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The Castle stands on eight acres of land which is now in the private ownership of the O'Neill Family. The ruin is distinguished by its large square bawn with residential towers at each of the four corners and gatehouse in the western wall. Moygara Castle Research and Conservation Group has been working for more than a decade now to highlight this significant castle.


Pic: The Sligo Weekender

The castle is linked with the O'Gara clan, rulers of the area during much of the medieval period, although their is debate as to whether the main parts of the castle, walls, towers and gatehouse were built by the O'Garas or their English enemies in the 16th/17th centuries. The castle was besieged and partially destroyed by Cromwell in the mid 17th century.


Áine at Moygara Castle

O'Donnell attacked it in 1538. Moygara Castle was burned in 1581 by Scottish mercenaries employed by the governor of Connacht. Many O'Garas were killed by them.
It could be that the low rectangular structure on the north wall was a tower house and that the present structure was built following the 1581 attack. It is apparent judging from the number of gun loops, the style of windows and the slight angle of the towers that the building dates to the late 16th or the early 17th Century. The nearby area of Kilteasheen is strategically located on the Boyle River and the shores of Lough Key in County Roscommon. It was a Medieval Gaelic ecclesiastical and military centre in the 12th-14th centuries, associated with the O'Conor kings of Connacht and the Bishop of Elphin.



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