Curraghboy Castle — Curraghboy

Thought to be an O'Kelly castle (Kelly 1907, 8-9), the Dillons, descendents of Sir James Dillon of Proudstown, Co. Westmeath, had possessions at Curraghboy in the late 15th century, and Margaret, daughter of Robert Dillon of Curraghboy, married Cormac Mac Dermot (KM 1499-1528) (Mac Dermot 1996, 125;). The castle of Curraghboy was owned by Thomas Dillon in 1580 (Cronin 1980, 114) and in the 1590s (Moore 1978, 60). A castle is not marked at Carboy on the Strafford map of c. 1636 but one is indicated at Killcarne just to the W (Simington 1949, Athlone (183, 184)). The town of Curraghboy and land in three quarters there amounting to over 250 acres were owned by Richard Dillon in 1641 and the 1660s (ibid. 100). The castle is marked as a small rectangular structure (dims c. 10m x c. 10m) at the NW angle of a rectangular enclosure (dims c. 45m E-W; c. 40m N-S), perhaps a bawn (RO048-075002-), on the 1837 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. Situated on a low NNE-SSW esker ridge with the N-S Cross river just to the W. This is a grass-covered oval mound with some masonry rubble visible (dims of base 29m NNE-SSW; 25m WNW-ESE; dims of top 13.1m NNE-SSW; 7.6m WNW-ESE; H 2.2-3.2m). Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 24 August 2010