Estate: Kilkelly

Associated Families

• Kilkelly

Description

The original Kilkelly estate had centred on Cloghballymore in the parish of Killeenavarra, barony of Dunkellin. The family lost this estate in the 1640s when they were transplanted to Raheen and Lydican. Due to debt they were obliged to sell these estates to the O'Hara family in the 1790s. Several of the family were in the legal profession or became agents for other families such as the Ffrenches who succeeded them at Cloghballymore.

Houses

House Name / Description	Townland	Civil Parish	PLU	DED	Barony	County	Map Ref
Raheen (H552) Raheen is associated with both the Kilkelly and O'Hara families. In the 1770s it seems to have been a residence of the Taylor family, with whom the O'Haras intermarried. In the 1830s the OS Name Books record it as "a neat house, in form like a cottage two stories high." Raheen House was badly damaged by fire in the latter part of the twentieth century. The entrance gateway is still extant.	Raheen Demesne	Ardrahan	Gort	Cahermore 102	Kiltartan	Galway	Lat/Lon: 53.10529 -8.83325 OSI Ref: M442064 Discovery map #52. OS Sheet #122.
Cloghballymore (H649) Originally a tower house owned by the Kilkelly family, Cloghballymore House, was extended a number of times by the various families who held the estate over three centuries.. The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage indicates that the main house at the site was constructed by Marcus Lynch in the eighteenth century. In 1906 it was owned by Llewellyn Blake and was valued at £18. It was later given by him to a missionary order and maintained for some time as a seminary. The building is still extant and now Blake Manor Nursing home.	Cloghballymore	Killeenavarra	Gort	Killeenavarra 105	Dunkellin	Galway	Lat/Lon: 53.17310 -8.90037 OSI Ref: M398140 Discovery map #52. OS Sheet #103.
Lydacan (H786) Lydacan or Lydican Castle was a residence of the Lynch family in the 1770s. The OS Name Books record the "substantial residence of Mr. Gunning" in Lydacan in the 1830s. Lydacan Castle was purchased by Martin O'Flaherty in the mid-19th century and was subsequently sold by him to James Greated. It was burnt in 1922 and the ruins remain.	Lydacan	Claregalway	Galway	Carnmore 54	Dunkellin	Galway	Lat/Lon: 53.32920 -8.93518 OSI Ref: M377314 Discovery map #46. OS Sheet #83.

Archival sources

• Irish Architectural Archive: Cloghballymore. Report for planning. 145/046 & 145/047.
• Irish Architectural Archive: Raheen. Photographs. 030/048
• National Library of Ireland: Pedigree of Kilkelly of Castle Lydican, Co Galway and of Bilbao, Spain, c 1600-1772. GO MS 161: 102-110
• National Library of Ireland: Pedigree of Kilkelly of Castle Lydican, Co Galway, 1687-1777. GO MS 16: 79-80
• Trinity College Dublin: Kilkelly family, Co Galway, transcripts made 1921 of papers later destroyed in PROI. MS 11164

Contemporary printed sources

Many of these resources are now available online. For a list with Web links please see the Online Printed Sources Links

• HUSSEY DE BURGH, U. H. The Landowners of Ireland. An alphabetical list of the owners of estates of 500 acres or £500 valuation and upwards in Ireland. Dublin: Hodges, Foster and Figgis, 1878. [available online at www.askaboutireland.ie] : 249.
• PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS. Return of owners of land of one acre and upwards, in the several counties .... in Ireland. HC 1876, LXXX: 297.
• TAYLOR, George & SKINNER, Andrew. Maps of the Roads of Ireland, surveyed in 1777 and corrected down to 1783. Facsimile of 2nd edition. Shannon: Irish University Press, 1969: 201.

Modern printed sources

• The Irish Genealogist: MELVIN, Patrick. The composition of the Galway gentry. (1986), 89.
• SPELLISSY, Séan. The History of Galway. Limerick: Celtic Bookshop, 1999. : 299.

• Disclaimer
• Privacy
• Accessibility