placenamesRinvyle
Rinn Mhaoile
Renvyle House’s estate history, destruction and literary commemorations preserve a well-documented strand of the peninsula’s past.
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
- Rinn Mhaoile · Irish · main form · validated name
- Rinvyle · English · main form
- Renvyle · English · main form
Place & story
The Blakes and the first hotel
Renvyle House’s own history records the Blake family taking up residence in 1822. Henry Blake enlarged an earlier thatched building, adding an upper floor and replacing thatch with slate. Caroline Johanna Blake opened the house as a hotel in 1883. The building therefore accommodated paying visitors decades before its better-known association with the surgeon and writer Oliver St John Gogarty. [2]
Gogarty’s house and its rebuilding
Gogarty purchased Renvyle House in 1917 and entertained literary and artistic visitors, including painter Augustus John and poet W. B. Yeats. The house was burned during the Civil War in 1923, with the loss of Gogarty’s library. He subsequently rebuilt it as a hotel in an Arts and Crafts idiom, beginning a further stage in the life of the property. [2]
A literary centenary in 1983
RTÉ’s report of the hotel’s 1983 centenary records a literary weekend devoted to Gogarty. Colm Ó hEocha, president of University College Galway, unveiled a commemorative plaque. An exhibition displayed first editions, manuscripts, letters and memorabilia, while Veronica Jane O’Mara’s play The Best of Times Is Now presented Gogarty’s life. The event consciously renewed Renvyle’s identity as a place of literary association. [3]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Galway
- Barony
- Ballynahinch
- Civil parish
- Ballynakill
- Coordinates
- 53.59995, -10.00929 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 131026 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Rinvyle. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- A Low, Long, Sea Grey House: History · Renvyle House Hotel
- Celebrating Gogarty’s Renvyle House1983, broadcast5September1983 · Jim Fahy, RTÉ News; RTÉ Archives description
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2012-07-06. How this page was prepared.