Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

On the E bank of a NE-SW section of the River Suck, at a point where it turns W. An O'Kelly castle, probably a tower house, was extant here in the late 15th century (O'Donovan 1843, 109-11) at what must have been a fording point (RO041-048006-) as the name suggests. What is described as a bawn (RO041-084002-) at Athliag Maenagan in Hy Many was destroyed by Ulick Mac William Burke in 1487 (AFM vol. 4, 1153). In 1499 the castle, of which nothing remains, was captured by Garrett Mór Fitzgeald, who was the Justiciar and Earl of Kildare, and recaptured by William Burke, who returned it to the sons of William Kelly (ibid., 1251-3). By the 1570s Sir Thomas le Strange was leasing it from the Queen, which a ward of his still held in 1596, although the castle was destroyed by then (Cronin 1980, 110,117). In 1640 Athleague was owned by the earl of Clanrickard (Simington 1949, 103), and one of the earls probably built the fortified house (RO041-048005-) on the site before then.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1949 Books of survey and distribution. County of Roscommon. Dublin. Stationery Office.

O'Donovan, J. (ed. and trans.) 1843 The tribes and customs of Hy-Many, commonly called O'Kelly's country, now first published from the Book of Lecan, a manuscript in the library of the Royal Irish Academy. Dublin.

Cronin, T. 1980 The Elizabethan colony in Co. Roscommon. In Murtagh, H. Irish midland studies: essays in commemoration of N.W. English, 107-20. Old Athlone Society.

AFM - Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. and trans. John O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851; reprint New York, 1966)