placenamesMantua
An Móinteach
The ruined estate house and a nineteenth-century account of Mantua's turlough preserve the locality's connections with landownership and seasonal grazing.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- An Móinteach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Mantua · English · main form
Place & story
The house at Brackloon
The University of Galway's Landed Estates database places Mantua House in Brackloon townland, in Shankill parish. Built in the middle of the eighteenth century, it was associated with the Grace family and was occupied by Richard Underwood in 1778. The first-edition Ordnance Survey map showed formal garden features, including a fishpond and terrace. The database records Edward F. Bowen as owner in 1906 and identifies the house as a ruin. [2]
The Grace estate
Mantua entered Grace ownership through the marriage of Oliver Grace of the Gracefield family and Mary Dowell, an heiress of Mantua. A later owner, Oliver Dowell John Grace, held land in both Shankill and neighbouring Kilcolagh parish at the time of Griffith's Valuation. His son John Dowell Fitzgerald Grace owned 3,276 acres in County Roscommon in the 1870s, alongside property in other counties. The estate subsequently passed by marriage to the Bowen family. [3]
The winter waters
Samuel Lewis's 1837 account of Shankill describes Mantua's turlough as covering about five hundred acres in winter, with the land providing grazing when the water receded in summer. He attributed its supply to an underground channel. Lewis also described the planted demesne surrounding Oliver Dowell John Grace's residence. His observations present a landscape in which ornamental grounds, estate farming and a large seasonal expanse of water existed beside one another; the acreage is his historical estimate. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Mantua. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Mantua, property1380 · University of Galway, Landed Estates
- Grace, estate1494 · University of Galway, Landed Estates
- A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837): Shankill, Roscommon · Samuel Lewis
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.