The handsome 18th century stable yard at Castle Archdale, County Fermanagh. Dating from the early 1770s, the house here was built to replace an older one which had in turn superseded a plantation castle badly damaged in 1689. Of six bays and three storeys over basement, and the largest Palladian house in Fermanagh, Castle Archdale stood on high ground overlooking the shores of Lower Lough Erne. In 1942 the building was requisitioned by the RAF and thereafter never returned to being a private residence: left to fall into ruin, it was demolished in 1970. The stable yard, which stood directly behind, is all that remains to testify to the house’s former presence. It is now used as offices and the grounds of Castle Archdale used as a caravan park.
Many of us still have a great, great interest in the old base at RAF Castle Archdale, rest assured. Also, many of us collect photographs etc. of the place between 1941 and afterwards. Disgraceful that the Manor House was allowed to fall into ruin and be demolished. My family first visited the place in 1966 down from North Down.