placenamesRedcastle
Carraig Mhic Uidhilín
Redcastle’s shore-side landscape includes a long-used stone bridge and an estate house whose occupants changed through the nineteenth century. A family amusement park adds a more recent strand to its history.
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
- Carraig Mhic Uidhilín · Irish · main form · validated name
- Redcastle · English · main form
Place & story
A house recorded through changing owners
The University of Galway’s Landed Estates database traces Red Castle through valuation and map evidence. Samuel Lewis identified it as Atkinson Wray’s residence in 1837. By the 1850s, James S. Doherty held it outright, with the property valued at £40. E. Cochrane owned the complex by 1906, when buildings in Carrickmaquigley and Tullynavinn were valued together at £48. The estate site is now occupied by the Redcastle Hotel. These records document successive owners without relying on the conflicting early histories sometimes told about the property. [2]
Redcastle Bridge
Redcastle Bridge carries the road over a river north of the estate. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage dates the two-arched stone structure to around 1770 and notes its appearance on the first-edition Ordnance Survey map of about 1837. Its round-headed arches have carefully squared stone voussoirs, while the parapets combine coursed outer faces with rubble on the inside and upright coping stones. The survival of these details preserves evidence of eighteenth-century craftsmanship in a structure that remains part of the local road network. [3]
Leisureland and summer memories
Leisureland Redcastle’s own history dates the amusement park’s beginnings to 1980 under the Armstrong family, followed by Doherty family ownership from 1986. Its large yellow slide became a memorable feature for visiting children. The park’s account describes former visitors returning with their own children and grandchildren, giving a local leisure business a place in several generations of family memories. Located at Tullynavinn on the Derry–Moville road, it represents another use of Redcastle’s coastal setting beyond the older estate economy. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Donegal
- Barony
- Inishowen East
- Civil parish
- Moville Upper
- Within
- Redcastle
- Within
- Carrickmaquigley
- Coordinates
- 55.15910, -7.13703 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 130433 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Redcastle. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Red Castle, Inishowen: property 5125 · University of Galway, Landed Estates database
- Redcastle Bridge, Carrickmaquigley: record 40903111 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- About our amusement park · Leisureland Redcastle
- Redcastle Bar, County Donegal illustration: based on a Redcastle Bar by Richard Webb. AI-assisted watercolour and ink adaptation; cream paper margins added, incidental clutter omitted and fine details simplified. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2025-01-10. How this page was prepared.