Clonbrock Castle is a 15th-century

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

near

Ahascragh Ahascragh () is a village in east County Galway, Ireland. It is located north-west of Ballinasloe on the Ahascragh/Bunowen River, a tributary of the River Suck. The R358 road (Ireland), R358 Regional road (Ireland), regional road passes through ...

County Galway County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...

, Ireland. It was owned by the Dillon family, who were later created Barons Clonbrock.

History

The estate, including the 15th-century tower house, was originally owned by the O'Kelly (

Ó Ceallaigh O'Kelly ( ) is an Irish surname and the name of a number of distinct sept families in Ireland. The most prominent of these is the O'Kelly sept who were the chiefly family of the Uí Maine in Connacht. Another sept is that of the kingdom of Breg ...

) family until the late 16th century when it was acquired by the Dillon family. Clonbrock's

country house image:Blenheim - Blenheim Palace - 20210417125239.jpg, 300px, Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a Townhou ...

, now in ruin, was built in the 1780s. The head of the Dillon family, Robert Dillon, was elevated to the

Peerage of Ireland The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

Baron Clonbrock Baron Clonbrock, of Clonbrock in County Galway, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 3 June 1790 for Robert Dillon, 1st Baron Clonbrock, Robert Dillon, who had earlier represented Lanesborough (Parliament of Ireland constituen ...

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland, Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and ...

in 1790. By 1824 the then Lord Clonbrock, Luke Dillon 2nd Baron Clonbrock, was listed as a resident proprietor in County Galway. At the time of

Griffith's Valuation Griffith's Valuation was a boundary and land valuation survey of Ireland completed in 1868. Griffith's background Richard John Griffith started to value land in Scotland, where he spent two years in 1806–1807 valuing terrain through the examin ...

(1848–1864), the then Lord Clonbrock was one of the principal lessors in the parishes of

, Fohanagh, Killalaghtan and Killosolan in the barony of

Kilconnell Kilconnell () is a small rural village in County Galway, Ireland. The village gives its name to the barony of Kilconnell, formerly held by the Lords de Freyne. In 2006 David Tye purchased the original feudal Barony of Kilconnell created in 1170 ...

and Killoran in the barony of Longford. In the 1870s, the Clonbrock estate amounted to over . The lands, house and demesne at Cahir, barony of Clonmacnowen, owned by James Dillon, were offered for sale in the Encumbered Estates Court in July 1854. In 1906, Lord Clonbrock held over of untenanted land and the mansion house at Clonbrock. Sold by the Dillon family in the 1970s, the house was severely damaged by fire in 1986. In 2004, the castle was purchased by Jonathan and Beverly Baylis, who operated it as an

Airbnb Airbnb, Inc. ( , an abbreviation of its original name, "Air Bed and Breakfast") is an American company operating an online marketplace for short-and-long-term homestays, experiences and services in various countries and regions. It acts as a ...

. In February 2018, Clonbrock Castle was purchased by Paul Boskind, an American psychologist, business executive, LGBTQ activist, and producer.

References

{{Authority control Castles in County Galway Country houses in Ireland Tower houses in the Republic of Ireland