Skeavally Houses (in ruins) — Skeavally

Located on a SE-facing slope and it consists of a complex of two stone houses and at least two other structures, dating from the 17th century. Colla Mac Donogh McKeogh (d. 1620) of Ardmullan held land at Skeavally (Moore 1978, 63) but he is thought to have purchased Skeavally from the McKeoghs of Cloonbigney (RO050-019001-) for his son Donagh, who may have built the house (RO048-119001-). Donagh Mac Colla of Skevally owned only 162 acres in Taghmaconnell parish in 1641, which was owned by Hugh Keogh in the 1660s, but Skeavally is not listed and no structures there are marked on the Strafford map of c. 1636 (Simington 1949, Athlone (138)). Others with the name Keogh owned over 1800 acres in the parish in 1641, but only Hugh Keogh is listed among the landowners in the 1660s (idem. 102-06). Donagh's son Teige, a Dominican friar, was chaplain to the Earl of Clanrickard from 1648 and became the Catholic bishop of Clonfert (1678-1687). Teige lived at this house as bishop and is said to have built a school or seminary at Skeavally (Egan 1960, 99-100; Moore 2000, 94-5), which may be the house (RO048-119005-). A house (RO048-119001-) of at least two storeys and attic (ext. dims 20m NNE-SSW; 7.5m WNW-ESE; max. surviving H 5.5m) has four gun-loops in a ground floor room (int. dims 5.9m WNW-ESE; 5.6m NNE-SSW) at the N end created by an inserted wall, but only one window is visible in the other room on the ground floor and only one fireplace at the centre of the W wall is evident. A second house (RO048-119005-) is 2m to the N and off-set slightly to the E. This is a rectangular structure (int. dims 23.55m NNE-SSW; 5.9m WNW-ESE; max. surviving H 3.5m) of one storey and attic and is divided into three rooms with corner fireplaces in the two N rooms. There are no other features at the ground floor apart from three cupboards in the N gable, a destroyed window at the S end of the W wall, and a possible blocked doorway in the S gable. There is a return (int. dims 4.7m E-W; 4.45m N-S) at the N end of the E wall. A smaller building (RO048-119007-) (int. dims 10.5m x 4m) survives c. 20m to the W as foundations, and a headstone (RO048-119009-) with an illegible inscription but probably 18th century in date is c. 20m the E. There was a sweat house or kiln (RO048-119004-) visible as a stone-lined pit (diam. 1.6m) with an opening at S set into the slope W of the houses. There was an earthwork which may have been a gun-platform (RO048-119008-) c. 50m W of house (RO048-119001-). This was a rectangular platform (dims 19m NE-SW; 14m NW-SE; H c. 2m) with stone facing on all sides except the NW where there is a fosse. Its NW and SE edges were overlain by stone walls. The last two have been removed since 1995. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 24 August 2010