Qualla: Parke's Castle

Parke's Castle: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit D Gore, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 3 November 1591, Brian O'Rourke, Lord of West Breifne, was brought from the Tower of London to Tyburn and hanged, drawn and quartered. He had been denied a lawyer at his trial. He had not been allowed to examine the charges against him. His real offence was helping shipwrecked sailors of the Spanish Armada. His ancillary distinction was being the first person ever extradited from Scotland to England, taken in chains from King James VI's court after Elizabeth I leaned on her royal relative. The castle Brian O'Rourke had defended at Newtowne on the shore of Lough Gill passed eventually to an English settler named Robert Parke. Parke's Castle, which still stands today, is built on the foundations of the Gaelic tower house Brian O'Rourke once called home.

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Image: D Gore | CC BY-SA 2.0

Parke's Castle: The Tower House on the Lough

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jellyfish2023, CC0. The first mention of an O'Rourke tower house at Baile Nua, or Newtowne, appears in the Annals of Lough Ce for the year 1546. The entry records that 'great treachery was practiced by the sons of Alexander MacCabe against O'Ruairc in his own town, his castle in the Barony of Drumah...

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Image: Jellyfish2023 | CC0

Parke's Castle: Brian's Choice

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Creevylea, CC BY-SA 4.0. Brian O'Rourke became chieftain in 1566, after his father's death and a series of disputes with his brothers. He ruled during the most aggressive phase of the Tudor conquest of Ireland, when Henry VIII's policy of 'surrender and regrant' had given way to outright military expansi...

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Image: Creevylea | CC BY-SA 4.0

Parke's Castle: The First Extradition

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Willie Duffin, CC BY-SA 2.0. King James VI of Scotland was Elizabeth I's distant relative, and Elizabeth wanted O'Rourke in custody. James obliged. Brian O'Rourke was arrested almost as soon as he stepped onto Scottish soil and extradited to London, the first such case between Scotland and England, and indee...

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Image: Willie Duffin | CC BY-SA 2.0

Parke's Castle: Parke's Plantation

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David cunniffe, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Plantation of Leitrim began in 1620, with forty-eight English and Scottish 'undertakers' tasked with founding new towns on confiscated Gaelic lands. Large grants flowed to favoured courtiers of James VI and I. Newtowne was first granted to Sir William Irving of the Privy Coun...

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Image: David cunniffe | CC BY-SA 4.0

Parke's Castle: The Lough Today

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jon Sullivan, Public domain. Parke's Castle was restored by the Office of Public Works in the late twentieth century and now operates as a visitor attraction managed by Heritage Ireland. The whitewashed walls and pitched roofs are not strictly authentic to either the Gaelic tower house or the Plantation mano...

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Image: Jon Sullivan | Public domain