Tag Archives: Irish Castle

A Glebe House and a Castle



After last Monday’s post about the former 19th century rectory outside Rathkeale, County Limerick (see A Glebe House and a Castle « The Irish Aesthete) here are some images of its predecessor, located to the immediate west of Holy Trinity Church and to the south of the river Deel, on the outskirts of the town. A four-storey, late-medieval tower house, the building is now called Glebe Castle, thereby indicating its original function which presumably it retained until the new clerical residence was constructed in 1819. But seemingly it was also known as Chancellor’s Castle, since the rector of Rathkeale was also Chancellor of the Diocese of Limerick. By the time that Samuel Lewis published his Topographical Survey of Ireland in 1837, Glebe Castle had become home to the Rev. CT Coghlan, rector of the neighbouring parish of Kilscannel. At some unknown date, a single-storey block was added to east side of the castle, but more recently the present house has been built here. 



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This Magnificent Building


The Irish line of the Esmonde family is believed to be descended from Geoffrey de Estmont of Lincolnshire, one of the thirty Norman knights who accompanied Robert FitzStephen to land at Bannow, County Wexford in 1169. Seemingly, Estmont built a motte and bailey at Lymbrick in the Barony of Forth in Wexford, where his son Maurice constructed a castle on the same site. Following the latter’s death in 1225, this building was abandoned, his son John erecting another castle on a new site, which came to be named Johnstown Castle and which survived until 1945. The property remained in the possession of the Esmondes until the mid-17th century when, as members of the Roman Catholic Confederate alliance, they suffered expulsion: Oliver Cromwell is said to have spent a night here immediately prior to his forces sacking Wexford town in early October 1649. Johnstown Castle was subsequently granted to one of his troops, Colonel John Overstreet, but eventually in 1692 it was bought by John Grogan whose descendants lived there until 1945: in the early 1800s, the Grogans were the largest untitled landowners in Ireland, with estates running to some 20,000 acres. Presumably they occupied and perhaps enlarged a house already on the site, but no evidence of it is immediately apparent today, so thorough was the reordering of the building in the second quarter of the 19th century. Before then, one member of the family, Cornelius Grogan, became involved in the 1798 Rebellion, being made commissary-general of the local rebels;’ army. Whether he assumed this role voluntarily or under compulsion has remained open to question: at his trial, Grogan pleaded that he had been forced to take a nominal lead but had committed no overt act of treason. However, this was insufficient to stop his being hanged and beheaded, and for the Johnstown estate to be escheated by the British authorities: on payment of a substantial fine, it was recovered by the former owner’s youngest brother John Grogan.





As seen today (and visited on a singularly miserable, wet day), Johnstown Castle is largely the creation of John Grogan’s son Hamilton Knox Grogan-Morgan who in 1836 commissioned designs for both the building and its gardens from Daniel Robertson, although in Home Sketches (1852), Thomas Lacy wrote that the now-lost main staircase had been the work of English-born Thomas Hopper. Meanwhile, at Johnstown, Robertson appears to have been assisted by Wexford architect Martin Day, who signed many of the preparatory drawings for the building. A late exercise in fanciful Gothick, most of the castle is constructed of local shale, with the Carlow granite employed for quoins, and dressings around windows, doors and archways. The aforementioned Thomas Lacy devoted several pages to enthusing over the transformed castle, summarising it as ‘this magnificent building.’ Despite claiming that he dared not attempt a detailed description of its ‘elegantly furnished rooms, the ceilings, the rich and gorgeous papering, the magnificent curtains and drapery in general,; the mantlepieces and articles of vertu that ornament them; the splendid mirrors, the vases, the candelabra, the tables, chairs, sofas, ottomans, and the other indescribable articles,’ somehow Lacy managed to wax lyrical for several pages. The main hall, for example, he wrote ‘presents a massive and truly characteristic appearance; so much so, that if an intelligent person was brought thither in his sleep, he would, upon awaking, be at once convinced that he was within the hall of some grand castle or stately palace.’ In the library, ‘The furniture of this grand apartment is in keeping with its character; the chairs, sofas, tables and bookcases are all of the choicest and best description; this is such a room as Bacon, Newton, Locke or Walter Scott, would like to call his own.’ Of the dining room he declared, ‘oak panelling and carving can be seen; the darkness of the oak is finely relieved by the rich gilding of the ceiling and the other parts of the chamber. This room has a really gorgeous appearance, and reminds one of the House of Lords, which, in some measure, it resembles both in form and decoration.’ And so, despite protestations of inability to attempt an adequate description, Lacy goes on, room after room after room. 





Following Hamilton Knox Grogan-Morgan’s death, his widow Sophia married Sir Thomas Esmonde, so that, at least temporarily, the Johnstown estate reverted to the original family. The property was then inherited by the Grogan-Morgan’s elder daughter Jane, married to George Forbes, seventh Earl of Granard. In turn, Johnstown passed to the couple’s younger daughter Adelaide, wife of Lord Maurice FitzGerald, a younger son of the fourth Duke of Leinster. Following her death in 1942, the estate was inherited by her grandson Maurice Victor Lakin. Two years later, the contents of the castle, running to 1,187 lots, were sold at auction over a period of five days by Jackson, Stops & McCabe. Some 114 of the items on offer, about one-tenth of the total, were bought by the Office of Public Works, not least because in certain cases there were few other potential purchasers. For example, according to a contemporary report in the Irish Press, ‘It was hard to find bidders for some of the massive oak furniture. An oak side table on carved pillars, 7ft long, brought only £5 and the same sum bought the carved oak pedestal sideboard.’ Happily the majority of these lots can be seen in the building today. In 1945 the Johnstown estate was given to the Irish State by Maurice Lakin in lieu of death duties. The castle itself was taken over the the Department of Agriculture and initially served as an educational college, before becoming a centre for agricultural research, with laboratories established on site. Since 1976, an agricultural museum has operated in the yards. Less hearteningly, during the second half of the last century some serious losses occurred, not least the medieval tower attached to the front of the building: a residue from the original Esmonde era, it stood to the immediate left of the porte-cochère but was swept away soon after the property passed into state hands. Inside the castle, the greatest loss was the demolition of the magnificent Imperial staircase, a confection of neo-Gothic carving, cleared out to make way for a library for the college. Today, while the building is owned by Teagasc, Ireland’s Agriculture and Food Development Authority, it is managed by the Irish Heritage Trust which for the past decade has been gradually undertaking restoration work here, as funds permit. In addition, the IHT, which opens the castle to the public, has been refurbishing some of the main rooms, thanks to a mixture of purchases, loans and gifts, with some pieces now returned to their original home. A happier story than has often been the case for Irish country houses. 


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A Picturesque Eye Catcher




After Monday’s post about Loughton, County Offaly, here is an earlier dwelling found within the demesne. Standing on raised ground to the immediate south of the main house and evidently retained as a romantic eye-catcher, this is a four storey tower house likely dating from the early 17th century when constructed for the then-dominant O’Carroll family. Circular bartizans remain at the top of the building on the south-west and north-east corners, with an internal staircase beginning on the east wall before turning 90 degrees and ascending up the north. A large fireplace opening also remains on the east side of the now-roofless castle.




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A Noble and Commanding Appearance


‘The history of Mourne is associated with that of the Castle of Greencastle – one of the finest specimens of Anglo-Norman architecture military architecture in the County of Down – which constitutes such an important feature in the scenery of that coast, from every point of which it presents a noble and commanding appearance. It was erected by the early English invaders to guard the entrance to the Lough of Carlingford and to secure a line of correspondence between the Pale and their outlying possessions in Lecale.’
From An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor by the Rev. James O’Laverty (Dublin, 1878)




‘Greencastle, situated in the barony of Mourne, County Down, province of Ulster. It stands upon a gut or inlet of the sea and was reputed a strong castle, fortified by the Burghs, earls of Ulster and lords of Connaught. It was remarkable for two eminent marriages celebrated here in 1312; one between Maurice Fitzthomas and Catherine, daughter to the Earl of Ulster, on the 5th of August, and the other between Thomas Fitz-John and another daughter of the said earl, on the 16th of the same month. It was destroyed by the Irish, A.D. 1643, but soon after repaired and better fortified. Green Castle and the Castle of Carlingford, appear by a record, 1 Henry IV, to have been governed by one constable, the better to secure a communication between the English pale of the County Louth and the settlements of the English in Lecale and those northern parts; and Stephen Gernon was constable of both, for which he had a salary of 20l. per annum for Green Castle and 5l. for Carlingford. In 1495, it was thought to be a place of such importance to the crown, that no person, but of English birth was declared capable of being constable of it.’
From An Improved Topographical and Historical Hibernian Gazetteer, by the Rev. H Hansbrow (Dublin, 1835)




‘The castle stands upon an elevated rock, about a quarter of a mile from the sea. The walls are double, and the outer ones is looped at regular distances for archers, with passages to each floor. The central building is strengthened and protected by four square flanking towers at the corners, with a spiral staircase in each. Upon gaining the battlements, a beautiful view of the Lough scenery is obtained; the most striking object, however, is the Castle of Carlingford, which looks to great advantage from this point.
Green Castle rendered important services in the rebellion of 1641. It served not only to protect the Protestants of the district, but exercised considerable influence in keeping the insurrection in check. A part of this old Castle is now in occupation, and the rest turned into out-offices for cattle.’
From Tours in Ulster: A Handbook to the Antiquities and Scenery by J.B. Doyle (Dublin, 1855)


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Guarding the Pass of the Shannon


‘In 1140 the ancient town of Athlone was just as important a military post as it is today. The ancient Castle, still guarded jealously and fortified in modern fashion; the frowning batteries with guns all looking towards Connaught, speak clearly of the invasions expected from that quarter. Seven hundred years ago, a Celtic dun of earth rose on the very same spot where now stands the Castle raised by the ancient spot by King John’s ecclesiastico-warrior architect, John, Bishop of Norwich. The Castle of Athlone has ever guarded the pass of the Shannon, and has seen many a hard fight for its possession down to the last great struggles when De Ginkle defeated St. Ruth and destroyed the hopes of the Stuarts.’
From Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church by the Rev.G.T. Stokes (1897)





‘The castle, which occupies a spur or offset from the higher grounds on which a part of the town is built, was erected in the reign of John, and enlarged and strengthened by Elizabeth. The ancient keep is in the centre of the court or area of the castle, and is used as a barrack. The buildings, which have been erected on the platform, next the lower side of the town, are occupied by the officers of the castle, the walls of which rising above those which sustain the mound, add to their imposing appearance on the outer side. In other parts the platform is surrounded with modern works mounted with cannon, calculated to command not only the approaches from the Connaught side, but to sweep the bridge itself.’
From A Handbook for Travellers in Ireland by James Fraser (1844)





‘This castle saw many changes in Ireland. It was sometimes held by the Irish, or by rebellious noblemen like the Clanricardes, specially during the Wars of the Roses, when Ireland was left to mind itself. In Queen Elizabeth’s time the Castle was made a seat of the Presidency of Connaught, with a Chief Justice and an Attorney-General for Ireland…Under Cromwell, the Castle was the seat of the Court of Claims, which regulated the lands assigned to the proprietors transported into Connaught. In 1690-91, the Castle was held by Colonel Grace for James II. He was killed in the Siege, June 20th 1691, and was buried in St Mary’s Church, where a monument formerly used to stand to his memory…The Castle has been adapted to modern warfare; but still the ancient keep, curtain walls, and water-gate can plainly be traced. Sir H. Piers in his History of Westmeath, written in 1682, describes the Castle thus, “In the centre of the Castle is a high raised tower which overlooketh the walls and country round it. On the side that faceth the river are the rooms and apartments which served always for the habitation of the Lord President of Connaught and the Governor of the Castle; the middle Castle being the storehouse for ammunition and warlike provisions of all sorts”.’
From The Proceedings and Papers of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. I, Fifth Series (1892)


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Showing What Can be Done


Forty years ago, in 1985, the artist and architectural historian Peter Pearson got in touch with the Congregation of Christian Brothers, a religious order which had come to own Drimnagh Castle, once surrounded by forest but by then almost lost in Dublin suburban housing. In John D’Alton’s History of the County of Dublin (1838), the building is described as occupying ‘a spot of much romantic beauty, overlooking at the east the city and bay, and at north, the Park, Castleknock and Clondalkin, while towards the south the view is bounded by the mountains of the county of Dublin, presenting a dark and solemn aspect, congenial to the decaying splendour of the edifice.’ Alas, the same romantic views are no longer to be found today. The building’s history dates back to 1215 when the lands of Drimnagh and Terenure were granted by King John to Hugh de Berneval and when the latter died without issue, these grants were passed to his brother Reginald, whose descendants, their name eventually becoming Barnewall, came to be one of the most significant families in this part of the country: Raymond Barnewall, 21st Baron Trimlestown died last year and, having no known heirs, so ended one of the oldest Irish titles, dating back to 1461 (see Fallen Out of Use « The Irish Aesthete). The Barnewalls remained in the castle until the first decade of the 17th century when Elizabeth Barnewall, heiress to the property, married a cousin, James Barnewall of Bremore (see A Work in Progress « The Irish Aesthete) after which Drimnagh was let on a 99-year least to Sir Adam Loftus, nephew and namesake of the Archbishop of Dublin who had been responsible for building Rathfarnham Castle just a few miles to the south-east (see A Whiter Shade of Pale « The Irish Aesthete). A century later, however, Drimnagh Castle – like Bremore Castle – was sold to Henry Perry, Earl of Shelburne and so passed into the ownership of the Marquesses of Lansdowne. Both buildings were let to a succession of tenants, in the case of Drimnagh Castle until 1904 when it was bought by a successful dairy farmer and Dublin City councillor, Joseph Hatch. He undertook considerable restoration work on the property, used by his family as a summer residence until the 1950s when it passed into the possession of the Christian Brothers. While the order initially used the castle as a school, they subsequently moved into a purpose-built establishment on the land. As a result, the old building was left unoccupied (except for a collection of fowl kept there by one member of the religious community) and gradually fell into disrepair. Its future looked uncertain and, like so many other old properties in the greater Dublin region, Drimagh Castle might have been lost had not Peter Pearson intervened. 






The evolution of Drimnagh Castle from its origins into what can be seen today is complicated and, on more than one occasion, unclear. As was so often the case, the building likely began as a wooden structure, this in due course replaced by stone. The oldest part of the castle is a stocky keep access to which is through a single, low Gothic door on the east side with a typical murder hole directly above. This entrance leads to an undercroft, notable for retaining reedmarks on its vaulted ceiling; analysis of these might be able to confirm a date for when the keep was constructed. In the 18th century, this space was converted into a kitchen, with the insertion of a number of ovens and a large open fireplace. Stone steps at the north and south ends of the undercroft lead to the great hall immediately above. To the immediate north and rising one storey higher, the tower and gatehouse are thought to have been added in the 16th century. Further substantial changes occurred during the 18th century when many of the building’s windows were made larger so as to bring more light into the rooms. On the east side an external stone staircase was added giving direct access to the great hall through a cut-limestone doorcase. It may be that the moat, a parallelogram and something of a rarity among surviving Irish castles, similarly dates from the 18th century when the property was responsible for a number of mills in the area, their mechanism driven by the water which then fed into the river Camac. In one corner of the grounds is a little square battlemented folly, again likely an addition from the Georgian period: its west face overlooking the moat incorporates a late medieval window and later granite doorcase with arched light above, both of which appear to have come from elsewhere. When the Hatches took over the castle in the early 1900s, they made further changes to the buildings, not least inserting brick pediments above many windows and doors, as well as taking out many of the 18th century sash windows. They also converted a 17th century barn into a set of stables and rebuilt the coach house on the opposite side of the rear courtyard, giving its roofline the same curved gables seen on the castle roofline.






When Peter Pearson first approached the Christian Brothers 40 years ago about undertaking work on Drimnagh Castle, the building was in a pitiful state and looked unlikely to have any viable future. Nevertheless, thanks to a grant of £3,000 from Dublin Corporation and assisted by a number of state and charitable agencies as well as a voluntary local committee, work began on the site in 1986. Writing in the Irish Arts Review three years ago, Pearson has described what followed as employing the Italian concept of restauro: ‘which implies both conservation of existing structure and appropriate replacement of elements beyond repair. It implies an artistic rather than a moralistic approach to giving old buildings new life and it means that there has to be an element of compromise if historic buildings are to live on with new uses.’ It is unlikely that were such a project to be initiated today that such an approach would necessarily be permitted, but had it not been adopted at the time, then most probably Drimnagh Castle would no longer stand today. Inevitably, compromise meant not all features of the building’s history could be represented. The best example of this is the great hall which, in the 18th century, had been split into two reception rooms reached via a panelled staircase. The inevitable question arose: ought this later intervention be retained or should the space be returned to what was believed to have been its original appearance? The latter option was chosen, but this meant a degree of conjecture since so little of the material fabric survived. What can now be seen is to a large extent new, not least the hall’s roof entirely constructed of green Irish oak and assembled on site by trainee carpenters. The same was true of the carved gallery running around the upper level of the gallery; here can be admired portrait effigies of many of those involved in the enterprise (including Pearson) which serve as trusses for the roof. The floor is covered in tiles made for the space and based on original medieval tiles found at Swords Castle, County Dublin (see Palatial « The Irish Aesthete), while the window glass was all made for the hall. Outside, in what had been an empty, neglected area of ground at the back of the site, a formal garden with parterres of box was laid out. Today on lease from the religious order and still dependent on voluntary support for its daily maintenance, Drimnagh Castle is an outstanding example of what can be achieved by persistence, dedication and imagination. As so often, much remains to be done around the building and its grounds, but 40 years after Peter Pearson first proposed the property’s rescue, it continues to deserve accolades and amply repays a visit. 

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A Somewhat Institutional Air



By the late mediaeval period, the lands now occupied by the Castlewellan estate in County Down had come into the possession of the Magennis family. In 1542 Donal Óg Magennis travelled to London where he received a knighthood from Henry VIII at Greenwich Palace. At the time he was living in the area of Castlewellan, and although the precise location of his residence is unknown, it may have been on one of the islands of the lake lying directly below the present castle. In his account of a journey through this part of Ulster in 1602-3, Captain Josias Bodley wrote ‘We now came to the island of Magennis [Castlewellan] where, alighting from our horses, we met Master Morrison, with many others. They had tarried there, at least three hours, expecting our arrival, and in the meantime drank ale and usquebaugh with the Lady Sara, the daughter of Tyrone, and wife of the aforesaid Magennis, a truly beautiful woman. We also drank twice or thrice, and after we had duly kissed her, we each prepared for our journey.’ The beautiful Lady Sara mentioned here was a daughter of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and wife of Sir Arthur Magennis, later created first Viscount Iveagh. During the course of the 17th century and its many upheavals, somehow the Magennises managed to retain their lands at Castlewellan and indeed, descendants of the family remained there until 1741 when penury required that it be offered at public auction, where the freehold was bought by one William Annesley, a Dublin-based barrister and Member of Parliament whose family had already been leasing the property. 





Created first Baron Annesley and later Viscount Glerawly, William Annesley was the great-grandson of Francis Annesley, first Viscount Valentia, who had moved to Ireland in the first decade of the 17th century and was involved in the Ulster Plantations. Three years before buying the Castlewellan estate, William had married Lady Anne Beresford, a daughter of the Earl of Tyrone. Mrs Delany, who knew the couple well (her husband, Dr Patrick Delany, being Dean of Down), wrote ‘’they are very rich and know it, and spend their lives in increasing not enjoying their fortune; but he is a very honest man in all his dealings, still would be more agreeable as well as more useful if he thought less of his possessions. His lady suits him exactly; she does not want sense, and is comical enough in a satirical way.’ The couple made Castlewellan their principal country residence, building a house south-west of the present building, as well as the Grange, an extensive series of outbuildings, most of which still survive: while walking around the estate in 1758, Mrs Delany declared them ‘indeed very fine. Three large courts: round the first, which is arched round a kind of’ piazza, are houses for all his carriages and over them his granaries; the next court are stables and cow houses, and over them haylofts; the third court two such barns as I ncver saw, floored with oak and finished in the most convenient manner for all the purposes of winnowing etc and in that court are the stands for hay and corn.’ What form the main house took is unknown, since it was replaced by Annesley’s heir Francis (created first Earl Annesley in 1789), the new residence being called Castlewellan Cottage, a long single-storey (or single-storey over basement) building with shallow end bows. This remained the family’s home until 1851 when the estate was inherited by William Richard Annesley, the fourth earl, who commissioned a new mansion from the Scottish architect William Burn. The latter’s patron did not have long to enjoy his new residence, however, since he died in 1874 at the age of 44 still unmarried and so both the title and Castlewellan estate accordingly passed to his younger brother, Lt-Col Hugh Annesley, who had hitherto had a career in the army but now settled to live in County Down where he was a pioneering photographer and, like his sibling before him, an ardent gardener (see In Circles « The Irish Aesthete). It was during the second half of the 19th century that Castlewellan’s exceptional arboretum became established, its collection  of some  3,000 species of rare trees, plants and shrubs being among the finest in Ireland. Unfortunately the sixth earl died in 1914 at the age of 30 and responsibility for Castlewellan passed to his eldest sister Lady Mabel Annesley, who in 1927 transferred it to her son Gerald Francis Sowerby (who took the Annesley surname) at the time of his first marriage. He retained the property until 1967 when it was acquired by the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. Two years later the grounds were opened as a forest park, but the house itself remained empty and suffered from a terrorist attack in 1973. It was subsequently leased to a Christian organisation which since then has used the building as a retreat and conference centre





By the time he was commissioned to design Castlewellan, William Burn had already worked for a number of Irish clients, being responsible for the likes of Muckross House, County Kerry (see Institutionalised « The Irish Aesthete) and Bangor Castle, County Down (see Uncertain Future II « The Irish Aesthete). Built at a cost of just over £18,000 and standing on a terrace above the lake with dense woodland to the rear, granite-faced Castlewellan has, as noted by Philip Smith, a somewhat institutional air. The potentially monotonous south-facing five-bay garden front, of three storeys with dormer attic windows, is relieved at either end by a four-stage square tower to the east and a five-stage circular tower to the west, both these carrying bartizans. The west front side shows more variety, with a four-storey gabled bay at the northern end and, attached to this, a slender round turret with pitched roof. There was formerly a conservatory on this side, which may explain the rather odd first-floor bow window found here. The main entrance is on the east side, another stocky square tower with bartizans and battlements. Directly above the doorcase of dressed stone is a tablet carrying the Annesley armorials. Immediately inside the door is a steep flight of stairs, not unlike that found in the Brownslow House, Lurgan (see This Beautiful Mansion « The Irish Aesthete). Unlike the latter property, however, in this instance and stairs lead to a galleried central hall, this space lit by a series of windows on the north side. Off the hall and facing south are the principal reception rooms – drawing room, library and dining room – all with the same Jacobethan ceilings. The library still has its elaborately carved bookcases but otherwise almost all the original decoration, and furnishings, are no longer in the building. The main staircase, located off the west end of the hall, was badly damaged when Castlewellan was bombed in 1973 with the loss of its window’s armorial glass. Upstairs, most of the bedrooms are now used as dormitories for the religious organisation’s retreats. While the present decor may not be to everyone’s taste, it is important to appreciate that the building is being well maintained and kept in good repair, ensuring, unlike so many other such properties in Ireland, that Castlewellan survives into the future.



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Time for a Makeover


The original castle in Belfast is believed to have stood in what is now the centre of the city and may have been constructed by the Normans in the late 12th/early 13th century. A small urban settlement grew up around its walls but the castle was subject to frequent attack and may have been rebuilt on a number of occasions; in the later-medieval period it was held by a branch of the O’Neill family. During the 16th century it was seized and lost on a number of occasions by both the FitzGeralds, Earls of Kildare and by English forces. The Elizabethan adventurer Sir John Chichester, Governor of Carrickfergus Castle, managed to take Belfast Castle in July 1597 but was then killed the following November in a battle against the MacDonnells. It was his brother Sir Arthur Chichester who in 1611, having been gifted Belfast and its surrounding lands by James I, built a new castle, likely on the site of the old one. Dying without an heir, his estates were inherited by a younger brother, Edward, created first Baron and then Viscount Chichester. In turn his son was created Earl of Donegall but again since he had no heir, both estates and titles went sideways to a nephew, Arthur Chichester. The family continued to occupy Belfast Castle until 1708 when it was destroyed by fire, killing three of the fourth earl’s sisters and a servant. It was left a ruin, and the Chichesters left Belfast, not returning for almost a century.





In 1802 Arthur Chichester, the hopelessly indebted second Marquess of Donegall, chose to escape his creditors in England by coming to Belfast, where for a time he rented a house on the corner of what are now Donegall Place and Donegall Square before moving to Ormeau Park. Here he occupied the existing ‘cottage’ but by 1823 had raised sufficient funds to commission a new Tudor-Gothic residence Ormeau House, designed by William Vitruvius Morrison. Following his death in 1844, the property was abandoned by the third marquess, its contents auctioned in 1857 and the house demolished in 1869, the grounds since becoming a public park. By that date, work was well underway on a new Belfast Castle, although this latest iteration was constructed nowhere near its predecessors, instead standing a few miles outside and above the city on the slopes of Cave Hill in the grounds of what had formerly been the family’s deer park. It appears that the project cost considerably more than the sum of £11,000 anticipated by Lord Donegall and that therefore he turned for financial assistance to his son-in-law, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, future eighth Earl of Shaftesbury and husband of the marquess’s only surviving child, Harriet. She therefore inherited what remained of the Chichester estates on her father’s death and these in turn passed to her son, the ninth Earl of Shaftesbury who spent a considerable amount of time in Belfast Castle until 1934 when he gifted the building and demesne to the city of Belfast. A great deal of the latter was subsequently developed as housing but the area around the castle was preserved as a public park. As for the castle, it was used for a variety of activities such as wedding receptions, dances and afternoon teas. The building closed in 1978 for a £2 million refurbishment programme, reopening a decade later, since when it has continued to provide much the same services and facilities as before. 




Largely completed in 1870, Belfast Castle might be considered the ultimate example of Ulster Scots Baronial architecture, aided by its superlative location on sloping ground with views down to the harbour and thence out to sea. The building was designed by the local firm of Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon with John Lanyon, son of the founder Sir Charles Lanyon, now widely accepted as being primarily responsible. Faced in local pink Scrabo sandstone with Grifnock sandstone dressings from Scotland, the castle is a riot of towers and turrets, stepped gables and bracketed oriel windows. The main garden front is distinguished by a serpentine French Renaissance-style stone staircase: designed by an unknown architect, this was added to the building in 1894 by the ninth Earl of Shaftesbury. After the elaborate exterior, the castle’s interiors prove a disappointment, with much of the decoration being mundane in character and looking as though copied by Lanyon from the most uninteresting of pattern books. This may be due to the fact that the enterprise had by then gone over-budget and therefore economies needed to be made. Without question, the best feature is the inner hall, which contains a Jacobean-style carved oak staircase climbing up three sides of the space to a top-lit bedroom gallery on the floor above. Unfortunately a bar has been inserted into the base of the staircase and this epitomises the castle’s current furnishing, which displays all the flair of a provincial hotel: decor by Basil Fawlty. Ugly light fittings, ill-placed pictures and tired seating don’t help. While the gardens of Belfast Castle appear to receive ample attention, its rooms are badly in need of another, and more considered, makeover. 


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Boldly and Picturesquely Seated



‘Dundrum Castle is usually supposed to have been erected for the Knights Templar by the renowned Sir John de Courcey, and that powerful body possessed it till the abolition of the order in the year 1313. It was afterwards granted to the Prior of Down, who held it, with a small manor adjoining, till the final suppression of religious orders; and the reversion of this house and manor, with the yearly rent of 6l. 13s. 6d. reserved out of it, was granted to Gerald, Earl of Kildare.’
From the Dublin Penny Journal, No.36, Vol.1, March 2 1833.





‘This Castle was granted to the family of Magennis; on their forfeiture, it became the property of the Earl of Ardglass, and afterwards was in the possession of the Lord Viscount Blundell; the ruins are of an irregular multangular ſorm, with a fine round tower, which is about thirty-five feet diameter in the inside.”  Thus far Mr. Archdall. In addition to which, Harris says, “When the Castle was in repair it often proved a good guard to the pass, and as often an offensive neighbour to the English planted in Lecale, according to the hands that possessed it. Anno 1517, the Earl of Kildare, then Lord Deputy, marched into Lecale, and took it by storm; it being garriſoned at that time by the Irish, who had driven out the English ſome time before. It was again possessed and repaired by the Magennises, and re-taken by the Lord Deputy Gray, with seven castles more in Lecale, anno 1538. lt afterwards got into the hands of Phelim McEver Magennis, who was obliged to yield it to the Lord Mountjoy on the 16th of June in the year 1601, It met with another fate during the progress of the war of 1641, when it was demolished by the order of Cromwell, though then garrisoned by Protestants, and has ever since been suffered to run entirely to ruin.’
From The Antiquities of Ireland, Vol.1 by Francis Grose (1791)





‘The old Castle of Dundrum, boldly and picturesquely seated on a high rock covered with verdure, commanded in the ages of warfare the entrance to the harbour — if to the inner Bay, or rather the estuary of the Blackstaff Water, the appellation may be applied. This was considered one of the finest castles erected by the first Anglo-Norman adventurers; and its ivy-mantled ruins contribute materially to the strikingly romantic features of the landscape. These ruins consist of a great circular keep or tower, with detached fragments of towers, and ruins of other outworks, and a barbican. At a little distance southward of the castle are the mouldering remains of a large mansion, partly a fortalice and partly a dwelling-house of the sort in use in the sixteenth century. From these ruins we command a wider sweep of the magnificent scenery described at Newcastle.’
From A Picturesque Handbook to Carlingford Bay by Robert Greer (1846)


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Coming to a Bad End



After Monday’s tale of Barryscourt Castle, here is another property that formerly belonged to the once-mighty Barry family: Buttevant Castle, County Cork. Thought to date back to the early 13th century, this would have been one of their first strongholds but in due course they moved their principal residence elsewhere and Buttevant fell into decline. As indeed did the Barrys. In the late 18th century the penultimate Earl of Barrymore, a close friend of the Prince of Wales, was a notorious rake, gambler and bare-knuckle boxer. His wild ways gained him the nickname of Hellgate while his younger brother Henry, who inherited the title after his sibling’s death at the age of 23, had a clubfoot and accordingly was called Cripplegate. Meanwhile, the third sibling Augustus, despite being an Anglican clergyman, became so addicted to gambling that he was known as Newgate, supposedly because this was the only debtors’ prison in which he had not spent time. And the trio’s only sister, Lady Caroline Barry, swore with such frequency and proficiency that she was called Billingsgate, after the foul-mouthed fishwives of that market. Between the four of them, they managed to dissipate their once-great estates in Ireland, including the extensive lands around Buttevant Castle, which was bought by Scottish entrepreneur John Anderson, whose son gave the building its present appearance around 1810. Occupied until the start of the last century, it was then abandoned and has since fallen into a ruinous state.



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