Ballyleck Ho. — Ballyleck

John Burnett, a scion of an Aberdeenshire family, began acquiring land in Monaghan in 1609. He settled at Ballyleck where according to an inquisition of 1622 he had built ‘a fayre castle or cheefehouse, and a bawne of lyme and stone, with two fayre flankers very strong and defensable’. At that time he owned land in 130 townlands, all of which are provided in the inquisition together with the names of their previous owners. His children lost this inheritance for supposed rebellion against Charles I and by the reign of Charles II it seems to have descended by the female line and was owned by the Cole and other families. The estate was purchased by Richard Westenra in the early nineteenth century (Shirley 1879, 211-13). A castle, probably a fortified house, is depicted at Ballyleck on McCrea’s map of County Monaghan (1793), but its precise location is not known although it could be where Ballyleck House now is. Ballyleck House is represented as a house owned by the Montgomery family on the 1783 Taylor and Skinner map of the roads of Ireland (Andrews 1969, 259), and it is still occupied. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of revision: 14 December 2017