McMahon house & castle in Moyarta parish
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 11:04 pm
I have been researching the McMahon family who were large landowners in Moyarta Barony in the 17th & 18th centuries.They seem to have been one of the senior branches of this the McMahon clan. Mortagh McMahon was at Cloneenagh/Clonina & Ballynagun in Kilmacduane parish in the mid to late 1600s & the family were there until the late 1700s or early 1800s when the O'Kelly family succeeded them there. A branch of this McMahon family was established at Clonmore Lodge in Kilmurry Ibrickane in the late 1700s, the last of this branch died out in the late 1800s. Another branch was established in the Carrigaholt area in the early 1700s. I have come across a deed dated 1749 in which Mortough McMahon of Clonena (sic) demised to his kinsman Dennis McMahon of Killbehagh (Kilbaha) the lands of Clouncunneen & Rinemacdirrig & Rahona "excepting all that part of the edifice that Thomas McMahon late of Clonena ... erected adjoining the said castle on said premises". Thomas McMahon had acquired these lands totalling 1170 (Irish Plantation) acres from Edward Burton in 1734. Does anyone know what castle is referred to here. Thomas McMahon (Mortough's father) obviously built a house immediately adjoining an old castle, probably soon after 1734. Can anyone identify this house or its location?. Mortagh died at Clonmore Lodge in 1789 having lost the large landholdings which the family had held for upwards of 150 years or more