Monday 15 January 2024

Derrycarne House

THE BARONS HARLECH  WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY SLIGO, WITH 21,019 ACRES

This family derives from a common ancestor with the noble house of GORE, Earls of Arran, the Earls of Ross, and the Barons Annaly; though more immediately from the GORE BARONETS of Magherabegg.

WILLIAM GORE (1779-1860), of Woodford, County Leitrim, MP for County Leitrim, 1806-7, married, in 1815, Mary Jane, daughter and heiress of Owen Ormsby, of Willowbrook, County Sligo, and Porkington, Shropshire, whose name he assumed.

Mr Ormsby-Gore was succeeded by his eldest son,

JOHN RALPH ORMSBY-GORE (1816-76), who wedded, in 1844, Sarah, daughter of Sir John Tyssen Tyrrell Bt, of Boreham House, Essex.

Mr Ormsby-Gore was elevated to the peerage, in 1876, in the dignity of BARON HARLECH, of Harlech, in the County of Merioneth.

His lordship died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother,

WILLIAM RICHARD, 2nd Baron (1819-1904), MP for County Sligo, 1841-52, County Leitrim, 1858-76, High Sheriff of County Leitrim, 1857, who married, in 1850, Emily Charlotte, daughter of Admiral Sir George Francis Seymour, and had issue,
William Seymour, died in infancy;
GEORGE RALPH CHARLES, his successor;
Henry Arthur;
Seymour Fitzroy;
Mary Georgina; Emily.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

GEORGE RALPH CHARLES, 3rd Baron (1855-1938), KCB TD JP, High Sheriff of County Leitrim, 1885, who espoused, in 1881, the Lady Ethel Margaret Gordon, daughter of Charles, 10th Marquess of Huntly, and had issue, an only child,

WILLIAM GEORGE ARTHUR, 4th Baron (1885-1964),
  • Jasset David Cody Ormsby-Gore, 7th Baron (b 1986).
The 3rd Baron was the last Lord-Lieutenant of County Leitrim, from 1904 until 1922.


DERRYCARNE HOUSE, near Dromod, County Leitrim, was built ca 1800 on a promontory in the River Shannon between Lough Boderg and Lough Bofin.

It was of two storeys with a three-bay, bow-ended, late-Georgian front with Wyatt windows and an enclosed Doric porch.

A two-storey, four-bay castellated wing extended back at right-angles.

The house itself had thirty rooms: kitchen, bedrooms, sculleries, library and armoury room ( which later was turned into a hunting room ) and various other rooms.

It was built with three stories at the back with parapets around it, two towers and cellars, which were seven feet under the ground and were used for storing wine and growing mushrooms. 

It also had a two-bay castellated wing extending back at right-angles.

The gardens surrounding the house contained two acres of vegetables and flowers.

The house faced the River Shannon and was in an ideal position to control the river.

The 2nd Lord Harlech purchased Derrycarne in 1858.

Buying Derrycarne was very important to him at that time as he had ceased to be MP for Sligo and was looking for a new political base.

He was known to be a good landlord.

Lord Harlech and his family lived at Willowbrook, County Sligo, before he lived at Annaduff as he had been MP for Sligo from 1841-52.

The family kept their estates in County Leitrim until 1924.

Lord Harlech did not want to sell his lands but increasing pressure at that time from the tenants for land of their own and the fact that many other large estate houses had been burned down led him to believe that he should not keep the land any longer.

Derrycarne changed hands again several times before being acquired by the Irish Land Commission in 1952.

The house was demolished shortly thereafter.

First published in January, 2012.  Harlech arms courtesy of European Heraldry.

1 comment :

bessfones said...

On my first trip to Ireland I learned from the newspaper archives at the Ballinamore Library, Co. Leitrim that my great-grandfather who had been evicted from his farm in 1884 (Mong Townland) had made a request for emigration assistance but the "Lord Lieutenant could not make a special grant to assist an evicted tenant named James Lynch...."
So the family eventually ended up in Brooklyn, NY. I understand from your post that Derrycarne House was razed. Oddly my great-grandfather's primitive farmhouse in Mong townland still stands and was occupied by relatives who stayed in Ireland until 1953.