Castle Deel, County Mayo derives its name from the adjacent Deel river beside which a branch of the Bourke family built a great four-storey tower house, probably in the 16th century. This eventually passed to Colonel Thomas Bourke who, after he had supported James II during the Williamite Wars, saw his property forfeited by the English government and subsequently granted to the Gores, future Earls of Arran. They remained living there until the late 18th century when a new house – now also in ruins – was built close by, after which Deel Castle was occupied by the land agent. At some date, perhaps in the 17th century while still owned by the Bourkes, a residential wing was added to one side of the tower house, this section distinguished by a handsome rusticated doorway. Along another side runs a long service wing. In 1732 when Mary Delany (then still the widowed Mrs Pendarves) visited Mayo, she called on the place, afterwards writing to her sister that it was ‘an old castle patched up and very irregular, but well fitted up and good handsome rooms within. The master of the house, Arthur Gore, a jolly red-faced widower, has one daughter, a quiet thing that lives in the house with him; his dogs and horses are as dear to him as his children, his laugh is hearty, though his jests are coarse’. Deel Castle was still intact during the earlier part of the last century but has since been left to fall into its present sad condition.