Castle Leslie

Nestled on 1,000 acres of undulating Irish countryside, dotted with ancient woodlands and glittering lakes, Castle Leslie Estate is one of the last great Irish estates still in the hands of its founding family. The Leslie Family arrived in Ireland in the 16th Century and bought the Estate at that time. The original castle on the lake at Glaslough at the northern tip of County Monaghan was acquired in 1665 by the ‘fighting bishop’ John Leslie with funds rewarded to him by Charles II; the deed remains in the family archive. He was the first of the family to come to Ireland from Scotland, having been appointed Bishop of Raphoe, which is where he led the defeat of Cromwellian forces. The origins of the Leslie (Laszlo) family lie in Hungary and they had arrived in Scotland to serve Margaret, Queen of Scotland. Prominent family members abound and the Duke of Wellington was partly raised at the house. In the 19th century, subsequent generations gradually rebuilt the estate. The farm buildings and the gate lodge were designed by Charles Powell Leslie himself just before the Famine; his widow Helen had a famine wall built around the estate. Their son completed the entrance lodges and his brother John, the first Baronet, commissioned a new house. This was completed in 1878, to designs by William Henry Lynn, who worked with Charles Lanyon in Belfast. The Scotch Baronial grey limestone is relieved by russet sandstone and Ruskinian detailing, and much influenced by the taste of Sir John Leslie and wife Constance, who did a Grand Tour to collect the early Italian furniture in the house. Some later pieces come from the Churchill family, as John and Constance’s son married Leonie Jerome, the younger sister of Churchill’s mother. The next two generations were notably eccentric and the castle transferred through all the children of Sir Shane Leslie until a family trust was established. Today, this Irish estate is led and managed by Brian Baldwin and Sammy Leslie, and guarded by The Leslie Foundation. Sammy considers herself to be a guardian of the land, and her overwhelming desire is to protect the Estate for future generations.