Page 31 - O Mahony Journal 2025

The O Mahony Castles of the

Kinalmeaky Area of West Cork

Extracted and summarized from James N. Healy, The Castles of County Cork,
The Mercer Press, Cork and Dublin, 1988 (ISBN 0 85342 876 8).
Extracted and Compiled by Jean McConnell Dinwiddie, Runai, O Mahony Society.

There were over 460 castles in County Cork although now most are ruins
or merely sites where they once stood. The author identified the following
seventeen sites with the O Mahony Clan:

Rath Raithleann is the earliest stronghold associated with the O Mahony
Clan. It began as a rath or earthen ring fort with a moat. Indeed, a model in the Cork Museum in
Fitzgerald Park shows it consisting of three concentric rings with moats around each and with an
interior size a little more than 200 feet across. The museum also displays objects found on the site,
with some dating from the 7th century. James N. Healy’s “The Castles of Cork” briefly sketches the
early O Mahony ancestry and family domain expansion in his Rath Raithleann section. The author
also mentions the legend of St. Finbarr’s birth at this site. This very early Clan evolution concluded
that by the early 1200s, the MacCarthys established their clan as the most significant force in Munster
and as overlords of the O Mahonys by major defeats of our clan in 1232 and 1254. At this time,
the O Mahonys split into the two branches, the Western Cork branch and the Kinalmeaky branch.
Long before this time, Rath Raithleann had been abandoned for Castle Nalact, which in turn was
succeeded by Castle Mahon as the O Mahony Chief’s main stronghold.
Castle Nalact lies about four miles south of Rath Raithleann and about the same distance north of
Bandon, about 300 yards from a nearby lake. Lore says it was built in 1215 near a battlefield, where
the O Mahonys fought the Danes in 1088 or, more likely, where the O Mahonys fought Brian Boru in
977. In this later battle, Brian avenged the O Mahony slaying of his brother Mahon two years earlier
by killing Maolmhuadh of the Eoghanacht, ancestor of the O Mahony Clan, and his three sons. In
the field stands four large slate stones that may have been their burial stones or probably more likely
stones remaining from an even more primitive Celtic time. Castle Nalact was a pre-Norman earthen
fort with a wooden palisade and moat. Although no stones remain, there may have been a small
stone tower added later that was dismantled before modern times to provide stones for building a
nearby mill. The O Mahonys moved from this stronghold to Castle Mahon when it was built in the
early 1400s.
Castle Mahon was named after the eponymous progenitor
of the O Mahony Clan and was the main castle of the
Kinalmeaky O Mahonys. It was built about 1400 on the Brandon
River south bank about three miles from the town of Brandon.
It was originally a Norman style castle that was altered and
added to through the years. When the title was lifted from the O
Mahonys for support of the Earl of Desmond Rebellion, its seizure
was protested by the O Mahonys but in vain. Donal Graney O
Mahony, son of Cian, burned the castle so that it wouldn’t fall
into their enemy’s control. Dermot, the Clan Chief following
Donal when he died in 1594, also petitioned unsuccessfully to
regain ownership. Maolmuadh, brother to Dermot who died
in 1599, was the last effective O Mahony Chief of Kinalmeaky
and the O Mahony Clan influence died with him in the early 1600s. Castle Mahon was rebuilt and
renamed Castle Bernard in 1715 by Bernard “The Judge.” However, this old castle was destroyed in
1788, and the stones were used to build a new Castle Bernard nearby. The Clan Gathering was held
at Castle Mahon in 1964, 1970, 1892, 1993, and 2000.

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