Monea Castle

As we pulled into entrance the gates were closed on us purposely by female gate worker who then through her arms up rudely at us and then turned her back as if we weren’t in the drive???? She then proceeded to state that Monae Castle is owned by Cattan (surname) not Dept of Communities and he only gives access certain hours on certain days. We have since learned this is common practice at Monea given the amount of negative published reviews.

Given the amount of historical destination and castles in the area run properly, don’t waste your time and definitely skip this one.

Called in after visiting tully castle. This is a nice visit even though a ruin it is still impressive and you can see what it was like in its pomp. Well worth the journey

free, worth the drive, beautiful ruins.
not huge, but definitely photo worthy. no other tourists while i was there, which is always great

We’ve been to a lot of castles in Ireland (over 30, so far), and Monea ranks up there in terms of uniqueness. Truth be told, it seems more Scottish than Irish (the two semi-circular towers on each side of the entrance are topped with corbels and crow-stepped gables, which are indicative of a lot of castles in Scotland).

Getting to the site is pretty straight-forward, BUT PLEASE NOTE: as of today (11/5/18), Google maps lists Monea Castle incorrectly as Monera Castle. When you get into Monea, from B81 take Castletown Road. Not far from the Church of the Immaculate Conception on the right, the road will make a sharp bend to the left. At the sharp bend the entrance to the road that goes back to the castle is on right. Follow that back and, at the Y, go to the right...this will take you right back to the site. There is a car park, no admission fee, and accessing the interior of the castle is not a problem.

We visited both Tully Castle (about 15 minutes away) and Monea Castle on the same day, and Monea was a lot cooler (so if you have time for only one, make it Monea).

Overall it’s definitely worth a visit.