Glenveagh Castle - Caisleán Ghleann Bheatha

Glenveagh Castle (Irish: Caisleán Ghleann Bheatha) was built between 1870 and 1873 and is located in the spectacular scenery of Glenveagh National Park (Irish: Páirc Naisiúnta Gleann Bheatha) in County Donegal, Ireland (Contae Dhún na nGall, Éire). It was designed by John Townsend Trench, a cousin of its builder and first owner, John George Adair. John Adair is a notorious figure and not highly regraded in Donegal. At a time of great poverty with the memories of the Great Famine fresh in peoples experience. John Adair evicted 224 tenants from their blackhouses (Irish: teach dubh) on his land, in order to improve the aesthetic aspect from the castle. Adair's reputation for callous cruelty is still remembered to this day and there is nothing good to be said about him. Legend has it that a curse was placed on the castle so that none of the subsequent owners had heirs to the family names. After his death in 1885 the property went to his widow Cornelia Adair (1837–1921). Although not as despised as her husband they left no children.

Harvard University Professor Arthur Kingsley Porter purchased Glenveagh Castle and the surrounding property from the Adair estate in 1929. He and his wife used it as a second home. Arthur Porter mysteriously disappeared in July 1933 during a storm on Inishbofin Island (Irish: Inis Bó Finne) an island of the Donegal coast not far from Glenveagh Castle. His widow Lucy Wallace Porter (January 23, 1876 – September 19, 1962), sold the castle, attached properties and estate in 1938 to Henry Plumer McIlhenny of Philadelphia. Henry Plumer McIlhenny (October 7, 1910 – May 11, 1986) left the gardens and castle to the Irish nation in the 1970s. This allowed for the creation of Glenveagh National Park (Irish: Páirc Náisiúnta Ghleann Bheatha). Henry McIlhenny continued to use the castle as a part-time residence until 1982. 

Glenveagh National Park is noted for its stunning scenery with mountains, lakes, tumbling waterfalls and native oak woodland. It is the second largest national park in Ireland. It is an important area for nature and conservation and Glenveagh falls within both the Cloghernagore Bog & Glenveagh National Park Special Area of Conservation (SAC), and the Derryveagh & Glendowan Mountains Special Protected Area (SPA). The castle is within the grounds of Glenveagh National Park which is in the heart of the Derryveagh Mountains in the north west of County Donegal. The park covers 170 square kilometres of hillside above Glenveagh Castle on the shore of Lough Veagh (Irish: Loch Ghleann Bheatha), 20 km from Gweedore, County Donegal (Irish: Gaoth Dobhair, Contae Dhún na nGall).

Link: Glenveagh National Park  - Páirc Naisiúnta Gleann Bheatha.

Image: Glenveagh Castle, Co. Donegal by Douglas Alexander (1871–1945)