Thursday Doors – Castle Saunderson

Even after a dozen posts from the Cavan County Museum I’m still hooked on history for this week’s Thursday Doors – and it’s a castle this time.

Would you like to have a look inside?

Sorry, this is as close as I can get but you can see the roof is gone thanks to a fire in the past.

Walking around the castle we came to this facade but I don’t know if the steps leading up to it are original. They have the same stone and seem quite old but are not very grand.

For me, this is the most interesting part of the castle. You can see lots of features like the coach entrances, some servants quarters and a balcony. Here is where a lot of the activity for the running of the castle must have taken place.

Nearby we came across a yew grove, with some lovely old trees.

Now for the history. Here’s what we found out on our visit. The notices must have been used for target practise by some birds flying overhead. It was difficult to clean it all off, so please try to ignore the odd smudge. The castle was the family seat of the Saunderson family, who acquired the original building in 1573, during the Plantation of Ulster. Previously, it belonged to the O’Reillys of Breffni and had been known as Breffni Castle from the fourteenth century.

The landscape is beautiful and, as you can see from this image, we were surrounded by trees.

At this time of year you get the wonderful scent of wild garlic and there is an abundance of it here.

Of course, I had to harvest a bit to make some pesto.

Thanks for stopping by this week, I’ll continue the tour of the estate in my next post. Meanwhile, have a look at the varied selection of Thursday Doors Norm has to offer over on his blog.

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