Castle Leslie, also known as Glaslough House is home to an Irish branch of

Clan Leslie Clan Leslie is a Lowland Scottish clan. The progenitor of the Clan, Bartolf'','' was a nobleman from Hungary, who came to Scotland in 1067. He built a castle at Lesselyn, from which the clan name derives. Clan Chief, the Earl of Rothes From 1 ...

, is located on the 4 km² (1,000-acre) Castle Leslie Estate adjacent to the village of

Glaslough Glaslough ( ; ) is a village and townland in the north of County Monaghan, Ireland, on the R185 regional road south of the border with Northern Ireland and northeast of Monaghan town. Glaslough won the Irish Tidy Towns Competition in 1978 a ...

, northeast of

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), barony. The population of the town as of the 2016 census was 7 ...

town in

County Monaghan County Monaghan ( ; ga, Contae Mhuineacháin) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Ulster and is part of Border strategic planning area of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Cou ...

, Ireland.

Architecture

There was a 17th century Leslie mansion at Glaslough until the 19th century when much of it was demolished by Sir john Leslie. Jonathan Swift stayed at that mansion and described it as 'With rows of books upon its shelves, written by Leslies all about themselves.' The current castle is fashioned in the

Scottish Baronial Scottish baronial or Scots baronial is an architectural style of 19th century Gothic Revival which revived the forms and ornaments of historical architecture of Scotland in the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. Reminiscent of Scot ...

style and was designed by the firm of

Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon, Civil Engineers and Architects was a 19th-century firm working mainly in Dublin and Belfast, and the leading architectural firm in Belfast during the 1860s. Its partners were Charles Lanyon, William Henry Lynn, and Charle ...

in 1870 for

Sir John Leslie, 1st Baronet Sir John Leslie, 1st Baronet (16 December 1822 – 23 January 1916) was the son of Charles Powell Leslie (II) and grandson of Charles Powell Leslie (I) and his uncle was the Bishop, John Leslie. Leslie was a Conservative Member of Parliament fo ...

, MP. It is situated where an earlier castle stood and never had a defensive purpose. The

country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...

presents a rather dour and austere façade and is sited in such a way so as to mask the gardens to an approaching visitor. To the rear of the house the gardens are relieved by a

Renaissance style Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

which is allegedly designed to ape Michaelangelo's cloister at Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome. Mark Bence Jones, Burke's guide to country houses Vol. 1, Ireland pp 71-2 which links the main house to a single story wing containing the Library and

Billiard Room A billiard room (also billiards room, or more specifically pool room, snooker room) is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table. (The term "billiard room" or "pool room" may also be us ...

. In contrast to the exterior designed by W.H. Lynn, the interior shows the hands of Lanyon and John Leslie himself through its strong

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

feel.

The estate

The estate has three lakes: the largest, ''Glaslough'' (from the Irish ''Glas Loch'' or ''Glasloch'', meaning ''Green Lake''), shares its name with the local village; Kilvey Lake is to the north; and, finally, there is Dream Lake, which features a

crannóg A crannog (; ga, crannóg ; gd, crannag ) is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, which were bu ...

. The estate comprises park land, meandering

streams A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

and several

forests A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

. The house is still home to the Leslie family, the late Sir Jack Leslie (6 December 1916 - 16 April 2016) returned to live at Castle Leslie at the age of 78 and the principal owner is Samantha (Sammy) Leslie. Other family members still assert their influence on the running of the estate through a family

trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...

Events and visitors

Castle Leslie gained media attention in 2002 when

Sir Paul McCartney ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

married

Heather Mills Heather Anne Mills (born 12 January 1968) is an English former model, businesswoman and activist. Mills first came to public attention in 1993 when she was a model and was involved in a traffic collision with a police motorcycle in London. T ...

in the family church located on the estate, followed by a wedding banquet for 300 guests prepared by then executive

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

, Noel McMeel. Throughout the years numerous famous people have frequented the house. This includes Irish poet

WB Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, Irish

statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...

General Michael Collins,

Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

frontman

Sir Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. Jagger–Richards, His ongoing song ...

(1966), British astronomer

Sir Patrick Moore Sir Patrick Alfred Caldwell-Moore (; 4 March 1923 – 9 December 2012) was an English amateur astronomer who attained prominence in that field as a writer, researcher, radio commentator and television presenter. Moore was president of the Brit ...

and the Duc de Valentinois. The estate has also had various members of the Churchill family within the house due to familial ties with the Leslies.

References

External links

* {{coord, 54.31132, N, 6.88705, W, source:placeopedia, display=title Castles in County Monaghan Scottish baronial architecture Clan Leslie William Henry Lynn buildings