placenamesKiltoom
Cill Tuama
Moyvannan Castle and Hodson Bay record changing uses of substantial houses within Kiltoom’s electoral division.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Cill Tuama · Irish · main form
- Kiltoom · English · main form
Place & story
The tower at Moyvannan
Moyvannan Castle overlooks Lough Ree from a gentle slope. The National Monuments Service records an inscribed date of 1501 on a corner stone, a spiral stair at the south-eastern angle and surviving original windows in the western wall. Its account distinguishes those features from later pointed openings and records renovation as a dwelling in the 1980s. The inscription dates a stone; it does not by itself establish when every part of the building was constructed. [2]
A later castellated house
The architectural inventory identifies a two-storey addition of about 1860 beside the older tower. A continuous battlemented parapet visually joins the different parts. Its account records successive uses as a fortified residence, church and accommodation, making the present complex the product of several periods. [3]
Hodson Bay
At Hodson Bay in Barrymore, the University of Galway’s estate database records Leonard Hodson junior and Samuel Hodson occupying the family house at Griffith’s Valuation, with the property held from the Court of Chancery. The house was subsequently enlarged into a hotel on the lakeshore. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Kiltoom. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Moyvannan tower house, RO048-048: field record uploaded 24 August 2010 · Michael Moore, National Monuments Service
- Moyvannan Castle, architectural inventory 31948002, recorded 2 September 2003 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
- Hodson Bay, property 1180 · University of Galway, Landed Estates
- Moyvannan townland: Kiltoom electoral division · Townlands.ie / OpenStreetMap contributors
- Barry More townland: Kiltoom electoral division · Townlands.ie / OpenStreetMap contributors
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2011-11-02. How this page was prepared.