Dartrey Forest - Dartrey Castle and Church

Dartrey Castle and Church

Dartrey Forest today largely covers the former demesne (or 'park') that surrounded Dartrey Castle (also known as Dartrey House or Dawson Grove), a neo-Elizabethan country house largely constructed in the 1840s, during part of the Great Famine in Ireland. The castle was at the centre of the once vast Dartrey Estate (also known as the Dawson Grove Estate). The mansion was designed by William Burn, the famous British architect, for The 3rd Baron Cremorne (later created The 1st Earl of Dartrey).

The early Victorian house was built for young Lord Cremorne on the site of Dawson Grove, the old late 18th century neo-Classical country house that stood in the demesne. The old house dated from the 1770s. Lord Cremorne, who later became a prominent Liberal (and, later, Liberal Unionist) politician, had the old Dawson Grove remodelled and greatly enlarged to create a virtual new house. The new 'castle' stood on the western shore of the Inner Lough, a lake separated from Dromore Lough by Black Island. According to the Introduction to the Dartrey Papers (which can be viewed online) held at P.R.O.N.I. in Belfast, a fire destroyed part of the newly remodelled house in March 1856. After this, the house was again rebuilt in the neo-Elizabethan (or, indeed, 'Jacobethan') style. Most of the contents of the castle were sold off in 1937. Dartrey Castle, one of Ireland's best known country houses, was demolished in 1946. Only the castle's old stables, and part of the old farmyard, remain.

Quite near the site of the castle, on the edge of the old demesne, is the Church of St. John the Evangelist (better known simply as Dartrey Church), the neo-Gothic Church of Ireland estate church built at the edge of the townland of Kilcrow. This church, which was originally built in the late 1720s and early 1730s, and partially rebuilt throughout the 19th century, remains in use to the present day.