Qualla: Crom Castle

Crom Castle: Introduction

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In July 1689, fewer than 1,500 Williamite troops from Enniskillen marched south, met King James II's army at the village of Achadh Gé, and either captured or killed up to 3,000 of his soldiers. The Battle of Newtownbutler ended a local conflict that had begun weeks earlier at Crom Castle, where the Creighton family had been holding out against two successive Jacobite sieges. The old castle survived the sieges. Seventy-five years later, in 1764, a kitchen fire destroyed what the besieging armies could not. The ruins still stand on the shore of Upper Lough Erne, alongside the present-day Crom Castle, which the English architect Edward Blore designed in 1840. Two yew trees nearby are believed to be at least 800 years old, which means they were standing here when the first sieges were not yet history but living memory.

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Crom Castle: A Scottish Planter on the Lough

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Like many country estates in Ulster, Crom began as a Plantation property. In 1611, as part of the Plantation of Ulster, a Scottish planter named Michael Balfour, the Laird of Mountwhinney, constructed a house on the lough shore opposite Inishfendra Island. Balfour built in the ty...

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Crom Castle: The Sieges of 1689

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1689, during the Williamite War in Ireland, the Old Crom Castle survived two Jacobite sieges. Colonel Abraham Creighton, whose family by then owned the castle, held out against the besieging forces of King James II until reinforcements from Enniskillen arrived. Enniskillen had...

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Crom Castle: The Domestic Fire

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1764, a domestic fire destroyed the Old Castle. Domestic fires were the bane of country houses in the eighteenth century, when wooden floors, candles, and open fireplaces existed in fragile equilibrium with the limestone walls around them. The blaze gutted the building. Two to...

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Crom Castle: Edward Blore and the New Castle

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1840, the English architect Edward Blore designed the present Crom Castle. Blore was one of the most prolific country house architects of the early Victorian period, with commissions at Buckingham Palace, Lambeth Palace, and dozens of estates across Britain and Ireland. His Cr...

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Crom Castle: The National Trust and the Earl

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1987, Harry Erne, the 6th Earl of Erne, gave the wider estate to the National Trust to manage. The castle itself remained the private property of the family. The current owner, John Erne, the 7th Earl, lives at the castle but allows it to be hired for weddings, private events,...

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Crom Castle: Blandings and the Boats

Sun, 24 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Crom Castle has had two unusual moments of recent fame. In August 2010, the estate hosted a great classic yacht and steamboat regatta, recreating the 1890s races in Trial Bay. The boats used were historic types: Norfolk Broads One-Designs, Lough Erne Fairies, Fife One Designs fro...

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