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Killua Castle, and the nearby Raleigh Obelisk, are situated near Clonmellon,
County Westmeath County Westmeath (; or simply ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It formed part of the historic Kingdom of ...
,
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
. The present house was built in about 1780 by Sir Benjamin Chapman and consisted of a hall, dining room, oval drawing room, breakfast parlour and front and back stairs. There was also a stable yard, barn and haggard (an enclosure where crops are stored). From here, the Chapmans administered the surrounding farm lands of some in the 18th century. In a ruinous condition, it was renovated in 2006.


History

Killua Castle and its surrounding lands were granted around 1667 to Benjamin Chapman, a captain in Cromwell's army, having been confiscated from the
Knights Hospitaller The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there ...
s of St John. On his death the estate passed to his elder son, William, and on William's death in 1734 to his son Benjamin. Benjamin died in 1779 and was succeeded by his son Benjamin, who was created a baronet. The present structure was built in 1780 by Sir Benjamin Chapman, 1st Baronet after demolishing the original castle. The castle was passed from him in 1810 by special remainder to his brother Thomas who in the early 1820s commissioned the addition of a large round tower and several other towers, including a library tower, staircase tower and back door tower. He also completed the castellation and erected the Raleigh obelisk nearby. He was succeeded in 1837 by his son
Sir Montagu Chapman, 3rd Baronet Sir Montagu Lowther Chapman (19 December 1808 – 17 May 1852) was an Anglo-Irish landowner and Member of Parliament (MP). He was born at Killua Castle, Westmeath, the son of Sir Thomas Chapman, 2nd Baronet and educated at Trinity College, Du ...
, who was lost at sea off the coast of Australia in 1852. Montagu's brother Benjamin, the 4th baronet, inherited, from whom it passed to his son Montagu Richard, 5th baronet. Montagu Richard died childless in 1907 and his widow, a cousin, divided the estate between the four legitimate daughters of her brother
Sir Thomas Chapman, 7th Baronet Sir Thomas Robert Tighe Chapman, 7th Baronet (6 November 1846 – 8 April 1919) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish landowner, the last of the Chapman baronets of Killua Castle in County Westmeath, Ireland. For many years he lived under th ...
the father of T. E. Lawrence of Arabia. The house and the remaining of land were sold in 1949.


Raleigh Obelisk

The obelisk, erected in 1810 by Sir Thomas Chapman some 200m to 300m from the house, marks the position where
Sir Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebellio ...
planted some of the first potatoes that he imported to Ireland.Raleigh Obelisk, Killua Castle, Clonmellon, County Westmeath: Buildings of Ireland: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
/ref> Antoine Parmentier who promoted the cultivation of
potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
es for human consumption and the Spanish conquistadores who first imported them from
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
along the south and west Irish coast are also associated with Irish potato promotion. However, it is uncertain who is initially responsible of the first potato plantation in Ireland, even though Raleigh is frequently credited with this milestone in Irish history. The inscription on the obelisk currently reads "Sir Walter G. Raleigh," but there is no other evidence that Raleigh had a middle name, and the "G" appears to be vandalism added after the original inscription. The obelisk has since been restored through a grant from the Irish Georgian Society. An earlier obelisk also appears to have been constructed on the estate dedicated to Lord Nelson around 1806-07.


Other Westmeath castles

* Ballinlough Castle * Clonyn Castle aka Delvin Castle * Knockdrin Castle * Tullynally Castle * Tyrrellspass Castle


References


External links

{{Commons category
Killua Castle before renovation
(archived 2016)
Interview with Allen Sangines-Krause, the owner of Killua Castle
Castles in County Westmeath Ruins in the Republic of Ireland