Castle in Maghernacloy

Situated on a broad hill. Land at Maghernacloy, consisting of nineteen tates in seventeen townlands, which became known as Hadsor’s fee-farm, was granted by Richard Devereux, the third Earl of Essex, to John Hadsor of Keppock (Cappoge), Co. Louth (LH018-003003-) in 1618 (MacDermott 2002). The Anglo-Norman family of Hadsor, originally called de Hedesor from a place in Worcestershire now called Hadzor, were associated with Co. Louth from the late twelfth century, where they were tenants of the Peppard family. Richard Hadsor was lord of Cappoge from 1586 until his death in 1635 but he was also a propagandist for English settlement in Ireland and an advisor to the English government on Irish affairs (Hodgers 2005). Richard probably secured the grant of the manor of Moymuck, which included Maghernacloy, for his youngest half-brother John in 1618, possibly in the name of John’s wife, Katherine Fleming of Gernonstown, Slane, which family had held land in Farney (Hodgers 2009, 104-5). The terms were reasonable, and included the requirement to build a strong house ‘after the English manner’ within ten years. (Manning 2007, 209-13) The house is not depicted on a map of 1634 by John Raven, but it had probably been built by the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641, although it is not mentioned in military exploits in the area during 1648 (Hodgers 2009. 112-3). John Hadsor had inherited Cappoge, but as he was implicated in the rebellion he forfeited all his property before he died in 1657 (ibid. 114-8). The fee-farm was granted by the Commonwealth to Col. Thomas Sadler who sold his interest to the Brownlow family, of Brownlows Derry, near Lurgan, Co. Armagh. After the Williamite and Jacobite war (1689-91) Thomas Clinton, a Jacobite and a relative of the Brownlows, took a lease on Maghernacloy from Arthur Brownlow. Arthur has the distinction of sitting in the Catholic Parliament of James II (1689) and subsequent ascendency Parliaments of William (1692-3, 1695-9) and Anne (1703-11) as a member for Co. Armagh (Johnston-Liik 2002, vol. 3, 291-1). He was also an Irish scholar and acquired the Book of Armagh in 1707 from its hereditary keepers, the MacMoyre family, and it has been in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin since 1853. The Clinton family retained the lease on Maghernacloy into the nineteenth century (McDermott 2002, 784). The castle was finally abandoned in the 1970s, but it was restored as a dwelling after 2000. The castle is a rectangular four-bay, two story structure (ext. dims c. 18m NW-SE; c. 8.25m NE-SW) over a basement at the NW end with a two storey tower (dims 6m NW-SE: 6.25m NE-SW) offset to the SW and SE from the S angle and a stairs tower (ext. dims 4.3m NW-SE; 3.5m NE-SW) projecting NE towards the SE end of the NE side. The wall-walk and stepped crenelations on the parapet are largely original, but all the windows and external doorways were replaced as well as the floors and the roof, probably in the eighteenth century, and the S tower may have been added at that time. The original doorway was adjacent to the stairs tower and is indicated by the machicolation on the parapet. The stairs tower has a newel stairs with pointed doorways. Six chimney stacks are supported from the first floor by corbels on the external walls. One is on the NW end wall, one on the NE wall which must have heated the hall or large public room, one on the NE wall of the attached tower, probably in a bedroom, and three on the SE end wall. (Manning 2007, 213-16) Limited excavation (04E0513) carried out in advance of the restoration of the castle as a dwelling uncovered a number of sherds of 18th century pottery (Campbell 2007). Further monitoring under the same licence took place in 2007 which established that the basement extended under the entire house (Campbell 2010).