According to local tradition recorded by the Irish Folklore Commission in the 1930s, the castle ruins were then situated on land owned by George Manly, perched atop a prominent hill. The same folklore collection mentions that the castle stood beside a fort, adding another layer to this archaeological puzzle. Despite these oral histories, no other documentary evidence of this castle has surfaced, leaving historians to piece together fragments of a story that may have otherwise been lost to time.

Historical maps offer tantalising but incomplete clues about what once stood at Conaghy. The Down Survey maps from 1656-8 mark the townland of Conagh but frustratingly depict no structures there. William McCrea’s 1793 map of County Monaghan does show a fort positioned on top of a hill in the area, which aligns with the folklore accounts. However, by the time the Ordnance Survey created their detailed 6-inch maps in the 19th century, neither castle nor fort appeared on the cartographic record, suggesting these structures had already vanished or become so ruined as to escape the surveyors’ notice.

Today, while the hill mentioned in these accounts can be easily identified in the landscape, the precise locations of both Mahon’s castle and its accompanying ringfort remain unknown. This gap in the archaeological record serves as a reminder of how much local history exists only in memory and oral tradition; structures that once dominated the skyline can disappear almost entirely, leaving behind only stories passed down through generations and the occasional mark on an old map.