just under 3 1/2 feet) in thickness. The presence of an 8-metre (26 foot) wide, flat-bottomed, originally water-filled moat outside the walls adds to their height when seen from the outside. They averaged about 4.5 meters (14 3/4 feet) in height originally, but this includes an outer breastwork or parapet on the top which thus created a wall-walk whereby defenders could move around the walls, defending the town from vantage-points other than the wall-towers and town gates.
On the 1583 map the four other gates are named: 'Nicholas Gate' through the west wall, 'Loro Gate' and 'Spitle Gate' through the south wall, and 'Brittin Gate' through the east wall. Loro Gate, nowadays called 'Swan Gate' after a public house which is thought to have stood nearby during the last century or two, opened on to the old road to Galway.
