Renville Hall, Oranmore, 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. 241. “(Athy/LGI1912; Hemphill, B/PB) a two storey late Georgian house built 1812 for P.E.L. Athy…Bought 1944 after the death of Mrs G Crofts, nee Athy, by P.D. Daly, who sold it to the 5th and present Lord Hemphill; he in turn sold it 1961. Burnt 1976.”
https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/2016/09/229-athy-alias-lynch-athy-of-renville.html
Athy (alias Lynch-Athy) of Renville
The Athy family were settled in Galway from at least the 15th century, and were one of the Catholic merchant families collectively known as the ‘tribes of Galway’, who ran the town’s affairs. In 1639 Francis Athy was sheriff of Galway, and he must have been a Protestant, at least on paper, to have been selected for office. During the Irish rebellion in the 1640s, however, Galway’s citizens ejected the Protestant garrison which had been quartered in the town, and it seems probable that Athy’s sympathies remained Catholic. In the late 17th century several members of the family emigrated to Maryland (USA) in search of greater religious toleration. It is not quite clear how Edmund Athy, with whom the genealogy below begins, was related to the earlier Athys of Galway. His father, Andrew Athy, lived at Beleek (Mayo), and had been a soldier in the Catholic army of King James II in 1689-90, but he was almost certainly connected to the earlier Athys of Galway. In the early 18th century Edmund married Margaret Lynch, the daughter and heiress of Philip Lynch of Renville Castle at Oranmore, just outside Galway town. The Renville estate passed into the control of the Athy family, and Edmund and Margaret may have been responsible for alterations and additions to the medieval tower-house after they gained possession. The subsequent routine use by their descendants over many generations, of Lynch as a final forename, particularly for the heirs to the estate, led in the 19th century to the surname of the family being commonly given as Lynch-Athy (with or without a hyphen).
The old Renville Castle remained the seat of Edmond’s son, Philip Lynch Athy (d. 1774) and his grandson, Edmond Lynch Athy (c.1752-1807). In 1807 the estate passed to Philip Edmond Lynch-Athy (c.1778-1840), who built a new three-bay two-storey house on the estate in about 1820. At this time the family seem to have been prominent among the Catholic gentry of the west of Ireland and Philip (d. 1840) joined O’Connell’s Catholic Association in 1829. His eldest son having predeceased him, Renville passed in 1840 to his second son, Randal Edmond Lynch Athy (1814-75), who was educated at Downside and married an English woman, Margaret Buckle. The family had more English connections after this time, but their focus of attention remained firmly in Ireland: Edmond Joseph Philip Lynch-Athy (1859-1935) was Sheriff of Galway in 1904. The family had over several generations married late and produced only small numbers of surviving children. Edmond’s only child was a daughter, Muriel Pauline Annette Lynch-Athy (1883-1943), who married a local farmer, Christopher Crofts (1878-1946) and seems to have lived at Renville. After her death, however, the house would appear to have been abandoned and the estate sold, and the ruins of Renville are today an even more extensively ivy-clad ruin than the medieval castle which it replaced.
Irish Historic Houses 