Gregans Castle

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Looking south from the hill over Gregans East: The restored Tower House is on the lower right, the hotel on the lower left.
The country house today.
JRR Tolkien at Gregans Castle in 1954 with the owner Frank Martyn and his partner Suzette Crowe.

Gregans Castle (also Gragan Castle , Irish Caisleán na nGrágán , dt. "Castle of the small hamlets") is the name for a tower house from the 15th century and country house from Georgian times near the village of Ballyvaughan in the Burren region in Ireland County Clare . The country house dates from 1750 and is now a hotel. It was associated with the Martyn and O'Lochlainn families . The Tower House is opposite the hotel.

location

In the valley of Ballyvaughan, in which both houses are located, there are gray limestone terraces , a high concentration of alpine, Mediterranean and arctic plants - in some cases orchids - and old graves, stone fortresses and church ruins.

history

The Tower House from the 15th or 16th century was the seat of the clan chief of the O'Lochlainns , known as the "Prince of the Burren". By the end of the 16th century, the area known as "was Baronat Gragans" means (probably derived from the word for mountain swamp from which it is still part are on the hills west of the castle).

Owney More O'Loughlen owned Gregans Castle in 1641. He was expropriated in the Oliver Cromwell Settlement Act passed after 1654.

The lands were then given to the Martyn family . But it is not clear where these estates ever left the O'Laughlen family : in 1632 Turlough O'Loughlen married the daughter of George Martyn (Mayor of Galway in 1632 and 1633), Alice ; her son, George Oge , was named Martyn and the lands were granted to him. However, according to the genealogy of the family was Martyn of Martin J. Blake George Oge the eldest son of George Martyn, Mayor of Galway.

Apparently the Martyns had another fortified building built next to the old Tower House and no longer use the latter. They later moved into the two-story house that stood where the hotel is today.

It is documented that an early member of the Martyn family died in 1691 at the Battle of Aughrim at the end of the Jacobite Wars. The family later became known as lawyers and lived mainly in Dublin . The country house seems to have been kept as a summer residence in later years; Most of the 8.1 km² land was leased. In 1866, Captain John Gergory Maryn JP joined Gregans after signing a very profitable marriage contract. Captain Martyn supported Charles Stewart Parnell and Home Rule for Ireland.

The house was expanded considerably at that time.

After the death of John Gregory Martyn, his son, Francis Florence Martyn , stayed in Gregans and managed a greatly reduced property. During this period of economic depression, the house fell into disrepair and the unmarried owner, known as an eccentric, died in 1956. In the 1940s he even tried to run an inn and obtained a liquor license. After his death, his housekeeper, Miss Crowe , continued to live in the house, but eventually the trustees sold it and it was converted into a hotel.

The oldest part of the house still preserved today is the former kitchen stove with a keystone with a helmet ornament ; it is in today's “Martyn Suite”. In 1967 the house was opened as Gregans Castle Hotel .

The Martyn Suite, the kitchen of the house before it was converted into a luxury hotel

today

The Georgian country house still serves as a hotel today. The Tower House, which was in ruins, has been restored and is now a private home.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e George Cunningham: Burren Journal . Shannonside Mid Western Regional Tourism Organization, 1978. p. 14.
  2. ^ Martin J. Blake: Genealogy of the Family of Martyn of Gregans County Clare from 1613 to 1927 .

Web links

Commons : Gregans Castle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 53 ° 4 '36.4 "  N , 9 ° 11' 3.6"  W.