Classiebawn Castle is located in Mullaghmore. It was built in 1874 for Viscount Palmerstown. It sits high on a hill looking over Mullaghmore village on the west coast of Ireland. The Castle is privately owned and is not open to the public. It has four reception rooms, ten bedrooms and five bathrooms, as well as a kitchen and staff quarters.
During the Irish Civil war, the Free State army took over the Castle.
Lord Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip’s uncle, used to spend his summer holidays in the Castle and was staying there when his boat was bombed by the IRA in 1979. Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, visited Classiebawn Castle in 2015.
The last owner, Mr Hugh Tunney, died in 2011. The castle is now owned by the estate of Hugh Tunney.
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CLASSIEBAWN CASTLE – MULLAGHMORE-COUNTY SLIGO
Classiebawn Castle is a country house built for Viscount Palmerston on what was formerly a 10,000 acre estate on the Mullaghmore peninsula near the village of Cliffoney, Sligo in Ireland
The current castle was largely built in the nineteenth century.
It was designed in the Baronial style by J. Rawson Carrol, a Dublin-based architect, and is constructed from yellow-brown sandstone brought by sea from Donegal. It comprises a gabled range with a central tower topped by a turret.
The land, which once belonged to the O Connor Sligo was confiscated by the English Parliament to recompense the people concerned in putting down an Irish Rebellion Around 10,000 acres of land on which Classiebawn now stands was granted to Sir John Temple, Master of the Rolls in Ireland.
The property passed down to The Third Viscount Palmerston, the statesman who served as both British Prime Minister and British Foreign secretary. It was this Lord Palmerston who commissioned the building of the current Classiebawn Castle and the harbour at Mullaghmore The house was not complete on 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 first Baron Mount temple). The latter died childless in 1888 and the estate passed to his nephew, The Hon Evelyn Ashley, second surviving son of The seventh earl of Shaftesbury.
Evelyn Ashley spent some time there each year and on his death in 1907 was succeeded by his only son, Wilfred William Ashley (later created Baron Mount temple in a new creation). He also spent his summers at the castle with his daughters Edwina the future Countess Mountbatten and Mary, the future Lady Delamere.
