Deel Castle
& Castle Gore
Crossmolina, Co. Mayo
Castle Gore is a shell of an eighteenth century
building that is located between the towns of Crossmolina and Ballina in County Mayo. While
strictly not a castle but a large house, it inherited the moniker of being a
castle from the older sixteenth century tower house nearby. While both
structures are often confusingly referred to as Castle Gore, for simplicity I
shall refer to the sixteenth century tower house as Deel Castle and the eighteenth
century mansion as Castle Gore. Deel Castle is situated beside the
river from which it took its name and was erected by the Burkes in the
sixteenth century. It was occupied by that family up until the seventeenth
century after which Sir Arthur Gore was granted possession of Deel castle and
its lands. In the following years the castle was enlarged and improved with the
addition of a large eighteenth century wing which possibly incorporated a
seventeenth century range.
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Very few
pictures exist of Castle Gore and in this previously unpublished
view, the garden front of Castle
Gore can be seen which overlooked the
gardens
and the river beyond. The house was built in 1791 by James Cuff,
the first and last Lord
Tyrawley and to the left of the picture can be seen
the service wing which was
accessed by a tunnel from the road below.
Accreditation-
Photo from Maurice Knox
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Near the end of the eighteenth century, the Gore
family leased Deel Castle and its lands to James
Cuff of Ballinrobe. In 1791, James Cuff, the first and last Lord Tyrawley built
a new mansion a short distance from the old Deel Castle, on the
opposite side of the road overlooking the river. It was a substantial Georgian
block of a house with three stories over a basement. It had a three bay
entrance front which contained an impressive tripartite entrance door which had
Tuscan columns on either side that supported a large pediment. The five bay
garden front of the house faced the river and well tended gardens surrounded
the house. The access arrangements for the servants were located on this side
of the mansion and a tunnel from the road led under the manicured lawn to a
courtyard and servants entrance. Arrangements like this were common, as often
the upper-class residents of the house did not like the sight of servants and
delivery carriages traipsing across their lawns and interrupting their view of
the formal gardens. To the side and rear of the house was a low service wing
and office court which housed all the ancillary parts of the household.
Kitchens, laundries and areas for administration of the estate such as the
Stewart’s office were all located here. James Cuff who built the house was
directly related to the Gore Family, from whom he leased the lands, by his
mother Elizabeth. She was the sister of Arthur Gore, the first Earl of Arran
(1703-1773) and daughter of Sir Arthur Gore, second Baronet Gore of Newtown
Gore (1685 -1742). In the peerage, both of these gentlemen are listed as living
in Deel Castle during their life times.
Mary Delany visited Deel Castle in
1732 and recorded her impressions, ‘tis an old castle patched up and very
irregular, but well fitted up and good handsome rooms within. The master of the
house, Arthur Gore, a jolly red-faced widower, has one daughter, a quiet thing
that lives in the house with him; his dogs and horses are as dear to him as his
children, his laugh is hearty, though his gests are course’. Whether it was
James Cuff’s uncle or grandfather living in Deel Castle at
this time, I can’t be sure. The Gore family’s occupation of Deel Castle may
have been the reason behind the construction of the new mansion in 1791. James
Cuff married Mary Levinge in 1770 and he was created first Baron Tyrawley of
Ballinrobe on November 7, 1797. In the late eighteenth century, Daniel Beaufort
and his wife Mary visited Castle Gore, here they met ‘several gents of the
neighbourhood’ and ‘Dinner here was plain & good & well served, but one
course & no desert but apples. They kill a beef every fortnight, two sheep
per week, feed forty-five people daily and have a French maitre d’hotel’.
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Castle Gore was burnt down in September 1922 and has remained
a ruin since. In the 1950s the local council dynamited the building
in order to demolish it, but they only succeeded in blowing off one
corner of the building.
Accreditation- Photo by David Hicks
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During
the rebellion of 1798, the house was severely damaged and the original
staircase destroyed. Lord Tyrawley’s wife died in 1808 followed by the death of
Lord Tyrawley and his title on June 15, 1821. He is listed as having died
without legitimate issue but he left Castle Gore to his illegitimate son,
Colonel James Cuff who scandalized the county by keeping a French mistress in
the new mansion. Colonel James also left his mark on the estate, as a short
distance from the ruins of Deel Castle and
Castle Gore are the walls of a small church. According to local tradition it
was never fully completed and only one service was ever held there. It is said
that Colonel Cuff had his parentage questioned by Daniel O Connell and after
this incident he cut himself off from polite society and retired to Castle
Gore. The church was erected for his private use and still survives today in a
ruined state surrounded by modern houses. The entrance gates to the Castle Gore
demesne were located in this area but no traces of them can be found today.
Colonel James Cuff died in London on
July 29, 1828 and the mansion at Castle Gore returned to the ownership of the
Gore family.
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The church
that was said to have been erected by
Colonel
James Cuff for his private use in the early 1800's.
The gates
to the estate were said to be situated nearby
but
no trace of them exists today. Only one service was
ever
thought to have been held in this ruinous building.
Accreditation-
Photo by David Hicks
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In the early 1800s, the sixteenth century Deel Castle was occupied by Colonel St. George
Cuff. He was born in 1796 and was said to be the second surviving son of James
Cuff. His name does crop up in the national press over the years in connection
with Deel Castle;
in October 1861, Colonel Knox from Ballinrobe is listed as returning from a
visit to Deel Castle the home of Colonel St. George Cuff
and in 1876,
Colonel St. George
Cuff of Deel Castle is recorded as owning 3,205 acres in County Mayo. He was
married to Louisa Maria, a daughter of James Knox Gore from Broadlands Park in County Mayo. Louisa
Maria’s mother, was the daughter of the second Earl of Arran, thus another
union that cemented the ties between the two families of Cuff and Gore. By July
1880, Colonel Cuff who is still living in the castle is described as a ‘feeble
old man’ and ‘a most indulgent landlord’. By June 1883 it is recorded in the
national press that he passed away in the previous years. Now the lands, Deel Castle and the mansion house were under the control of
the Earl of Arran and the Gore Family. One of the people who is most associated
with the new mansion at Castle Gore was Arthur Saunders William Charles Fox
Gore, fifth Earl of Arran who was born in 1839 in Bath, Somerset England.
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This is what remains of the formal
landscape that Castle Gore
once overlooked which is situated by
the banks of the River Deel
Accreditation- Photo by David Hicks
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In the years from 1892 to 1894, the
architectural partnership of Millar & Symes carried out work for the fifth
Earl of Arran at Castle Gore. It is also noted during the same period they were
making regular visits to nearby Mount Falcon,
a home belonging to a branch of the Knox family. A visitor to Castle Gore in
August 1898, at the invitation of the Earl and Countess of Arran,
recorded an interesting account of what they seen in the house. The Countess
received her guest in the drawing room and afterwards the Earl conducted a tour
of Deel Castle.
The lawns around the house are described as ‘velvet’ and that they ‘undulate
towards the river’. The visitor to Castle Gore describes a rich collection of
works of art that were housed in the drawing room. There were two
Gainsboroughs, a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds together with a landscape by
Constable and many items of interest such as a marble burst of the Countess
Sudley. In the dining room there was a painting of ‘A Large Hound’ by
Velasquez, set in a carved gilt frame that hung over the mantel piece. There
were numerous other paintings hanging in this room including another by
Reynolds. The entrance hall of the house had a delicate frieze of late Georgian
plasterwork off which there was a long and narrow staircase lit by a very tall
round headed window with decorative plasterwork. The drawing room had niches on
either side of the fireplace and tall windows overlooked the formal gardens and
the River Deel beyond.
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The sixteenth century tower house that
is named Deel Castle
and is located near the ruin of Castle
Gore.
Copyright- Photo by David Hicks
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It was customary for the tenants of the estate
to make presentations to the Earl of Arran and his family on various milestones
in their lives. In July 1894, Lady Esther Gore, the daughter of the fifth Earl
of Arran, married William Frederick Danvers Smith, second Viscount Hambleden.
She visited Castle Gore in the autumn to be presented with a wedding gift by
the Earl of Arran’s tenants, who all had subscribed to the presentation. In
January 1901, the home coming of Lord Dudley, son of the Earl of Arran, from
the War in South
Africa was also marked with
gifts from the tenantry. The tenants presented him with an address of welcome
and a silver cup, while the estate workmen and outdoor servants presented a
silver inkstand as a mark of their personal esteem. Lord Dudley’s carriage was
met at the entrance gate by the tenants and workmen, where a triumphal arch had
been erected. The men removed the horses from the carriage and pulled it up to
the front of house where it was warmly welcomed by the assembled mass of tenants
and those employed on the estate. The Earl of Arran and his son were in the
carriage and upon their arrival at the front door of Castle Gore; they were
addressed by Rev. Perdue. The clergy man spoke on behalf of the tenants and
expressed gratification of being able to welcome Lord Dudley back again. A
tenant on the estate by the name of John Mc Givney read an illuminated address
decorated in an artistic manner by James McConnell of Sackville
Street in Dublin. The
silver cup was presented by Christopher Armstrong on behalf of the tenants and
both it and the accompanying ink stand were engraved with inscriptions
recording the event. In the 1901 census, the mansion at Castle Gore is listed
as being inhabited by five people and having thirty-one rooms, ten windows in
its entrance front and fifteen outbuildings. Living in Castle Gore at this time
is the Dunbar Family from Scotland, with
James Dunbar listed as a farm stewart, his wife Jessie, daughter Hannah and two
other servants. These persons living in the house at this time were probably
acting as caretakers as the Earl and Countess of Arran had other homes in England that they divided their
time between.
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The entrance tunnel for servants, which used to run
under the
front lawn of Castle Gore that faced the garden and the river.
Servants and goods entered the courtyard to the rear of the house
in order not
to disturb the beauty of the formal landscape above.
Today sections of this
tunnel have collapsed and the remainder
is used for the storage of farm
vehicles.
Copyright- Photo by David Hicks
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Winifred, Countess of Arran, the wife of the
fifth Earl of Arran, spent many months every year in residence at Castle Gore.
She was the second wife of the fifth Earl and step mother to the future sixth
Earl of Arran. The Countess was a former Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Christian
and was in attendance on Her Royal Highness when she had accompanied
Queen Victoria on her final visit
to Dublin.
In 1892, the philanthropic Countess of Arran established a knitting industry
with a capital of £3 which provided employment to the women and girls from
around the locality of Castle Gore, The work was so good that one hundred girls
were kept in employment with orders for knickbockers from both England and
abroad. The work was sent from Castle Gore on approval, so people could judge
for themselves the merits of the work. In June 1902, an advertisement appeared
in The Irish Times informing people that hand knitted socks could be procured
from the Knitting Industry, Castle Gore, Ballina. The stockings fetched as much
as 4s 6d a pair in London and bales of
them were frequently sent to France and Italy where
the work commanded very favourable prices. The Countess spent time every year,
mainly during summer months, at Castle Gore until she died in November
1921. Arthur Saunders William Charles Fox Gore, fifth Earl of Arran, died
on March 14, 1901 aged 62. He had homes in Hertford Street and Mayfair London
in addition to his estate at Castle Gore in the west of Ireland. He
left £100 to his butler Frederick Bax and his nurse Martha Hill. His diamond
star of the Order of St. Patrick he
bequeathed to his daughter, Lady Winifred Helena Lettice Gore together with
£5000. The residue of his property went to his son Captain Arthur Jocelyn
Charles Gore, Viscount Sudley, now the sixth Earl of Arran with a request that
he give a keepsake to each of his children. The Earls estate was valued at
£44,608 4s 6d and he was buried at Windsor Cemetery, Berkshire, England.
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Lieutenant
Colonel Arthur Jocelyn Charles Gore
who inherited Castle Gore
after the death of his
father in 1901.
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Lieutenant Colonel
Arthur Jocelyn Charles Gore succeeded his father as the sixth Earl of Arran and
in the early 1900s and the new Earl and Countess of Arran divided their time
among their homes in Ireland and England.
During the years between 1900 and 1906 the house in County Mayo was
only occasionally visited and it appears that the new Earl was not as attached
to Castle Gore as his father had been. The house was only occupied during the
spring and summer months and remained closed the rest of the year. Eventually
it was visited less and less, as both the Earl and Countess of Arran seemed to
prefer to spend a lot of time at their villa in Cowes,
an English seaport town on the Isle
of Wight. In the spring of 1905,
they closed up Castle Gore and spent the remaining months at the villa in Cowes with
the Earl returning to London on
occasion for business. Castle Gore was then used for entertaining friends and
family on occasion. In January 1908, the Earl of Arran entertained some friends
at Castle Gore for a woodcock shoot. The best days shooting was much spoilt by
bad weather, but an excellent bag was secured, namely 72 woodcocks, 130
pheasants, 3 wild ducks, 2 snipe, 16 rabbits and 2 hares. In the summer of
1910, the Earl and Countess of Arran stayed
at Hyde Hall in Hertfordshire and Castle Gore was let to the Lord Chancellor of
Ireland and his wife, Lady Walker. By the time of 1911 census, the mansion at
Castle Gore was only inhabited by Thomas Vaughan and his wife Mary. Thomas has
listed his profession as a steward and caretaker and Mary is described as a
house keeper. Unusually at the time, he has listed his religion as Church of
England whereas his wife is a Catholic. The mansion of Castle
Gore is
recorded as having thirty-two rooms, eight windows on its entrance front and
fourteen out buildings. At the time of the 1911 census, the ancient sixteenth
century Deel Castle was
uninhabited and remained so until its roof was removed in the 1930s.
The above map which dates from before 1913 shows the extent of
the estate and also the proximity of Deel Castle and Castle Gore
The end for Castle Gore came September 3, 1921,
when a band of masked and armed men surrounded the house with the intention of
burning it down. The caretaker said that sixteen men arrived at the door of the
castle at 2 o’clock in the morning. When he answered the door, he was faced by
a number of revolvers and placed under guard. The masked men proceeded to
saturate the building with petrol and paraffin oil which ignited quickly. In a
few moments the mansion was a mass of flames and by day break was in ruins. A
newspaper report from the time said that the castle contained very valuable
antiques and oil paintings. There were 350 paintings supposedly lost in the
fire and the damage to the house was estimated at £100,000. Later the same
month a claim for compensation in the amount of £30,000 was lodged with the
Provisional Government by the Earl of Arran for ‘deconstruction of premises’ at
Castle Gore. Given the low amount of compensation sought, possibly a lot of
paintings and items from Castle Gore had been removed to England for safe keeping. This
was a decision taken by many landlords at the time as they were all too well
aware of the threat posed of having their houses in Ireland burnt down. As Castle
Gore was let out on occasion and with the small amount of time the Earl spent
there, I would imagine that the majority of personal effects and valuable items
left the mansion in Crossmolina long before the fire occurred in 1921. The house
continues to stand in the landscape but its gaunt walls bear little resemblance
to the house that existed before 1921. The ancient Deel Castle, the
Castle Gore ruins and the estate lands were eventually sold to the Land
Commission who divided them up among former tenants of the estate. The Earls of
Arran maybe gone from County Mayo but the estate did have a connection with
another great house in Ireland. Lady
Beit of Russborough House in County Wicklow was the grand daughter
of Mabell, Countess of Airlie, who was a daughter of the fifth Earl of Arran,
who had grown up at Castle Gore. In more recent times the ruins of the house
were to suffer another indignity, when in the 1950s the local authority tried
to dynamite the ruin in the interests of public safety. This act of further
vandalism on Castle Gore only resulted in one corner being blown off, leaving
the truncated hulk that we see today.
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Deel Castle is named after
the river on whose
banks on which it is situated
Copyright- Photo by David Hicks
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