Killala Castle, Killala, Co Mayo – lost
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. 169. “(Bourke/LGI1904) The Palace of the C of I Bishops of Killala, a tall plain three storey “L” shaped building with a gable-ended tower-like block at the end of one of its arms. The entrance door, near the angle of the two arms, was fanlighted, with some blocking, and flanked by two small side-lights. The castle was said to be ruinous 1787, but some repairs to it were arried out 1796 when, presumably, one of the arms was given its Wyatt windows. Soon afterwards the scholarly Bishop Joseph Stock came into residence, and a few months later (August 1798) the French landed at Killala. The castle was occupied by General Humbert and 300 French troops in 1798; but they treated the Bishop and his family with courtesy and consideration, leaving them undisturbed on the top floor, where the Bishop’s library and three principal bedrooms were situated. When Bishop James Verschoyle died 1834, the See of Killala was joined to that of Tuam, and Killala Castle ceased to be the episcopal residence (for the present residence, see Knockglass, Co Mayo); it then became a warehouse, and was demolished 1950 to make room for a housing estate.”
Letters from Georgian Ireland: The Correspondence of Mary Delany 1731-68.
Ed. Angelique Day, foreward by Sybil Connolly. The Friar’s Bush Press, Belfast, UK, 1991.
p. 125. 21 June 1732, “Killala is a very pretty spot of ground; the house old, and indifferent enough, the sea so near us, that we can see it out of our window; the garden, which is laid out entirely for use, is pretty – a great many shady walks and full-grown forest trees. The Bishop has added a field, and planted it in very good taste; there are abundance of green hills on one side of the garden, on the other a fine view of the Bay, and main ocean behind it, and several pleasant islands.
One day Miss Don, Miss Forth, Mr Crofton, Mr Lloyd, and your Penny [her own nickname], mounted their horses to take the air! We rode very pleasantly for a mile by a sweet river, were caught in a smart shower of rain, took shelter in a cabin as I described to you some time ago. The master of it, the greatest bear that ever walked erect on two legs, his wife little better and that man is absolutely worth two thousand pounds a year; “muck is his darling”; poor miserable wretch! But, however, he had hospitality to receive us as civilly as his sort of manners would allow, made a good fire, and his wife gave us tea; the sky cleared, we took our leave, and returned home wisely moralising all the way and condemning the sordidness of the wretch we left behind us….. Monday we made visits to some of the townspeople. Tuesday we had a very clever expedition, the Bishop and I in a chaise, Mrs Clayton, Phill, and Miss Forth on [p. 126] horseback…. We went to a place about five miles off where the salmon fishery is [river Moy], the house put me in mind of Redgate [on the Fowey river near Liskeard] in Cornwall… We saw the river drawn as we stood in the garden, and a whole net full caught of salmon and trout. It was very good sport, but what was best of all, those salmon were dressed for our dinner, and we reglated very plentifully…Today we dined at Mr Palmer’s [Carrowmore House], a gentleman that lives a mile off, the only very agreeable neighbour we have; he is a very good sort of man, has a handsome fortune, his wife a civil, gentle, agreeable woman; they are very fond of one another, but both very melancholy in their dispositions; they were married some time and had no children, at last she had one son, which is so great a darling and so much spoiled, that I believe she’ll repent of her wishing so earnestly as she did for a son….” [they work in Killala on a shell grotto]. [she also writes in an entertaining manner of Killala fair day.]
[note that the Bishop is Robert Clayton, relative of Mary Delany’s friend Anne Donnellan. P. 24, Ed.Robert Clayton became bishop of Killala and Achonry in 1730, commissioned Richard Cassels to build a mansion in 1730 on the south side of Stephen’s Green. Note,
http://www.ballyd.com/history/annedonnellan.htm
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Irish Historic Houses 