Glenveagh National Park
I'm very glad we made the drive up to Glenveagh National Park in Co Donegal. We are so comfortable in Westport that it's hard to pull ourselves away. But we had been promising ourselves that we would see some of the rugged beauty of the northwest. And Glenveagh had much more of a story and more natural beauty than we could've anticipated. The general area is very barren - granite mountains with just a hint of green vegetation. But the three men who had served as masters of the castle since its beginnings in the mid 1800s had an amazing vision of this stark and beautiful setting.
The first master was universally abhorred. In 1861, not long after The Great Famine, John George Adair turned out 46 families, over 240 people, from their rough and poor cottages as a result of a murder he suspected these poor Irish tenant farmers of committing. His chief shepherd, a cruel man, was in charge of introducing blackfaced sheep to the area and these sheep were certain to require more grazing land, forcing the poor tenants from their mean and meager holdings. When the man went missing and was discovered dead, Adair took the opportunity to evict his tenants in the cold and brutal April of that year.. He had their cottages "tumbled" or razed and drove the people from the land. Many emigrated to Australia and were lost to their families forever. Others ended up in the local workhouse - a demeaning, inhumane existence. Among those evicted was a widow and her seven children. Adair's actions caused universal outrage, but he would not relent. It was later discovered that the shepherd had been killed on the orders of another shepherd because he had been having an affair with the man's wife.
Adair originally built the castle as a hunting retreat and upon his death in 1885, his American born wife, who lived to 1921, became a kind and generous benefactor of the local community. Glenveagh's other two owners, an American professor from Harvard and a wealthy Philadelphia businessman, developed the property around the castle and added many different gardens. All three owners of the castle planted an evergreen forest in a multi-acre area around the castle, a softening contrast to the natural environ.
The interior of the castle is in impeccable and elegant condition and is furnished as it was when its last owner, Henry McIlhenny, welcomed Greta Garbo and Grace Kelly as guests. McIlhenny's grandfather had emigrated from the area to America, made a vast fortune as the inventor of the gas meter, and his grandson bought and used the castle for his summer retreat. Great story, huh? The estate, with over 40,000 acres of mountains, bogs, lakes, and woodlands was sold to the Irish state in 1975.
The first master was universally abhorred. In 1861, not long after The Great Famine, John George Adair turned out 46 families, over 240 people, from their rough and poor cottages as a result of a murder he suspected these poor Irish tenant farmers of committing. His chief shepherd, a cruel man, was in charge of introducing blackfaced sheep to the area and these sheep were certain to require more grazing land, forcing the poor tenants from their mean and meager holdings. When the man went missing and was discovered dead, Adair took the opportunity to evict his tenants in the cold and brutal April of that year.. He had their cottages "tumbled" or razed and drove the people from the land. Many emigrated to Australia and were lost to their families forever. Others ended up in the local workhouse - a demeaning, inhumane existence. Among those evicted was a widow and her seven children. Adair's actions caused universal outrage, but he would not relent. It was later discovered that the shepherd had been killed on the orders of another shepherd because he had been having an affair with the man's wife.
Adair originally built the castle as a hunting retreat and upon his death in 1885, his American born wife, who lived to 1921, became a kind and generous benefactor of the local community. Glenveagh's other two owners, an American professor from Harvard and a wealthy Philadelphia businessman, developed the property around the castle and added many different gardens. All three owners of the castle planted an evergreen forest in a multi-acre area around the castle, a softening contrast to the natural environ.
The interior of the castle is in impeccable and elegant condition and is furnished as it was when its last owner, Henry McIlhenny, welcomed Greta Garbo and Grace Kelly as guests. McIlhenny's grandfather had emigrated from the area to America, made a vast fortune as the inventor of the gas meter, and his grandson bought and used the castle for his summer retreat. Great story, huh? The estate, with over 40,000 acres of mountains, bogs, lakes, and woodlands was sold to the Irish state in 1975.
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| View from the castle's dock |
