Overview
Castlemahon takes its name from a 15th-century tower house, a roofless square keep about 30 feet high that the Fitzgeralds raised here around 1490 and that still stands a short walk from the main street. The village’s official name is Mahoonagh, from the Irish Maigh Tamhnach, ‘the plain of the tree-stumps’ or ‘of the clearings’; oddly, the name Castlemahon belongs to no parish or townland and its origin is unclear even locally. It sits on the east bank of the River Deel, about four kilometres south-east of Newcastle West.
Be straight about what this is: a quiet working village, not a day out in its own right. The castle is a ten-minute, free, unmanaged stop, and the real reason to know the place is the amount of history packed into it. Pair it with Newcastle West up the road, which has the shops, a Desmond-era castle and the Limerick Greenway trailhead.
The castle
Mahoonagh Castle, or Castle Mahon, is a tower house built by the Fitzgeralds around 1490. Samuel Lewis’s 1837 dictionary already called it ‘the ruins of a massive square tower, about 30 feet high’; the walls are about two metres thick, with three unvaulted levels, a surviving limestone window and a fireplace in the west wall. It changed hands repeatedly: recorded as McGibbon property in 1587, and in the 1640s during the Confederate War the castle and a garrison of a hundred men were taken by Thomas Mac Gibbon. It stands free and open to the weather a short walk from the street, on uneven ground, so wear something solid on your feet.
A lot of history for a small place
For a quiet village, Castlemahon has buried two kings. Cellachan, King of Cashel, was killed at Mahoonagh in 954, and Cormac Mac Carthaigh, King of Munster, who kept his residence here and was known as Cormac Muighe Thamhnach, was killed in his house at Maigh Thamhnach in 1138 by the O’Briens. After the Norman conquest the Manor of Mahoonagh was granted to Thomas de Clare, a friend of Edward I, who was himself killed by the O’Briens of Thomond in 1287.
The strangest chapter is recent. In 1990 two Siberian tigers, Nova and Batack, delivered by Chipperfield Circus, were housed for a time in a reinforced enclosure in the village, a story that drew national attention and even a mention in the Dáil.
Churches & the creamery
The parish church of St John the Baptist opened in 1961, its foundation stone laid the year before, replacing an earlier church from the 1830s. Inside are a mosaic of Jesus the Shepherd, statues of St Joseph and the Virgin, and a traditional tabernacle; the site was given by Michael Raleigh. The parish also keeps several holy wells, each with its own tradition; visitors are welcome, but tread quietly and leave the offerings to those keeping the custom.
The village’s modern story is a co-operative one. The Castlemahon co-op grew into the leading poultry provider in Ireland by 1960 before merging into Golden Vale in the early 1970s, the kind of creamery history that shaped a lot of west Limerick.
Sport
The parish plays as Feohanagh-Castlemahon GAA, founded in 1890, with grounds at Quaid Park in Coolyroe and handball courts alongside. There’s a neat local division of labour: hurling is carried by Feohanagh, Gaelic football by Castlemahon. The club has West Junior titles in both codes, including West Junior A hurling championships in 2011 and 2013.
Getting here & practical tips
Castlemahon is signposted off the roads around Newcastle West, four kilometres to the north-west, where the Killarney–Tralee buses and the Limerick Greenway both pass; the nearest train is at Limerick City’s Colbert Station. There’s free roadside parking near the castle and church. The village has a primary school, a pub and a couple of shops, but no hotels: stay in Newcastle West or Limerick City.
See the castle in the morning, when the light is on the limestone, then drive the four kilometres into Newcastle West for lunch and the Greenway. That, honestly, is the right shape for a visit to Castlemahon.