placenamesMonea
Maigh Niadh
Monea’s castle preserves the ambitions of a seventeenth-century settler household; archaeological investigation and a later Gothic church add other layers to the locality’s 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
- Maigh Niadh · Irish · main form · validated name
- Monea · English · main form
Place & story
Malcolm Hamilton’s castle
The Reverend Malcolm Hamilton, later Archbishop of Cashel, began Monea Castle in 1616. By 1619 it was recorded as a substantial stone building. A surrounding defensive enclosure, or bawn, followed in 1623. Its Scottish architectural character remains visible in the rounded entrance towers, whose upper stages carry square caphouses with stepped gables. The surviving shell retains the arrangement of three principal floors. [2]
Looking beyond the walls
In May and June 2014, archaeologists investigated ground around the castle to look for estate tenants’ dwellings and examine parts of its defences. Several apparent structures proved to be loose stones in peat. A southern trench, however, contained rubble and charcoal-rich deposits interpreted as evidence of levelling or landscaping. Finds included window glass, clay-pipe fragments, pottery, iron nails, animal bone and a lead musket ball. [3]
The Church of the Immaculate Conception
The Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception opened in 1911, designed by William Scott. The parish account records local stone and a roof of Carrick-on-Suir slates. During its centenary celebrations, residents recalled their ancestors hauling building stone from nearby quarries with horses and carts. An eight-panel rose window in the western gable gives the church a distinctive feature; refurbishment was completed in 2016. [4]
Geographic information
- Place type
- Population centre
- County
- Fermanagh
- Barony
- Magheraboy
- Civil parish
- Devenish
- Within
- Monea
- Coordinates
- 54.38928, -7.75368 (approximate)
- Logainm ID
- 1413434 ↗
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Monea. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Monea Castle: Plantation castles in Fermanagh · Fermanagh County Museum / Enniskillen Castle
- 2014:207: Monea Castle, AE/14/47 · Fintan Walsh / IAC Ltd., Excavations.ie
- Immaculate Conception, Monea · Parish of Botha
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2012-01-11. How this page was prepared.