History
Overlooking the River Boyne, just a few kilometres upstream from Newgrange and the site of the famous Battle of the Boyne, Slane Castle in its existing form was constructed under the direction of William Burton Conyngham, together with his nephew The 1st Marquess Conyngham. The reconstruction dates back to 1785 and is principally the work of James Gandon, James Wyatt and Francis Johnston. Francis Johnston was also the architect responsible for the gothic gates on the Mill Hill, located to the east of the castle.
The Conynghams are originally a Scottish Protestant family, who first settled in Ireland in 1611, during the Plantation of Ulster in County Donegal. At that time (and during the rest of both the 17th century and 18th century), the family gained extensive lands around the village of Mountcharles, near Donegal Town in the south of County Donegal. The family also gained an extensive estate in West Donegal, especially in The Rosses district.
There has been an active association between the Conynghams and the Slane Estate in County Meath dating back over 300 years, ever since the property was purchased by the family following the Williamite Confiscations in 1701. Around that time, the family moved their main ancestral seat south from County Donegal in west Ulster to Slane. Prior to this, Slane Castle had been in the possession of the Flemings, Anglo-Norman Catholics who had aligned themselves with the Jacobites in the War of the Grand Alliance, and thus after the Williamite victory, their property was eligible for confiscation. Christopher Fleming, 22nd of Slane, 17th Lord, Viscount Longford (1669 – 14 July 1726), was the last Fleming Lord of Slane. The present head of the Conyngham family and occupant of Slane Castle is The Most Hon. The 8th Marquess Conyngham.
In 1991, a fire in the castle caused extensive damage to the building and completely gutted the eastern section facing the River Boyne. The castle reopened in 2001 after the completion of a ten-year restoration programme. In 2003, a cannon associated with the castle was found in the nearby River Boyne
Within The Castle demesne lie the ruins of St. Erc's Hermitage, a 15th century multi-storey building.
Read more about this topic: Slane Castle
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.”
—Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929)
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)