Bellanagare Castle — Bellanagare

Described as Bellanagare Castle on the 1837 ed. of the OS 6-inch map, and situated on a slight S-facing slope. Denis O'Conor received a partial return of O'Conor Don lands in 1720 and built a house here in 1727 which became the home of his son Charles O'Conor, the antiquarian during the 1750s (Martin 1992; O'Conor and Williams 2015). Bellanagare is the location of Bealach Coille recorded in 1489 (AFM vol. 4, P. 1173; O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 71), which may have been a castle. The 18th century house was abandoned by the early 1830s (Weld 1832, 484-6) but it incorporates some medieval dressed stone (RO015-048003-), including a ventilator, which is now missing and is possibly from an older structure here or at the castle site (RO015-050----) c. 380m to the S. The two storey house (int. dims 13m E-W; 8.5m N-S) of five bays has a pediment on the S-facing front with the entrance at the first floor. There is an inscription 'DOC 1727' over the doorway, and there are two, two storey returns (int. dims 2.7m N-S; 2.45m E-W) at either end of the N wall. The house is at the NW angle of a walled courtyard (dims 34m N-S; 34m E-W) or bawn (RO015-048002-) defined by masonry walls (T 0.7m; max. H 3m), which does not appear to be an ancient structure. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 24 August 2010 O’Conor, K. and J. Williams 2015 Ballinagare Castle, Co. Roscommon. In Gibbons, L. and K. O’Conor 2015 Charles O’Conor of Ballinagare, 1710-1791: Life and Works. Four Courts Press, Dublin