Barretstown Castle is a

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

Ballymore Eustace Ballymore Eustace () is a small town situated in County Kildare in Ireland, although until 1836 it lay within an exclave (a detached "pocket") of County Dublin. It lies close to the border with County Wicklow. The town's name, which is frequ ...

County Kildare County Kildare ( ga, Contae Chill Dara) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It is named after the town of Kildare. Kildare County Council is the local authority for the county, ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. It stands on the site of a late 12th century

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 * Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature * Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 10 ...

castle. It now hosts the

Barretstown Barretstown is a not-for-profit camp for children with cancer and other serious illnesses located at Barretstown Castle, Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare, in Ireland. It was founded in 1994 by Hollywood actor Paul Newman and is a member of the S ...

camp for sick children.

History

Early history

The first historical mention of the place is in a 1547

inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

held after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when Barretstown Castle was listed as the property of the

Archbishop of Dublin The Archbishop of Dublin is an archepiscopal title which takes its name after Dublin, Ireland. Since the Reformation, there have been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church and the other in the Church of Irelan ...

, from whom it was promptly confiscated by

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

. Thereafter the Castle was held by the Eustace family on a series of "permanent

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

s." In the 17th century Sir Walter Borrowes married a daughter of the

earl of Kildare Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. The title originates in the Old English word ''eorl'', meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word is cognate with the Scandinavian form ''jarl'', and meant "chieftain", particular ...

and acquired the estate, and the family retained possession for over 200 years. Members of the family, such as

Sir Kildare Borrowes, 5th Baronet Sir Kildare Dixon Borrowes, 5th Baronet (20 January 1722 – 22 June 1790) was an Irish politician. He was the oldest son of Sir Walter Borrowes, 4th Baronet and his wife Mary Pottinger, daughter of Captain Edward Pottinger. In 1741, Borrowes succ ...

, represented

and Harristown in the former

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland ( ga, Parlaimint na hÉireann) was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chamb ...

. Unlike the Eustace

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

s of the 16th and 17th centuries, the five Borrowes baronets who spanned the 19th century played no part in public life. This quiet aristocratic reign ended with the flamboyant Sir Kildare, 10th Baronet (1852–1924), whose father Rev. Sir Erasmus, 8th Baronet, had significantly modified the residence in a medieval, romantic, asymmetrical style. In 1918, the Borrowes family having left Ireland, Barretstown was purchased by Sir George Sheppard Murray, a

Scotsman The Scots ( sco, Scots Fowk; gd, Albannaich) are an ethnic group and nation native to Scotland. Historically, they emerged in the early Middle Ages from an amalgamation of two Celtic-speaking peoples, the Picts and Gaels, who founded t ...

who converted the estate into a

stud farm A stud farm or stud in animal husbandry is an establishment for selective breeding of livestock. The word "stud" comes from the Old English ''stod'' meaning "herd of horses, place where horses are kept for breeding". Historically, documentation o ...

, and planted many of the exotic trees that dominate the landscape.

Arden and Westons

In 1962

Elizabeth Arden Elizabeth Arden (born Florence Nightingale Graham; December 31, 1881 – October 18, 1966) was a Canadian-American businesswoman who founded what is now Elizabeth Arden, Inc., and built a cosmetics empire in the United States. By 1929, s ...

acquired the castle from the Murray family. Over five years, Arden extensively reconstructed, redecorated, and refurnished the castle. Her influence dominates the look of the house to this day. The door of the castle is reputed to have been painted red after her famous brand of perfume Red Door, and remains so to this day. After Arden's death in 1967, the international biscuit tycoon

Garfield Weston Willard Garfield Weston (26 February 189822 October 1978) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist who was a member of the prominent Weston family. He led George Weston Limited and its various subsidiaries and associated companies, includin ...

took up residence. Under his ownership the grounds were significantly improved, particularly through the addition of a magnificent lake in front of the castle.

State ownership

The

Weston family The Weston family is a prominent Canadian-origin family of businesspeople with global interests primarily in food and clothing ventures. The family operations began with the purchase of a bakery in 1884 by American-born Canadian George Weston in ...

, which owns Dublin's famous

Brown Thomas Brown Thomas & Company Limited is a chain of five Irish department stores, located in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Dundrum Town Centre. Part of the Selfridges Group, Brown Thomas is an upmarket chain, akin to Britain's Selfridges stores ...

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

, presented the estate to the

Irish government The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The governm ...

in 1977, during which time it was used for national and international conferences and

seminars A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...

, as well as being used as a part of the

Irish National Stud The Irish National Stud (official name: ''Comhlacht Graí Náisiúnta na hÉireann Teo.'') is a Thoroughbred horse breeding facility in Tully, Kildare, County Kildare, Ireland. It was formally established by incorporation on 11 April 1946 ...

Barretstown Camp

The Irish government has leased the castle and its grounds to the Barretstown Camp for 90 years for a

nominal Nominal may refer to: Linguistics and grammar * Nominal (linguistics), one of the parts of speech * Nominal, the adjectival form of "noun", as in "nominal agreement" (= "noun agreement") * Nominal sentence, a sentence without a finite verb * Nou ...

€1.26 per year. Part of Paul Newman's

SeriousFun Children's Network SeriousFun Children's Network is a global community of 30 camps and programs for seriously ill children. All camps and programs offer free recreational experiences to children with serious illnesses and their family members. The first SeriousFu ...

Camp opened in August 1994, serving 124 children. With the completion of the new medical centre and programme hall, in 1995 the camp served nearly 300 children from Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the United States, and

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

areas. In 2009, Barretstown expected to serve 1900 children from around Europe.

References

{{coord, 53, 09, N, 6, 36, W, display=title, region:IE_type:landmark_source:GNS-enwiki Castles in County Kildare Ballymore Eustace