Monthly Archives: September 2026

A Little Known Site


‘Among Mr. Windele’s MSS.* in the Royal Irish Academy is to be found a comparison between Mallow Castle and that of Dromaneen, which latter was erected by the O’Callaghans, and occupies a strikingly bold position on a rock over the Blackwater, about three miles west of Mallow. He considers them as practically contemporaneous, each belonging to the Tudor era, and he is of opinion that Dromaneen may be taken as a specimen of the last phase of castellation in the descent from the lofty moated keep to the simple Manor House. The forms of doorways, fire-places, etc., would refer the date of the building at once to the close of Elizabeth’s reign. Both castles, he considers, fair specimens of the transition style which pervaded the strong houses of a semi-military class of the period. Mallow, somewhat earlier than the other, preserves much of the general form of the structure of the era of the Roses, while Dromaneen approaches more nearly to the modern domestic building. The precautions adopted for defence in the earlier castles are nearly all rejected in this, and what few military features it possesses seem to have been designed as much for ornament as protection. In both castles the broad Tudor windows descend in greater proximity to the ground, the dark loop disappears and the strongarched floors and stone stairs are absent; the walls are not of massive thickness, while domestic comfort and accommodation seem mainly studied. Mallow but little diverges from the old outline of the stately keeps of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while Dromaneen is but the next step to the modern mansion, and all defences in the former are greatly abandoned, but still in a less degree than in the latter, as has been already noted.’
Extract from ‘The Manor and Castle of Mallow in the Days of the Tudors’, by Henry F. Berry, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Volume II, March 1893.
(For more on Mallow Castle, see Picturesque Remains – The Irish Aesthete)





As noted above, Dromaneen Castle, County Cork dates from the early 17th century, c.1610, when constructed by Cahir O’Callaghan, who had submitted to the English crown and then been regranted the property. It stands immediately east of an earlier square tower house to which it is linked by a bawn wall. The castle’s location is particularly striking: to the south, it is approached across a wide flat plain, but the north side stands at the top of a limestone  above the river Blackwater. In 1637 Donough O Callaghan succeeded his father at Dromaneen and in the following decade he played a prominent part in the Confederate Wars, being a member of the Supreme Council of the Irish Confederation of Kilkenny. In consequence, and following the English parliament’s Act of Settlement of August 1652, he and his family were transplanted to County Clare and Dromaneen, together with 1,000 acres of land, were granted to Sir Richard Kyrle. Following his appointment as Governor of the Province of Carolina in America, Kyrle sold his Irish property to Richard Newman, who had already bought some 5,000 acres in this part of the country. Dromaneen Castle appears to have suffered during both the Confederate and Williamite Wars, being occupied by an English cavalry troop during the latter period. However, the Newmans are supposed to have lived there until c.1738 when they built a new residence nearby called Newberry. Thereafter the castle was abandoned and left to fall into the customary dereliction. 





Dromaneen Castle is an L-shaped building, composed of a three-storey gable-ended block to the north and what may have been a later, and lower, kitchen range to the south. Like so many other semi-fortified mansions built around Ireland during this period, the upper floors have large window openings and inside a particularly fine chimneypiece with mouldings can be seen on the first floor. As mentioned, the castle sits within a bawn wall, with principal access to the courtyard being through a handsome classical gateway, with an elliptical arch and a three-tier cornice carried on brackets: this is comparable to a doorcase seen at the near-contemporary Kanturk Castle elsewhere in the county (see An Abandoned Project – The Irish Aesthete). A fascinating site, although a National Monument Dromaneen Castle is located on private land, and this helps to explain why it is less well-known than other similar buildings of the same period.  


*John Windele (1801-1865) was a Cork-based antiquarian.

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Now Bare



In a corner of the graveyard surrounding the now roofless 19th century church at Killaloan, County Tipperary can be seen this very substantial square limestone mausoleum. On one side, a pair of marble plaques set within shallow blind arches below small trefoil openings commemorate  Catherine Rebecca and Catherine Isabella Osborne, respectively wife and daughter of Sir Thomas Osborne who lived with his family in nearby Newtown Anner. Sir Thomas died in 1821 and his widow in 1856, but the mausoleum is supposed to have been constructed c.1865, so presumably their daughter was responsible for commissioning it. Whatever remains once lay there were removed after the mausoleum was broken into some decades ago, and today it is possible to enter and walk around the interior, passages on all four sides facing the central space which has a series of empty niches intended to hold coffins but now bare.



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Playing with the Architectural Lexicon



‘Crossing the left bank of the Boyne at Bellinter bridge we enter the noble demesne of Ardsallagh, now belonging to the Duke of Bedford, who has recently erected here a handsome Elizabethan mansion, in which report whispers he will annually spend some time. In no part of its course does the river present the same extreme calmness and repose as here. Widening into deep, still pools, shaded by aged timber, and fringed with wild plants of gigantic growth, huge colts-foot; with the modest blue forget-me-not and the little yellow potentilla peeping through their dark umbrageous foliage; long, topling bulrushes, fragrant meadow-sweet, and broad waterlilies, stretch in wild luxuriance along the placid banks. Long avenues of lime trees, and groves of tall grey- stemmed beeches with arcades of aged yew, give an air of antiquity as well as grandeur to this handsome park. One almost always expects to meet some remnant of ecclesiastical buildings where aged yew trees abound, and accordingly we read that St. Finian founded the monastery of Escair-branain near this, but at present even the site of that ancient edifice is unknown.’ (from The Beauties of the Boyne and its Tributary the Blackwater by William R. Wilde, 1849). 






Located above the banks of the river Boyne as it flows south from the town of Navan, County Meath, Ardsallagh was, as Wilde mentioned, believed to be the site of a religious house established here in the sixth century by Saint Finian of Clonard. In the late 12th century, the land here was granted by the Norman knight Hugh de Lacy to one of his supporters, Jocelyn de Angulo, whose descendants, their name anglicised to Nangle, became known as Barons of Navan. The Nangles erected a castle at Ardsallagh and would remain there until the 1650s when, like so many other families who had supported the Catholic Confederate cause, they were deprived of their property, 8,000 acres of which were later purchased by the Dublin alderman John Preston: in the following century, his great-granddaughter Mary Preston inherited the Ardsallagh estate. Her husband, Peter Ludlow served as an MP for Meath, while the couple’s son, also called Peter, would have a highly successful political career, eventually becoming Comptroller of the Household in the 1780s. Before then, he had been elevated to the peerage, created Baron Ludlow of Ardsallagh while aged just 25, and eventually becoming first Earl Ludlow. In due course he was succeeded by his two sons, the younger of whom, the third and last earl, had a highly successful military career, rising to the rank of Lieutenant General, as well as acting as Equerry to the Prince of Wales from 1784-95. On his death without direct heirs in 1842, Ardsallagh was bequeathed to Francis Russell, seventh Duke of Bedford who, Wilde noted, commissioned a new residence on the site. This property subsequently passed to the duke’s brother, Lord John Russell, British Prime Minister 1846-52, and later first Earl Russell. However, he and his descendants do not appear to have spent much, if any, time in residence at Ardsallagh. In January 1890, The Times carried the following advertisement: ‘To be let or sold for a term of years, the house and demesne lands of Ardsallagh, the Irish residence of Lord Russell, situated on his property in the County of Meath, in the best hunting district in Ireland.  The house is a large gentleman’s residence, with good stables and out offices, and the demesne contains 333 acres 1 rood 43 perches statute measurement.’ Certainly, in the closing decades of the 19th century, the estate was let to the French family, and eventually in the 1930s it was bought by a local builder, Cormac Murphy and his wife Catherine: earlier this year, their grandchildren placed the house and surrounding 199 acres on the market. 






As alredy mentioned, the original building at Ardsallagh was a castle erected by the Nangles, but no trace of this survives today: a census from 1821 merely notes ‘the remains house of Ardsala’ while The Parliamentary Gazetteer 0f Ireland, 1844-1845 observed that the demesne here ‘seems to be as ill kept as it is delightfully situated.’ The two later Earls Ludlow had enjoyed careers based in England and therefore one assumes neglected their Irish estate. However, the place had once been very fine: passing through the area in August 1732, Mrs Delany declared ‘The house seems a very antique edifice, it has fine gardens, but the trees and meadows that lie by the river are extremely beautiful.’ Similarly, writing c.1740, Isaac Butler called Ardsallagh, ‘the beautifull Seat of Mr Ludlow the House is lofty & well designed with a fine Firr Grove which almost encompass the House here are delightfull Gardens, & curious subterraneous Grottos.’ By the following century, it appears all this had fallen into ruin, which explains why, after inheriting the place, the Duke of Bedford should have opted to start afresh with the construction of a new residence. As seen today, Ardsallagh is in the Tudor Revival style, its limestone exterior replete with pointed gables and towering diagonal chimneys, oriels and mullioned windows. Designed by an unknown architect, but described by Casey and Rowan as being ‘in the manner of Edward Blore’, the house cost £40,000 to build and fit out. The building, which suffered a fire in 1903, subsequently received attention from Sir Thomas Drew, which makes it difficult to know how much of the present interior is original and how much early 20th century refurbishment. The most striking feature is the double-height staircase hall which, unlike the exterior, evokes the Baroque period, with the first-floor gallery supported by a series fluted columns below an elaborate entablature. The main rooms, their plasterwork ceilings simultaneously incorporating elements of the Jacobean and English Perpendicular periods, further add to the delightfully eclectic blend of styles found within the house. Although, as is evident in these pictures, the place now needs some attention, Ardsallagh is a wonderful survivor from a time when bold borrowing from the architectural lexicon was still widespread. At the time of writing, the property is listed as Sale Agreed: one must hope that whoever takes it on appreciates Ardsallagh’s special qualities and ensures they are preserved into the future. 



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The Real Thing


After last Monday’s discussion of the incomplete fantasy that is Brittas Castle, here are some remains of the real thing. Moylough Castle in County Galway dates from the first half of the 13th century and is associated with the Norman de Cotterell and de Cogeshale families who would have arrived in this part of the country around that time. Three sides of the building survive, of three storeys and constructed of local limestone rubble, almost 40 feet long and 21 feet wide, rising to 46 feet with walls over six feet thick. It is thought that the Normans occupied the site until the late 13th or early 14th centuries, after which it passed into the possession of the dominant O’Kelly family. However, like many such properties, it was probably abandoned in the 17th century and left to fall into its present ruinous state, today beloved only by the cattle sharing the same site. 


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