Qualla: Lough Rynn Castle

Lough Rynn Castle: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Two lakes in south Leitrim, a narrow neck of land between them, a four-hundred-year-old oak tree on a hill, a Bronze Age druid's altar buried under bracken nearby, and a great Victorian baronial pile that was finished in 1889 for one of the most hated landlords in modern Irish history. Lough Rynn Castle is many places at once. It is the ancestral land of the Mac Raghnaill, the Gaelic ruling family of Muintir Eolais. It is a confiscated Plantation estate granted by Charles I to an English family in 1621. It is the country house of William Sydney Clements, the third Earl of Leitrim, who was shot dead by three of his Donegal tenants in 1878. And it is a luxury wedding hotel today - because there is nothing in Ireland that has not had at least three lives.

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Image: Gerd Eichmann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Lough Rynn Castle: The Mac Raghnaill of Muintir Eolais

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dáibhí Ó Bruadair, CC BY-SA 3.0. The estate that holds the present castle was for centuries part of the lands of Clan Maelsechlainn-Oge Mac Raghnaill, the pre-Conquest rulers of this corner of Leitrim known as Muintir Eolais. About five hundred metres from the modern hotel, on another shore of Lough Rynn, the ru...

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Image: Dáibhí Ó Bruadair | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lough Rynn Castle: The Earl Who Lost His Head

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dáibhí Ó Bruadair, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1750 the Lough Rynn estate was acquired by Nathaniel Clements, who lived in Cavan but bought the Leitrim land as an investment. The Clements family settled in. In 1795 Robert Clements became the first Earl of Leitrim. When the third Earl, William Sydney Clements, inherited in ...

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Image: Dáibhí Ó Bruadair | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lough Rynn Castle: A Library Named for McGahern

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dáibhí Ó Bruadair, CC BY-SA 3.0. The completed house had on its principal floor a great hall, a baronial hall, a chapel, reception rooms, drawing rooms, and dining rooms; the basement held the wine cellar and stores; upstairs were fourteen bedrooms and four bathrooms. The Clements held it until the twentieth cen...

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Image: Dáibhí Ó Bruadair | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lough Rynn Castle: Druid's Altar and Walled Garden

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dáibhí Ó Bruadair, CC BY-SA 3.0. The estate grounds are extraordinary and largely free to walk. There are sawmills, a farmyard, an arboretum, a greenhouse, French stable yards, nature trails, and terraced gardens. A four-hundred-year-old oak tree stands on the grounds. A Bronze Age portal tomb called Cloch an Dr...

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Image: Dáibhí Ó Bruadair | CC BY-SA 3.0