In Ireland, there were a number of landed families with the surname Browne, not all of whom were related to each other. There were, for example, the Brownes who eventually became Earls of Kenmare and lived in County Kerry. Then there were the Brownes, Barons Oranmore and Browne, based in Castle MacGarrett, County Mayo. And in the same county were another family of Brownes, who became Marquesses of Sligo and lived in Westport. They were descended from one John Browne, a cartographer who came to Ireland in the 16th century and held the office of Sheriff of Mayo after preparing a map of the county. He was killed in February 1589 during an encounter at Burrishoole at the start of an uprising by the native Irish but by then had already acquired land in an area of the country known as the Neale (believed to derive from the Irish An Éill, meaning a strip of land). Here his descendants would live for the next few centuries, building a substantial house in the 1730s, of which only the shell of one wing now survives, the rest having been demolished some 200 years later in 1939. But evidence of the Brownes’ presence survives elsewhere around the former estate.
Three strange structures can be found within the old Browne demesne at the Neale, the best-known being the Pyramid, a dry-stone construction – like the surrounding field boundaries – dating from c.1765 and comprising nine steps that climb to a height of 30 feet from a base more than 40 feet wide. The Pyramid is believed to have been commissioned by Sir John Browne, first Lord Kilmaine, to commemorate his elder brother George who died in 1765. On the rise of the fourth step is a cut-stone plaque in Latin, praising the deceased who is described as ‘best beloved’ and a man whose arms ‘were formerly the great glory and protection of his country.’ Reputed to have been designed by Sir John’s brother-in-law, the first Earl of Charlemont (who had travelled to Egypt some years before while on his Grand Tour), the pyramid’s pinnacle was seemingly once crowned with a lead statue of Apollo.
Refurbished by the Office of Public Works in 1990, the Pyramid is in better condition than the other two follies erected by the Brownes on their estate at the Neale. A short distance to the south can be found an hexagonal temple. It consists of six plain Doric columns supporting an entablature with carved cornice and frieze. Likely once roofed, the temple stands on a high hexagonal stone base which can be entered from the rear. Inside this, a series of vaults spring from the outer walls to a central hexagonal arrangement of piers, which support the columns of the structure above. Frequently, the lower portion of such buildings was used by servants, where they could prepare tea and other refreshments for the owners who sat in the space above admiring the parkland around them. Unfortunately, little is known about the date or designer of the building, but it may have been constructed in the 1770s when the first Lord Kilmaine was engaged in landscaping this part of the estate.
And finally, a little to the west and in woodland on the periphery of the former demesne can be found a very odd structure known as the Gods of the Neale. Set within a tiered rusticated structure (and surrounded by fragrant wild garlic when the Irish Aesthete recently visited) are carvings of three mythical figures, a griffin, a unicorn and an angel. Below them, a large tablet bearing the date 1753 carries a complex text that claims that the figures were found in a cave nearby and that they were the ancient Gods of the Neale, ‘or the Gods of Felicity.’ It’s all rather absurd, but that’s an important characteristic of follies: they don’t have to make sense. This is certainly true of the three surviving examples in the Neale, which means they are all the more precious.
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