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Moydrum Castle

Address: Moydrum, Athlone, Co. Westmeath
Phone: 044 9348650

 

The lands of Moydrum were granted to the Handcock family, originally from Devon,
UK, during the Cromwellian plantations of Ireland in the 17th century. From then
on the family remained one of the most prominent landowning dynasties and landlords
in the area.

Moving forward several generations, head of family William Handcock served as an M.P. in Grattans Parliament, representing Athlone until the parliaments dissolution in 1800 following the Act of Union with the United Kingdom. Handcock had originally been an opponent of the Act, but was promised a peerage should he vote in favour of it. He duly succumbed and finally, in 1812, Handcock was created 1st Baron Castlemaine.

The Baron decided to create an appropriate stately home on his lands at Moydrum, and therefore asked architect Richard Morrison to remodel and enlarge an existing house belonging to the family there. The resulting gothic-revivalist castle was completed in 1814 and was described as a "handsome residence" in Samuel Lewis’ 1837 Topographical Dictionary Of Ireland, "a solid castellated mansion with square turrets at each angle, beautifully situated by a small lake, and surrounded by an extensive and richly wooded demesne".

By the 1880s, and the time of the 4th Baron, the Barony of Moydrum comprised 11,444 acres. Moydrum Castle is a fine example of the mock-castle, a style beloved by the Gothic Revival school of Francis Johnston, the Morrisons and others in the early years of the 19th century. The original Irish name for the locality was Moidrome – Magh Droma, "plain of the ridge". The Handcocks obtained a grant of 5,500 acres in 1680, which formed the Manor of Twyford, and they continued as large land and property owners in Athlone until the 20th century. Moydrum castle has featured on a U2 CD cover.

Growing tensions in Ireland ultimately led to the Irish War of Independence of 1919 1921. The effects of the war were felt in the Irish midlands as much as anywhere else in the country. In early July 1921 British miltary forces burned several homes in south Westmeath and, incensed, local IRA forces felt that this could not go unpunished. Moydrum Castle, given its status as the seat of a prominent member of the British House of Lords, was chosen as a suitably symbolic subject for their reprisals. On the night of July 3rd, 1921, an assembly of IRA members marched on the castle. The 5th Baron was out of Ireland at the time but his wife and daughter, together with several servants, were in residence and were woken from their sleep by knocking at the door. The Baroness and her daughter were given time to gather together a few valuable belongings before the building was set alight. The blaze completely destroyed the castle.

Following the establishment of the Irish Free State, much of the land belonging to the Barony was improved, divided and sold on by the Irish Land Commission. The Baron, his wife and family were never to return to Moydrum.