Qualla: Altinaghree Castle

Altinaghree Castle: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kenneth Allen, CC BY-SA 2.0. The locals just call it Ogilby's Castle, the way they have called it Ogilby's for over a century now, and they will tell you it was built so William Ogilby could entertain on a scale no neighbour in County Tyrone could match. The banquet room was famous before it was empty. Cut stone, carved windows, a long carriage drive winding up from the Dunamanagh-Claudy Road: in 1860, when the place went up, it was as confident a statement as a country gentleman could make. By 1885, twenty-five years later, the doors were locked and the rooms were sliding into ruin. Today you can photograph the shell from the B49. You cannot go inside. Even the roof is gone.

Read more: Altinaghree Castle on Qualla

Image: Kenneth Allen | CC BY-SA 2.0

Altinaghree Castle: A Romance and a Disinheritance

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nick W, CC BY-SA 2.0. The story of Altinaghree's collapse is, at its heart, a story about a son who would not be the man his father wanted. William Ogilby built the castle. He had wealth, two sons, and a clear vision of dynasty. His younger son James Douglas Ogilby fell in love with Mary Jane Jamieson...

Read more: Altinaghree Castle on Qualla

Image: Nick W | CC BY-SA 2.0

Altinaghree Castle: An Heir Who Could Not Hold It

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark McGaughey, CC BY-SA 4.0. The estate passed instead to William's eldest son, Claude William Leslie Ogilby. Claude inherited the castle and the lands and the expectation of being the next country gentleman of Liscloon. He could not do it. He drank. He drank in the way that Victorian wealth made possible an...

Read more: Altinaghree Castle on Qualla

Image: Mark McGaughey | CC BY-SA 4.0

Altinaghree Castle: Where the Castle Stands Today

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark McGaughey, CC BY-SA 4.0. Altinaghree sits on private farmland a few miles outside Donemana, south of Derry in County Tyrone. The cut stone walls still rise to roughly their full height; the empty windows still hold their carved arches; ivy has done what ivy does. The small row of workmen's houses to the ...

Read more: Altinaghree Castle on Qualla

Image: Mark McGaughey | CC BY-SA 4.0

Altinaghree Castle: The Fish Are Still Named

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mark McGaughey, CC BY-SA 4.0. There is one survival from all this, and it lives in the catalogues of marine biology rather than in the stones of Tyrone. James Douglas Ogilby, the son who would not give up the seamstress, became one of the most respected ichthyologists in Australia. The Australian Museum still...

Read more: Altinaghree Castle on Qualla

Image: Mark McGaughey | CC BY-SA 4.0