Lough Eske - History

History

Following the burning of the Franciscan Friary in Donegal Town in September 1601, the friars were forced to flee into the surrounding countryside. They set up a new friary on the western shores of Lough Eske, giving the name of 'The Friary' to the local townland in the district of Killymard, and the 'Friar's Walk' along the shore of the lake. The friars remained in the vicinity of the lake for most of the following century but a Royal Proclamation in August 1687, ordering all Catholic clergy to leave Ireland within nine months, dealt the final blow to the Order in the Donegal area. Since they were brought to Donegal Town in the sixteenth century, the friars had had to abandon their convent on several occasions and it was frequently attacked and damaged, unsurprising given the political instability between the English and Gaelic Irish Lords at the time. About the time of the Royal Proclamation, it's believed the Friars were based around the lake once more, close to Barnesmore on the east shore, near Roshin Island in the southeast corner of the lake, which is believed to have been used as a graveyard by the friars. There is still evidence of graves on the island to this day.

Following the Flight of the Earls in 1607, the Plantation of Ulster saw this area of Donegal granted to Sir Basil Brooke, who rebuilt and extended Donegal Castle. About this time a manor was also constructed on the shores of Lough Eske by Scottish settlers, a cornerstone at the manor was later noted to have been inscribed with the date 1621. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the Brooke family estates were passed to Thomas Young (who changed his name to Thomas Brooke) of Lough Eske Manor, through marriage with the heiress to the estate, Jane Grove. Thomas first built a new Church of Ireland called Christ Church on the southern shore of the Lake in 1846, before hiring the Derry architect Fitzgibbon Louch to completely redesign the existing manor house; the result was a grand Elizabethan-style residence finished in 1868 which became known as Lough Eske Castle. The castle was sold at the end of the century and later became a guest house; by the mid-twentieth century it was in a state of ruin, but was reopened as the Solis Lough Eske Hotel in December 2007. Meanwhile, the Church constructed in 1846 is still used as the parish church.

A 'Famine Pot' from a local workhouse that was used during the Great Famine is now located on the shores of the lake as a testament to all locals who lost their lives or were forced to emigrate in the mid-1840s and 1850s.