Castle Bellingham

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Castle Bellingham around 1920

Castle Bellingham is a country house and luxury hotel in the village of Castlebellingham ( Irish Baile an Ghearlánaigh ) in the south of the Irish County Louth , near Dundalk .

history

The house has been one of the Bellinghams' homes since the 17th century . The family is originally from Kendal in Westmorland, England . Alan Bellingham , the ancestor of the Irish Bellinghams, was born there. Henry Bellingham , a descendant of Alan Bellingham, was a cavalry officer who came to Ireland during the English Civil War . The lands of Gernonstown (former name of Castlebellingham) he received in 1666 in the course of Cromwell's reconquest of Ireland .

In the autumn of 1689, the country house was taken by the troops of King James II of England and in revenge for the support that Colonel Thomas Bellingham gave Wilhelm III. granted before the Battle of the Boyne , burned down. It is said that King William's troops camped at the Bellinghams' estate the night before the battle.

Over time, the Bellinghams became the most powerful and influential family in County Louth. Castlebellingham became the sub-center of the area. From 1880 to 1885 Sir Henry Bellingham, 4th Baronet , was a Member of Parliament for County Louth, London . In the 1800s the family converted to the Catholic denomination .

The Bellinghams stayed in the country house until the late 1950s. The last member of the family to live there was Sir Edward Bellingham, 5 Baronet , born in 1879 and the last Lord Lieutenant of Louth until 1921 . Then he was elected to the Senate of the Irish Free State , of which he was a member from 1925-1936.

The country house was bought by Dermot Meehan in 1958 from the Irish Land Commission for £ 3,065. It took him several years to convert the house into the current hotel . In 1967 he sold it, including 6.8 acres, for £ 30,636.61. In 2011 the property was for sale for € 1.5 million.

In December 2012, it was announced that the Corscadden family , who already owned the Cabra Castle Hotel in Kingscourt , County Cavan, and the Ballyseede Castle Hotel in Tralee , County Kerry , had purchased Bellingham Castle Hotel. They renovated the 19 guest room property into an exclusive hotel and wedding venue and reopened in January 2014.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Séan Boyle: Looking Forward, Looking Back: Stories, Memories and Musings of Castlebellingham / Kilsaran / Stabannon . Dundalk 2004. p. 12.
  2. ↑ James B. Leslie: History of Kilsaran . Dundalk (1908) 1986. p. 46.
  3. ↑ a b A brief history and interesting facts about Castlebellingham . In: Castlebellingham . Retrieved February 27, 2019.
  4. ^ A b Introduction to Bellingham Castle Hotel . In: Bellingham Castle Hotel . Archived from the original on April 17, 2001. Retrieved February 27, 2019.
  5. ^ Irish Castles in Louth County - Castle Bellingham . In: Smarmore Castle Private Clinic . Retrieved February 27, 2019.

Web links

Coordinates: 53 ° 53 '40.7 "  N , 6 ° 23' 32.6"  W.