Moygara Castle, County Sligo and the O’Garas of Coolavin : A History

Moygara Castle, with its four towers, gatehouse, and high curtain walls, is one of the most impressive masonry-built monuments in north Connacht. Constructed in the late fourteenth/early fifteenth century by the O'Garas, the castle functioned as a centre of their lordship of Coolavin. This study of Moygara Castle marshals various fields of expertise— history, archaeology, architecture, geography, genealogy, geophysical survey and DNA analysis— to provide much-needed information about life in later-medieval Gaelic Ireland. Cover 1 Dedication 3 Copyright page 5 Contents 6 Foreword 8 Illustrations 9 Abbreviations 12 Contributors 13 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction: Moygara Castle and the O’Garas of Coolavin 16 Moygara Castle: a history 27 Moygara Castle, Co. Sligo: a siting and map regression study 67 An architectural description of Moygara Castle 79 Moygara Castle: the wider context 94 The O’Gara dynasty through time and place 109 Moygara Castle: the topographical and geophysical surveys 134 Excavations at Moygara Castle, 2013–17: preliminary results 156 Dating the mortars of Moygara Castle 172 Moygara Castle through time 182 Appendix One 210 Appendix Two 262 Bibliography 264 Index 282 Moygara Castle, with its four towers, gatehouse and high curtain walls, is one of the most impressive masonry-built monuments in north Connacht. Constructed in the late fourteenth/early fifteenth century by the O?Garas, the castle functioned as a centre of their lordship of Coolavin.0This study of Moygara Castle marshals various fields of expertise ? history, archaeology, architecture, geography, genealogy, geophysical survey and DNA analysis ? to provide much-needed information about life in later-medieval Gaelic Ireland