Ireland · Restored
Lough Cutra Castle
Lough Cutra Castle is a private 19th-century castellated house near Gort in County Galway, Ireland, designed by John Nash and completed in 1817. It sits beside Lough Cutra and remains a lived-in, restored country castle with crenellated towers and a formal forecourt.
Its prime
1817
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1817
What Lough Cutra Castle looked like in its prime.
A long, low two-storey castellated house of light-coloured masonry with multiple round, drum-like towers capped by crenellated parapets; towers project at the ends and above the entrance range. The central block is a rectangular range with regularly spaced tall rectangular windows and a recessed arched entrance beneath a low crenellated parapet. A large ground-floor projecting bay window sits left of the doorway. The castle stands on a gentle lawn beside Lough Cutra with a curved gravel approach.
Its story
The story of Lough Cutra Castle.
John Nash's Castle for the 2nd Viscount Gort, 1811–1817
Lough Cutra Castle sits 3 km south of Gort in south County Galway, beside the lake that gives it its name, on an estate of 600 acres. The lake itself runs to 1,000 acres and is the largest privately owned lake in Europe. The English architect John Nash designed the house for Colonel Charles Vereker, 2nd Viscount Gort; building began in 1811 and was finished in 1817.
Viscount Gough, and the Verekers' Return in 1952
The castle was afterwards acquired by Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough, who lived in it. In 1952 it came back to the family that built it when Standish Vereker, 7th Viscount Gort, bought it, and it was restored by Sir Humphry Wakefield, at that time the husband of Gort's great-niece, the Hon. Elizabeth Sidney.
The Castle Triathlon and the Royal Visit, since 2012
The house remains in private hands. Since 2012 the grounds have been opened to the public each May for the Lough Cutra Castle Triathlon, one of the events of the Castle Race Series. In May 2015, during their state visit to Ireland, Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, stayed at the castle for three days and gave a state dinner for eighteen in its dining room; among the guests were the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, and his wife Sabina.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1817.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Lough Cutra Castle, including 2 interiors: castle dining room, ground-floor bay-window salon. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Lough Cutra Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1817, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Lough Cutra Castle.
The families that held Lough Cutra Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Vereker
Built 1811–17 for Charles Vereker, 2nd Viscount Gort; repurchased by Standish Vereker, 7th Viscount Gort, in 1952.
Gough
Acquired as a residence by Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough.
