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In 1620 Nathaniel Fox was granted lands under the commission for the Plantation of Longford, including the ‘castle, town and lands of Rathreagh and Corfobrelaghes’ (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 467). A castle is indicated in ‘Rathreogh’ on an early 17th-century map of Ardagh barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.ii.25). In 1837 O'Donovan recorded that ‘The castle of Rath-Riabhach stood near the present house of Foxhall, and the name is retained in the parish of Rathreagh’ and that ‘there was no trace of the memory of the ancient castle there in the memory of Edmond Burke, who knew the great-grandfather of the present Mr. Fox’ (OSL, 46, 50). According to Lewis (1837 vol. 2, 507), ‘the site of the old castle of Rathrea is Foxhall, the residence of R.M. Fox, Esq.’. Its precise location has not been identified. Fox Hall house has been levelled and no visible surface trace of the castle survives around it or among the 18th and 19th-century outhouses and demesne walls.
Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan
Date of upload: 4 November 2012
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The map shows the centre of the officially named townland area, not the monument. The government record does not identify the exact monument point.