Heritage of Castlewellan Historic Demesne

History of Castlewellan Forest Park

Built Heritage

Throughout history Castlewellan Demesne has been shaped by the people who have called it home. Here we look at some of their stories and the impact they had on the landscape. If you are interested in learning more about the built heritage look at our education programme.

The Magennises (1520-1741)

The Castlewellan Magennises appear in records from the 1520s when their territory extended into Lecale. In 1542 Art McPhelim Magennis travelled to London where he received a knighthood from Henry VIII in Greenwich Palace. At the time he was living in Castlewellan, the exact position of his residence remains unknown although it is believed his house was on one of the Islands on the lake or on a crannog (an artificial island).

In 1693 the last remaining Castlewellan Magennis died and the Castlewellan estate passed to a cousin, Daniel of Corgary, who got into serious financial difficulties and sold the Manor of Castlewellan at a public auction in 1741.

William Annesley (1710-1770)

William was a Dublin-based barrister and MP in both the London and Dublin Parliaments. In 1741 William bought the freehold of the Manor of Castlewellan at a public auction. When his father died in 1750, he inherited a substantial legacy. William set about improving the Castlewellan land and moved the public road from the north to the south side of the lake.

William laid out the town in the early 1750s. It was in two parts; first the “Old Town” (the Upper Square and Market House built in 1764) and then the “New Town” (the Lower Square). Tenants were allowed to build houses on each of the plots.

It is not known exactly when the Grange courtyards in Castlewellan Historic Demesne were built but it is thought to be around 1750. By 1758 it was well developed with over a hundred and twenty labourers employed. William planted a network of formal lime avenues in 1755. A section of these avenues survives with the lime trees flanking the approach road to The Grange. He also planted Beech trees to the north of the Lake and laid out the walled garden.

2nd Earl Richard Annesley (1745-1824)

Richard built the Cottage north of the Lake in 1803-04. The picturesque park landscaped was designed by John Sutherland.

The Garden was further walled and in 1818 a frame yard and hot houses were built in the lower garden for vines. The gates, with coade stone eagles, were erected at the entrance to the demesne.

4th Earl William Richard Annesley (1830-1874)

Image Credit: by kind permission of the Ogilvie family

When William Richard inherited the Demesne he was eight but had to wait until he was 21 to take control. He commissioned the design of the Castle from the William Burn, which was built 1855-58 on the site of the Gothic Temple. The Cottage was demolished in 1861.

The Walled Garden was extended to 12 acres into a rectangular garden by absorbing the kitchen garden and orchard. The wall now extended around the garden. This garden was re-developed into grand pleasure grounds with extensive glasshouses, complete with fashionable Victorian-style terracing designed by Burn in 1860 and the granite steps.

The first of many exotics were planted in the extended walled garden. Plantings included the Cupressus macrocarpa lost in storm Ophelia (2017) ring-counted to 1850 and the Giant Sequoia. By 1871, a wide collection of trees shrubs and wall plants including Magnolias and Rhododendrons had been established and the garden was opened to the public on Mondays and Thursdays.

Hugh Annesley 5^th Earl (1831 – 1908)

Image Credit: by kind permission of the Ogilvie family

Hugh Annesley, the 5^th Earl, inherited the demesne when his brother died in 1874. The garden became his passion.

He obtained a wide range of species from British and Irish nurseries as well as from abroad. By 1894 the Illustrated London News describes the garden as ‘the home of perhaps the richest and rarest collection of exotic trees in Ireland’.

Hugh was influenced by the ‘gardenesque’ style which celebrates each individual plant and there were over 20 glasshouses on site to accommodate his temperate and tropical plant collection and to grow grapes, nectarines and peaches, melons, orchids and ferns.

Hugh was a fantastic amateur photographer. His 1903 book ‘Beautiful Rare Trees & Plants’, with 70 of his own portraits of trees at Castlewellan, was groundbreaking in giving details of individual trees. Some of those trees survive today.

Thomas Ryan 1851-1910

Image Credit: by kind permission of the Ogilvie family

Both the 4^th and 5^th Earls relied on talented Head Gardeners. The most famous was Thomas Ryan from Limerick.

Thomas started working in the gardens sometime in the 1870s. In 1881, Hugh Annesley appointed him as Head Gardener. Thomas worked very closely with Hugh and was instrumental in turning his visions for a unique collection of trees and shrubs into reality.

Thomas seldom took a day off, as his work was his passion, by 1903 he was caring for over 3000 different species of rare plants from all over the world.

He had great skills with seeds, budding, layering and grafting and was described as having an almost magic touch in acclimatising exotic plants.

He lived in the cottage at the entrance to the garden which was built in the mid-1800s.

Lady Mabel Annesley (1881-1959)

Image Credit: by kind permission of the Ogilvie family

Lady Mable Annesley was the daughter of Hugh Annesley, the 5^th Earl Annesley. Mabel and her younger brother Francis were brought up in Castlewellan Castle. She was educated at home by a governess, where she learnt the basics of drawing which she used in later life in her profession as a well-established woodcut artist, her work being collected by the British Museum and the V&A.

She married Gerald Sowerby in 1904 but changed her name back to Annesley after her husband’s death in 1913 and her brother’s death a year later. At this time she saved the Demesne from two sets of death duties (her fathers and her brothers) and protected the estate during the troubles of the 1920’s. She gave the management of the Demesne to her only child Gerald Francis Sowerby in 1927 after his marriage to his first wife, Lady Anne.

During the Second World War she emigrated to New Zealand but returned to England in 1953, settling in Suffolk where she died.

Present Day

After being sold to the Forest Service in 1967 Castlewellan park was opened to the public on Monday 31 March 1969. Forest Service added significantly to the planting. They designated 100 acres of the park as the National Arboretum, in recognition of its outstanding and internationally important collection of trees. In 2018 it became the first Irish garden to receive a plaque from the International Dendrology Society.

The Peace Maze was established in 2000, currently the second largest in the World.

In April 2022 management of the Park passed to Newry Mourne and Down District Council who, through the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, hope to restore the Historic Demesne and re-connect the local community to the natural and built heritage that Castlewellan Forest Park has to offer.