Monivea Castle, near Athenry, Co Galway – ‘lost’
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 208. “O’Kelly/IFR; Ffrench/IFR; Barnewall, Trimlestown, B/PB) An O’Kelly tower-house, acquired by the Ffrenchs at the beginning of C17; confiscated under the Cromwellian Settlement 1658 and granted to 8th Lord Trimlestown, a “transplanted” peer from the Pale; regained from 11th Lord Trimlestown by Patrick Ffrench, who added two new ranges to the old tower-house, 1713-15….Mausoleum in grounds, in the form of a miniature tower house, with turret. In 1938 Monivea was bequeathed by Miss Kathleen ffrench to the Irish Nation as a “Home for Indigent Artists.” The scheme came to nothing and the house, except for the old tower, was subsequently demolished.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 76. “An unusual early 18C house incorporating a tower house at the rere built by Patrick Ffrench. Single storey wings, to which an extra storey was added in the mid to late 19C, flank a two storey pedimented centre block. 18C house demlished and only a tower-house survives.”
Irish Historic Houses 