Castle Bernard (formerly Castle Mahon), Bandon, Co Cork – ruin  

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. 

p. 62. “(Bernard, Bandon, E/PB) The old castle of the O’Mahonys, formerly known as Castle Mahon, was acquired by the Bernards early in C17 and was eventually changed to Castle Bernard.  During 1^st half of C18, two new fronts were added to the castle, by Francis Bernard, Solicitor-General of Ireland, Prime Serjeant of Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and by his son, Francis Bernard, MP.  They were of brick, with Corinthian pilasters and other enrichments of Portland stone, and were surrounded by formal gardens with statues, fountains, cascades and jets d’eau. In 1798 Francis Bernard, 1^st Viscount Bandon, pulled down the two early C18 fronts and began building a new house alongside the old castle, to which it was joined by a corridor. It was of two storeys, with a nine bay entrance front overlooking the Bandon River and a garden front of three bays on either side of a deep curved central bow. Prominent roof with parapet and dentil cornice; bold quoins. In the early 19C – probably in 1815 – 1st Earl of Bandon gave the house a Gothic coating that was literally skin-deep; a facade of battlements and two slender turrets on the entrance front, which continued around the side for part of the way then stopped; the garden front being left as it was, except for the insertion of Gothic tracery in its windows, similar to that in the windows of the entrance front and sides; and the addition of hood mouldings. The old castle, an adjoining range and the connecting corridor also had C19 battlements. The interior of the house was spacious, with a straightforward plan. A square entrance hall with Ionic pilasters and columns opened into a wide central corridor running the whole length of the main block with a curving staircase at one end. On the opposite side of this corridor to the hall was a large oval room, extending into the garden front bow. Castle Bernard was burnt ca 1921; it is now a ruin smothered in climbing roses that forms an object in the garden of the modern house nearby, which was built in 1960s by 5^th and last Earl of Bandon.” 

Francis Bernard was created 1st Earl of Bandon, and he married Catherine Henrietta Boyle, daughter of Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Shannon.

Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.

“A large two storey classical house built 1798 for Francis Bernard, 1st Viscount Bandon. Joined to a twoer house by a single storey corridor. The house had a good interior which included an entrance hall with a series of columns at one end, and a cantilevered stone staircase. Gothic tracery was inserted in the windows in the mid Victorian period. Destroyed by fire in 1921. Now a ruin.“

The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020. 

p. 25. The first prominent exponent of Neoclassicism in Cork was a native, Michael Shanahan. He appears to have been a stonecutter, and probably came to the attention of the ‘Earl-Bishop’ Frederick Hervey while the latter was Bishop of Cloyne in 1767-8. Hervey took Shanahan on a Continental tour in 1770-2, a very rare thing for an Irish architect, during which Shanahan made measured drawings, particularly of bridges, as Hervey was proposing to build a bridge at Londonderry. On his return to Ireland, he became Hervey’s agent and oversaw the construction of James Wyatt’s Downhill in Derry, as well as designing churches and glebe houses in that diocese. Shanahan returned to Cork in the early 1780s, establishing a marble and stone works in White Street which specialized in chimneypieces, geometrical stone staircases and porticos. His first significant commission was St Patrick’s Bridge, in 1788-91. Shanahan’s houses tend to be reticent in the extreme. Castle Freke (1780s) and Castle Bernard [p. 26] (1790s) are big astylar blocks, bare except for rusticated quoins and thin cornices. Castle Bernard in particular appears to owe a debt to Wyatt’s Castle Coole in the axial arrangement of a hall with columnar screen, and the elliptical saloon projecting into the bow on the garden front.  

Also in David Hicks, Irish Country Houses, a Chronicle of Change. P.1 The architect in 1715 was John Coltsman, oversaw construction of new wings. The surrounding gardens were enhanced by a hydraulic engineer called Francis Fennell.  

https://archiseek.com/2015/1800-castle-bernard-bandon-co-cork/

1800 – Castle Bernard, Bandon, Co. Cork 

In 1788 Francis Bernard, the 1st Earl of Bandon demolished much of the old O’Mahony castle that previously stood on this site, and built a castellated mansion. It was of two storeys with a nine-bay entrance front overlooking the River Bandon; and a garden front of three bays on either side of a deep curved central bow. It was altered and enlarged in Gothic style in the mid-19th century. Now ruined, after being destroyed by arson on 21 June 1921.  

In O’Hea O’Keeffe, Jane. Voices from the Great Houses: Cork and Kerry. Mercier Press, Cork, 2013. 

p. 73. The Bernard family has been associated with the Bandon settlement since the plantation of Munster in the late 1500s. Francis Bernard, third son of Sir Henry Bernard of Acornbank in Westmoreland, accompanied the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and 17,000 men to Ireland in 1599, during the Nine Years’ War. At the time the O’Mahony clan was in possession of Castle Mahon, which was acquired by the descendants of Francis Bernard in 1639 and renamed Castle Bernard. 

p. 75. Early on the morning of 21 June 1921, the Bandon Battalion of the IRA, under the command of Sean Hales, burned Castle Bernard, having ordered Lord and Lady Bandon and their servants to leave the house. They stood and watched as the castle and its contents burned. The IRA then kidnapped Lord Bandon, who was 74 years old. Three weeks later, he was released at the gates of Castle Bernard, having been, by all accounts, reasonably well treated. Lady Bandon had spent part of the period of his captivity at the gardener’s cottage on the castle grounds, later. moving to Cork to stay with friends. Immediately on his release, her husband joined her, and they left for England shortly thereafter. 

The 4^th Earl died in 1924 and was succeeded by his cousin, Air Chief Marshal Percy Bernard, (1904-79), 5^th Earl of Bandon. Lady Frances Carter, daughter of the late Percy Bernard, now lives in a house on the Castle Bernard estate, which today stretches to around 500 acres. She reflects on those troubled days: 

“He must have been very sad indeed. He loved his Bandon home, and had lived there nearly all his life. He died just three years after he left for England. Today, not a lot survives from the castle… James Francis Bernard, 4^th Earl of Bandon, was my father Percy Bernard’s first cousin twice removed, and my father inherited the title on his cousin’s death in England in 1924.” 

Lady Frances and her older sister Jennifer were born and reared in England. 

p. 76. “We were brought up by our mother, Betty, as a consequence of the split between my parents just before I was born in 1943. I first came her to Bandon in 1956, when I was 13, to stay with my father. We stayed in a most uncomfortable house near the castle, which my grandmother had created from several existing cottages so that she and my father could have somewhere to stay on their visits to Bandon. [he remarried, to Betty Playfair] 

p. 78. “When my father inherited, Bandon obviously became a big part of his life. He was always determined to make something of the estate and to live here eventually. He was an absentee in that he was in the Air Force, but he always knew he would eventually live here. This was essentially his home, and he farmed it and kept it going. He was undoubtedly very attached to it.” 

p. 79. Lady Frances and Paul Carter married in England in 1967, and just two years ago they moved into the new house they had built on the grounds at Castle Bernard.  

p. 80. The Castle Bernard estate now stretches to about 500 acres and is home to Bandon Golf Club. The Carters have also leased the farming land. 

p. 81. The records of the Bernard family of Bandon are stored at the Cork Archives at Blackpool, where over 300 boxes of unsorted material await attention. Luckily, when the castl was burned in 1921, the agent in Bandon town had these boxes and estate books in his possession.“

https://theirishaesthete.com/2019/05/06/bandon/

Like many Irish houses, Castle Bernard, County Cork has a long and complex architectural history, some aspects of which are still not clear. The place takes its name from the Bernard family, the first of whom – christened Francis like many of his successors – came here during the Plantation of Munster in the late 16th century. He acquired lands which had formerly been owned by the O’Mahonys and was centred around a great square tower house called Castle Mahon to the immediate south of the river Bandon. This became the Bernards’ residence, its name at some date changed to Castle Bernard, until c.1715, Francis Bernard, great-grandson of the original settler, and Solicitor-General of Ireland, Prime Serjeant and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas initiated work on a new building, seemingly to the designs of John Coltsman of Cork. This involved adding wings to the old tower house, the whole encased in brick with Corinthian pilasters and other ornamentations in Portland stone. A decade later the surrounding demesne was transformed into a formal garden with terraces, cascades, jets d’eau and statuary. This arrangement lasted until the end of the 18th century when Castle Bernard underwent a further transformation. 

In 1794 the Cork architect Michael Shanahan, best-known work commissioned in Ulster by his patron Frederick Hervey, Earl-Bishop of Derry, prepared designs for a new house at Castle Bernard. (For more on Shanahan and the Earl-Bishop, see It’s Downhill All the Way, October 28th 2013 and Let the Door be Instantly Open, For There is Much Wealth Within, March 31st 2014). This involved pulling down the additions to the original tower house, and instead erecting a structure to its immediate east, a linking corridor running between the two. In 1800 another Corkman, William Deane, prepared estimates of £522.4s.4d. for work in finishing the house. In both instances, the client was Francis Bernard who from 1793 gradually scaled the hierarchy of the peerage until 1800 when created first Earl of Bandon. The house he commissioned was classical in style, of two storeys over basement and with a nine-bay entrance front. The garden front was similar but broken by a substantial full-height bow occupying the three centre bays. Just fifteen years later, Lord Bandon undertook further work, this time by an unknown architect, in order to give it the – largely superficial – appearance of a gothic castle, and thereby provide better links both to the old tower house and to the Bernard family’s ancient pedigree. While the garden front experienced little other than the insertion of gothic tracery in its windows, battlements and turrets were added to the façade, and the Bernard coat of arms carved in stone above the main entrance. No great changes were made to the interior, which despite the gothic fenestration otherwise retained its classical decoration. On the ground floor, an entrance hall with Ionic pilasters and columns gave access to a wide corridor which ran like a spine down the centre of the house. Among the reception rooms, the most notable was an oval drawing room overlooking the garden: one sees in its design the abiding influence of the Earl-Bishop on Shanahan. 

The Bernard family remained in residence at Castle Bernard until June 1921 when the 70-year old fourth earl and his wife were woken in the early hours of the morning by a group of IRA members and ordered out of the house, which was then set on fire. Lord Bandon was then taken into captivity by the men and held for the next three weeks, constantly moved from house to house before being released at the gates of the now-ruined Castle Bernard after three weeks: during this time he had lost a stone in weight and never recovered from the experience, dying less than three years later. He and his wife had no children, so the title passed to a first cousin twice-removed, Air Chief Marshal Percy Bernard, widely known as ‘Paddy’ Bandon. But he inherited not a lot else and so, although some compensation was received by the family, Castle Bernard was not rebuilt (the fifth earl constructed a modest bungalow behind the ruin). Since he in turn had no son, the earldom became extinct. Although his descendants still live on the estate, the land in front of Castle Bernard is now a golf course.” http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/07/castle-bernard.html

THE EARLS OF BANDON WERE THE SECOND LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY CORK, WITH 40,941 ACRES 

   
 
The house of BERNARD, Earls of Bandon, derives, according to Thomas Hawley, Norroy King of Arms, from SIR THEOPHILUS, a valiant knight of German descent who, in 1066, accompanied WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR into England. 
 
This Theophilus was son of Sir Egerette, and father of 

SIR DORBARD BERNARD, the first of his family surnamed BERNARD. 
 
His descendants settled at Acornbank in Westmorland, and in the counties of Yorkshire and Northamptonshire. 
 
Among these we find Robert FitzBernard, who accompanied HENRY II to Ireland, and who, on the King’s departure, had Wexford and Waterford committed to his custody. 
 
SIR FRANCIS BERNARD, of Acornbank (the lineal descendant of Sir Dorbard), married Hannah, daughter of Sir John Pilkington, and was grandfather of 
 
SIR HENRY BERNARD, Knight, who married Anne, daughter of Sir John Dawson, of Westmorland, and had four sons, ROBERT, William, Francis, and Charles. 
 
FRANCIS BERNARD, the third son, removed to Ireland during ELIZABETH I’s reign and purchased considerable estates. 
 
He died leaving issue, besides two daughters, a son,  
 
FRANCIS BERNARD, Lord of the manor of Castle Bernard, who married Elizabeth, daughter of Arthur Freke, of Rathbarry Castle (ancestor of Lord Carbery). 
 
Mr Bernard was killed while defending his castle from an attack of the rebel forces, and left issue (with four daughters, all married), two sons, 

FRANCIS, his heir; 
Arthur, born in 1666. 

The elder son, 
 
FRANCIS BERNARD (1663-1731), was attainted by JAMES II’sparliament, but was restored to his estates by WILLIAM and MARY. 
 
He was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland by QUEEN ANNE, Prime Sergeant, and Judge of the Court of Common Pleas. 
 
Mr Bernard represented Bandon and Clonakilty in parliament. 
 
He wedded, in 1697, Alice, daughter of Stephen Ludlow, ancestor of the Earls Ludlow, and grandson of Sir Henry Ludlow, of Maiden Bradley, Wiltshire (whose eldest son was the famous General Ludlow), by whom he left at his decease, 

FRANCIS, his heir; 
Stephen, of Prospect Hall; 
North Ludlow, father of JAMES BERNARD; 
Arthur; 
William; 
John; 
Elizabeth, m 3rd Viscount Charlemont. 

The eldest son, 
 
FRANCIS BERNARD (1698-1783), of Castle Bernard, and Bassingbourne Hall, Essex, MP for Clonakilty, 1725-60, Bandonbridge, 1766-76,  espoused, in 1722, the Lady Anne Petty, only daughter of Henry, Earl of Shelburne; but died without surviving issue, when he was succeeded by his nephew, 
 
JAMES BERNARD (1729-90), of Castle Bernard, son of North Ludlow Bernard, MP for County Cork, 1781-90, who married, in 1752, Esther, daughter of Percy Smyth, and heiress of her brother, William Smyth, of Headborough, and widow of Robert Gookin, and had issue, 

FRANCIS, his heir; 
Rose; Esther; Mary; Charlotte; Elizabeth. 

The only son, 
 
FRANCIS BERNARD (1755-1830), MP for Ennis, 1778-83, Bandonbridge, 1783-90, was elevated to the peerage, in 1793, in the dignity of Baron Bandon; and advanced to a viscountcy, in 1795, as Viscount Bandon. 
 
His lordship was further advanced, in 1800, to the dignities of Viscount Bernard and EARL OF BANDON. 
 
He wedded, in 1784, Catherine Henrietta, only daughter of Richard, 2nd Earl of Shannon, and had issue, 

JAMES, his successor; 
Richard Boyle (Very Rev), Dean of Leighlin; 
Francis; 
William Smyth; 
Henry Boyle; 
Charles Ludlow; 
Catherine Henrietta; Charlotte Esther; Louisa Anne. 

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
JAMES, 2nd Earl (1785-1856), who married, in 1809, Mary Susan Albinia, eldest daughter of the Hon and Most Rev Dr Charles Brodrick, Lord Archbishop of Cashel, and had issue, 

FRANCIS, his successor; 
Charles Brodrick; 
Henry Boyle; 
Catherine Henrietta. 

• Francis, 1st Earl (1755–1830)  

• James, 2nd Earl (1785–1856) 

• Francis, 3rd Earl (1810-77)  

• James Francis, 4th Earl (1850–1924) 

• Percy Ronald Gardner, 5th and last Earl (1904-79). 

The 4th Earl was the last Lord-Lieutenant of County Cork, from 1877 until 1922. 

 
CASTLE BERNARD, near Bandon, County Cork, was re-modelled by Francis Bernard, 1st Viscount Bandon and afterwards 1st Earl of Bandon. 
 
He pulled down the two early 18th century fronts in 1798 and began building a new house alongside the old O’Mahony castle, which was joined by a corridor. 
 
It was of two storeys with a nine-bay entrance front overlooking the River Bandon; and a garden front of three bays on either side of a deep curved central bow.   
 
It was altered and enlarged in Gothic style in the mid-19th century. 

 
Castle Bernard became known as one of the most hospitable houses in Ireland and the house parties held by the 4th Earl and Countess were said to have been legendary. 

 
In an early morning raid on the 21st June, 1921, an IRA gang, under Sean Hales, called at the Castle. 
 
They intended to kidnap Lord Bandon, but “Buckshot” Bandon and his staff had taken refuge in the cellars. 

Apparently disappointed in the first object of their call, the IRA decided to burn the house. 

Hales was heard to say, “well the bird has flown, so we’ll burn the nest”. 
 
At that, Lord Bandon and his party appeared from the cellars but it was too late, the fire had started.  
 
Ironically the IRA carefully took out all the furniture and piled it on the lawn before setting the building on fire. 
 
Lady Bandon had to sit and watch the flames for some hours. 
 

When the flames were at their height, she suddenly stood up in her nightgown and sang God Save the King as loudly as possible, which disconcerted the incendiaries, but while they may not have stood to attention, they let her have her say and did nothing about it. 
 
Lord Bandon was then kidnapped by a local IRA gang and held hostage for three weeks, being released on 12th July. 
 
The IRA threatened to have him executed if the authorities went ahead with executing IRA prisoners of war. 
 
During his captivity, Bandon coolly played cards with his captors, who treated him well. 
 
Tom Barry later stated he believed the kidnapping helped move HM Government towards the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and the cessation of hostilities. 
 
The elderly Lord Bandon never recovered from the experience and died in 1924. 
 
Some years later, when the last of the IRA burning party died, the 4th Earl was asked to go to the funeral, which he did – in full funeral attire of top hat and morning coat. 
 
Castle Bernard continued to be the home of the 5th Earl and Countess: they built a small house within the Castle boundary walls. 
 
The 5th Earl died in 1979 and, as he had no heir, the titles became extinct. 
 
Lady Bandon died in 1999, aged 102.  
 
Lady Jennifer Bernard, who inherited the property, lived on the grounds of the castle until she died in 2010. 
 
A modern house was built a short distance from the ruin by the 5th Earl in the 1960s and the uncontrolled growth of trees and ivy gives the building its romantic character.  
 
There is a huge high window in the curved stairwell which would have been a magnificent feature in its day. 
 
Above the grand doorway and grass covered steps are a fine carved crest and standards.  
 
Several of the attractive stone window frames are still more or less intact which adds to the appeal of this splendid ruin. 
 
Percy, 5th Earl, GBE CB CVO DSO, Air Chief Marshal, was one of the most senior officers in the RAF.   
 
In his retirement the 5th Earl discovered the pleasures of fishing, particularly in the River Bandon which was well stocked with salmon, and in shooting, snipe and woodcock found in large numbers near Castle Bernard. 
 
He was also developing an enthusiastic skill as a gardener with a particular knowledge of rhododendrons. 
 
The 5th Earl died on 8 February 1979 at Bon Secours Hospital in County Cork aged 74 and without male issue. 
 
Consequently on his death all the titles became extinct. 
 
He was survived by Lois, Lady Bandon and the two daughters from his first marriage, Lady Jennifer Jane Bernard, of Castle Bernard (b 1935) and Lady Frances Elizabeth Bernard (b 1943). 
 
A portrait in oils (painted 1969) of Lord Bandon, in his uniform as an Air Chief Marshal together with his robes as a peer of the realm, hangs in the main dining hall at the Royal Air Force College, Cranwell. 

 
First published in August, 2011.  Bandon arms courtesy of European Heraldry.