Monasteraden, Mainistir Réadáin, Co. Sligo

Mainistir Réadáin · Co. Sligo

On the shore of Lough Gara, in the old O'Gara country.

Monasteraden - Mainistir Réadáin, the monastery of Réadán - is a small village on the north shore of Lough Gara, in the south-west corner of Sligo against the Roscommon border. The lake gives the village its setting and most of its draws: shallow, limestone, dotted with crannógs in the shallows and with a long human story underwater and on the shore.

The most-recorded family of the area is the Ó Gadhras - anglicised O'Gara - who gave the lake its name and held the lakeshore through the medieval period. The first documented mention of the surname is in 964 AD in the Annals of the Four Masters. Their principal seat was the castle at Moygara on the north-west corner of the lake, with smaller fortifications on outlying ground. Fergal O'Gara lost the lot to Cromwellian confiscation in 1650 - a familiar story in this part of Connacht. Fergal's other claim to literary fame is that he commissioned the Annals of the Four Masters from the Franciscan friars in the 1630s.

The village itself is small - a pub, a church, a few houses, a school. Use Monasteraden as a base for the lake and the wider Lough Gara archaeology. The Lough Gara Lakes and Legends visitor trail covers the local sites. Boyle is twenty minutes east, Ballaghaderreen fifteen minutes south.

Walk score

Lakeshore village in ten minutes

Coords

53.9583° N, 8.4500° W

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At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The lake

Lough Gara, west of Boyle.

Monasteraden sits on the north shore of Lough Gara, the limestone lake that gave the O'Gara family their name and territory. Quiet water, crannógs in the shallows, old castle ruins.

Walks & outings → 02 The name

Mainistir Réadáin - Redan's monastery.

An early-medieval monastic foundation gave the village its name. The original buildings are gone but the site is still readable in the local field pattern.

Stories & lore → 03 The O'Garas

A Connacht family with three castles on the lake.

The O'Gara family - Ó Gadhra - appears in the Annals of the Four Masters as early as 964 AD. Their main seat was the castle at Moygara on the lake's north-west; smaller fortifications stood on outlying ground. Fergal O'Gara lost the land to Cromwellian confiscation in 1650.

Stories & lore →

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Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

From 964 AD to Cromwell

The O'Garas of Lough Gara

The Ó Gadhra family appears in the Irish annals as early as the late 10th century. By the medieval period they held a substantial chiefdom on Lough Gara, with their principal castle at Moygara on the lake's north-west corner. Fergal O'Gara was the last chief to hold the land; the entire territory was confiscated in 1650 under the Cromwellian settlement. Fergal is also remembered as the patron who commissioned the Annals of the Four Masters from the Franciscan friars in the 1630s.

Bronze Age into the medieval

Lough Gara crannógs

Lough Gara is one of the most archaeologically rich lakes in Ireland. The shallows hold a high concentration of crannógs - artificial island dwellings - used from the Bronze Age into the medieval period. Many were exposed in the dramatic drainage of the lake in the 1950s, when its level was lowered by several feet. The visible crannógs and the lakeshore archaeology are documented by the local Lakes and Legends project.

A medieval site, a surviving name

The monastic foundation

An early-medieval monastery - Mainistir Réadáin - gave the village its name. The original foundations are long gone but the parish church and the surrounding fields preserve the layout. Nothing dramatic survives - just the name and the ground.

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