West Gate to Castletown Demesne

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Castletown Demesne is situated SE of Monea village. It is accessed from the Leighan Road to W. Here is a much altered single storey L shaped gate lodge (of no interest). From lodge a Beech tree lined driveway runs E to the gates of the house.

Octagonal one-piece stone gate piers and have small rounded stone bollards to prevent them swinging too far open. Rubble stone wall to either side runs N enclosing the garden, with lane running up to the rear yards. Wall at gates has moulded masonry coping which seems to have been the upturned cornice of an earlier structure. There are more similar pieces in the flower garden walls . Modern cattle grid. To right the boundary fence continues S along the edge of a second beech tree lined driveway which runs to the ruined plantation castle to the S.

From the gates a short gravel driveway runs E to the front of the house. A curving driveway at W links front of house to its rear yard.

Historical information

Monea castle is a plantation structure dating from 1619 and one of the most intact of its type in Ulster. The castle, its garden and tree lined avenue are scheduled monuments (SM FER 191-61). Monea Cottage was erected to replace it after it burnt down in 1750, on the site of the current house.

The Manor of Monea was purchased in 1790 by Mr. J. Brien of Stralongford Co. Tyrone, who had a number of estates in the Province. On his death in 1811 it passed to his fourth son, Captain John Brien (born 1776). It may be that Captain Brien was already resident on the estate as the old school house was erected in 1802 by ‘Lieutenant J. Brien’ (datestone of this building is in domestic yard). Captain John Brien married Charlotte Dawson in 1814 and their son John Dawson Brien was born in 1815 and inherited the estate in 1856. It was he who built two gate lodges c1860, one to W and one to N. In 1869 he became High Sheriff / Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh and it is then that he built the current main house. He died in 1881 and his wife Francis (nee Smith) had the local C of I Church (St. Molaise HB12/11/004) rebuilt in his memory. A plaque in the church states, ‘To the Glory of God/ and in affectionate memory of/ John Dawson Brien/ Castletown/ This church was erected/ by his widow/ and his two surviving sisters/ 1890’. Mrs Brien lived on in the house until her death in 1917.

The estate was due to pass to John Henry Loftus Reade, but he had died in Flanders in 1914. It passed onto the Brien family, their two eldest sons had also dies in WW1 the house was inherited by one of their sisters. She lived in the house until her death c1974 when it passed to the present owner. The demesne has not been sold since purchase in 1790.

The 1st edition OS map shows the current demesne, with lodge and main driveway to N. There is no W lodge but a schoolhouse is marked to the N of the driveway. There is no driveway running S to the original Castle. The house here is marked ‘Monea Cottage’ and is cruciform in plan with a range of T planned outbuildings to its N. The flower and vegetable gardens and their buildings are shown to immediate E of the complex.

The 2nd edition OS map shows the W lodge and the main driveway being the W one, the former schoolhouse is no longer labelled, and a national school is shown outside the demesne to the NW. The demesne now has the tree lined driveway to the old castle. The outbuildings to N of house are more numerous and the farm yard more defined.

The current OS map (surveyed 1963) shows the N lodge (now gone) to have been rectangular with a small return on its N end.

Dean states that both lodges were built c1860 and shows plans of the single storey W lodge that has a hipped L-planned roof and gable to return. Small segmental headed windows and a door on its N elevation. This building was much altered and extended c1979.

Primary Sources:
1. OS Map 1st Edition 1834, Co Fermanagh, sheet 15.
2. OS Map 2nd Edition 1857, Co Fermanagh, sheet 15.
3. OS Map Sheet 191-12, revised 1968

Secondary Sources:
1. M. Bence-Jones, ‘Country Houses of Ireland’ (London 1978), p.104.
2. A. Rowan, ‘North West Ulster’ (Penguin 1979), p.422.
3. J.A.K. Dean, ‘The Gate lodges of Ulster’ (Belfast. 1994), p.104.
4. Rev. J.B, Leslie ‘Clougher Clergy and Parishes’ (Enniskillen 1929).
5. G. Elliott, ‘Parishes of Devenish and Boho’ (Belfast 1990), p.119.
6. A. Day, ‘OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co. Fermanagh II 1834/5 Vol.14 (QUB 1992), p.49.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Fine pair of entrance gates that have group value with the rest of the listed buildings in the Castletown Denesne.

General comments

**Gate included in the listing for Castletown House HB12/11/077A**