What is recorded here

Monivea Castle stood in flat Galway pasture before 1504, when Mac William De Burgo destroyed it, yet the tower house reappeared inside an 18th or 19th century mansion until demolition around 1940. The surviving rectangular stone block, wide enough for three or four storeys, still marks the place where human ambition kept returning after violence. Its altered doors and stepped parapets suggest repeated reinvention rather than honest age, as if the castle refused to disappear completely.

In flat pastureland, formerly demesne land. In existence before 1504 when it was 'destroyed' by 'Mac William De Burgo' (O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 236-7, 243) (see also GA059-037----). The 'Monivea Castle' marked on OS 6-inch maps was an 18-19th-C mansion, incorporating an original tower house, which was demolished c. 1940 (Bence-Jones 1978, 208). The standing remains comprise a much-altered late medieval rectangular tower (L 12.5m, Wth 9.5m) probably of three/four storeys, now inaccessible. The modern doorway in E wall is probably on the site of the original. Apart from one two-light flat-headed window on upper face of E wall, all the surviving opes appear to be of 18-19th-C date. The stepped parapets are also of similar date, and a number of chimney stacks are visible at roof level. (Nolan 1901b, 122) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). Date of upload: 05 August 2010

Monivea Castle was held by the de Burgo family, also known as Mac William De Burgo, in the early 16th century. It is remembered for its destruction in 1504, reflecting the turbulent political and military conflicts in the region during the Anglo-Norman decline in Ireland.

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