Dromore Castle

Dromore Castle stands at Templenoe, County Kerry, looking out over the Kenmare River. Denis Mahony's father, John Mahony, had made the decision earlier in the 19th century to build a large home, but apparently abandoned the attempt after his yacht, returning from London with lead for the roof and wine for the cellar, sank in the Kenmare River within view of the site of the house. No further work took place until the architect Thomas Deane, probably assisted by his brother Kearns Deane, began building for Denis Mahony in the 1830s.

Work began in 1831, although the account books show that only a negligible amount had been carried out before May 1834, and building was completed in 1839. The house is in the castellated Gothic Revival style, with an external finish of Roman Cement and limestone dressings. With the notable exception of the grand south-facing window and its pointed arch, the windows consist of pointed tracery contained within rectangular frames, a style characteristic of Deane's domestic work; the entrance hall takes the form of a long gallery occupying half the area of the ground floor, and the west wing takes the form of a round tower with a spiral staircase contained within an attached turret.

Denis Mahony was a minister of the Church of Ireland and a keen proselytiser. He is known to have set up a soup kitchen at Dromore during the time of the Great Famine, and preached in the chapel at Dromore to the hungry who came for food. His proselytising activities did not make him a popular figure in the locality, and in 1850 he was attacked in his church at Templenoe. On returning to Dromore he found that a further angry group had uprooted flower beds, felled trees and were about to set fire to the castle; it is claimed that they were only stopped by the intervention of the local Catholic priest, Fr John O'Sullivan. Mahony died in 1851.

The castle was inherited by Denis Mahony's son, Richard John Mahony, who successfully ran the estate in addition to farming oyster beds in the bay. On his death it passed in turn to his son, Harold Segerson Mahony, a successful tennis player and the last Irish winner at Wimbledon; his tennis court can still be found in the gardens. It was in the late 1800s, during Harold Mahony's time as head of the household, that Harold Boulton, best known for writing the lyrics of the Skye Boat Song, came to visit Dromore, and it is thought that he wrote there the words of "The Castle of Dromore", published in 1892 in English and later translated into Irish.

Harold Mahony was killed in a bicycle accident in 1905 and left no heirs. The castle passed to his sister, Norah Hood, who in turn left it to her cousin Hugh Bolton Waller, and it remained in the hands of the Waller family until 1993, when it was offered for sale. It is now owned by an investment company who are attempting to restore the house.

Beyond the castle's gardens and outbuildings, the majority of the former grounds are now owned by Coillte Teoranta, the Irish forestry board. The Kerry Way runs through the grounds, and various footpaths lead to the Kenmare River. Entrance to the grounds from the N70 road between Kenmare and Sneem is through a castellated gatehouse, also by Thomas Deane.