Drumbanagher House (also known as ''Drumbanagher Castle'' and ''Closes Castle''), near Poyntzpass, County Armagh, was a large country house in Northern Ireland designed for Maxwell Close by William Notman, working under William Playfair in 1829, being "one of his grandest country houses."Castles in County Armagh
/ref> Following occupation by the American and British armies during World War Two, Drumbanagher was demolished by its owner in 1951 due to the expense in up keeping the property; the estate remains in the possession of the Close family. Writing in the

Belfast Telegraph The ''Belfast Telegraph'' is a daily newspaper published in Belfast, Northern Ireland, by Independent News & Media. Its editor is Eoin Brannigan. Reflecting its unionist tradition, the paper has historically been "favoured by the Protestant po ...

in 1962 the then owner said;

"No mortal could have afforded to keep the castle going. So I had it demolished.
Death duties An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died. International tax law distinguishes between an es ...
, upkeep and financial difficulties meant I just had to get rid of it...It was perfectly sound and in good order when it was demolished...Now it looks like a
nuclear bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
hit it."

Today, all that remains of the house is the "vast arched porte-cochere" (Bence-Jones), which

Sir Charles Brett Sir Charles Edward Bainbridge Brett, KBE, CBE (30 October 1928 - 19 December 2005), was a Northern Irish solicitor, journalist, author and founding member, and first chairman, of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society (UAHS). He was known to ...

described as "resembling a Roman

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References

Castles in County Armagh {{NorthernIreland-castle-stub