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*Lissadell House and Gardens County Sligo Ireland, Photograph created by Peter McCabe, Tourism Ireland, 2015, taken from Ireland’s Content Pool care of Failte Ireland.* *This south elevation, facing the sea, has a three-bay central bow with a raised parapet and three-bays either side of the full height bow.*

We visited Lissadell during Heritage Week 2022. I had been looking forward to seeing it as it has some amazing internal Classical architecture. It is most famous as the birthplace of Constance Markievicz, née Gore-Booth, the first woman senator in Ireland and fighter in the 1916 uprising, and also more recently as the host of a concert of Leonard Cohen. It was only sold out of the Gore-Booth family in 2004.

*Studio portrait of Countess Constance Markievicz (née Gore-Booth) in uniform with a gun, photograph courtesy of National Library of Ireland Ref. KE 82*

It was built in 1830-35 for Robert Gore-Booth (1805-1876), 4th Baronet, to the Greek Revival design of Manchester architect Francis Goodwin (1784-1835). It replaced an earlier house nearer the shore which itself replaced an old castle. It is a nine-bay two-storey over basement house built of Ballisodare limestone. [1]

The entrance front (north) elevation has a three-bay pedimented central projection flanked by three-bay side sections. When one approaches on the path one can see that the lower storey is open to the east and west to form a porte-cochere. The house was described by Maurice Craig as being ‘…distinguished more by its solidity than by its suavity and more by its literary associations than by either.’ I find the crafted stone and the massive squareness of it beautiful.

The east elevation which faces the sea has a five-bay central section between two-bay projections. The five-bay section contains a three-bay central breakfront with tall framing pilasters. Above the upper floor windows is a stepped stone feature that runs around three sides of the house.

Other former residents of the house deserve to be as famous as Constance.

Dermot James in his book The Gore-Booths of Lissadell tells us that the Gore-Booths are descended from Paul Gore of Manor Gore, County Donegal. He was MP for Ballyshannon in Donegal, and was created 1st Baronet Gore, of Magherabegg, County Donegal in 1621/22. He married a niece of the 1st Earl of Strafford, Isabella Wickliffe.

Paul Gore of Manor Gore had seven sons, and all married well. His oldest son, Ralph, 2nd Baronet, became the ancestor of the earls of Rosse, who are in Birr Castle [another section 482 property I visited]. Arthur, the second son, became the ancestor of the Earls of Arran, a family that subsequently inherited the very large Saunders Court estate near Ferrycarrig in County Wexford. He was MP for County Mayo and became 1st Baronet Gore, of Newtown Gore, Co. Mayo. A third son, Henry, married the eldest daughter of Robert Blaney of Monaghan and was the ancestor of the earls of Kingston. Two further sons settled in County Kilkenny, giving the family name to Goresbridge, and the seventh son settled in County Mayo and, according to a memorial tablet in Killala Cathedral, married Ellinor St. George of Carrick, County Leitrim, and he died at his residence, Newtown Gore, later named Castle Gore and Deel Castle, near Killala, County Mayo in 1697.

The fourth son, Francis Gore (1612-1712), lived in Ardtarman, County Sligo, which still stands and has been renovated for habitation and self-catering accommodation. [2]

The front door is under the tall porte-cochere, which has a curved painted ceiling and massive wooden doors.

Francis Gore married Anne Parke of Parkes Castle in Leitrim – see my entry on OPW sites in Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo: https://irishhistorichouses.com/2022/10/31/office-of-public-works-properties-in-connaught-counties-leitrim-mayo-roscommon-and-sligo/

Dermot James tells us that Francis managed to keep on good terms with both the Cromwellians and Royalists during the Civil War, avoiding an engagement with either cause. After the Restoration of Charles II, he was rewarded with grants of land in Sligo, Mayo and Kilkenny, and in 1661 he was knighted and also became M.P. for Sligo. He settled at Ardtarmon, two miles west of Lissadell. He fought for the crown in Lieutenant-Colonel Coote’s Regiment.

Francis and Anne had a son, Robert (1645-1720). He married Frances Newcomen and they had a son, Nathaniel (1692-1737). He married Letitia (or Lettice) Booth, only daughter and heiress of Humphrey Booth, of Dublin. [3] She must have inherited quite a bit since later generations added her surname “Booth” to their surname. In fact, the prosperous Booth estates in the English midlands were added to the Sligo property.

Robert and Lettice named their son “Booth” (1712-1773). In 1760 Booth Gore was created 1st Baronet Gore of Lissadell, County Sligo.

Booth married Emilia Newcomen, daughter of Brabazon Newcomen, and they had several children. Their first son, also named Booth, who became 2nd Baronet, died unmarried, and his brother Robert Newcomen inherited and added Booth to his surname in 1804, when he succeeded as the 3rd Baronet.

Robert Newcomen Gore-Booth inherited in his 60s, and only then married Hannah Irwin from Streamstown, County Sligo (ninety years later this property became part of the Gore-Booth estate). Their daughter Anne married Robert King, 6th Earl of Kingston, son of the 1st Viscount Lorton.

The eldest son, Robert (1805-1876) became the 4th Baronet, and he built the house at Lissadell which we see now. He was Lord Lieutenant for County Sligo and also MP for Sligo.

The 4th Baronet married Caroline King, daughter of Robert Edward King, 1st Viscount Lorton, whom we came across in King House in County Roscommon. Sadly, she died the following year in 1828. Two years later he married Caroline Susan Goold, daughter of Thomas Goold (or Gould). Her sister Augusta married Edwin Richard Wyndham-Quin, 3rd Earl of Dunraven, of Adare Manor in Limerick.

According to Dermot James, “Henry Coulter described Lissadell before Robert inherited the estate as ‘wild and miserable and poor looking.’ But within a few decades Sir Robert had demonstrated ‘the immense improvement which may be made in the appearance of the country and the quality of the soil by the judicious expenditure of capital.’ Coulter continued, considering the estate to be “one of the most highly cultivated and beautiful in the United Kingdom… If the excellent example set by Sir Robert Booth as a resident country gentleman – living at home and devoting himself to the improvement of his property – were more generally followed by Irish landlords then indeed the cry of distress which is so often raised… would never more be heard, even in the west of Ireland.” [Henry Coulter, The West of Ireland published 1862]. [4]

Robert was in situ at the time of the Great Famine in the 1840s. He did send some tenants to North America, and was later criticised for the evictions, but on the whole he was a generous landlord. He ran a soup kitchen and provided seed for crops. When his first wife Caroline died the Sligo Journal called her “a ministering angel among the people, her charitie was unbounded and her exertions to relieve the wants and sufferings of the distressed excited the admiration of all classes” when “the dark clouds of pestilence and death covered the land.”

Dermot James writes: “If the exterior of Lissadell House is seen by some to be disappointingly plain, Goodwin’s design ensured that the entrance to the interior is all the more unexpected and dramatic. The visitor is met by a spectacularly high entrance hall decorated with Doric and Ionic columns from which there is an impressive staircase in Kilkenny marble with cast iron balustrade leading to the building’s most important feature, the great gallery, lit by sky-lights high above. On Goodwin’s plans, the gallery is marked as the music room, reflecting one of Sir Robert’s tastes, where an organ was installed. In the main, the house then remained largely unaltered for more than a century and a half.“

Mark Bence-Jones describes the entrance stair hall in his Guide to Irish Country Houses (1988) as a lofty two storey hall, partly top-lit, with square Doric columns below and Ionic columns above and double staircase of Kilkenny marble.

*In his book* Irish Big Houses, *Terence Reeves-Smyth alerts us to the winged birds in the iron balusters of the staircase.*

*For more photographs of this wonderful hall and gallery see the entry by Robert O’Byrne.* [5]

In the book Great Irish Houses, with forewards by Desmond FitzGerald, and Desmond Guinness published by IMAGE Publications in 2008, we are told that the scale of the stair hall is such that, unusually, a large fireplace was added to the return landing. The iron balusters are adorned with golden eagles.

Sir Robert took an interest also in the garden and Lord Palmerston of nearby Classiebawn would send him seeds from overseas. He sold some of the property in England and expanded his property in Ireland.

Dermot James tells us that when serving as MP Robert went regularly to London and brought his family and also servants. His servant Kilgallon wrote about the packing up: “They took all the silver plate. It was quite a business packing all up. They had boxes specially made for them. The housekeeper did not go as there was a housekeeper for the London house, a Mrs Tigwell. They took the first and second housemaids, house steward, groom chambers, under butler, and first and second footmen and steward’s room boy. All the other servants were put on board [reduced] wages [but] they were allowed milk and vegetables.” [6]

Kilgallon also described some details about how the Lissadell household was then being run, which is described by Dermot James: “The servants were managed by the house steward, Mr Ball, who engaged all the servants, paid their wages, and dismissed them when necessary. His duties included ordering all the wine for the house and acting as wine waiter at dinners. Ball supervised a small army of footmen, grooms, maids, etc. The groom chambers carved, and with the footmen, waited at all meals, despatched the post, opened the newspapers and ironed them. Their other duties included attending the hall door and polishing the furniture in the main rooms. One of the footmen was also the under-butler who kept the dinner silver in order and laid the dinner table, making sure that plates intended to be hot were kept warm in a special iron cupboard heated by charcoal kept outside the dining room door.”

The maids had to be up at 4am to prepare for carrying hot water to the bedrooms. There was a cook, pastry cook, kitchen maid, scullery maid and some kitchen boys. Kilgallon describes the meals, serving order and seating, and entertainment – there was a small dance in the servants hall once or twice a week, with beer and whiskey punch provided!

Henry William Gore-Booth (1843-1900) inherited in 1876 and became the 5th Baronet. He held the offices of High Sheriff of County Sligo, Deputy Lieutenant of County Sligo and Justice of the Peace for County Sligo. He was also a keen fisherman and Arctic explorer.

His sister Fanny Stella married Owen Wynne of nearby Hazelwood, County Sligo (which was designed by Richard Cassells and was recently owned by Lough Gill Distillery, until sold to American alcohol company Sazerac, which plans to save the house from dereliction).

From the entrance hall, we were brought by the tour guide into the Billiards Room full of Gore-Booth memorabilia, including Henry’s fishing equipment. Kilgallon stayed on for the next generation, and he accompanied Henry the 5th Baronet on all of his fishing adventures and Arctic explorations. Kilgallon became Sir Henry’s personal valet as well as his close companion and confidant. At one point he saved Henry from an attacking bear, and the bear was then stuffed and brought back to Lissadell. It used to stand in the front hall, alarming arriving guests!

*Kilgallon*, *with young Angus Gore-Booth.*

The original wallpaper has been replaced by David Skinner, an expert on wallpapers of the great houses of Ireland, with hand-blocked period copies.

It is said that Sir Henry’s wife Georgina built the artificial lake at Lissadell in the vain hope that he might stay at home and fish in it, but as the harpoons and whale bones in the billiard room testify, Sir Henry continued to travel.

Robert was President of the Sligo Agricultural Society, and he and his eldest son founded three co-operative societies in the area. He also took over the Sligo Shirt Factory to prevent it from closing and made it flourish again. He was also involved in mining locally, and played a role in setting up the railway connecting Sligo with Enniskillen, subsequently becoming the company’s chairman. He also continued the oyster fishery his father had set up – his father was one of the pioneers in creating artificial oyster beds. Henry married Georgina Mary Hill, daughter of Colonel John Hill of Tickhill Castle, Yorkshire.

*Henry Gore-Booth, 5th Baronet*, *by Sarah Purser*.

*Georgina, Lady Gore-Booth, née Hill, by Sarah Purser.*

Upstairs is the music gallery. Mark Bence-Jones describes it as a vast apse-ended gallery (an apse is an area with curved walls at the end of a building, usually at the the east end of a church), lit by a clerestory (a clerestory is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level) and skylights, with engaged Doric piers along one side, and Ionic columns along the other. It was hard to capture in a photograph since we were on a tour.

In Great Irish Houses, forewards by Desmond FitzGerald and Desmond Guinness, we are told that the gallery is 65 foot long. It still has its original Gothic chamber organ, which was made by Hull of Dublin in 1812 and is pumped by bellows in the basement! Two Grecian gasoliers by William Collins, a renowned Regency maker of chandeliers, hang on chains from the ceiling. As late as 1846 Lissadell generated gas from its own gasometer.

Lissadell was the first house in Ireland to be lit by its own gas supply. This was produced in a plant installed by Sir Robert about a quarter of a mile to the west of the mansion, complete with a house for the manager in charge of the works.

A team led by Kevin Smith, from the internationally renowned Windsor House Antiques of London, undertook the major task of restoring the gasoliers.

*A Grecian gasolier by William Collins, a renowned Regency maker of chandeliers*.

*Unusual, the gallery has Ionic pillars on one side and Doric pillars on the other side.*

*The original Gothic chamber organ, which was made by Hull of Dublin in 1812 and is pumped by bellows in the basement.*

The 4th Baronet and Georgina Mary Hill had five children. The eldest son, Josslyn (1869-1944) was to inherit the property. There was a younger son, Mordaunt, and three daughters, Constance, Eva and Mabel.

It was with Josslyn that Henry William set up the co-operatives. When Josslyn was young, he had socialist ideals, much like his sisters Eva and Constance. He joined Horace Plunkett in his efforts to help the farmers to help themselves, by cutting out the middle man. It took a while for farmers to trust the motivation of Plunkett and Gore-Booth in setting up the co-operatives, thinking that “no good thing could come from a man who was at once a Protestant, a landlord and a Unionist.” Catholic priests even denounced the co-operatives as a “Protestant plot.” Eventually, however, they flourished, and helped the farmers.

Josslyn continued to develop the estate, so that it became one of the most progressive and best run in Ireland.

Josslyn was a keen gardener and plant breeder. At Lissadell he established one of the finest horticultural enterprises in Europe. By 1906, his gardens provided employment for more than 200 people. The head gardener, Joseph Sangster, became head gardener of the Royal Horticultural Society in England. An advocate of land reform, he let more than 1000 tenants buy out 28,000 acres of the property under the Wyndham Land Act of 1903. The final payments under the scheme were not received until the 1970s. Until he died in 1944, the estate was famous the world over for its varieties of old and new flowers. [7] The current owners are working to re-establish the gardens.

Next we enter a room that is in the bow of the house, and features in a poem by W. B. Yeats. Mark Bence-Jones tells us:

“The rather monumental sequence of hall and gallery leads to a lighter and more intimate bow room with windows facing towards Sligo Bay – the windows Yeats had in mind when he wrote, in his poem on Eva Gore-Booth and her sister, Constance Markievizc:

“The light of evening, Lissadell

Great windows open to the South.”

This room, and all other principal receptions rooms, have massive marble chimney-pieces in the Egyptian taste. The ante-room has a striped wallpaper of lovely faded rose.”

“In memory of Eva Gore Booth and Constance Markiewicz” This is the first part of this poem:

The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.

But a raving autumn shears
Blossom from the summer’s wreath;
The older is condemned to death,
Pardoned, drags out lonely years
Conspiring among the ignorant.
I know not what the younger dreams –
Some vague Utopia – and she seems,
When withered old and skeleton-gaunt,
An image of such politics.

Many a time I think to seek
One or the other out and speak
Of that old Georgian mansion, mix
pictures of the mind, recall
That table and the talk of youth,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.”

*Photographs of the Gore-Booths are taken from the Sterry family album, purchased for the Lissadell collection in 2007.* *It shows Constance in her early 20s.*

Constance went to art school in the Slade School of Art in London 1892-1894. She lived in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where many of London’s bohemians and writers gathered: George Eliot had lived there, Whistler, Henry James and Erskine Childers. At the age of 25 went to Paris to continue her studies, and met and married a fellow artist, the Polish Casimir Markievicz. Many of Constance’s paintings still hang on the walls, as well as some work by Casimir. Their only child, Maeve Allys, was born in Lissadell in 1901.

*Constance Gore-Booth (left) and her sister, Eva, in 1895*.

Painting of Countess Markievicz (1868-1927) by Casimir Markievicz (1874-1932), hanging in the National Gallery of Ireland. Constance Gore-Booth studied art in London and Paris, and in 1900 married Count Markievicz-Dunin, a Polish aristocrat.

Constance had a strong social conscience, and became involved in the 1913 Lockout, where workers went on strike for better pay. She was then involved in the 1916 Rising, and was jailed for her activity. When the new state was born, she was elected to Dáil Eireann, where she served as Minister for Labour. She was also the first woman to be elected to the House of Commons at Westminster, London, but like many other Irish politicians, she declined to take her seat – members of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland continue in this tradition and refuse to take their seats in Westminster.

Eva was a suffragist and poet, and lived in meagre circumstances in England with her partner Esther Roper.

Eva fought for Women’s Rights and clashing with the young Winston Churchill over barmaids’ rights in 1908. She spent many years in Manchester working to alleviate the condition of working women.

Eva wrote:

The little waves of Breffny

The grand road from the mountain goes shining to the sea
And there is traffic on it and many a horse and cart,
But the little roads of Cloonagh are dearer far to me
And the little roads of Cloonagh go rambling through my heart.

A great storm from the ocean goes shouting o’er the hill,
And there is glory in it; and terror on the wind:
But the haunted air of twilight is very strange and still,
And the little winds of twilight are dearer to my mind.

The great waves of the Atlantic sweep storming on their way,
Shining green and silver with the hidden herring shoal;
But the little waves of Breffny have drenched my heart in spray,
And the little waves of Breffny go stumbling through my soul.

*The drawing room with its rose pink wallpaper* *and a beautiful painting by Constance over the fireplace.*

*An ornate Italian marble fireplace, set with an “horloge,” dominates one wall.*

*The clock features the signs of the zodiac.*

There is also a collection of paintings by a friend of W.B. Yeats, “A.E.” i.e. George William Russell, who was also part of the farming Co-operative movement and, like Yeats, a mystic.

The anteroom still has an engraving that Constance made with her sister Mabel in a windowpane with a diamond in 1898. Drawings from Constance’s sketchbook are displayed also.

*This little boy is the son of Casimir Markievicz, from Casimir’s first marriage, before he married Constance.*

I had been particularly looking forward to seeing the dining room as I had seen pictures of it before and it has rather eccentric paintings which I love! Again, it was hard to take photographs because the room was crowded with the tour. Casimir painted portraits onto the pillars. He painted some of the servants, including Kilgallon. The bear shot by Kilgallon stands now beside his portrait.

*The bear shot by Kilgallon stands now beside his portrait.*

Next we went down to the basement, which holds the old kitchen and a warren of corridors.

*I’m not sure who this is or why she is wearing such a peculiar hat – if you know, let me know!*

*We did not get to linger in this room, unfortunately. The current owner of the house, Edward Walsh, is interested in military history.*

*Tunnels were built for hiding the workings of the house, deliveries and the servants.*

The long tunnel provides access to a sunken courtyard and the coach house and stable block, which was one of the largest in Ireland. This limestone complex of stables, tack rooms, grain stores and rooms once for staff and guests is now almost completely restored. Today it houses tea rooms, a gallery for exhibitions and lecture rooms.

In the 20^th century the family fortunes took a turn for the worse. Constance and Eva died in their 50s. Constance died in 1927 and Eva in 1926.

In June 1927 Constance fell seriously ill. She was admitted to a public ward in Sir Patrick Dun’s hospital (at her own insistence). She had peritonitis, and although she had surgery, it was too late. Constance Markievicz died at 1:25 a.m. on the morning of 15th July, 1927. She was attended by her husband, Casimir. Her brother, Sir Josslyn Gore Booth, had received daily bulletins from the Matron, and immediately arranged to attend the funeral in Dublin.

Her brother Josslyn would have preferred a private, family funeral, but this was not to be. In death Constance Markievicz was even more openly appreciated and acclaimed than in life. Three hundred thousand people attended the funeral to pay tribute to “the friend of the toiler, the lover of the poor”, the words of Eamon de Valera, who delivered the funeral oration, and with whom she had founded the Fianna Fáil Party.

Two of Josslyn’s sons, Hugh and Brian, were killed in WWII. Hugh, the younger brother, studied estate management in England to run the estate. Brian joined the Navy. The third son, Michael, suffered from mental illness that made him incapable of running the family estate. Josslyn was still alive at this stage, and his four daughters continued to live on the estate – three of them never married. When their father died in 1944, the government assumed responsibility for the administration of the estate when Sir Josslyn’s eldest son was made a ward of the court after a nervous breakdown. Gabrielle took over the responsibility of running the estate at the age of just 26. [8] There was a youngest son also, Angus Josslyn, who succeeded as 8th Baronet. When Gabrielle died, Aideen took over the estate. For decades, the family struggled to maintain the house and the gardens became neglected and overgrown.

The family migrated to live in the bow-room and a small suite of rooms behind when the family of Gore-Booth siblings were living in near poverty in the 1960s and 70s, when the remainder of the house was uninhabited.

During this time the estate went into sharp decline, resulting in the felling of much fine woodland and the compulsory sale in 1968 of 2,600 acres by the Land Commission, leaving only 400 acres around the house.

Terence Reeves-Smyth tells us in Irish Big Houses: “The Lissadell estate had fallen into decline after the death of Josslyn Gore Booth in 1944. Indeed, writing about Lissadell for the Sunday Times around forty years ago, the BBC’s Anne Robinson observed that “the garden is overgrown, the greenhouses are shattered and empty, the stables beyond repair, the roof of the main block leaks badly and the paintings show patches of mildew.” It also featured in the documentary “The Raj in the Rain.”

In 2003 Lissadell was put on the market by the 9th Baronet, Josslyn Henry Robert Gore-Booth (b. 1950), son of Angus the 8th Baronet. You can listen to his memories of Lissadell online, part of the Irish Life and Lore series. [9] It was purchased by Edward Walsh and his wife Constance Cassidy, to become home for them and their seven children.

In the Image publication Great Irish Houses we are told that Edward and his wife Constance commissioned David Clarke, an architect with Moloney O’Beirne, to prepare a conservation plan and restoration of the house began in 2004. Assistance and expert advice was received from Laurence Manogue, a consultant to Sligo County Council. [10]

The Image publications book tells us that there has been a great focus on the gardens, with regeneration of the flower and pleasure gardens. The alpine nurseries with its “revetment walls” (limestone and sandstone), terraces, and ornamental ponds had been neglected for half a century. Now the gardens are cleared and the orchards and two-acre kitchen garden have been reseeded. The plan, in many ways, is to resurrect the horticultural enterprise of Henry and Josslyn Gore Booth. Thirty-eight of an original seventy-eight daffodil narcissus cultivars developed by Sir Josslyn are now back in the ground at Lissadell.

There is an extensive museum in the Cafe building, with areas dedicated to Constance Markievicz and W. B. Yeats.

[1] https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/32400813/lissadell-house-lissadill-co-sligo

[2] https://www.ardtarmoncastle.com/

[3] http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/search/label/County%20Sligo%20Landowners

[4] p. 11. James, Dermot. The Gore-Booths of Lissadell. Published by Woodfield, 2004

[5] https://theirishaesthete.com/2021/11/22/lissadell/

[6] p. 40, James.

[7] p. 214, Great Irish Houses. Foreward by Desmond FitgGerald, Desmond Guinness. IMAGE Publications, 2008.

[8] For more about Gabrielle and her struggle to manage the estate, see https://lissadellhouse.com/countess-markievicz/gore-booth-family/gabrielle-gore-booth/

[9] https://www.irishlifeandlore.com/product/sir-josslyn-gore-booth-b-1950-part-1/

This collection includes Patrick Annesley b. 1943 speaking about Annes Grove in County Cork; Valerie Beamish-Cooper b. 1934; Bryan and Rosemarie Bellew of Barmeath Castle County Louth; Charles and Mary Cooper about Markree Castle in Sligo; Leslie Fennell about Burtown in Kildare; Maurice Fitzgerald 9th Duke of Leinster and Kilkea Castle, County Kildare; Christopher and Julian Gaisford St. Lawrence and Howth Castle; George Gossip and Ballinderry Park; Nicholas Grubb and Dromana, County Waterford, into which he married, and Castle Grace, County Tipperary, where he grew up; Caroline Hannick née Aldridge of Mount Falcon; Mark Healy-Hutchinson of Knocklofty, County Tipperary; Michael Healy-Hutchinson, Earl of Donoughmore, son of Anita Leslie of Castle Leslie; Susan Kellett of Enniscoe; Nicholas and Rosemary MacGillycuddy of Flesk Castle, County Kerry and Aghadoe Heights; Harry McCalmont of Mount Juliet, County Kilkenny; Nicholas Nicolson of Balrath Estate; Durcan O’Hara of Annaghmore, County Sligo; Sandy Perceval of Temple House, County Sligo; Myles Ponsonby, Earl of Bessborough; Benjamin and Jessica Bunbury of Lisnavagh, County Carlow; Philip Scott of Barnfield House, Gortaskibbole, Co. Mayo; George Stacpoole of Edenvale House, Co. Clare; Christopher Taylour, Marquess of Headfort; Richard Wentges of Lisnabin Castle and Philip Wingfield of Salterbridge, County Waterford.

[10] p. 218, Image publications.

[11] Lissadell features in Irish Castles and Historic Houses. ed. by Brendan O’Neill, intro. by James Stevens Curl. Caxton Editions, London, 2002.

Featured in Mark Bence Jones, Life in an Irish Country House. Constable, London. 1996.

Featured in Irish Country Houses, Portraits and Painters. David Hicks. The Collins Press, Cork, 2014.

Featured in Irish Big Houses by Terence Reeves-Smyth

Office of Public Works properties in Connaught, Counties Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo

by jenjunebugOctober 31, 2022April 28, 2023

My entry for all of the OPW sites in Connaught was too long, so since it is mainly about Portumna Castle in Galway, I have separated my Galway OPW entry from the other counties in Connaught.

Leitrim:

1. Parke’s Castle, County Leitrim

2. Sean MacDiarmada Cottage, County Leitrim

Mayo:

3. Ceide Fields, County Mayo

Roscommon:

4. Boyle Abbey, County Roscommon

5. Rathcroghan, County Roscommon

Sligo:

6. Ballymote Castle, County Sligo

7. Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, County Sligo

8. Sligo Abbey, County Sligo

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Leitrim:

1. Parkes Castle, Fivemilebourne, County Leitrim:

General information: 071 916 4149, parkescastle@opw.ie

From the OPW website https://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/parkes-castle/:

“Parke’s Castle occupies a striking setting on the northern shores of Lough Gill in County Leitrim.

A restored castle of the early seventeenth century, it was once the home of English planter Robert Parke. There is evidence of an earlier structure on the site, a tower house once owned by Sir Brian O’Rourke, lord of West Breifne [The Kingdom of Breifne, or Breffny, was what is now Leitrim and parts of Cavan and other neighbouring counties]. O’Rourke, whom one English governor described as ‘the proudest man this day living on the earth’, resisted crown rule and fled Ireland, but ended up in the hands of Queen Elizabeth’s forces. He was thrown into the Tower of London, tried and finally hanged at Tyburn.“

By the 11th century Breifne was ruled by the O’Rourke or Ua Rairc dynasty. Brian O’Rourke assumed the leadership of Breifne after assassinating his older brothers, apparently! His daughter Mary married The O’Conor Don, Hugh O’Conor (1540-1627) – for more on the O’Conor Don, see my entry about Clonalis, County Roscommon. Sir Brian O’Rourke was indicted in 1591 for sheltering Francisco de Cueller, an officer of the shipwrecked Armada in 1588, who later wrote about his time in Ireland.

The land was then given to Robert or Roger Parke. It passed to his son Robert (1585-1671).

The OPW website continues: “Tragedy struck in 1677, when two of Parke’s children drowned on the lake. The castle then fell into disrepair. Only in the late twentieth century was it restored, using traditional Irish oak and craftsmanship.”

Robert Parke’s daughter Anne married Francis Gore of Ardtarmon, County Sligo, a brother of Arthur Gore, ancestor to the Earls of Arran.

*Parkes Castle, which was also called Newtown Castle, County Leitrim, August 2021.*

The OPW did a terrific job of renovation, as you can see from former photographs – look at 1926!

Unfortunately although we visited during Heritage Week in 2021, the castle was closed due to Covid restrictions. We were able to enter the courtyard and courtyard buildings, and to wander around the castle, but did not get to go inside, which is normally open to the public.

The last member of the Parke family left the castle in 1691.

*The Forge*, *Parkes Castle, County Leitrim, August 2021.*

*I loved this chart of shoes, for horses and also donkeys.*

*Stephen entering the Sweathouse, which may date back to the 12th century!*

*Stephen in the Sweathouse, which may date back to the 12th century!*

*This tunnel leads down to the water, for a quick escape.*

2. Sean MacDiarmada Cottage, County Leitrim:

From the OPW website https://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/sean-mac-diarmada-cottage/:

“The homestead of the 1916 leader Seán Mac Diarmada in Kiltyclogher, County Leitrim is the jewel in the county’s historic crown.

The cottage is the only original existing homeplace of any of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. It offers an unparalleled insight into the origins of a key figure in one of the most explosive episodes of Irish history. It is also an authentic traditional Irish cottage and as such gives us a glimpse of what life was like for ordinary people a hundred years ago.

The cottage has been maintained in its original condition for decades. Regular tours allow visitors to experience the authentic atmosphere of this incredible historical resource.“

Mayo:

3. Ceide Fields, Glenurla, Ballycastle, County Mayo:

*Ceide Fields, photograph by Alison Crummy, 2015, for Tourism Ireland, Ireland’s Content Pool.* [1]

General Information: 096 43325, ceidefields@opw.ie

From the OPW website https://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/ceide-fields/:

“Beneath the wild boglands of north Mayo lies a system of fields, dwelling areas and megalithic tombs which together make up the most extensive Stone Age monument in the world.

The stone-walled fields, extending over hundreds of hectares, are the oldest known globally, dating back almost 6,000 years. They are covered by a natural blanket bog with its own unique vegetation and wildlife.

The award-winning visitor centre is set against some of the most dramatic rock formations in Ireland. A viewing platform on the edge of the 110-metre-high cliff will help you make the most of the breathtaking scenery. Come prepared with protective clothing and sturdy footwear, though. The terrain – and the weather – can be challenging.“

*Day break over the Visitors centre overlooking the Ceide Fields and the Atlantic Coast County Mayo Ireland, photo from Ireland’s Content Pool by Failte Ireland.* [see 1]

Roscommon:

4. Boyle Abbey, County Roscommon:

General information: 071 966 2604, boyleabbey@opw.ie

From the OPW website https://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/boyle-abbey/:

“This Cistercian monastery was founded in the twelfth century by monks from Mellifont Abbey under the patronage of the local ruling family, the MacDermotts. It was one of the most powerful of the early Cistercian foundations in Ireland and among the foremost in Connacht.

Cromwellian forces wreaked devastation when they occupied the abbey in 1659. It was further mutilated during the following centuries, when it was used to accommodate a military garrison. Despite all the violence it has suffered over the centuries, Boyle Abbey is well preserved and retains its ability to impress.

A sixteenth/seventeenth-century gatehouse has been restored and turned into an interpretive centre, where you can learn more about the abbey’s gripping history.“

5. Rathcroghan, Cruachan Ai, Tulsk, Castlerea, County Roscommon:

General information: 071 963 9268, info@rathcroghan.ie

From the OPW website https://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/rathcroghan/:

“Tightly packed into a few square kilometres of the Roscommon landscape at Rathcroghan lie over 240 archaeological sites. These include Stone Age tombs and royal burial mounds, great ringforts and places of ceremonial inauguration.
The legendary Oweynagat (Cave of the Cats), for example, is regarded as the origin-place of the festival of Samhain. Fearful Christian scribes described Oweynagat as Ireland’s Gate to Hell.

A two-metre standing stone, meanwhile, is said to mark the grave of King Dathi, the last pagan king of Ireland, who died when he was struck by lightning in the Alps.

Perhaps most impressively, the great warrior Queen Medb ruled all of Connacht from her home at Rathcroghan.
Experience Rathcroghan’s rich archaeology, mythology and history through our interpretive rooms and expertly guided tours. The Rathcroghan Visitor Centre, the home of our museum, is located in the medieval village of Tulsk, Co. Roscommon.
(This is a Communities Involvement Initiative Project, supported by the OPW.)“

We went to the Visitor Centre when in County Roscommon during Heritage week 2022, but did not go to the actual site.

I found the timeline in the Visitor’s Centre very helpful for seeing the age of various archaeological sites. Rathcroghan is mainly a bronze age site, and so is from around 1000BCE. Newgrange is Neothilic and therefore over 2000 years before the Bronze Age, created around 3200BCE.

*It’s really interesting to see other events on the timeline in relation to archaeological sites in Ireland. Newgrange is older than the pyramids of Egypt which were built in the Chalcolithic age*, *and both pre-date the Bronze Age and Iron Age.*

*Before the Iron Age was the Bronze Age, which is where we can chronologically place much of Rathcroghan.*

The Visitor Centre in Rathcroghan has some Bronze Age artefacts on loan from the National Museum of Ireland. We can even see a tiny arrow head older than the Bronze Age items, which is from the Neolithic period.

*I find it incredible that this Bronze Age bowl, which could be as old as 4500 years, is still intact.*

After the Bronze age came the Iron Age, which was around the year zero. The visitor centre has a model dressed in Iron age clothing:

*He wears a yellow linen shirt, or* leine *dyed with saffron. Over this he wears a red tunic or* ionar. *The cape or* brat *is trimmed with fur.* These Irish items of dress were worn for centuries. This man would have been a warrior of high rank. The sword would have been made of bronze in Ireland but imitates the steel sword of a type made in Grundlingen in Germany. The shield would be made of wood covered in leather with a metal handgrip.

The rath gives the place its name, while the area is called in Irish Cruachan Ai.

Sligo:

6. Ballymote Castle, County Sligo:

The OPW information board at the site tells us that Ballymote, taken from an Irish word meaning “town of the mound,” was built by the Norman Richard de Burgo, the “Red Earl” of Ulster in around 1300. It was probably the strongest castle in Connacht, but was captured by the O’Connor family in 1317 and from then on it changed hands many times. In 1598 it was sold for £400 and 300 cows to Red Hugh O’Donnell (1572-1602) and it was from here that he assembled his army for the Battle of Kinsale (1601). He was beaten in this battle by Charles Blount, 8th Baron Mountjoy (who served as Lord Deputy of Ireland under Queen Elizabeth I and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under James I), and he left for Spain to seek support from King Philip III, but died abroad in 1602.

*Charles Blount (1563-1606), 8th Baron Mountjoy, photograph courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.*

Nearly 100 years later it was surrendered to Lord Granard after an artillery attack, and fell into ruin. The information board also tells us that the Book of Ballymote was partly compiled at the caste in around 1400. It is a manuscript including sections on the invasions of Ireland, the creation of the world and a study of the old Irish Ogham style of writing.

Runic writing on a deer antler from the 11th century! It was found in Fishamble Street, Dublin, and is kept in the National Museum of Ireland on Kildare Street in Dublin. See the key for the ogham alphabet below the antler.

6. Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, County Sligo:

General information: 071 916 1534, carrowmoretomb@opw.ie

From the OPW website https://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/carrowmore-megalithic-cemetery/:

“Carrowmore – the largest cemetery of megalithic tombs in Ireland. It lies just south-west of Sligo town, right at the heart of the Cúil Írra Peninsula, an area alive with prehistoric significance.

Packed together at Carrowmore are more than 30 stone tombs, many of which are still visible. Most are passage tombs and boulder circles. There are various forts and standing stones in the area too. The origins of these monuments reach far into prehistory – the most ancient among them is close to 6,000 years old.

A restored cottage houses an exciting new exhibition that will satisfy the curiosity of even the most demanding visitors. Come prepared for a hike across rugged terrain.“

*Tomb 4 and Listoghil, or number 51, in background.*

*Listoghil, or number 51,* *mirrors Ben Bulben mountain in the background. Stephen likes the way that if one stands and turns around 360 degrees, the mountains around Carrowmore seem to hold and enfold one.*

*Carrowmore, County Sligo.Carrowmore, County Sligo.*

*The whole area around Carrowmore is called Cuil Irran, which includes Knocknarea, the huge pile of stones on top of a nearby mountain said to be Queen Maebh’s tomb, Carrowmore and Carns Hill.*

*Tomb 1, where the outer and inner circles remain intact.*

*Carrowmore megalithic cemetery, Co. Sligo, Photographer/Creator/ Rory O’Donnell for Fáilte Ireland, 2021.*

7. Sligo Abbey, Abbey Street, County Sligo:

Sligo Abbey, Sligo Town, photograph Courtesy Eddie Lee/Ed Lee Photography 2022 for Fáilte Ireland.

General information: 071 914 6406, sligoabbey@opw.ie

From the OPW website https://heritageireland.ie/visit/places-to-visit/sligo-abbey/:

“This Dominican friary has dominated Sligo town centre since the mid-thirteenth century, when it was created by Maurice FitzGerald, the founder of the town itself. Some of the building from that period has survived the next nine centuries of turmoil.

The abbey was partially destroyed by burning in 1414, when it fell foul of an unattended candle, and suffered further mutilation following the Rebellion of 1641. According to legend, worshippers salvaged the abbey’s silver bell at that time and threw it into Lough Gill. You can hear it peal even now – provided, that is, that you are wholly free from sin.

Despite the ravages of history, the abbey contains a great wealth of carvings, including Gothic and Renaissance tomb sculpture, a well-preserved cloister and a sculptured fifteenth-century high altar – the only such altar to survive in an Irish monastic church.“

[1] https://www.irelandscontentpool.com

Places to visit and stay in County Sligo, Connaught

by jenjunebugOctober 19, 2022May 28, 2023

On the map above:

blue: places to visit that are not section 482

purple: section 482 properties

red: accommodation

yellow: less expensive accommodation for two

orange: “whole house rental” i.e. those properties that are only for large group accommodations or weddings, e.g. 10 or more people.

green: gardens to visit

grey: ruins

For places to stay, I have made a rough estimate of prices at time of publication:

€ = up to approximately €150 per night for two people sharing (in yellow on map);

€€ – up to approx €250 per night for two;

€€€ – over €250 per night for two.

For a full listing of accommodation in big houses in Ireland, see my accommodation page: https://irishhistorichouses.com/accommodation/

donation

Help me to fund the maintenance and update of this website. It is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!

€10.00

Sligo:

1. Ballymote Castle, County Sligo (OPW)

2. Ballynafad Castle (or Ballinafad), Co Sligo – a ruin, OPW

3. Castletown Manor, Cottlestown, Co. Sligo – section 482

4. Lissadell House & Gardens, Lissadell, Ballinfull, Co. Sligo – section 482

5. Markree Castle, Collooney, Co Sligo – section 482

6. Newpark House and Demesne, Newpark, Ballymote, Co. Sligo – section 482

7. Rathcarrick House, Rathcarrick, Strandhill Road, Co. Sligo – section 482

Places to stay, County Sligo:

1. Annaghmore, Colloony, County Sligo €

2. Schoolhouse at Annaghmore, County Sligo € for 3/4

3. Ardtarmon Castle, Ballinfull, Co Sligo – accommodation

4. Castle Dargan Lodges, Ballygawley, Co. Sligo, Ireland

5. Carrowcullen old Irish Farmhouse, County Sligo

6. Coopershill House, Riverstown, Co. Sligo – section 482

7. Lissadell rental properties, County Sligo

8. Markree Castle, Collooney, Co Sligo – section 482

9. Newpark House and Demesne, Newpark, Ballymote, Co. Sligo – section 482

10. Temple House, Ballymote, Co. Sligo – section 482

Sligo:

1. Ballymote Castle, County Sligo (OPW)

see my OPW entry: https://irishhistorichouses.com/2022/10/31/office-of-public-works-properties-in-connaught-counties-leitrim-mayo-roscommon-and-sligo/

2. Ballynafad Castle (or Ballinafad), Co Sligo – a ruin, OPW

3. Castletown Manor, Cottlestown, Co. Sligo – section 482

Open dates in 2023: June 20-24, 26-30, July 1, 3-8, 10-15, 17-22, 24-29, 31, Aug 1-5, 7-26, 28-31,
1pm-5pm
Fee: adult €10, child/student €5

4. Lissadell House & Gardens, Lissadell, Ballinfull, Co. Sligo – section 482

www.lissadell.com
Open dates in 2023: June 3-4, 7-11, 14-18, 21-25, 28-30, July 1-31, Aug 1-31, Sept 1-10, 10.30am-
6pm
Fee: adult €14, child €7

See my entry https://irishhistorichouses.com/2023/04/27/lissadell-house-gardens-lissadell-ballinfull-co-sligo/

5. Markree Castle, Collooney, Co Sligo – section 482

See my entry:

https://irishhistorichouses.com/2021/11/06/markree-castle-collooney-co-sligo/

http://www.markreecastle.ie

Open: June, July, Aug, 12 noon-4pm
Fee: Free

6. Newpark House and Demesne, Newpark, Ballymote, Co. Sligo F56 X985 – section 482

See my entry:

https://irishhistorichouses.com/2021/11/30/newpark-house-and-demesne-newpark-ballymote-co-sligo/

Open dates in 2023: Jan 30-31, Feb 1-3, 27-28, Mar 1-3, 6-10, Apr 24-28, May 8-13, 15-19, 22-27, June 5-10, 19-24, Aug 12-20, 26-27, 9.30am-1.30pm
Fee: adult €7, OAP/student €5, child free

7. Rathcarrick House, Rathcarrick, Strandhill Road, Co. Sligo F91 PK58 – section 482

Open dates in 2023: June, July, Aug, Tue-Sat, National Heritage Week, Aug 12-20, 2pm-6pm
Fee: adult €5, OAP/student/child free

Places to stay, County Sligo:

1. Annaghmore, Colloony, County Sligo €

https://www.annaghmore.ie/history

We stayed here during Heritage Week in 2021 and will be visiting again in 2022! You can book to stay with the owners on airbnb.

*Our lovely bedroom in Annaghmore, County Sligo.*

The website tells us:

“The O’Hara’s were Chiefs of Luighne, an extensive territory in the County of Sligo, and maintained an independent position down to the time of Oliver Cromwell. The family have always had a residence on the present site, as well as castles at Castlelough, Memlough and other parts of Leyne prior to the modern Annaghmore house being built in the 1790s. The house was dramatically added to in the 1830s and again in the 1870s by architect James Franklin Fuller, to form the unusually restrained classical house it is today. We are one of the very few original old Gaelic families to still live in the family seat. Over generations The O’Hara’s have made a profound contribution to Irish history both at home and abroad; holding important roles in politics, the military, religious, cultural and sporting arenas. Annaghmore is a living testimony to the family’s achievements and steadfast commitment and love for the people of Sligo, well documented through manuscripts, paintings, personal diaries, maps and photographs still very much visible within the house today.“

Mark Bence-Jones tells us (1988):

p. 4. “[O’Hara] A house of ca. 1820, consisting of a 2 storey 3 bay centre with single-storey Ionic portico and single-storey 2 bay wings, greatly enlarged ca. 1860-70 by C. W. O’Hara to the design of James Franklin Fuller; the additions being in the same late-Georgian style as the original house. The wings were raised a storey and extended back so that the house had a side elevation as high as the front and as long, or longer, consisting of 1 bay, curved bow, 3 further bays and a three-sided bow. At the same time, the fenestration of the original centre was altered, paired windows being inserted into the two outer bays instead of the original single window above a Wyatt window. All the ground floor windows except for those in the three sided bow have plain entablatures over them. Parapeted roof. Short area balustrade on either side of centre. Curved staircase behind entrance hall. Doorcases with reeded architraves and rosettes.” [1]

2. Schoolhouse at Annaghmore, County Sligo € for 3-4

https://www.irishlandmark.com/propertytag/cottages-and-houses/?gclid=Cj0KCQiApL2QBhC8ARIsAGMm-KFInICcRSxwLSiDxfFNk5WFytNcVrLvOQYhzJbIBes4V-M65iXz0gYaAln_EALw_wcB

The Schoolhouse in Annaghmore was built in the 1860s to educate local children.

*The schoolhouse at Annaghmore, County Sligo*

3. Ardtarmon Castle, Ballinfull, Co Sligo – accommodation

https://www.ardtarmoncastle.com

The website tells us: “Spend Your Holidays or your Honeymoon in a Castle at Seaside in Ireland – All Apartments in our Castle are South Facing with view to the Sea – Self Catering Holiday and Honeymoon Apartment in an Irish Castle.“

The National Inventory tells us Ardtarmon is multiple-bay two-storey rendered castle built c. 1640. Oblong plan, circular towers to north and south ends of main east elevation and centre of west elevation, seven-bay two-storey extension c.1995 with corner turret to south-west, bawn to west. “This national monument is a transitional early-seventeenth century semi-fortified house. Although extensively renovated for residential use, the castle has retained many of its original features.

… Ardtarmon Castle which commanded the sea approaches to Sligo town when first built around 1648. Its founder Sir Francis Gore was a distant ancestor of Constance Gore-Booth and founder of the Gore Booth family. It was the original home of the Gore-Booths before they moved to Lissadell in the early 18th century after a fire burned Ardtarmon to the ground. It is one of the two buildings built in the style of the Cromwell period that survive in the area. The other is Park’s Castle on the Shores of Lough Gill in Co. Leitrim.

Rebuilt in the late 20th century to its former glory by Holger & Erika Schiller the castle now offers state of the art luxury self-catering accommodation, with design and interiors faithful to the original but with modern day comfort including under floor heating and dishwashers in all apartments.”

4. Castle Dargan Lodges, Ballygawley, Co. Sligo, Ireland

https://www.castledargan.com

The website tells us: “Welcome to Castle Dargan Estate, a magnificent, rambling country estate on 170 rolling acres in W.B. Yeats’ beloved County Sligo. The great poet was inspired to write of its charms in The King of The Great Clock Tower and a hundred years later we invite you to be enchanted by a timeless elegance and unique atmosphere that will stay with you forever.

Accommodation at Castle Dargan Estate offers guests a diverse range of 4-star hotel accommodation including luxury suites in the 18th century Castle Dargan House, one and two bed Walled Garden Suites which are perfect for family breaks, and self-catering lodges available for holiday rentals. With a rich history brought in to 21st century, Castle Dargan Estate offers more to our guests than hospitality and fantastic settings, it offers classic grandeur that remains timeless.“

The website also tells us about Castle Dargan’s history:

“Castle Dargan: I liked the place for its romance.” – W.B.Yeats

“Beautifully situated, having delightful views of the surrounding scenery and the mansion house being suitable for the residence of a gentleman of the highest respectability.” – Patrick E. O’Brien

“Such was the description of Castle Dargan prior to public auction in 1875, lands that has been residence to many during five millenia. Extensive archaeological remains bear witness to a continuity; stone age burial sites on the heights of Sliabh Daeane to the north, a possible henge ritual site, bronze age cooking and washing sites, and until recently unknown souterrain – the underground refuge and foodstore of early medieval farmers, and ring forts beside the 5th fairway and on the high ground above the 18th hole. The old castle area, a complex of habitation from the 15 to 18 centuries and built on an earlier cashel or stone-built ring fort, has not yet been interpreted satisfactorily.

By the early 14 century, the MacDonaghs ruled the barony of Tirerrill, that eastern half of Sligo that stretches from the southern shores of Lough Arrow to Castle Dargan. In a dispute of 1422 over the strategic construction of a castle by Conor MacDonagh of Collooney – Castle Dargan was subject to Collooney – the castle was captured by an army of O’Neill and O’Donnell forces, allies of the Castledargan MacDonaghs; which having partaken of overnight hospitality in Castle Dargan, returned north the following day. On a return visit in 1516 another O’Donnell raided Sligo taking several castles, among them and took hostages.

Following the submission of O’Conor Sligo to Queen Elizabeth in 1585, the MacDonaghs found themselves paying fees to the Crown and liable to fines or confiscation. The Collooney family became one of the leading Gaelic families representing Sligo in the early 1600s, a period which ended with the death in rebellion of its leader Brian Óg MacDonagh in 1643.

In the aftermath of the subsequent Cromwellian Wars, the MacDonaghs withdrew into modest circumstances or returned to a tradition of military service in continental armies. Castle Dargan lands were split between three owners, Coote, Crofton and the Strafford & Radcliffe estate which later sold its interest to the Burton family, ancestors of the Cunninghams of Slane. The new ownership provided the opportunity in 1687 for the arrival in Castle Dargan of Stephen Ormsby, great-grandson of an Elizabethan soldier, Thomas Ormsby of Lincolnshire, who had married well in Mayo.

The Castle Dargan Ormsbys leased rather than owned land for several generations. William, Stephen’s grandson, married well during the 1740s, his wife bringing the 408 acres of nearby Knockmullen as a dowry. Having renewed the lease of Drumnamackin ‘called commonly the name of Castle Dargan’ in 1749 he was recorded as paying a chief rent of £3 for it in 1775; during those intervening years Castle Dargan had obviously come into full Ormsby ownership. Subsequently, he took out a lease on three townlands for 400 years in 1781.

Reflecting these improved circumstances, William built the original Castle Dargan House in the second half of the eighteenth century. He also developed the demesne, its farmlands and, probably, the walled and ornamental gardens in the castle area. He died in 1784 ‘deservedly lamented’ and was succeeded in turn by each of his sons, Nicholson and Thomas, both of whom died unmarried, and William who was in turn succeeded by his son, John.

John, the most public person of the Castle Dargan Ormsbys was elected a Burgess of Sligo Borough in 1824, appointed Provost in 1829 and 1839, High Sheriff of the county in 1834 and was regularly a Grand Juror of the Assizes. He was a founder member of and contributed to the first Famine Relief Committee of 1846 and served over many years as a Resident Magistrate. He died in 1870 and was succeeded by his son, Nicholson, who survived him by one year only and by his grandson, John Robert, the last Ormsby of Castle Dargan House.

In John Robert’s time, the young W.B. Yeats visited Castle Dargan House ‘where lived a brawling squireen’, married to one of his Middleton cousins; Mary Middleton was married to John Robert. It was, as he said, “the last household where I could have found the reckless Ireland of a hundred years ago in final degradation. But I liked the place for the romance of its two castles facing one another across a little lake, Castle Dargan and Castle Furey”; the Ormsbys were well-known for their country pursuits.

They had historically taken a dramatic place in Irish folklore when it is recorded that a group of Elizabethan adventurers, arriving by boat on a western shore, were promised a grant of land to the first to set foot on land. Ormsby, a veteran of the continental wars cast his cork-leg ahead of him, wading ashore at his leisure.

Cock-fighting in the Sligo of 1781 was noted in reporting the rivalry of Nicholson Ormsby and Philip Perceval of Templehouse, in which Ormsby lost the princely prize of two hundred guineas. Nicholson’s reputation was such that, Archdeacon O’Rorke, writing his otherwise sober in 1889, made an exception in the case of Nicholson Ormsby, recounting tales of his practical jokes, for which he had some notoriety.

Over many years the Ormsbys had participated in Sligo horse-racing, its gentlemen and young ladies remarked upon among the attendance of the ‘beauty and fashion of the County’ at such gatherings, their racing successes beginning at the first festival of racing at Bowmore in Rosses Point in September 1781. This love of horses continued with the hunt and the hosting of several times a season. Ormsby hospitality was once remarked upon when, following ‘as good a run on so fine a day as any could wish for’, the hunting party ‘came to lunch at Castle Dargan House, where the usual hospitality of the owner was taken every advantage of’.

Inevitably, stories of Castle Dargan and Ormsby exploits made their way into Yeats’s works. Reflecting the folklore of spectral dancers in well-lit ruins; the royal attendant of, more than half a century later, sang –

O, but I saw a solemn sight;

Said the rambling, shambling travelling-man;

Castle Dargan’s ruin all lit,

Lovely ladies dancing in it.

High over Castle Dargan on Sliabh Daeane – the mountain of the two birds – is the passage tomb of Its name recalls the legend of The Old Woman of Beara – Bird Mountain Clooth-na-BareThe Hosting of the Sidhe

The host is riding from Knocknarea

And over the grave of Clooth-na-bare;

Caoilte tossing his burning hair,

And Niamh calling Away, come away …

An event, not recalled in genealogies, in which an Ormsby daughter is said to have eloped with a groom, married and happily raised a family in nearby Coolaney, is reputedly evoked in; an eventwhich may be reflected when the old man tells his son;

My mother that was your grand-dam owns it, This scenery and this countryside kennel and stables, horse and hound –She had a horse at the Curragh, and there met my father, a groom in a training stable, looked at him and married him.Her mother never spoke to her again,

By March 1875 a series of financial reversals finally forced the sale by the Landed Estates Court of the various Ormsby interests in almost 2000 acres. Castle Dargan was bought for £12,000 by William Middleton, Mary Ormsby’s father, with a five year £10,000 loan from Andrew Hosie, a successful miller of Dromahair.

William Middleton died in 1882, the loan unpaid and John Robert Ormsby having departed unexpectedly and alone for the United States. The 959 acres of Castle Dargan were auctioned in September 1883, Andrew Hosie being the sole bidder and Mary Ormsby and her family of seven children retired to Elsinore, a Middleton property in Rosses Point. A daughter, Amy Frances Vernon, subsequently achieved fame as a County Sligo lady golfer winning Irish and South African Ladies’ Championships; Larry (Arthur) Vernon, her husband, won the inaugural West of Ireland Championship at County Sligo Golf Club in 1923.

Andrew Hosie died in1888, having already vested Castle Dargan in his nephew, John, in December 1883. Following extensive repairs to the house in 1884, the current hall-door entrance and bay-windows were added in 1895. The demesne was farmed by John’s son, James, and grandson, John, until the death of John C. Hosie in November 1997. With the sale of the mountain lands in 1894 to the Coopers of Markree Castle, and of several smaller sections in the intervening years, the remaining 145 acres of Castle Dargan demesne and the nineteen acres of Carrigeenboy near the gate-lodge were sold in 1998 by Mrs Kathleen Hosie to Dermot Fallon of Ballinacarrow, Co. Sligo.

With that, the continuous occupation of three families over almost six centuries was finally drawn to a close.”

5. Carrowcullen old Irish Farmhouse, County Sligo

https://hiddenireland.com/house-pages/old-irish-farmhouse-carrowcullen/

The website tells us:

“Carrowcullen: The Old Irish Farmhouse is an 1880s six room stone traditional farmhouse, with a low hipped slate roof which drew from earlier building traditions of the 1820s/1830s and offers a ‘walk back in time’ experience so that when visitors arrive they enter the farmhouse kitchen, as they would have in the past and find themselves at centre the house as would have happened traditionally.

On the first floor, the Carrowcullen: Old Irish Farmhouse offers a master bedroom, twin bedroom, a small bedroom and a bathroom with Victorian cast-iron bath with overhead shower and cast-iron cistern. On the ground floor is the kitchen, flanked on either side by the parlour and sitting room. The master and twin bedrooms have sinks. On the ground floor the sitting room also has a single bed, sink and toilet, in the event that guests may not be able to manage the narrow and irregular original stairs. The kitchen has a Stanley 8 stove (matching the original), gas cooker, microwave and toaster. An under-stairs cloakroom is off the kitchen provides additional flexibility for guests. An immersion heater provides hot water when the boiler is not being used for heating.

The Old Irish Farmhouse offers a ‘walk back in time’ experience: the fridge, microwave, dishwasher are hidden, so that when visitors arrive they enter the farmhouse kitchen, as they would the centre the house traditionally. Antique furniture, furnishings and sanitary ware are appropriate with the house’s age and some are original to the house.

Situated in Co Sligo, Carrowcullen: The Old Irish Farmhouse is set today on the fourteen acres of rugged farmland along the Wild Atlantic Way and set well back from a quiet country lane, the farmhouse is accessed by a private lane (with public access) which links with a forestry lane, providing for an easy ‘loop’ walk. Two natural springs are in the east and west pastures, and a river, the Ardnaglass runs on two sides of the east pasture; it runs from Loch Acree on Ladies Brae ultimately flowing to Dunmoran Sands. The farmhouse has spectacular views of the Ox Mountain ranges & Knocknarea. Intentionally , the Old Irish Farmhouse is embodied as a living house – as it always had been– not a ‘replica’ which would arbitrarily ‘assign’ ‘a ‘date’ to the house, from which eliminating decisions and associations would cascade. As a living house, it contains artwork associated with my family and with my family’s and my connections with American artists from the 1970 onwards and with the Swedish arts and crafts traditions. (I crochet lace using my Swedish grandmother’s patterns and paint ordinary objects with flowers inspired by those on Carrowcullen’s pastures, in the Swedish tradition; Carrowcullen gifts are available to purchase).

Carrowcullen: The Old Irish Farmhouse meets with the ‘Fáilte Ireland Welcome Standard’ and promotes sustainability and recycling as an integral part of the ‘message’ and ‘dialogue’ of Carrowcullen as re-envisioned since 2016. Biodiversity projects record plant, animal and bird species and precise times of year they appear and guests may contribute to this recording, should they so wish.

Come stay and experience late 19th c objects and farmhouse life at Carrowcullen!

Carrowcullen: The Old Irish Farmhouse is set on an east west axis with its south gabled end facing Ladies Brae, a dramatic steep passage on the Ox Mountains, from which fierce winds and rain sweep. The Sligo walking trails are directly accessible from the house and the quiet country lane. Beaches such as Dunmoran Strand and Aughris Head (with the Beach Bar) are minutes drive away. Nearby, Beltra Country Market on Saturday mornings offers home-produced food and vegetables in addition to crafts and activities. Other activities in the area include Surfing and horseriding. Local shops (Collery’s and Ardabrone) service the area. The anticipated nearby Coolaney National Mountain Bike Centre will soon be opening. The Skreen Dromard guild of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association meets on Wednesday evenings and welcomes guest visitors! With prior arrangement, guests may experience the daily sheep herding and checks. Carrowcullen also offers visitors an opportunity to engage with our roaming hens and quails who provide fresh eggs which are available to purchase and not forgetting the flock of Japanese and Jumbo Italian quails.“

6. Coopershill House, Riverstown, Co. Sligo – section 482

http://www.coopershill.com

Tourist Accommodation Facility Open April – September.

See my entry: https://irishhistorichouses.com/2022/01/11/coopershill-house-riverstown-co-sligo/

7. Lissadell rental properties, County Sligo

http://lissadellhouse.com/lissadellrentals/

8. Markree Castle, Collooney, Co Sligo – section 482, see above

https://irishhistorichouses.com/2021/11/06/markree-castle-collooney-co-sligo/

http://www.markreecastle.ie

9. Newpark House and Demesne, Newpark, Ballymote, Co. Sligo – section 482, see above

https://irishhistorichouses.com/2021/11/30/newpark-house-and-demesne-newpark-ballymote-co-sligo/

10. Temple House, Ballymote, Co. Sligo F56 NN50 – section 482

www.templehouse.ie
Tourist Accommodation Facility – not open to the public

Open for accommodation: April 1-December 31

and Gardener’s Cottage, https://hiddenireland.com/house-pages/temple-house/the-gardeners-cottage/

[1] Bence-Jones, Mark. 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.

Coopershill House, Riverstown, Co. Sligo F52 EC52

by jenjunebugJanuary 11, 2022May 28, 2023

www.coopershill.com
Tourist Accommodation Facility
Open in 2023 for accommodation: April-Sept

Since Coopershill is listed under Revenue Section 482 as Tourist Accommodation Facility it does not have to open to the public. However, it has listed open days Tues-Sat, 11am-3pm from April to September. Contact them in advance to ensure a visit is convenient.
Fee: adult/OAP €10, student €5, child €3

While we stayed in Annaghmore [1] during Heritage Week in August 2021 with Durcan O’Hara and his wife Nicola, we first visited Durcan’s cousin in nearby Newpark [2], then another cousin, Simon O’Hara, at Coopershill.

The O’Haras were a Gaelic family who managed to keep their position of importance through changes in sovereignty, from the invasion of the Normans through the Tudor and Stuart monarchy, the Cromwellian Parliament and the overthrow of King James II. The O’Haras of Coopershill and Annaghmore are of descendants of the “O’Hara Boy” family – the other O’Hara family of Sligo is the O’Hara Reogh family.

An ancestor, Tadgh O’Hara, encouraged his sons, Tadgh and Kean, to convert to Protestantism in order to be better able to hold on to their land. On Tadgh’s death in 1616 his sons, still minors, became Wards of Court. The eldest son, Tadgh, was raised by Sir Charles Coote (1581-1642), 1st Baronet Coote of Castle Cuffe, Queen’s County, who was Provost Marshal of Connaught and had much land in the area. Edward Cooper of Markree, another property which we visited, was a cornet in Sir Charles Coote’s dragoons. Tadgh died in 1634 and his property passed to his brother Kean. Some of the O’Hara relatives were implicated in the Rebellion of 1641 but Kean, as an Irish Protestant, was able to hold on to his property [3]. Coopershill belonged to the Cooper family but passed by marriage to the O’Hara family, as we will see below.

According to the Historic Houses of Ireland website, Arthur Cooper (born around 1716) and his wife Sarah (born Carleton, from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh) lived in a sixteenth century fortified house on the River Unsin (or Unshin), near the village of Riverstown. This house still exists as a ruin on the property of Coopershill, and we passed it as we approached the main house.

*Sarah Carleton (born around 1718), wife of Arthur Cooper.*

The pre-1700s house is attached to a farm building which was built in about 1830, according to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. The ruin is evocative and may have been retained in order to embody the picturesque notion of nostalgic antiquity. The newer house was positioned to been seen from a bridge, in a deliberately created picturesque view. The grounds were landscaped with plantings of trees and a deerpark, which remains today.

*Pre-1700 ruin*, *called Tanzyfort House* [4]

*The pre-1700 ruin is attached to an 1830s farm building.*

*The farm building*, *called The Kennels, which housed the groundskeeper and the hunting dogs.*

Legend has it that in the early 1750s, Arthur and Sarah Cooper engaged an architect and placed two buckets of gold sovereigns on the ground, instructing him to build a suitable house on a hill in the middle of their County Sligo estate, Cooper’s Hill. [5] The architect’s plans overshot the budget and the sovereigns ran out even before the walls were built! Arthur Cooper was forced to sell some of his land to continue building, and the house was completed around twenty years after it was started, in 1774. The completion date is noted on the keystone over the front door.

*The keystone of the front door surround is inscribed “1774”, the date of completion.* *The O’Hara *armorial* plate would have been put up later, as the house was still belonging to the Coopers in 1774.*

*O’Hara crest on the stables at Annaghmore.*

Coopershill has two similar facades, at the front and back of the house.

*The back facade of the house, almost exactly the same as the front.*

The stone, a high quality local ashlar, took eight years to quarry. [6] One would assume that the Coopers of Markree Castle and the Coopers of Coopershill are related, but Durcan told us that he has not found the connection.

The house has been attributed by Desmond FitzGerald, the Knight of Glin, to Francis Bindon, who also designed Woodstock in County Kilkenny (1740), which we visited later in the week. [7] Bindon also painted portraits, including those of Jonathan Swift and Charles Cobbe, Archbishop of Dublin. FitzGerald writes:

“Perhaps Bindon’s very last mansion is Coopershill, County Sligo, although like most of these houses, no documentary evidence exists for it. Tower-like and stark, of similar proportions to Raford [County Galway], it is made up of two equivalent fronts composed with a central rusticated Venetian window and door, and a third floor three-light window. The fenestration is reminiscent of [Richard] Castle’s demolished Smyth mansion in Kildare Place, Dublin. Coopershill is sited particularly well and stands high above a river reminding one of the feudal strength of the 17th century towerhouse. As at Raford, the roof is overlapping and 19th century.” [8]

*Raford House, County Galway, also attributed to Francis Bindon, built around 1760. Photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.* *It has the same tripartite door structure, with a Venetian window above and a grouping of three windows together above that.*

*Woodstock House, County Kilkenny, also designed by Francis Bindon.*

A detail of Woodstock house, which shows some similarity to the tripartite window with rusticated surrounds above the front door at Coopershill. Photograph taken from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.

The front has two bays on either side of the Gibbsian doorcase (a Gibbsian doorcase usually has “blocking” where rectangular blocks stick out at intervals). A “Gibbsian surround” is an eighteenth century treatment of a door or window, seen particularly in the work of James Gibbs (1682-1754); it usually has columns or pilasters with an architrave, that is, a lintel resting on columns, and voussoirs (wedge shaped elements, usually stones, forming an arch), a keystone (wedge shaped stone at the top of an arch) and pediment (a formalized gable derived from that of a temple). [9] Above the doorcase of Coopershill is a rusticated Venetian window (which Bence-Jones describes as “a window with three openings, that in the centre being round-headed and wider than those on either side; a very familiar feature of Palladian architecture”), and a three-light window on the centre of the top storey. All of the other windows in the front have rusticated surrounds (that is, a particular treatment of joints or faces of masonry to give an effect of strength).

There is a hardwood door with fifteen raised-and-fielded panels, an interlaced fanlight, and sandstone steps with dressed limestone parapet walls bridging the basement area. [10]

The Gibbsian doorcase – a Gibbsian doorcase usually has “blocking” where rectangular blocks stick out at intervals. In this case, the doorcase includes two “sidelight” windows, though this is not typical of a “Gibbsian” doorcase. Above the doorcase is a Venetian window.

*Bridge which we crossed on the drive through the demesne.*

To reach the house we drove across a lovely bridge, pictured above, which was built at the same time as the house, in 1771. The foundation stones kept sinking into the mud and eventually sheepskin was laid on the ground, which stopped the stones sinking. This same technique is being used nowadays in the bog to create paths for walking. One’s first view of the house is attained when crossing the bridge.

*A great little face carved into the bridge along with the date 1771. Photograph taken from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.*

*The view of Coopershill from the bridge.*

Simon welcomed us, the seventh generation of the family to live here. Arthur and Sarah Cooper’s son, Arthur Brooke Cooper (1775-1854) (“Brooke” was Sarah’s mother’s maiden name), inherited Coopershill and married Jane Frances O’Hara, the daughter of Charles Edward O’Hara (1746-1822) from nearby Annaghmore.

Their eldest son, also named Arthur Brooke Cooper, predeceased his father in 1845, so their second son, Charles William (1817-1898), inherited Coopershill on the death of his father in 1854. He also inherited Annaghmore on the death in 1860 of Jane Frances’s brother, Charles King O’Hara (1784-1860), on condition that Charles William take the name “O’Hara.”

*The tennis court. The cousins from Annaghmore, Coopershill and Newpark play tennis together every week.*

Fortunately Charles William Cooper O’Hara married well by marrying Anne Charlotte Streatfeild, daughter of Richard Shuttleworth Streatfeild of the Rocks, Uckfield, Sussex. They moved to Annaghmore and Charles William’s sisters, Margaret Sarah and Mary Jane Caroline Cooper, remained living in Coopershill.

*Portraits of Charles William Cooper, who took the name O’Hara when he inherited his uncle’s estate, and his wife Anne Streatfield.*

Stephen and I were excited to learn that an ancestor of Simon’s and Durcan’s who had lived at Annaghmore (albeit an earlier house), Charles O’Hara (c.1705-1776), was not only a friend of Edmund Burke, politician, writer and philosopher who wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France and A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, but also of Stephen’s ancestor George Macartney (1737-1806).

*Annaghmore, County Sligo, which also belongs to the O’Hara family, and where we were staying while visiting Section 482 properties in Sligo.* The principal seat of the O’Hara family since medieval times, the current house replaced an earlier house, and was built around 1820 for Charles O’Hara (1746-1822), MP for County Sligo, and enlarged and remodelled around 1860 to designs by the architect James Franklin Fuller, for Charles William Cooper, who took the name O’Hara when he inherited from his uncle.

*The bedroom in which we stayed at Annaghmore.*

Charles William and Anne Charlotte’s eldest son, Charles Kean O’Hara (1860-1947) inherited Annaghmore, and the second son, Arthur Cooper O’Hara (1862-1934), inherited Coopershill.

Charles Kean O’Hara of Annaghmore also did not marry and had no children, so when he died in 1947, Annaghmore passed to his nephew, Donal, eldest son of his brother, Frederick William O’Hara (1875-1949).

*Three bay side of Coopershill plus basement.*

Charles Kean O’Hara had many brothers and sisters. His sister Charlotte Jane O’Hara married Alexander Perceval of Temple House, County Sligo, another section 482 property which unfortunately we did not visit on this trip to Sligo. Charles Kean’s brother Richard Edward had meanwhile purchased Newpark, another section 482 property which we visited. Another brother, Alexander, moved to the United States. Although his brother Frederick was not the next eldest, his son inherited Annaghmore because his older brother, Richard Edward, only had a daughter. As we were told when we visited Newpark, if Richard Edward’s daughter had been a son instead, that child would have inherited Annaghmore!

Arthur Cooper O’Hara (1862-1934) also did not have any children, so Coopershill passed to his nephew, Francis Cooper O’Hara (1906-1982), second son of his brother Frederick. Francis had married an English woman, Joan Bridgeman, during his career of tea planting in India. After his father’s death in 1947, Frank and Joan moved to Coopershill to start a new life in agriculture.

*The impressive front hall of Coopershill.*

*The front hall of Coopershill.* *Upon entry, one is greeted by a pair of busts in niches, deer heads, and a door with pilasters, pediment and fanlight.*

*Thomas Wentworth, the 1st Earl of Strafford* *(1593-1641)*.

The front hall has decorative plasterwork and carved door surrounds, with two doorcases on either side and one leading to the stair hall, with niches on either side. There is a nice contrast in the yellow of the walls, darker in the niches and plasterwork for emphasis. The hall features a large portrait of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1593-1641). From 1632 to 1640 he was Lord Deputy of Ireland. He was a loyal supporter of King Charles I and was condemned to death by the Parliament and like Charles I himself, executed. He is not to be confused with the later Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford of a later creation (1672-1739) whose daughter Anne married William James Conolly, father of Thomas Conolly of Castletown, County Kildare.

*The lock on the front door with its heart shape reminded me of the lock on the door of Cregg Castle in Galway.*

*The heart-shaped lock in Cregg Castle in County Galway.*

After Frank and Joan’s family of six children had grown up, they began to take paying guests into their home. The website tells us some families came year after year for the childrens’ riding as the stables had several ponies. Frank died in 1982, and Joan continued for another four years on her own, joining a growing group of owners of large manor houses from all over Ireland who could only keep their houses in shape with the aid of income generated by taking paying guests.

Frank and Joan’s son Brian Cooper O’Hara and his wife Lindy took over the Country House Hotel in early 1987, and continued until their retirement in 2007. They now live in a new stone house beside the stables and their son Simon lives in Coopershill continues the business.

*Stone accommodation next to the stables.*

The dining room contains portraits of the ancestors, and the house has the original fireplaces. The room has a simple decorative cornice.

We then entered the Drawing Room, painted a bold turquoise. It too has a decorative cornice, tall windows with shutters and a marble fireplace.

*Stephen admires the grandfather clock.*

*Through the windows, a wonderful view of the old bridge.*

The Historic Houses of Ireland entry about Coopershill points out that the service staircase is of stone but the principal staircase is constructed from timber in a reversal of the usual fashion. There is good decorative plasterwork of the 1770s in the reception rooms and especially over the main staircase.

*The view into the front hall from the staircase – one can see the lovely old floor tiles. The doorframe mirrors those in the front hall, with carved pilasters and pediment.*

A rent table in the staircase hall. A tenant could place his rent in the drawer facing him then the table top spun around to the landlord. In this way other tenants may not see how much a particular tenant is paying.

The staircase hall has another niche, and portraits of William and Mary hang either side of the door. It’s unusual to have the Royalist Wentworth as well as William and Mary – Stephen says the family are keeping in with both sides! (normally a monarchist supporter of Charles I would be a supporter of King James II, who was overthrown by William). In fact the O’Hara ancestor, Kean O’Hara, was careful to keep in with both the Jacobites and the Williamites.

*The fine timber staircase.* *Although there are pikes on either side of the window overlooking the stairs, the family were not rebels in 1641 or 1798, although some of their relatives might have been!*

There are not only pikes, but many other souvenirs from battles and travels.

*A gong made from an enormous shell casing.*

*Beautiful Adamesque plasterwork on the ceiling of the staircase hall.*

*The position of the staircase crosses the doorcase of the back facade of the house rather awkwardly, which is probably a result of the house being built over two decades.*

Upstairs are the bedrooms, available for accommodation. All are en suite and several have canopied beds. You can see photographs of all of the bedrooms on the website.

*The bedrooms doors also have elaborate carved doorcases.*

We continued on up the stairs to the third storey.

After our tour upstairs, Simon took us down to the basement. Here he showed us some wonderful leather ammunition pouches that must be very old as they bear the initials of Arthur Brooke Cooper.

He also showed us the laundry, which still contains an beautiful old washing unit as well as the new ones. There is also a working, certified abbatoir, for processing the deer in the deer park for venison, which can be purchased (along with Coopershill honey, from their own bees).

*Old laundry boiler, with lovely details.*

*An example of an old bell alert system for the servants, in the basement of Coopershill.*

*More complete set of bells for servants in Annaghmore.*

We went outside after our tour to take a quick look around the stables and gardens.

*Fresh fruit and vegetables from the garden are served to guests at Coopershill.*

*Archway leading past the tennis court to the stable yard.*

donation

Help me to fund the maintenance and update of this website. It is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!

€10.00

[1] https://www.annaghmore.ie/

[2] https://irishhistorichouses.com/2021/11/30/newpark-house-and-demesne-newpark-ballymote-co-sligo/

[3] Bartlett, Thomas. “The O’Haras of Annaghmore c. 1600—c. 1800: Survival and Revival.”

Irish Economic and Social History. Vol. 9 (1982), pp. 34-52. Published on JStor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24337261?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

[4] Orser, Charles E. Jr. “Symbolic Violence and Landscape Pedagogy: An Illustration from the Irish Countryside” Historical Archaeology. Vol. 40, No. 2 (2006), pp. 28-44. Published on JStor, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25617328?read-now=1&refreqid=excelsior%3Ab2963d83c7041caf7fce13fe69e6dc6b&seq=5#page_scan_tab_contents

[5] http://www.ihh.ie/index.cfm/houses/house/name/Coopershill

[6] 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.

[7] FitzGerald, Desmond, “Francis Bindon (c. 1690-1765) His Life and Works,” Quarterly Bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society April-Sept 1967.

[8] I am indebted to the blog of “Lavender’s Blue” for this quote from Desmond FitzGerald. https://lvbmag.wpcomstaging.com/2018/10/02/coopershill-house-county-sligo-francis-bindon/

[9] https://irishhistorichouses.com/2020/04/18/architectural-definitions/

[10] https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/32313019/coopershill-house-cooperhill-riverstown-sligo

Happy New Year!

by jenjunebugJanuary 6, 2022May 18, 2022

I love starting a new year. The new listing for Section 482 properties won’t be published until February or March, so at the moment we will have to rely on 2021 listings (January listings below).

I had an amazing 2021 and visited lots of properties! As well as those I’ve written about so far, I am hoping to hear back for approval for a few more write-ups. Last year Stephen and I visited thirteen section 482 properties, thirteen OPW properties, and some other properties maintained by various groups.

The Section 482 properties we visited were Mount Usher gardens and Killruddery in County Wicklow; Killineer House and gardens in County Louth; Salthill Gardens in County Donegal; Stradbally Hall in County Laois; Enniscoe in County Mayo; Tullynally in County Westmeath; Kilfane Glen and Waterfall in County Kilkenny; Killedmond Rectory in County Carlow; Coopershill, Newpark and Markree Castle in County Sligo and Wilton Castle in County Wexford.

*Mount Usher Gardens, County Wicklow* *(June 2021)*.

*Killruddery, County Wicklow* *(we visited in April 2021).*

*Killineer House and Gardens, County Louth* *(visited in June 2021).*

*Salthill Gardens, County Donegal (visited in July 2021.*

*Stradbally Hall, County Laois (visited in June 2021).*

*Enniscoe, County Mayo (visited in August 2021).*

*Tullynally, County Westmeath (visited in August 2021).*

*Kilfane Glen and Waterfall, County Kilkenny (visited in August 2021).*

*Gardens at Killedmond Rectory, County Carlow (visited in August 2021).*

*Coopershill, County Sligo (visited in August 2021).*

*Newpark House, County Sligo (visited in August 2021).*

*Markree Castle, County Sligo* *(visited in August 2021).*

*Wilton Castle, County Wexford (visited in November 2021).*

The OPW properties we visited were Dublin Castle, the Irish National War Memorial Gardens, National Botanic Gardens, Rathfarnham Castle, St. Stephen’s Green, Iveagh Gardens, Phoenix Park and Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin; Emo Court, County Laois; Portumna Castle, County Galway; Fore Abbey in County Westmeath; Parke’s Castle, County Leitrim; and Ballymote Castle, County Sligo.

*Inside Dublin Castle (visited in September 2021).*

*Irish National War Memorial Gardens, Dublin, designed by Lutyens (we go walking here all the time!).*

*National Botanic Gardens, Dublin (visited in September 2021).*

*Inside Rathfarnham Castle (visited in September 2021).*

*The Iveagh Gardens, Dublin (visited in October 2021).*

*The Gardens at Royal Hospital Kilmainham (visited in January 2022).*

*Emo Park, County Laois (visited in June 2021).*

*Portumna Castle, Galway (visited in July 2021).*

*Fore Abbey, County Westmeath (visited in August 2021).*

*Parke’s Castle, County Leitrim, maintained by the OPW (visited in August 2021).*

*Ballymote Castle, County Sligo (visited in August 2021).*

We also visited Duckett’s Grove, maintained by Carlow County Council; Woodstock Gardens and Arbortetum maintained by Kilkenny County Council; Johnstown Castle, County Wexford maintained by the Irish Heritage Trust (which also maintains Strokestown Park, which we have yet to visit – hopefully this year! it’s a Section 482 property – and Fota House, Arboretum and Gardens, which we visited in 2020); Dunguaire Castle, County Clare, which is maintained by Shannon Heritage, as well as Newbridge House, which we also visited in 2021. Shannon Heritage also maintains Bunratty Castle, Knappogue Castle and Cragganowen Castle in County Clare, King John’s Castle in Limerick, which we visited in 2019, Malahide Castle in Dublin which I visited in 2018, GPO museum, and the Casino model railway museum. We also visited Belvedere House, Gardens and Park – I’m not sure who maintains it (can’t see it on the website).

*Duckett’s Grove, County Carlow (visited in August 2021).*

*Woodstock House, County Kilkenny*, *maintained by Kilkenny County Council (visited in August 2021).*

*Johnstown Castle, County Wexford*, *maintained by the Irish Heritage Trust (visited in November 2021).*

*Dunguaire Castle, County Clare (visited in July 2021).*

*Newbridge House, County Dublin (visited in June 2021).*

*Belvedere House, County Westmeath (visited in August 2021).*

We were able to visit two historic properties when we went to view auction sales at Townley Hall, County Louth and Howth Castle, Dublin.

*The domed rotunda in Townley Hall, County Louth (visited in October 2021).*

*Howth Castle, County Dublin (visited in September 2021).*

Finally some private Big Houses that we visited, staying in airbnbs, were Annaghmore in County Sligo and Cregg Castle in Galway.

*Annaghmore, County Sligo, where we stayed as airbnb guests with Durcan and Nicola O’Hara (in August 2021).*

*Cregg Castle, County Galway (in July 2021).*

Here are the listings for January 2021:

Cavan

Cabra Castle (Hotel)

Kingscourt, Co. Cavan

Howard Corscadden.

Tel: 042-9667030

www.cabracastle.com

Open dates in 2021: all year, except Dec 24, 25, 26, 11am-12 midnight

Fee: Free

Corravahan House & Gardens

Corravahan, Drung, Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan

Ian Elliott

Tel: 087-9772224

www.corravahan.com

Open dates in 2021: Jan 4-5, 11-12, 18-19, 25-26, Feb 1-2, 8-9, 15-16, 22-23, Mar 1-2, 8-9, May 4- 5, 9-12, 16-19, 23-26, 30-31, June 1-4, Aug 14-31, Sept 1-2, 9am-1pm, Sundays 2pm- 6pm
Fee: adult €10, OAP/student/child €5

Clare

Newtown Castle

Newtown, Ballyvaughan, Co. Clare

Mary Hawkes- Greene

Tel: 065-7077200

www.newtowncastle.com , www.burrencollege.ie

Open dates in 2021: Jan 4-May 31, Mon-Fri, June 1-30 Mon-Sat, July 1-Aug 31 daily, Sept 1-Dec 17 Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm
Fee: Free

*Newtown Castle, County Clare. Photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.*

Cork

Blarney Castle & Rock Close

Blarney, Co. Cork

C. Colthurst

Tel: 021-4385252

www.blarneycastle.ie

Open dates in 2021: all year except Christmas Eve & Christmas Day, Jan-Mar, Mon-Sat, 9am- sundown, Sun, 9am-6pm

Apr-May, 9am-6pm, June-Aug, Mon-Sat, 9am-7pm, Sun, 9am-6pm, Sept, Mon-Sat, 9am-6.30pm, Sun, 9am-6pm,
Oct, Nov, Dec daily 9am-6pm,
Fee: adult €18, OAP/student €15, child €10, family and season passes

Brideweir House

Conna, Co. Cork

Ronan Fox

Tel: 087-0523256

Open dates in 2021: Jan 1-Dec 24, 11am-4pm

Fee: adult €10, OAP/student €5, child free

Woodford Bourne Warehouse

Sheares Street, Cork

Edward Nicholson

Tel: 021-4273000

www.woodfordbournewarehouse.com

Open dates in 2021: all year except Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, 1pm-11pm

Fee: Free

Donegal

Portnason House

Portnason, Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal
Madge Sharkey
Tel: 086-3846843
Open dates in 2021: Jan 18-22, 25-29, Feb 1-5, 8-12, Aug 14-30, Sept 1-17, 20-23, 27-28, Nov 15- 19, 22-26, Dec 1-3 6-10, 13-14, 9am-1pm

Fee: adult €8, OAP/student/child €5

Dublin City

Bewley’s

78-79 Grafton Street/234 Johnson’s Court, Dublin 2

Peter O’ Callaghan

Tel 087-7179367

www.bewleys.com

Open dates in 2021: all year except Christmas Day,

11am-7pm Fee: Free

Hibernian/National Irish Bank

23-27 College Green, Dublin 2

Dan O’Sullivan

Tel: 01-6755100

www.clarendonproperties.ie

Open dates in 2021: all year, except Dec 25, Wed-Fri 9.30am-8pm, Sun 11am-7pm, Sat, Mon, Tue, 9.30-7pm

Fee: Free

Powerscourt Townhouse Centre

59 South William Street, Dublin 2

Mary Larkin

Tel: 01-6717000

Open dates in 2021: All year except New Year’s Day, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, Christmas Day, St. Stephen’s Day & Bank Holidays, Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm, Thurs, 10am-8pm, Sundays, 12 noon-6pm

Fee: Free

10 South Frederick Street

Dublin 2

Joe Hogan

Tel: 087-2430334

Open dates in 2021: Jan 1-24, May 1, 3-8, 10-15, 17-22, 24-27, Aug 14-22, 2pm-6pm

Fee: Free

County Dublin

“Geragh”

Sandycove Point, Sandycove, Co. Dublin

Gráinne Casey

Tel: 01-2804884

Open dates in 2021: Jan 28-29, Feb 1-5, 8-12, 15-22, May 4-31, Aug 14-22, Sept 1-3, 2pm-6pm Fee: adult €7, OAP €4, student €2, child free

Meander

Westminister Road, Foxrock, Dublin 18,

Ruth O’Herlihy,

Tel: 087-2163623

Open dates in 2021: Jan 4-8, 11-15, 18-22, 25-29, May 1, 4-8, 10-11, 17-22, June 8-12, 14-19, 21- 26, Aug 14-22, 9am-1pm

Fee: adult €5, OAP/child/student €2

Tibradden House

Mutton Lane, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16

Selina Guinness

Tel: 01-4957483

www.selinaguinness.com

Open dates in 2021: Jan 14-17, 23-24, 28-29, Feb 4-7, 11-12, 19-21, 26-28, May 3-13,16, 18-20, 23-27, June 2-4, 8-10, 14-16, 19-20, Aug 14-22, weekdays 2.30pm-6.30pm, weekends 10.30am-2.30pm
Fee: adult/OAP €8 student €5, child free, Members of An Taisce the The Irish Georgian Society (with membership card) €5

Galway

Woodville House Dovecote & Walls of Walled Garden

Craughwell, Co. Galway
Margarita and Michael Donoghue
Tel: 087-9069191
www.woodvillewalledgarden.com
Open dates in 2021: Jan 29-31, Feb 1-28, Apr 1-13, 11am- 4.30pm, June 1, 6-8, 13-15, 21-22, 27- 29, July 10-11, 17-18, 24-25, 31, Aug 1-2, 6-8, 13-22, 27-29, Sept 4-5, 11am-5pm Fee: adult/OAP €6, child €3, student, €5, family €20, guided tours €10

Kerry

Derreen Gardens

Lauragh, Tuosist, Kenmare, Co. Kerry

John Daly

Tel: 087-1325665

www.derreengarden.com

Open dates in 2021: all year, 10am-6pm

Fee: adult/OAP/student €8, child €3, family ticket (2 adults and all children under 18 and 2 maps) €20

Kildare

Farmersvale House

Badgerhill, Kill, Co. Kildare

Patricia Orr

Tel: 086-2552661

Open dates in 2021: Jan 18-31, Feb 1-6, July 23-31, Aug 1-31, 9.30am-1.30pm
Fee: adult €5, student/child/OAP €3, (Irish Georgian Society members free)

Harristown House

Brannockstown, Co. Kildare

Hubert Beaumont
Tel: 087-2588775

www.harristownhouse.ie

Open dates in 2021: Jan 11-15, 18-22, Feb 8-12, 15-19, May 4-28, June 7-11, Aug 14-22, Sept 6-10, 9am-1pm

Fee: adult/OAP/student €10, child €5

Kildrought House

Celbridge Village, Co. Kildare

June Stuart

Tel: 01-6271206, 087-6168651

Open dates in 2021: Jan 1-20, May 18-26, Aug 11-31,10am-2pm
Fee: adult €6, OAP/student/child €3, child under 5 years free, school groups €2 per head

Moyglare Glebe

Moyglare, Maynooth, Co. Kildare

Joan Hayden

Tel: 01-8722238

Open dates in 2021: Jan 4-8, 11-15, 18-22, 25-29, May 1-31, Aug 14-22, Sept 4-7, 8.30am-12.30pm Fee: adult €6, OAP/student/child €3

Kilkenny

Kilkenny Design Centre

Castle Yard, Kilkenny

Joseph O’ Keeffe, Tel: 064-6623331

www.kilkennydesign.com

Open dates in 2021: all year,10am-7pm

Fee: Free

Laois

Ballaghmore Castle

Borris in Ossory, Co. Laois

Grace Pym

Tel: 0505-21453

www.castleballaghmore.com

Open dates in 2021: all year, 9.30am-6pm
Fee: adult €5, child/OAP €3, student free, family of 4, €10

Leitrim

Manorhamilton Castle (Ruin)

Castle St, Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim

Anthony Daly

Tel: 086-2502593

Open dates in 2021: Jan 7-Dec 21, National Heritage Week, Aug 14-22, closed Sat & Sun, 10am- 5pm
Fee: adult €5, child free

Limerick

Ash Hill

Kilmallock, Co. Limerick

Simon and Nicole Johnson

Tel: 063-98035

ww w.ashhill.com

(Tourist Accommodation Facility)

Open dates in 2021: Jan 15-Oct 31, Nov 1-29, Dec 1-15, 9am-4pm Fee: adult/student €5, child/OAP free

Glebe House

Bruff, Co. Limerick

Colm McCarthy

Tel: 087-6487556

Open dates in 2021: Jan 4-29, May 10-28, Aug 13-22, Sept 13-24, Mon-Fri, 5.30pm-9.30pm, Sat- Sun, 8am-12 noon

Fee: Free

Mayo

Brookhill House

Brookhill, Claremorris, Co. Mayo

Patricia and John Noone

Tel: 094-9371348

Open dates in 2021: Jan 13-20, Apr 13-20, May 18-24, June 8-14, July 13-19, Aug 1-23, 2pm-6pm

Fee: adult €6, student €3, OAP/child/National Heritage Week free

Meath

Cillghrian Glebe now known as Boyne House Slane (or Stackallan)

Slane, Co. Meath

Alan Haugh

Tel: 041-9884444

www.boynehouseslane.ie

Open dates in 2021: all year, National Heritage Week, Aug 14-22, 9am-1pm Fee: Free

Dardistown Castle

Dardistown, Julianstown, Co. Meath

Lizanne Allen

Tel: 086 -2774271

www.dardistowncastle.ie

Open dates in 2021: Jan 9-31, Feb 11-21, May 15-21, Aug 14-31, Sept 1-30, 10am-2pm Fee: adult €6, student/OAP €5, child free

Gravelmount House

Castletown, Kilpatrick, Navan, Co. Meath
Brian McKenna
Tel: 087-2520523
Open dates in 2021: Jan 1-13, May 10-30, June 1-20, Aug 14-22, 9am-1pm Fee: adult €6, OAP/student/child €3

Moyglare House

Moyglare, Co. Meath

Postal address Maynooth Co. Kildare

Angela Alexander

Tel: 086-0537291

www.moyglarehouse.ie

Open dates in 2021: Jan 1, 4-8, 11-15, 18-22, 25-29, May 1-21, 24-28, 31, June 1-3, Aug 14-22, 9am-1pm
Fee: adult €7.50, OAP/student/child €5

St. Mary’s Abbey

High Street, Trim, Co. Meath

Peter Higgins

Tel: 087-2057176

Open dates in 2021: Jan 25-29, Feb 22-26, Mar 8-12, Apr 12-16, May 24-30, June 21-27, July 19- 25, Aug 14-22, Sept 13-17, 20-24, 2pm-6pm

Fee: adult €5, OAP/student/child €2

Tankardstown House

Rathkenny, Slane, Co. Meath

Tadhg Carolan, Tel: 087-7512871

www.tankardstown.ie

Open dates in 2021: All year including National Heritage Week, 9am-1pm

Fee: Free

Monaghan

Castle Leslie

Glaslough, Co. Monaghan

Samantha Leslie

Tel: 047-88091

www.castleleslie.com

(Tourist Accommodation Facility)

Open dates in 2021: all year, National Heritage Week, events August 14-22 Fee: Free

Offaly

Ballybrittan Castle

Ballybrittan, Edenderry, Co. Offaly

Rosemarie

Tel: 087-2469802

Open dates in 2021: Jan 3-4, 10-11, 17-18, 23-24, 30-31, Feb 6-7, 13-14, 20-21, 27-28, Mar 6-7,13- 14, 20-21, 27-28, May 1-2, 8-9, 15-16, 22-23, June 12-13,19-20, 26-27, July 3-4,10- 11,17-18, 24-25, 31, Aug 14-22, Sept 4-14, 2pm-6pm.

Fee: free – except in case of large groups a fee of €5 p.p.

Corolanty House

Shinrone, Birr, Co. Offaly

Siobhan Webb

Tel: 086-1209984

Open dates in 2021: Jan, Feb, July, Aug, Sept, daily 2pm-6pm

Fee: Free

Crotty Church

Castle Street, Birr, Co. Offaly

Brendan Garry

Tel: 086-8236452

Open dates in 2021: All year, except Dec 25, 9am-5pm

Fee: Free

High Street House

High Street, Tullamore, Co. Offaly

George Ross

Tel: 086-3832992

www.no6highstreet.com

Open dates in 2021: Jan 4-8, 11-15, 18-22, 25-29, May 1-18, Aug 14-22, Sept 1-24, 9.30am-1.30pm Fee: adult/student €5, OAP €4, child under 12 free

Springfield House

Mount Lucas, Daingean, Tullamore, Co. Offaly Muireann Noonan
Tel: 087-2204569
www.springfieldhouse.ie

Open dates in 2021: Jan 1-14, 1pm-5pm, May 14-16, 24-28, July 2-4, 9-11, 16-18, Aug 7-29, 2pm- 6pm, Dec 26-31, 1pm-5pm
Fee: Free

Roscommon

Strokestown Park House

Strokestown Park House, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon

Ciarán

Tel: 01-8748030

www.strokestownpark.ie

Open dates in 2021: Jan 2-Dec 20, Jan, Feb, Mar 1-16, Nov, Dec,10.30am-4pm, March 17-Oct 31, 10.30am-5.30pm,
Fee: adult €14, €12.50, €9.25, OAP/student €12.50, child €6, family €29, groups €11.50

Tipperary

Beechwood House

Ballbrunoge, Cullen, Co. Tipperary

Maura & Patrick McCormack

Tel: 083-1486736

Open dates in 2021: Jan 4-8, 18-22, Feb 1-5, 8-12, May 1-3, 14-17, 21-24, June 11-14, 18-21, Aug 14-22, Sept 3-6, 10-13, 17-20, 24-27, 10.15am-2.15pm

Fee: adult €5, OAP/student €2, child free, fees donated to charity

Waterford

The Presentation Convent

Waterford Healthpark, Slievekeel Road,Waterford Michelle O’ Brien
www.rowecreavin.ie
Tel: 051-370057

Open dates in 2021: Jan 1-Dec 31, excluding Bank Holidays and Sundays, Mon-Fri, 8am-6pm, Sat, 10am-2pm, National Heritage Week, Aug 14-22
Fee: Free

Wexford

Clougheast Cottage

Carne, Co. Wexford

Jacinta Denieffe

Tel: 086-1234322

Open dates in 2021: Jan 11-31, May 1-31 August 14-22, 9am-1pm Fee: €5

Wilton Castle

Bree, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford

Sean Windsor

(Tourist Accommodation Facility)

Tel: 053-9247738

www.wiltoncastleireland.com

Open dates in 2021: all year

Wicklow

Castle Howard

Avoca, Co. Wicklow

Mark Sinnott

Tel: 087-2987601

Open dates in 2021: Jan 11-13, Feb 1-5, Mar 1-3, 22-24, June 10-12, 14-15, 19, 21-26, 28, July 5-9, 19-22, Aug 13-22, Sept 6-11, 18, 25, Oct 4-6, 11-13, 9am-1pm

Fee: adult €8.50, OAP/student €6.50, child €5

Mount Usher Gardens

Ashford, Co. Wicklow

Caitriona Mc Weeney

Tel: 0404-49672

www.mountushergardens.ie

Open dates in 2021: all year 10am-6pm

Fee: adult €8, student/OAP €7, child €4, no charge for wheelchair users

Powerscourt House & Gardens

Powerscourt Estate, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow

Sarah Slazenger

Tel: 01-2046000

www.powerscourt.ie

Open: All year, closed Christmas day and St Stephens day, 9.30am-5.30pm, ballroom and garden rooms Sun, 9.30am-1.30pm
Fee: Mar-Oct, adult €11.50, OAP €9, student €8.50, child €5, family ticket €26, Nov- Dec, adult €8.50, OAP €7.50, student €7, child €4, family ticket 2 adults + 3 children €18, children under 5 free

Newpark House and Demesne, Newpark, Ballymote, Co. Sligo F56 X985

by jenjunebugNovember 30, 2021May 28, 2023

Open in 2023: Jan 30-31, Feb 1-3, 27-28, Mar 1-3, 6-10, Apr 24-28, May 8-13, 15-19, 22-27,
June 5-10, 19-24, Aug 12-20, 26-27, 9.30am-1.30pm
Fee: adult €7, OAP/student €5, child free

donation

Help me to fund the maintenance and update of this website. It is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!

€10.00

We visited Newpark House during Heritage Week, when we went on holidays to Sligo. We were delighted to discover that the owner, Christopher, is a cousin of Durcan O’Hara, with whom we were staying at Annaghmore in nearby Collooney.

Burke’s A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland tells us that Newpark was built for Robert King Duke (1770-1836), Justice of the Peace and Deputy Governor of Sligo, but the Historic Houses of Ireland website points out that he was only a boy of ten in 1780 when the house was built, so it was probably built for his father Robert (1732-1792). The Duke family descends from John Duke, who came to Sligo at the time of Oliver Cromwell and was granted land in Sligo in 1662. One can still see traces of their presence in the decorative plasterwork in the house. [1]

In 1910, the In 1910, the Duke family left Newpark, and it was purchased by Richard O’Hara, a younger son from nearby Annaghmore and Coopershill.

The house may have been designed by John Roberts of Waterford, who also may have designed Enniscoe in County Mayo, another house we visited during Heritage Week [2].

The house has a main rectangular block of three bays and two storeys, with a basement and dormer attic, built in 1780. The house was extended in the 1870s and lost some of its original features, but the original staircase remains.

A two-bay two-storey over basement wing was added around 1920.

The house is lime rendered with a tripartite entrance: a round-headed door-case flanked by narrow rectangular sidelights. There is another door in the front in the newer section of the house.

*The round-headed doorcase with side windows and fanlight.*

*Eaved roof rests on corbels, i.e. blocks projecting from the walls supporting the roof.*

The Kitchens have recently received a grant to fix their gabled windows, *which are on both sides of the house, and have decorative wooden bargeboards.*

*Gabled windows with decorative bargeboards, seen here above the later two storey addition.*

The Historic Houses of Ireland website tells us that architect and writer Jeremy Williams observed of Newtown: “What strikes one is the harmony of the whole ensemble. Entrance gates and lodge, lime avenue, house, carriage-house, farm yard and partly walled demesne are all proportionate to each other and reveal the unpretentious lifestyle of a typical west of Ireland squireen, a rare survival today.”

The gate lodge is available for hired accommodation. [3]

*My photograph of the picturesque gate lodge of Newpark – I did not realise it is much bigger than it looks from the side facing the driveway. You can see the lower storey in my photograph below.*

Photograph taken from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, since I did not like to walk around the gate lodge, unsure if it had residents! In this photograph you can see the lovely arched window at the front.

The gate lodge is much larger than it looks from the photographs I took, since I did not walk around it. This photograph taken from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage shows that the side of the lodge away from the driveway has another storey, lower than that facing the driveway. *This extension was built in about 1960 onto the original c. 1840 cottage.* [4]

Robert Duke (1732-1792) of Newtown married Lucinda Parke, daughter of William Parke of Dunally, County Sligo. The Parkes of Dunally were a branch of the Parkes who owned Parkes Castle in County Leitrim, which we also visited during Heritage Week.

*Parkes Castle, County Leitrim, built in the early seventeenth century by Captain Robert Parke on the foundations on an old O’Rourke castle built by Brian O’Rourke, Prince of Breffne.*

Robert King Duke (1770-1836) also married a Parke from Dunally, Anne. Newpark passed down through the family and it must have been his great-grandson, Roger Philip Duke (1874-1944), who sold Newpark.

Richard Edward O’Hara (1863-1948) who purchased Newpark in 1913 was the son of Charles William Cooper (1817-1898) of Coopershill, who took the name O’Hara when he inherited Annaghmore from his uncle, Charles King O’Hara (1784-1860) (the “King” may have been from Charles King O’Hara’s mother’s mother, whose maiden name was King). Charles William Cooper O’Hara married Anne Charlotte Streatfield, a wealthy heiress, and they lived in Annaghmore. They had many children, one of whom, Richard Edward O’Hara (1863-1948), purchased Newpark. He moved to Queensland, Australia, where he farmed, and married Ethel Fisken in 1911. They returned to live in Ireland and he purchased Newpark.

They had a daughter, Sheela, who married Finlay Kitchin, grandfather of the current owner, Christopher. Christopher’s parents moved out of Newpark only a few years ago to a house built on the property, yielding the house to their son and his wife, Dorothy-Ellen. Our week took a serendipitous turn when we learned that Dorothy-Ellen is the daughter of Mary White of The Old Rectory, Killedmond in Carlow, where we were going to be staying later that week! [5]

Dorothy and Christopher had arranged for a special event for Heritage Week, so Stephen and I purchased tickets for this: a nature talk and walk by Michael Bell of Naturelearn [6]. Christopher told us that the house would be open to visitors during the event.

Christopher greeted us and was kind enough to take time from his busy preparations for the Heritage Week event to give us a tour of the house. He pointed out that the geometrical plan is most unusual, and reminded the architectural historian Maurice Craig of a swastika, with four principal rooms of unequal size arranged around a small central hall. Another Section 482 property, Oakfield Park in County Donegal, also has this arrangement.

*Front hall of Newpark*, *with “cobweb” fanlight.*

*The front hall of Newpark, with lovely plasterwork on ceiling*: *a decorative cornice and central ceiling rose feature.*

*The plasterwork on the front hall ceiling, of acanthus leaves and floral swags and a geometrical design.*

*Isaac Nicholson, b. 1840, a Kitchin ancestor.*

The drawing room also has fine stucco work, with garlands and flowers and urns.

Above the fireplace the frieze of plasterwork has a shield with the arms of the Duke family, a chevron between three terns. The frieze also features the crest of the Dukes, a sword plunged in a plume of nine ostrich feathers. Robert O’Byrne points out that there is a cornet with plumes rising from it, and that this may represent the coat of arms of Lucinda Parke, wife of Robert Duke. [7]

*The crest of the Dukes features in the cornice frieze, a sword plunged in a plume of nine ostrich feathers.*

The other main reception room is the dining room.

Dorothy-Ellen took us downstairs to show us the basement, and the room in which she is creating a museum of the old things from the house.

*All the heating is supplied by this passat boiler which Dorothy-Ellen showed us.*

Dorothy and Christopher have converted their barns into a beautiful event space which they call the Juniper Barn. [8] They run it according to eco-conscious principals very like those of Dorothy-Ellen’s mother, a former Green party TD. We headed over to the barns to attend the nature talk.

*The names of Christopher and Dorothy-Ellen’s children are carved in the swing.*

*I asked Christopher about the “S” shapes on the barns – they are part of the construction of the barn.*

*The beautiful interior of the barn*, *which is available for hire.*

*I was very impressed by the hanging plume pampas grass decorations, created by Dorothy-Ellen.*

I was even impressed by the “decor” of the bathroom in the outbuildings, and especially like the stirrup incorporated into the chain of the cistern.

*The animals and skulls brought by Michael Bell*, *including a huge vertebrae, and a dolphin skull.*

*A “death’s head” hawkmoth with what looks like a skull on its head.* *Michael Bell set up a moth catcher, and showed us the typical types of moths of the area.*

Michael and his daughter brought us down to the lake to see what wildlife we could find. We saw different types of dragonflies, and he told us about the lonely swan, whose mate had died. I hope it won’t be lonely for long!

We then headed back to see the gardens around the house, including the herb garden and walled garden.

*The herb garden, created by Christopher’s parents.*

*The walled garden contains a polytunnel.*

[1] http://www.ihh.ie/index.cfm/houses/house/name/Newpark

[2] http://www.ihh.ie/index.cfm/houses/house/name/Newpark and see my entry about Enniscoe, County Mayo, https://irishhistorichouses.com/2021/11/25/enniscoe-house-gardens-castlehill-ballina-co-mayo/

[3] https://www.juniperbarn.ie/accommodation

[4] https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/32403317/newpark-house-newpark-sligo

[5] https://irishhistorichouses.com/2020/07/16/the-old-rectory-killedmond-borris-co-carlow/

[6] https://www.naturelearn.com

[7] https://theirishaesthete.com/2019/01/30/frieze-it/

[8] https://www.juniperbarn.ie/venue

Markree Castle, Collooney, Co Sligo (hotel)

by jenjunebugNovember 6, 2021May 28, 2023

www.markreecastle.ie
Open in 2023: June, July, Aug, 12 noon-4pm – check in advance, as it is an event and wedding venue.
Fee: Free

donation

Help me to fund the maintenance and update of this website. It is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!

€10.00

Castellated three-bay ashlar stone gate lodge, built around 1835 to the designs of Francis Goodwin (who also designed Lissadell in County Sligo). Central two-storey tower with integral carriage arch flanked by single-storey wings. Arched windows in the wings, and hood mouldings. [1] Unfortunately we did not find the other gate lodge entrance, reputed to be even more impressive.

During Heritage Week in 2021, Stephen and I went to County Sligo. We stayed in wonderful B&B accommodation in a historic house, Annaghmore, near Collooney, owned by the O’Haras, who have owned the estate in County Sligo for centuries.

*Annaghmore, Colooney, County Sligo, where we stayed during Heritage Week 2021.*

We learned that the O’Haras and the Coopers, who own Coopershill, another section 482 property which we visited during Heritage Week, are related, and Coopers also owned Markree Castle until very recently. In 1989, Charles Cooper, having worked in the hotel business all his life, came back to Markree to renovate the castle and run it as a hotel. In 2015, the Corscadden family purchased the castle and undertook further renovations. This is the same Corscadden family who own Cabra Castle in County Cavan, who so generously upgraded Stephen and me to the honeymoon suite when we stayed! The Corscaddens also own Ballyseede Castle hotel in Tralee, County Kerry (also section 482) and Bellingham Castle in County Louth, which is available as a venue for weddings and events, with accommodation. Unfortunately Markree Castle is too expensive for us to stay in, except perhaps as a very luxurious treat, but I contacted the hotel and we made a date for my visit. When we arrived, however, we were told that they were in the middle of an event and we were asked to return in an hour or two. We took the time to explore the outside, although we were unable to access the gardens, which seem to be only accessible through the castle.

*The west side of the castle, which overlooks the car park.*

We wandered across the Unsin River to the stable complex, which has also been renovated for rental accommodation. We learned later that this accommodation is not part of Markree Castle hotel. In Mark Bence-Jones’s entry in his A Guide to Irish Country Houses (published in 1988), he writes in the supplement that Edward Cooper and his wife moved into a new Georgian style house in the yard. The stables are now called Markree Homefarm Apartments and are available for rental accommodation. [2]

*The Unshin River, which served in the past to partially moat the castle.*

*Entrance to stone stable yard, built 1771. Two storey house added in about 1990.*

The castle replaced an earlier residence, which the Landed Estates website of National University of Ireland Galway tells us was called Mercury. [3] The first Cooper to own the property was Edward Cooper (died 1676), an officer in Lord Collooney Richard Coote’s regiment in Oliver Cromwell’s army. He was given the land at Markree, previously owned by the McDonaghs, as payment for his soldiering. He married the widow of an O’Brien killed by Cromwell’s army. She was called Mary “Rua” (Red Mary), and she probably married Cooper in order to protect her sons from the Cromwellians. According to the history board outside the castle, Red Mary and Edward Cooper lived first in Luimneach Castle (Luimneach is the Irish for Limerick), which one of her sons inherited, while the other inherited Markree. In his online blog, Patrick Comerford identifies Mary Rua’s husband as Conor O’Brien, and writes that it was Dromoland Castle that Mary Rua’s son inherited. [4] In the family tree on the information boards, Edward Cooper also married Margaret Mahon, from County Roscommon. This accords with The Peerage website, but according to that website, Arthur, Edward’s son who inherited Markree, was Margaret Mahon’s son and not the son of Red Mary. According to The Peerage, Edward’s son Richard lived in Knocklong, County Limerick. [5]

During the Williamite wars at the end of the 17th century, Markree Castle was occupied by the army of James II. The Coopers returned after William III’s victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

The Coopers intermarried with other prominent local families, including the Cootes, Wynnes and Synges, and by the 1720s, Joshua Cooper (1694-1757) was one of the largest landowners in Co Sligo, with over 40,000 acres.

Arthur Cooper, who inherited Markree from his father Edward who fought in Cromwell’s army, had a daughter named Anne who married John Perceval (1700-1743) of Temple House in County Sligo, another Section 482 property, which unfortunately we did not get to visit this year. I hope to be able to visit next year! In 1881 Alexander Perceval of Temple House married Charlotte Jane O’Hara of Annaghmore, so the owners of our accommodation are cousins of the owners of Temple House. Furthermore, we visited two other Section 482 properties in Sligo during Heritage Week: Coopershill and Newpark, both of which are also owned by cousins of the O’Haras of Annaghmore!

*An information board outside the hotel gives a history of Markree Castle.*

*According to this family tree on the information board outside Markree Castle, Edward Cooper married Maire Rua O’Brien and also Margaret Mahon.*

It was Arthur’s great-great-grandson Joshua Edward Cooper (about 1759-1837) who built the castle in 1802 around an earlier structure. Arthur’s son Joshua (1694-1757) married Mary Bingham from Newbrook, County Mayo. His son, another Joshua (1730-1800), was MP for County Sligo and opposed the Act of Union, which abolished the Irish Parliament, so that Ireland was run by the Parliament in London. He married Alicia Synge, daughter and heiress of Edward Synge, Bishop of Elphin, and she brought him a large fortune. [6]

His son Joshua Edward Cooper (about 1759-1837) was also MP for County Sligo in the Irish House of Commons, and after the Act of Union he sat in the House of Commons in London until 1806. According to the Dictionary of Irish Biography, he replaced Catholic leaseholders with Protestants to acquire more voting power, which caused considerable resentment and which may have been the reason that his house was sacked in 1798 during the Rebellion. This may be why he commissioned Francis Johnston to enlarge Markree in 1802, to make it into a castle – it may have needed repair. We came across the work of Francis Johnston (1760-1829) when we visited Rokeby in County Louth. Johnston had been a pupil of the architect Thomas Cooley. At the time when he was commissioned by Joshua Edward Cooper, Johnston had been working on Townley Hall in County Louth, which I was lucky enough to visit recently during the annual Adams auction viewing that is held in the house. It has an amazing staircase and domed rotunda.

*The impressive elegant staircase by Francis Johnston in Townley Hall, County Louth.*

*The impressive elegant staircase by Francis Johnston in Townley Hall, County Louth.* *My photographs could not capture the extent of its full sweep, captured in the photographs from* Country Life magazine, below.

*Image from* Country Life. The spiral of the staircase in the central domed rotunda at Townley Hall. Pub Orig CL 23/07/1948
Image Number:
535673
Publication Date:
23/07/1948

Johnston also Gothicized Tullynally Castle in County Westmeath, 1801-1806, and enlarged Killeen Castle in County Meath 1802-1813. He also designed Ballynegall House (1808-1816) in County Westmeath, sadly now just a ruin, and Ballycurry House, County Wicklow (1807), along with many ecclesiastical and civic buildings, including the General Post Office on O’Connell Street in Dublin, in 1814.

The castle is a stone twelve-bay, three-storey over raised basement mansion which contains parts of earlier houses. [7] The bays are easier to count at the back (i.e. the garden front) of the castle. According to Mark Bence-Jones, the original seventeenth century house was rebuilt in the eighteenth century as a three storey block, with a five bay front and a three bay breakfront, and a garden front of one bay on either side of a curved bow. The castle was enlarged in 1802 to a design by Francis Johnston, and then in 1866 enlarged again, to a design by James Maitland Wardrop of Edinburgh. I found it impossible to work out what part of the castle was built when, so I defer to Mark Bence-Jones:

In 1802, Joshua Cooper commissioned Francis Johnston to enlarge this house and transform it into a castle of the early, symmetrical kind. Johnston extended the front of the house to more than twice its original length to form a new garden front with a central curved and Irish battlemented tower; the end bay of the original front and the corresponding bay at the end of Johnston’s addition being raised to give the impression of square corner-towers. The entrance was in the adjoining front, where Johnston added a porch; the garden front, with its bow, was not altered as far as its plan went; but an office wing was built at one side of it, joined to it by a canted link. In 1866, the castle was further enlarged and remodelled by Lt-Col. E.H. Cooper, MP, to the design of Wardrop, of Edinburgh. The garden front bow was replaced by a massive battlemented and machiocolated square tower, increasing the side of the dining room; a new entrance was made at this side of the castle, under a porte-cochere at the end of a 2 storey wing with Gothic windows which was built jutting out from this front. Johnston’s porch was replaced by a 2 storey battlemented oriel, and mullioned windows to match were put in on this and the new entrance front. A Gothic chapel was built where Johnston’s office wing had been. [8]

*The large square tower with two-storey square-profile oriel window, and on the west front, the two-storey canted bay window.*

*The garden front of Markree Castle, with its central curved bow.* *The ornamental doorway was added in 1896.*

*An old photograph on display inside the castle of the garden front.*

*Another old photograph of Markree (I assume) that is on display inside – I can’t work out what part of the old castle this is.*

*I think this photograph is of Cabra Castle, also owned by the Corscaddens.*

*I think this photograph is also of Cabra Castle, also owned by the Corscaddens.*

*The 1870 addition*, “*a new entrance was made at this side of the castle, under a porte-cochere at the end of a 2 storey wing with Gothic windows which was built jutting out from this front.*” *This is next to another addition from this period, the large square tower with two-storey square-profile oriel window.* *To the side, or west front, is two-storey canted bay window.*

*The entrance door under the porte-cochere.*

One enters through the arched doorway in the battlemented vaulted stone portico. The doorway leads to a straight flight of stone stairs leading up to the main floor, under an impressive vaulted ceiling.

*The two storey wing with Gothic windows that was added by the architect Wardrop, leading to the porte-cochere.*

Joshua Edward Cooper (1761-1837) became unwell and his brother Edward Synge Cooper (1762-1830) took over the running of the estate in Sligo and became MP for County Sligo in 1806. Joshua Edward Cooper and his wife Elizabeth Lindsay, daughter of Robert Lindsay, MP, from County Tyrone, had no children, so Edward Synge Cooper’s son, Edward Joshua Cooper (1798-1863), inherited Markree when Joshua Edward Cooper died in 1837. As well as serving in the House of Commons in the UK, Edward Joshua Cooper was an astronomer, who created Markree Observatory. He was influenced by childhood visits to the Armagh Observatory.

*Remnant of the Observatory at Markree. Photograph from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.*

Edward Joshua Cooper (1798-1863) had no son, only daughters, so his nephew Edward Henry Cooper (1827-1902), son of his brother Richard Wordsworth Cooper (1801-1850), inherited Markree. When he inherited, he then put his stamp on the castle by having it further enlarged (the Wardrop enlargement).

*The large square tower with two-storey square-profile oriel window*, *next to the porte-cochere.*

*The mullioned arched window in the porte-cochere with Gothic tracery and hood moulding, and the glass ceiling in the upper storey.*

*The top-lit drawing room inside the porte-cochere.*

*On the west front, the two-storey canted bay window.*

*The garden, past the two storey canted bay window on the west front.*

Wardrop also added the Gothic chapel.

*The stained glass window of the Gothic chapel added by Wardrop, and beyond that, the two storey porte-cochere.*

*The Gothic chapel has a lovely external stone staircase up to it.*

At the top of the vaulted entrance staircase one can go through to the main reception, or to the left, to the chapel.

Edward Henry Cooper (1827-1902) was an Irish officer in the British Army, and a Conservative politician in the House of Commons in the UK. He was defeated in the 1868 election by the Liberal candidate Denis Maurice O’Conor from Clonalis in County Roscommon (another section 482 property still owned by its original family). When he died, Markree was inherited by his grandson Bryan Ricco Cooper (1884-1930), who was born in Simla in India. He was an MP for South Country Dublin (1910) at Westminster, and was involved in the Gallipoli landings during World War I. During the Irish Civil War in the 1920s, Markree Castle was occupied briefly by the Irish Free State army. Bryan Ricco Cooper was elected to Dail Eireann after Independence. He sold much of the estate’s land but continued to live at Markree.

The Castle stood empty and derelict for several years after World War II, and featured on the front cover of The Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland in 1988, illustrating the decay of many great houses at the time. Charles Philip Cooper, a grandson of Bryan Ricco, who had worked in the hotel industry, converted Markree into a hotel in 1989.

The reception hall is surrounded by a carved wooden gallery and contains a Victorian double staircase of oak, lit by a heraldic stained glass window illustrating the family tree with portraits of ancestors and monarchs.

*The hotel reception, in the corner under the heavy wooden gallery.*

*Top left, King John, middle top, King Henry VIII, top right, Queen Elizabeth I. Bottom left, Bryan Cooper, middle, William Cooper, and Sir Richard of Bingham on bottom right.*

According to Mark Bence-Jones, the great top-lit galleried hall with a timbered roof is located where Johnston’s staircase used to be.

It was hard to capture it all in photographs, there were so many details!

A long library divided by pairs of grey marble Ionic columns has been formed out of Johnston’s entrance.

The large drawing room in Johnston’s round-faced tower in the middle of the garden front, and the ante-room adjoining it, which are now the dining room, were redecorated between 1837 and 1863 by Edward Joshua Cooper, MP, in an ornate Louis Quatorze style, with much gilding and “well-fed” putti in high relief supporting cartouches and trailing swags of flowers and fruits.

*We were prevented from fully entering the dining room as staff were preparing it for the next event so I took a photograph from a booklet displaying the room.*

Unfortunately nobody could explain the fabric of the building and its stages of renovation and enlargement and the manager was unable to identify the portraits on the walls. However, we asked to see inside a bedroom, and were taken down to the basement to see the honeymoon suite. The basement is the oldest part of the castle.

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