Ireland · Still standing
Tullynally Castle
Tullynally Castle (also called Pakenham Hall) is a large Gothic-style country house in County Westmeath, Ireland, long associated with the Pakenham / Earls of Longford family. The house was remodelled in the early nineteenth century in a castellated Gothic Revival manner and contains over 120 rooms; its grounds include parkland, walled gardens, a limestone grotto and ornamental water features.
Its prime
1830
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1830
What Tullynally Castle looked like in its prime.
A long three-storey, pale-grey rendered country house with a continuous crenellated parapet and regularly spaced rectangular sash windows; the main block is flanked by cylindrical drum towers with battlemented tops and a taller, central round turret rising above the roofline with a corbelled battlement. The façade shows a prominent arched main doorway set into a low projecting porch, while low parkland and views of formal walled gardens and ornamental water lie before the house at the level of the lawn.
Its story
The story of Tullynally Castle.
Henry Pakenham's Grant and the Earls of Longford, 1665–1794
In 1665 Henry Pakenham, a captain in the Parliamentary Dragoons, was granted land in lieu of pay arrears that included Tullynally. His grandson Thomas was created 1st Baron Longford in 1756. Thomas's grandson, another Thomas and 3rd Baron Longford, inherited the superior title of 2nd Earl of Longford in January 1794 from his grandmother, the 1st Countess of Longford.
The 2nd Earl's Gothic Revival Remodelling
The 2nd Earl remodelled the seventeenth-century house in the Gothic Revival style in the early nineteenth century, adding towers and a moat; it was by then larger than any other castellated house in Ireland.
General Sir Edward Pakenham and the Wellesley Marriage
General Sir Edward Pakenham, GCB, was born and brought up in the house. His elder sister, Kitty, married Major-General Sir Arthur Wellesley in 1806; Wellesley subsequently became Field Marshal the 1st Duke of Wellington.
The Pakenhams to the Present Day
Since the 2nd Earl's remodelling, the house has passed down through successive generations of Pakenhams to the 8th Earl of Longford, head of the family. With over 120 rooms, it is the largest house in private hands in Ireland.
The Gardens, Old and New
The house stands in twelve acres of parkland and gardens; the woodland and walled gardens, with a limestone grotto and ornamental lakes, were laid out in the early nineteenth century. A Chinese garden with a pagoda and a Tibetan garden of waterfalls and streams were added in the twenty-first century. The grounds are open to the public from April to September.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1830.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Tullynally Castle, including the full exterior approach. 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 Tullynally Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1830, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Tullynally Castle.
The families that held Tullynally Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Pakenham
Home of the Pakenhams, Earls of Longford, since Henry Pakenham was granted the land in 1665.
