Oakfield Demesne is a house, grounds and townland in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ga, Contae Dhún na nGall) is a county of Ireland in the province of Ulster and in the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the town of Donegal in the south of the county. It has also been known as County Tyrconne ...

, Ireland, originally built in 1739 for the Dean of

Raphoe Raphoe ( ; ) is a historical village in County Donegal, Ireland. It is the main town in the fertile district of East Donegal known as the Laggan, as well as giving its name to the Barony of Raphoe, which was later divided into the baronies of R ...

. Since 1996 it has been owned by Sir

Gerry Robinson Sir Gerrard Jude Robinson (23 October 1948 – 14 October 2021) was an Irish-born British business executive and television presenter. He was non-executive chairman of Allied Domecq and chairman/chief executive of Granada. Early life Robinso ...

and his wife, Lady Heather Robinson. The demesne includes the 100-acre Oakfield Park gardens, open to the public which includes the narrow-gauge

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Difflin Lake Railway.

History

The house that is central to the estate was originally built by the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

for the Deanery of Raphoe in 1739. It ceased to be used as a deanery after being sold to Captain Thomas Butler Stoney of the

Donegal Militia Donegal may refer to: County Donegal, Ireland * County Donegal, a county in the Republic of Ireland, part of the province of Ulster * Donegal (town), a town in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland * Donegal Bay, an inlet in the northwest of Ireland b ...

in 1869. Former occupants included Captain Stoney. The

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...

were known to have occupied the house in the 1920s. The Patterson family, known for their music, were owners during the twentieth century. After purchasing the estate the Robinsons engaged the architect Tony Wright to transform the overgrown estate into parklands, gardens and lakes to restore the house to its original condition.

Oakfield House

The house was built 1739 as a five-bay, two-storey with a dormer constructed over a basement.

Oakfield Park

Nymphaeum at Oakfield Demense - geograph

The park was created by the Robinsons soon after the start of their stewardship; as an extension of the existing gardens which had become mainly disused. Some old trees did remain, including a 12-limbed

horse Chestnut The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species n ...

and a

Spanish chestnut ''Castanea sativa'', the sweet chestnut, Spanish chestnut or just chestnut, is a species of tree in the family Fagaceae, native to Southern Europe and Asia Minor, and widely cultivated throughout the temperate world. A substantial, long-lived ...

, calculated to be as old as the Battle of the Boyne. To cater for the 2021 season in the COVID-19 pandemic additional outdoor covered seating has been provided for alfresco diners.

Difflin Lake Railway

Oakfield Park Railway Station - geograph

The Difflin Lake Railway is is length. it is one of seven operational

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

s in the Republic of Ireland that the Commission for Rail Regulation requires to have a Safety Management System (SMS) in place.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * * * {{Cite news, last=Powers, first=Jane, date=16 July 2016, title=Under the oaks , newspaper=The Irish Times, location=Dublin, url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/under-the-oaks-1.602559, url-status=live, access-date=26 July 2021, archive-date=26 July 2021 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726201202/https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/under-the-oaks-1.602559

External links

Official website
Gardens in County Donegal