Background
A descendant of the Geoghegan clan, his ancestor, Art MacGeoghegan of Castletown, County Westmeath, was transplanted to Connacht in 1656, receiving a grant of nine hundred acres and Bunown Castle, Connemara, County Galway.
A descendant of the Geoghegan clan, his ancestor, Art MacGeoghegan of Castletown, County Westmeath, was transplanted to Connacht in 1656, receiving a grant of nine hundred acres and Bunown Castle, Connemara, County Galway.
His family inhabited the original castle until Richard built a new castle (though using the same name) at the foot of Doon Hill. James Hardiman described him as a man of science and enterprising genius, studying a Dutch method of land reclamation, which resulted in recovering a considerable tract of land from the sea at Ballyconneely. This work was commemorated by an inscription in Latin on a weir, dated 1758.
The family abandoned the area in the late 19th century.