Partry
House
History of Partry
House
Partry, County Mayo,
Ireland
House
Partry House is a uniquely beautiful and unspoilt estate
of 248 acres on the southern marl shores of Lough Carra,
County Mayo.
Partry House dates from 1667 when it was built on the
remains of Cloonlagheen Castle by Arthur Lynch as a dowager
house for his mother Lady Ellis, widow of Sir Roebuck Lynch
of Castle Carra.
Sir Roebuck's lands were seized by the Cromwellians and
he was compensated by lands at Castle Carra during the first
half of the seventeenth century. The Castle was named after
Cloonlagheen ('the meadow of the little lake') townland on
which it stands.
Evidence of the original castle was discovered during
restoration work in 1995 when slit windows opening inwards
were found at knee level on the first floor. Old castle
walls can be seen incorporated into stable walls.
Knox's 'History of Mayo' (1910) clearly states that
Cloonlagheen castle was owned in 1574 by Abbé
MacEnvile who was over Ballintubber Abbey. This was part of
the Elizabethan survey called the 'Divisons of
Connaught'.
The
Lynchs, of the noted Galway family, occupied Partry House
from 1667 until 1991; over 330 years in residence. Many of
the ancestors of the present Lynch family are buried in a
ring-fort graveyard on the estate, where their achiemements
are noted on a large stone obelisk. Military, Exploratory
and Humanitarian, their dates and names are written in
stone.
The one-time islands Moynish, Creggaun and Leamnahaye are
linked to the shore by means of the Famine Walk built
between the lake and a bog area. This and the fine limestone
shore edging date from famine times when the Lynchs looked
after their tenants providing food and work for them. Two
old cast iron pots used to cook cornmeal stand in the
garden.
The obelisk commemorates George Quested Lynch MD who
returned at once to Partry from Euphrates on hearing of the
famine and died here of Typhus in 1848, aged only 34. The
Lynchs, along with Browns of Westport House and the Moores
of Moore Hall chartered the ship the 'Martha Washington' to
bring corn meal from America for their tenants.
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