Built by Sir Nicholas Malby, Elizabeth I’s military governor of Connacht, this structure appears in official records as a ‘castle or stone fortilace’ in inquisitions from 1584 and 1611. Malby, who arrived in Ireland as a captain under the Earl of Essex in 1575, quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the most influential English administrators in the western province.

The main fortified house would have been protected by a bawn, a defensive wall typical of plantation architecture in Ireland during this period. These walls served both practical and symbolic purposes; they offered protection from raids whilst announcing the presence of English authority in contested territories. Although no physical evidence of a gatehouse survives today, and contemporary documents remain silent on its specifics, such defensive structures were standard features of plantation fortifications. Archaeological assessment suggests it most likely stood on the southern side of the bawn wall.

This site represents a crucial chapter in Roscommon’s colonial history, when English settlers and administrators attempted to impose new systems of land ownership and governance on Gaelic Ireland. The fortifications at Castlecoote weren’t merely defensive structures; they were statements of intent, marking the transformation of the Irish landscape under Tudor rule. Today, whilst much of the original structure has been lost to time, the site continues to offer insights into this turbulent period of Irish history.