Killyleagh Castle
Killyleagh Castle ( Irish Caisleán Chill Ó Laoch ) is a castle in the village of Killyleagh in County Down, Northern Ireland . The castle dominates the small town and is said to be the oldest still inhabited castle in Northern Ireland. Parts of it date back to 1180. Killyleagh Castle is built in the style of the Loire castles , but was redesigned by the architect Sir Charles Lanyon in the mid-19th century . The Hamilton family has owned the castle since the early 17th century .
Gawn Rowan Hamilton currently lives there with his young family. Concerts are occasionally held in the castle. Van Morrison , Glen Hansard and Bap Kennedy have performed there . The Torloggias are holiday apartments. In the years 2012-2014 the CBBC show Dani's Castle was filmed there.
history
Killyleagh was settled in the 12th century by the Norman knight John de Courcy , who had fortifications built on the site of the current castle in 1180. They were part of the fortifications around Strangford Lough as protection against Viking attacks .
In 1602, much of North Down , including Killyleagh, belonged to the Gaelic chief Con O'Neill of Claneboye . O'Neill, after a quarrel, sent his men to attack English soldiers and was consequently imprisoned. O'Neill's wife negotiated with the Scottish nobleman Hugh Montgomery that he would get half of O'Neill's lands if he managed to get O'Neill pardoned by the king. Montgomery obtained the king's pardon, but King James I divided the country into three parts, with the area from Killyleagh to Bangor falling to another Scotsman, James Hamilton , later the Viscount of Claneboye . A map of Killyleagh from 1625 shows the castle with a single tower south of the residential wing. In 1625, Hamilton moved from Bangor to Killyleagh Castle, where he had the courtyard walls built. The Hamiltons have lived there ever since.
Viscount Clanboy's son, James Hamilton , 1st Earl of Clanbrassil , had the second tower built. He supported the Stuart King Charles I and the castle was besieged in 1649 by Oliver Cromwell's troops, who drove into Strangford Lough in gunboats and blew up the gatehouse . The earl fled, leaving his wife and children behind. Parliament imposed a fine on him for the return of his castle and lands.
The son of the 1st Earl, Henry Hamilton , the 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, had the castle rebuilt in 1666. He had the north tower built and the long fortified bawn (wall) in front of the castle built (or perhaps restored). The 2nd Earl's Castle is largely the building that has survived to this day.
In 1667 the 2nd Earl married Lady Alice Moore , the daughter of the Earl of Drogheda , but their only child together died in infancy. Lady Alice discovered that her father-in-law, the 1st Earl of Clanbrassil, had stipulated in her will that in the event that Henry died without an offspring, the lands should be divided among five Hamiltons, the eldest sons of his five uncles. She destroyed the will and in 1674 had her husband draw up his own will, in which he left his lands to her. Henry was poisoned in 1675 and his widow Alice died in 1677, bequeathing her lands to her brother. The cousins, however, knew of the 1st Earl's will and fought for their rights as heirs. The case wasn't closed until 20 years later when a copy of the will was discovered. By this time, however, all five cousins had already died. The last to die was James Hamilton from Neilsbrook , County Antrim , son of Archibald Hamilton , the next younger brother of James Hamilton, 1st Viscount of Claneboye . James Hamilton of Neilsbrook was convinced that the succession would be decided in his favor and had decreed that the property should be divided into two parts. Half would go to his daughter Anne Stevenson (née Hamilton) and the other half to his younger brothers Gawn and William Hamilton . In 1697 the probate court divided up the castle property; Gawn and William got the main house with the two towers and their niece Anne got the bawn and the gatehouse. Gawn and William had to have a new entrance built on the north side of the castle.
William died in 1716 with no descendants and the castle passed to generations of Gawn Hamilton's descendants. Gawn's great grandson Archibald Hamilton Rowan , an Irish nationalist with the Society of United Irishmen , lived intermittently in the castle from 1806 to 1834 after returning from exile in America.
Hamiliton Rowan's grandson, Archibald Rowan Hamilton , and his wife commissioned the architect Charles Lanyon to redesign the castle from 1850 onwards . This created the romantic silhouette with the added tours .
James Hamilton's daughter Anne married Hans Stevenson and after her death her property fell to her son James Stevenson and after his death to his daughter Dorcas, later Dorcas Blackwood, 1st Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye (1726-1807). After Dorca's death, the property fell to her great-grandson, Frederick Temple-Blackwood, 5th Baron Dufferin and Claneboye (1826-1902). In 1860, the 5th Baron signed the Bawn and the gatehouse to the Hamiltons and commissioned another gatehouse to better match the main castle. The baron added the name "Hamilton" to his surname and subsequently married his distant cousin Hariot Georgina Rowan Hamilton , daughter of Archibald Rowan-Hamilton, in 1862 .
During the Northern Ireland conflict in the 1920s, the castle was attacked by the IRA . Gawn Rowan Hamilton said, “I have a clip from the Belfast Telegraph that has the story of my great-great-uncle, who was woken up at 2am and had a shooting with the IRA from the battlements. That was terribly exciting. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h History of Killyleagh Castle . Irish Secrets. ( Memento of the original from May 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 28, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d e King of my castle . The Belfast Telegraph (July 28, 2006). Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ^ The Settlement Story. Part three: Jailbreak, Rivalry and Plot! . In: Hamilton & Montgomery Settlement 1606 . Ulster-Scots Agency. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
- ^ The Settlement Story. Part six: Three Ulster-Scots Spiritual Revivals, the Death of Montgomery and the "Eagle Wing" sets sail . In: Hamilton & Montgomery Settlement 1606 . Ulster-Scots Agency. Archived from the original on July 5, 2008. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved March 22, 2009.
- ^ John Burke: A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland . Bentley, 1833. p. 348. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ^ B. O'Neill (editor): Irish Castles and Historic Houses . Caxton Editions, London 2002. p. 18.
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 24 ′ 9 ″ N , 5 ° 39 ′ 15.1 ″ W.