Classiebawn Castle is a country house built for the third Viscount Palmerston (1784-1865) on what was once a 10,000-acre (4,000-hectare) estate on the Mullaghmore Peninsula near the town of Cliffoney, County Sligo, in the Republic of Ireland. The current castle was largely built in the late 19th century.
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| Classiebawn Castle County Sligo |
It was designed in the baronial style by J. Rawson Carrol, a Dublin - based architect, and is built from a yellowish-brown sandstone brought by sea from County Donegal. It comprises a gabled range with a central tower topped by a roofed conical tower.
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| Classiebawn Castle County Sligo |
The land, which once belonged to the O'Connor Sligo family, was confiscated by the English Parliament to compensate the people who put down an Irish rebellion. About 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of land that Classiebawn now stands on was awarded to Sir John Temple (1600–1677), Master of the Rolls in Ireland.
The ownership passed to the third Viscount Palmerston, a statesman who served as Prime MinisterBritish and British Foreign Secretary. It was this Lord Palmerston who commissioned the construction of present-day Classiebawn Castle and Mullaghmore Harbor. The house was not complete at his death in 1865, but was completed in 1874 by his stepson and successor, The Rt. Hon. William Cowper-Temple, PC, MP (later created The 1st Baron Mount Temple ).
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| Classiebawn Castle County Sligo |
The latter died childless in 1888 and the property passed to his nephew, H.E. Evelyn Ashley, second surviving son of the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. Evelyn Ashley spent some time there each year and, upon her death in 1907, was succeeded by her only son, Wilfrid Ashley (she later created the Baron Mount Temple in a new creation). He also spent his summers at the Classiebawn Castle with his daughters Edwina, the future Countess Mountbatten, and Mary (1906-1986), who was Baroness Delamere from 1944 to 1955 as the second wife (of three) to the fourth Baron Delamere.