Castle (Site of) — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Coolnageer castle belonged to Egnaham McDonell O'Kelly in 1617 and 1641, anchoring a wide Roscommon estate until the O'Kellys lost it in the 1650s. The building has vanished from ground level, leaving only a stony mound beside a moated site where water once sharpened the boundary between home and threat. Daniel O'Kelly married Elizabeth Osbalston near 1639, linking the castle to a powerful legal family and suggesting a household confident enough to display its rank. That confidence was broken when the land passed away, but the mound still marks the place where a local name resisted forgetting.

References to O'Kelly of Colnegir date from 1585. Coolnageer castle and about 500 acres was owned by Egnaham McDonell O'Kelly in 1617 (Moore 1978, 59) and in 1641 (Simington 1949, 101). Egnaham's son, Daniel, married Elizabeth Osbalston c. 1639. She was a daughter of Edward Osbalston who had been Chief Justice of Connaught in 1602. Dispossessed in the 1650s, the O'Kellys sought restitution into the 1660s but were apparently denied. The lands were ultimately acquired in the early 18th century by the Lyster family, who built a house at Lysterfield c. 700m to the NNW. The castle is described as a stony mound at the E corner of moated site (RO045-171002-) (Gannon 1972). It is not visible now at ground level. (Gacquin 2009) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 24 August 2010

Coolnageer Castle was held by the O'Kelly family in the early 17th century, with Egnaham McDonell O'Kelly recorded as owner in 1617 and 1641. The site is historically significant as part of the landed estate of a prominent Gaelic family in the period following the Nine Years' War.

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.