Altan Castle & Farm

The romantic setting of Altan Castle has always been a source of curiosity for both locals and visitors alike.  It is located on the shore of an isolated lake in the middle of the Derryveagh Mountains, some 3 kilometres from the main road.  Apart from the windmills on the far-off slopes of Cronalaght there are no signs of modern life, no road, utility poles or modern buildings to be seen anywhere on the horizon. You could nearly believe you had been transported back in time.  So, who owned and built this isolated home, miles from the nearest village and why does it now stand derelict? 

The first written record of Altan is in the Tithe Allotment Books in 1830 which record Hugh Sweeney as living here. [1]  Here the townland is spelt Althan and the farm is recorded of consisting of 1 acre of Q1 land and 468 acres of Q2 land.  The value of the property is recorded as £1 S1 P0.

 _{The Tithe Allotment Books were compiled between 1823 and 1837 in order to determine the amount which occupiers of agricultural holdings over one acre should pay in tithes to the Church of Ireland).} 

The property is recorded on the 1st Ordnance Survey Maps.  The first edition of the map for North West Donegal was completed in 1836.  The map shows a long south facing rectangular building.  The land around it appears to be cultivated and there is a Lime Kiln on the southern bank of the river [2] . 

John Obins Woodhouse, a Dublin based solicitor, from Portadown originally, purchased the property from Thomas Olphert in 1844. Woodhouse also purchased the townlands of Kerrykeel, Meenaclady, Tory Island and Inishdowey and Innishbeg Islands. [3]   He had his principal residence in Omeath Park in Co Louth. In his testimony to The Select Committee Hearing on Destitution in Gweedore and Cloughaneeley, Woodhouse states “this townland of Alton is a very romantic spot, and very much admired, and I had some notion of building a cottage on it for a summer residence occasionally …”. [4] 

We know from Woodhouse's testimony that Hugh Sweeney was still a tenant in Altan in 1848 as Woodhouse entered into negotiations with Sweeney to remove him from the land.  “…in consequence of this intention I opened a negotiation with a man of the name of McSwine, or Sweeney, who was the tenant of the whole; he was my tenant from year to year, and I had the right of evicting him in the ordinary way; nevertheless, as I had always recognised the claims of good-will, or, as it is called now, tenant right, I did not attempt to do it, but I opened a negotiation to settle with him upon such terms as I could, and he promised me that he would settle, but after several attempts he broke his word about it, and did not settle; then I served him with a notice to quit, and brought an ejectment, but, notwithstanding having an ejectment, I did not think that it was sufficient to justify my taking his holding without payment, and I still continued to negotiate.  He did at last come to terms with me, and an agreement was made that I should pay to him the sum of 75 l. in hand, that I should forgive two years' rent, and that I should give up the costs that had been incurred, and that I should make other allowances afterwards on his removal.

Woodhouse goes on to give an account of the property.

He had his cows, and sheep, and goats all in the room with himself; he had a most wretched and miserable bed; he had wretched and miserable clothes, and the house was quite in ruins; and when I remonstrated with him about having cows in the house with him, he said "Oh, it would not do at all to send them out, for there are a great many warm slops they get in the house that they would not get if they were out," and he refused to send them out. It was agreed by my manager and Sueeney, that I should pay for the manure that was taken out of the inside of his dwelling-house, at the rate of 1 s. a load.  There were two men employed, I think, for three days, to throw out the manure; my man said he only got 40 loads of manure out of the dwelling, and Sweeney said he got 51, and I could only settle it by splitting the difference. 

At that time the farm contained 1,500 acres. [5]   _{(Please note, different types of acres (Irish vs English) used in Tithe & Griffith Valuations.} 

Following Sweeney’s removal Woodhouse gave instructions to construct a road to the property at a cost of 250 l. from the main road down to the house.  He states that he changed his mind about building a house and went about letting it instead.  He let the property initially to a Mr. Foster, then to a Mr Seaver.  Then, following advertising it to let at the Gweedore Hotel, and in the Scotch and Derry Newspapers he received three proposals from John O’Donnell, Edward Sweeney and Mr. James/Joseph Wright.  He subsequently let the townland to Mr. Wright of Aberdeen, for a fee of 50 l.  Mr. Wright is listed as the tenant during the Griffith Valuations undertaken in Donegal in 1857 [6] 

The layout of the house in the 1857 Griffith Valuation is similar to the 1836 OS Map.

When you review the overlay of these old maps with modern satellite images, it looks like the house at that time, was located where the walled enclosures to the rear of the existing building are now.

Woodhouse in his 1858 testimony states that he had not built a new residence at that time so we must assume that the ‘Castle’ was built sometime after 1858.

The Sheep War of Gweedore & Cloughaneeley

On the night of 10 ^th  December 1856 an estimated forty young men entered the house of James Lillico, a Scottish shepherd in the isolated mountain townland of Altan.  The raid was a classic Molly Maguire action.  The raiders, one of whom was armed with a pistol, all wore white shirts.  They claimed they were not from the area, a claim supported by the quality of their clothes, good English and disregard for disguises.  They were well disciplined and did not harm Lillico but searched his house and ordered him to leave the country within eight days. [8] 

What followed was a period of great unrest in Gweedore & Cloughaneeley. The tenant farmers were unhappy as the landlords had removed their right to graze their livestock on the mountains. The tenants depended on this traditional practice to feed their sheep and cattle and also to allow them to grow crops on the winter grazing grounds. The landlord let these mountain pastures to Scottish Sheep farmers who imported sheep from Scotland. Sheep began to die and some were killed. The landlords and Scottish shepherds reported these losses known as 'outrages', and the government's response was to introduce more police and sheep taxes. This brought further hardships on the poor tenants. A group of priests began to highlight the plight of the people in national and international newspapers. The results of which was the setting up of a 'Select Committee Hearing of Destitution in Gweedore & Cloughaneeley' in London. Landlords, priests and a number of tenant farmers were brought to London to give evidence at this Hearing.

Woodhouse claims in his testimony at the Select Committee Hearing that Wright was grazing some 1,100 sheep on the farm and “not only was there sufficient grazing for them, but they were remarkably fat: my attention was called to their fatness”  [7] 

It appears that Lillico was a shepherd employed by Wright, and after the initial raid three constables were posted to Lillico’s house. [9]   It was at Altan that the first destruction of sheep was committed. Wright claimed that 212 of his sheep were maliciously destroyed in February 1857.  Despite the additional police presence, it appears that Wright did not feel safe, and he wrote to Woodhouse to surrender the place.  Woodhouse subsequently leased the farm to a Mr. Hunter who purchased Wrights flock.  Hunter went on to claim that 136 of his sheep at Alton were maliciously destroyed during 1858 [10] .  However additional witnesses at the Hearing stated that they believed that these black-faced sheep, or ‘Na Caoirigh Brocacha’ [11]  as they were known locally, were not accustomed to the conditions on the mountain, they either died from exposure or fell into holes and died [12] .  The winter of 1857/1858 was reported to have been particularly bad. It was also alleged that in some cases, the sheep were destroyed by the shepherds themselves in return for compensation. [13] 

The estate was purchased by Benjamin St. John Joule, the son of a Manchester brewer and industrialist in 1861. [15]   In the years that followed the property was advertised for rent as a shooting and fishing lodge where guests would have the use of Altan Castle and a boat on the lake.  One advertisement states that there was a caretaker and his wife at the property [16] .  In the years 1880 and 1890 two children, John & Jane Alcorn are registered in Dunlewey School.  Their parents were Thomas Alcorn and Rose (Boyd).  We do not know how long the family lived here as the children were only registered at the school for a short time [17] . . 

The 1901 census shows Samule Wallace aged 50 and his wife Bridget aged 35 living at Altan.  This was Samuels third marriage. His first wife, Mary Jones, had been a teacher in Dunlewey school and they were married in the old protestant church in Dunlewey (now roofless) in 1864.  They were married for 20 years when Mary died aged 60 in 1885.  He remarried in 1887 to an Ellen Campbell and had one daughter Mary, however, Ellen died two years later in 1891 aged 30.  Samuel went on to marry again for the third time to Bridget McGovern from Croveigh. Mary was just 15 months when her mother died, and in a radio interview on Radio na Gaeltachta in 1976 she speaks about being born in Dunlewey and living at the Castle in Altan. Listen to the interview here.

In 1903 the 'Congested Districts Board for Ireland' purchased Altan from Joule who had owned it since 1861.  The purchase included Tory Island and Meenaclady [18] .

 The last edition of the OS map was completed in 1905. The outline of the property is now different an in a slightly different location.

Listen to a interview given my Mary Wallace on Radio na Gaeltachta in 11/11/1976 where she talks about her early life in Dunlewey and Altan.

Fuair an tionscadal seo maoiniú ón gComhairle Oighreachta.

This project received funding from the Heritage Council.

References:

 [1]   http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/results.jsp?county=Donegal&parish=Tullaghobegly&townland=Althan&search=Search 

 [2]   https://heritagemaps.ie/WebApps/HeritageMaps/index.html 

 [3]  Destitution (Gweedore & Cloughaneeley p237

 [4]  ditto

 [5]  Destitution (Gweedore & Cloughaneeley p238

 [6]   https://griffiths.askaboutireland.ie/gv4/z/zoomifyDynamicViewer.php?file=067061&path=./pix/067/&rs=36&showpage=1&mysession=2887453065628&width=&height= 

 [7]  Destitution (Gweedore & Cloughaneeley p239

 [8]  Donegal History & Society (1995) Nolan, Ronayne & Dunlevy.  The Gweedore Sheep War p563

 [9]  Donegal History & Society (1995) Nolan, Ronayne & Dunlevy.  The Gweedore Sheep War p564

 [10]  Destitution (Gweedore & Cloughaneeley p419

 [11]   https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4428383/4402373 

 [12]  Destitution (Gweedore & Cloughaneeley p115

 [13]  Reference needed

 [14]   https://omeathdistrict.ie/irish-college%e2%80%8b/ 

 [15]  The Tory Islanders: A people of the Celtic fring. Robin Fox 1978

 [16]  Newspaper article

 [17]  Dunlewey School Register. https://www.dunluiche.com/school-reg-books-18671919

 [18]   https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/tory-islanders  &