Qualla: Bailieborough Castle

Bailieborough Castle: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CnocBride, Public domain. In 1610, King James VI and I gave a Scottish undertaker named William Bailie a stretch of east Breffnie on the condition that he build a fortified house, enclose a demesne, and settle the land with English or Scottish families. Bailie did all of it by 1629. Three centuries later, in 1918, the house he had built burned to the ground while it was being used as a school by the Marist Brothers. What stands now is a 3-kilometre walking loop around Castle Lake, a small graveyard for the Marist Brothers in the woods, and the outline of an estate that has had ten owners in 400 years.

Read more: Bailieborough Castle on Qualla

Image: CnocBride | Public domain

Bailieborough Castle: Plantation

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gerard Lovett from ireland, CC BY 2.0. William Bailie was an undertaker in the technical sense - one of the Scottish and English landowners who undertook to the Crown to plant Protestant settlers on confiscated Irish land. His grant in 1610 was part of the Plantation of Ulster, the most systematic colonisation project...

Read more: Bailieborough Castle on Qualla

Image: Gerard Lovett from ireland | CC BY 2.0

Bailieborough Castle: The Hamiltons and Stewarts

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Oliver Gargan, CC BY-SA 4.0. William Bailie died around 1648 and the estate passed to his son, also William, who was Church of Ireland Bishop of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh. When the Bishop died in 1664, the estate went to his only daughter Jane, who had married James Hamilton. Hamiltons held it for two generat...

Read more: Bailieborough Castle on Qualla

Image: Oliver Gargan | CC BY-SA 4.0

Bailieborough Castle: Lord Lisgar

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bailieborough, Co. Cavan., Public domain. Colonel William Young came from Loughgall in Armagh and brought ambition. He laid out the town of Bailieborough in its present location, with neat parallel streets and a market square, replacing the older settlement. In 1821 he was made the first Young Baronet of Bailieborough Ca...

Read more: Bailieborough Castle on Qualla

Image: Bailieborough, Co. Cavan. | Public domain

Bailieborough Castle: The Marists

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit CnocBride, Public domain. Lady Lisgar died in 1895, and with no direct heir the estate went into the Chancery courts. Much of the land was sold to its tenants under the Land Acts that were slowly dismantling the great Anglo-Irish estates. The house itself was sold to Sir Stanley Cochrane, who passed it to...

Read more: Bailieborough Castle on Qualla

Image: CnocBride | Public domain

Bailieborough Castle: The Castle Lake Loop

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 4.0. What survives is the demesne itself, now Bailieborough Demesne, a state-owned forest park on the north-western edge of the town. The 3-kilometre Castle Lake loop starts and ends at the car park on the lakeshore. It is suitable for walking or cycling, an easy circuit through matur...

Read more: Bailieborough Castle on Qualla

Image: Andreas F. Borchert | CC BY-SA 4.0