THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
| Number 28. | SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1841. | Volume I. |
CASTLE-CAULFIELD, COUNTY OF TYRONE.
The subject of our prefixed illustration is one of no smallinterest, whether considered as a fine example—for Ireland—ofthe domestic architecture of the reign of James I, or as anhistorical memorial of the fortunes of the illustrious familywhose name it bears—the noble house of Charlemont, of whichit was the original residence. It is situated near the villageof the same name, in the parish of Donaghmore, barony ofDungannon, and about three miles west of Dungannon, thecounty town.
Castle-Caulfield owes its erection to Sir Toby Caulfield, afterwardsLord Charlemont—a distinguished English soldierwho had fought in Spain and the Low Countries in the reignof Queen Elizabeth, and commanded a company of onehundred and fifty men in Ireland in the war with O’Neill,Earl of Tyrone, at the close of her reign. For these serviceshe was rewarded by the Queen with a grant ofpart of Tyrone’s estate, and other lands in the province ofUlster; and on King James’s accession to the British crown,was honoured with knighthood, and made governor of thefort of Charlemont, and of the counties of Tyrone and Armagh.At the plantation of Ulster he received further grants of lands,and among them 1000 acres called Ballydonnelly, or O’Donnelly’stown, in the barony of Dungannon, on which, in 1614,he commenced the erection of the mansion subsequently calledCastle-Caulfield. This mansion is described by Pynnar in hisSurvey of Ulster in 1618-19, in the following words:—
“Sir Toby Caulfield hath one thousand acres called Ballydonnell[recte Ballydonnelly], whereunto is added beside whatwas certified by Sir Josias Bodley, a fair house or castle, thefront whereof is eighty feet in length and twenty-eight feetin breadth from outside to outside, two cross ends fifty feetin length and twenty-eight feet in breadth: the walls arefive feet thick at the bottom, and four at the top, very goodcellars under ground, and all the windows are of hewn stone.Between the two cross ends there goeth a wall, which iseighteen feet high, and maketh a small court within thebuilding. This work at this time is but thirteen feet high,and a number of men at work for the sudden finishing of it.There is also a strong bridge over the river, which is oflime and stone, with strong buttresses for the supporting of it.And to this is joined a good water-mill for corn, all builtof lime and stone. This is at this time the fairest buildingI have seen. Near unto this Bawne there is built a town, inwhich there is fifteen English families, who are able to maketwenty men with arms.”
The ruins of this celebrated mansion seem to justify theopinion expressed by Pynnar, that it was the fairest buildinghe had seen, that is, in the counties of the plantation, forthere are no existing remains of any house erected by theEnglish or Scottish undertakers equal to it in architecturalstyle. It received, however, from the second Lord Charlemont,the addition of a large gate-house with towers, and alsoof a strong keep or donjon.
From the ancient maps of Ulster of Queen Elizabeth’s time,preserved in the State Paper Office, Castle-Caulfield appearsto have been erected on the site of a more ancient castle or[Pg 218]fort, called Fort O’Donallie, from the chie