Mount Druid, Castlerea, Co Roscommon
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. 213. “(O’Conor/LGI1912) A Georgian house consisting of a three storey three bay centre with two storey one bay wings extending back, one of them having two small curved bows in its side elevation. C19 enclosed porch with thin pilasters.”
Castellated former stable yard, built c.1820, with projecting entrance bay incorporating segmental-headed entrance and bellcote. Corner towers to front elevation. Random coursed walls with crenellated parapet supported by corbels. Square-headed door openings with limestone lintel interrupted by keystone. Two-storey outbuildings in yard with half-hipped slate roof and roughcast-rendered walls. Square-headed window and door openings and bull’s eye windows to upper floor.
Appraisal
The stable yard at Mount Druid House is a curious structure hidden away up a rural lane near Ballygare. Mount Druid survives to the west of the stable yard as a modest two-storey farm house while the crenellated yard is a reminder of the more affluent past of the house and estate. Similar to the yard at Loughglynn Convent, the nineteenth-century crenellation to the walls convey a fortress like atmosphere.
http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-list.jsp?letter=M
Denis O’Conor’s house at Mount Druid, barony of Castlereagh, was valued at £35 at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. In 1814 and 1837 the house was the seat of Matthew O’Conor. Slater refers to it as the seat of Charles M. O’Conor in 1894. A modest house survives at the site of Mount Druid but the stable yard remains are more elaborate. Fine trees still exist in the former demesne land.
Irish Historic Houses 