Lemeneagh

Co. Clare Above a bend on the road between Corofin and Kilfenora, in the Clare countryside, one is confronted with the splendid spectacle of Lemeneagh Castle.  Facing the front, one can distinguish the original fifteenth-century tower house on the right.  To this was added the magnificent four storey, four bay, fortified mansion, with its mullioned windows and protective eyebrows.  This stone house was, according to the inscription on the arched gateway which was moved and reconstructed at the entrance to Dromoland's walled garden, completed by Conor and Máire (ni Mahon) O'Brien in 1643. At one time it was surrounded by extensive wooded parklands.  In the valley to the east one can still locate part of the original stable block where Máire (Ruadh) O'Brien kept her famous stallion.  In the gable wall two niches were built for the grooms to take cover from his ferocity. Sir Donat's (O'Brien) road runs for many miles to the east and was probably built by Conor and Máire's son, the first Baronet, to facilitate transport between the castle and his new house at Dromoland.  The walls of the deerpark which supplied venison are still to be seen about half a kilometre to the north-east.  During the Cromwellian occupation, Commonwealth troops moved in, and the O'Briens sojourned in nearby Inchiquin Castle, where they had previously lived, When the soldiers left, the trees had been cut down for firing, the deerpark decimated, and the house in such appalling condition that in about 1686 Sir Donough (Donat) O'Brien decided to move to his estate at Dromoland.  In the early twentieth century, Sir Lucius O'Brien, fifteenth Baron, transferred to Dromoland the gateway which stood in a high wall a short distance from the front door, together with a fine stone fireplace.  In 1962, the latter was moved to the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis, where it was incorporated in the walls of an early fortified town house.  Only fully inhabited by the O'Briens for less than half a century, Lemeneagh was reputedly occupied until the end of the 1700s.  Now it is a majestic ruin.

© Copyright Hugh W. L. Weir 1994.