Castle Blayney

Located on a shelf towards the bottom of a NE-facing slope which overlooks White Island and the N end of Muckno Lough. Sir Edward Blayney was a captain in the English garrison at Monaghan town (MO009-060----) from 1602. He was instrumental in establishing its defences and in the building of a fortified house (MO009-060003-) there, for which he received a grant of former church land in Monaghan barony. In 1607 he received a grant of land at Ballylurgan, also known as Ballifort, which consisted of two ballybetaghs (or villages, each of sixteen tates or townlands) in Cremorne barony on condition that he built a fort there within four years (Lavery 1907, 31-2). The location was half-way between Monaghan town and Newry, and the castle would provide a secure halting-place in re-supplying the former from the latter (Livingstone 1966, 141-2). In 1612 Sir Edward received a further grant of the Muckno church lands, which included the ballybetaghs of Ballinknockluske (Coyle 1980), with the result that he could have held seven of the twenty two ballybetaghs in Cremorne barony. In 1621 Sir Edward was elevated to the peerage as the first Lord Blayney. A contemporary description describes the house as: 'Sr. Edward Blanye hath buylte a very large bawn w'th lyme and stone 18 foote high, well flanked w'th bulworkes upon his land of Ballinelungan… Upon the bawne is buylte a fayre gate house and two other houses of lyme and stone upon two of the corners of the bawn w'ch flankes the whole work. They containe two or three roomes or lodginges a pice w'th chimneys; In w'ch Bawne he is buyldinge a fayre and spacious house of stone worke already two yards high above the grounde, the walles of a great thickness w'th vaults all buylte upon his own charge' (Shirley 1879, 241; Hunter 1975 81-2). In 1642 the castle was occupied by rebels led by several of the local MacMahons who despoiled the estate and may have destroyed the castle irreparably as there is very little record of it thereafter. Between 1648 and 1653 Edward, the third Lord Blayney, sold all the property to Thomas Vincent, a London merchant. Shortly afterwards Vincent’s daughter Elizabeth married Richard, the brother and heir of Edward, and brought the Cremorne land back in her dowry to the Blayney family, but her father disposed of the land in Monaghan barony separately (Shirley 1879, 247). This may have restored the family fortunes for a while but the estate was always in difficulty and it seems that the castle might never have been restored. By the end of the eighteenth century the castle was certainly a ruin, and a drawing by Francis Grose made in 1770 shows that it was T-shaped, of two storeys and attic with corner machicolations supported on continuous corbels in the Scottish fashion (Grose 1791, vol. 2, 72, Pl A, B). The castle was replaced with the present house, known as Castleblayney Castle, which was built in 1799 to a design of Robert Woodgate. The estate was sold by the twelfth and last Lord Balyney in 1853 to Henry Thomas Hope of Deepdene, Surrey, and the house is known as Hope Castle ever since. The location of the old castle is not known with absolute certainty, but Coote (1801, 91) says the new house was built contiguous to the old castle. See the attached images of Blayney Castle by Francis Grose made in 1770 (1791, Pl, A, B) Revised by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 22 June 2018