Lisheen Castle

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Lisheen Castle ( Irish Caisleán to Lisin ) is a country house north of Thurles in Ireland's County Tipperary .

history

Early history

The owner family Lloyd is first mentioned in connection with Lisheen in 1770. A John Lloyd, Esq. , at that time owned lands in Lisheen, Ballyerc and Lisdonowly , which he had acquired from a George Grace . He divided his extensive lands between his five sons, with Frederic Lloyd receiving the townlands of Lisheen, Ballyerc and Lisdonowly.

Frederick and his family settled in the Georgian house in Lisheen built by Grace in the late 18th century ; the exact year is not known.

Construction of the country house

Presumably in the 1810s, Frederic had today's country house, a crenellated castle in Tudor style , built for his son and heir, John Lloyd . In 1827 the "castle" was first mentioned in the Tithe Applotment Book . In Lewis' Topographical Dictionary , published in 1837, Lisheen Castle is referred to as a "handsome castallated building" (Eng. Beautiful, crenellated building). Letters from 1841 indicated that Mr. Lloyd was "now building a new castle," suggesting that construction was continuing.

Second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century

Lisheen Castle's heir, John Lloyd, was heavily socially committed, e.g. B. in committees to support the poor in the area. But the death of his wife in 1853 caused him to emigrate to Canada . In 1856 a son, Charles Henry Lloyd , received Lisheen Castle and its lands. He turned out to be a rather hard-hearted landowner who did not give the starving population land for their own use, as some of his contemporary colleagues did.

Charles Henry was married three times and had at least seven third marriage children. He died in 1887; his children had emigrated to different countries such as England , Canada, South Africa , New Zealand and Australia . Lisheen Castle was bequeathed to his eldest son, Charles Edward Lloyd .

He emigrated to Australia shortly after his father's death, married a woman of German descent in Melbourne and made his fortune far away. Lisheen Castle was left to a Thurles estate agent who leased it to Henry Hamilton for £ 80 a year . The inventory had been sold. The Hamiltons lived in Lisheen Castle from around 1896 to 1903.

The Wyndam Land Act of 1903 governed the sale of land from landowners to tenants. Charles Edward Lloyd, who now lived in London , sold all of the land with farms except for 57.2 acres around the country house to about 100 tenants. The country house itself was still leased.

In 1918 an EF Lloyd , probably the son of Charles Edward, put the country house up for sale. On February 5 of that year, William Bray O'Brien bought the property for £ 3,740. His wife was Kathleen Lloyd , a daughter of Charles Edward Lloyd who had lived in New Zealand. The couple's only daughter, Camilla , married John Francis O'Meara and the couple received Lisheen Castle as a wedding gift.

Pillage

On the night of June 29, 1921, the country house was burned down by the IRA in the course of the Irish War of Independence . Only one caretaker, Patrick Sweeney , lived there at the time. He was called outside and the men smashed a window into the parlor, poured gasoline into it, and set it on fire.

John Francis O'Meara received £ 15,000 in compensation in October of that year.

The house then stood empty for 75 years.

In 1960 the Land Commission took over the property and divided the land. Lisheen Castle lost its park.

restoration

Around 1971 a Carol Lloyd from Canada visited the property. According to her grandmother's descriptions, she had only expected a few stones, but found the structure of the building largely undamaged.

In 1994 Joan and Michael Everard bought the property and began restoration work in 1996, which was completed in December 1999. The renovated building has been open to the public since May 1, 2000 and is rented out as a holiday home.

Web links and sources

Coordinates: 52 ° 45 ′ 6.6 "  N , 7 ° 44 ′ 40.1"  W.