Castle Ffrench, Ahascragh, Co Galway 

Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.

p. 67. “(Ffrench, B/PB) An elegant ashlar-faced house of three storeys over a basement, built in 1779 for Sir Charles ffrench, Mayor of Galway; replacing a late C17 house on a different site which itself replaced a castle built by the ffrench family soon after they bought the estate in late C16. 
 
Five-bay entrance front with three-bay breakfront, the outer bays being very wide. Fanlighted and pilastered doorcase; solid roof parapet with urns. Three bay side, with a four-bay rear elevation with twin round-headed windows in the centre, lighting the main and secondary staircases. Interior plasterwork of a style characteristic to County Galway, with delicate naturalistic foliage and flower swags. Foliage and trophies on ceiling of hall; Irish harps and other emblems in drawing room frieze; flowers, foliage and birds in sideboard alcove of dining room. Doors and shutters of handsome joinery, with ocagonal and lozenge-shaped panels. Slightly curving staircase behind hall with balustrade of plain slender wooden uprights. Early in C19, 2nd Lord  ffrench lost a considerable amount of money as a result of the negligence of the manager of the family bank; and the family fortune suffered a further blow with the Famine, when the 3rd Baron refused to collect any rents from his tenants; so that in 1848 Castle ffrench had to be sold. 
 
It was, however, re-purchased by the parents of the 6th Baron [as Lord Belmont writes, or as Bence-Jones writes, 7^th Lord French] in 1919.” 

http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2019/10/castle-ffrench.html