3 Jun 2023
Today was exceptional and full of surprises. We started the day at Doneraile, where Mum’s St Leger family lived, firstly in a castle, and then in Doneraile Court which was built in the late 1600s. Doneraile Court was in the St Leger family until the mid 20th century and is now open to the public, along with its extensive parkland. Mum and I were lucky enough to have a private tour through the house, and it was thrilling to see a large family tree on the wall that included Mum’s 8th Gt Grandparents, Randolph Gethin and Mary St Leger, and went back to the St Leger ancestor who come out of Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066. Crazy stuff! The house itself has been lovingly restored, and the grounds were full of trees, fields, deer, lakes and walking tracks. It didn’t have the colourful gardens that we saw in Scotland and England but was still beautiful and pleasant to explore (as lots of people were since it is a holiday weekend here).
Doneraile village itself is charming with very old buildings, including St Mary’s Church that the St Leger family built, and Creagh House which belonged to another arm of Mum’s family.
Just around the corner was a long driveway leading to Laurentinum House which is situated on the banks of the Awbeg River. This house was built by Mum’s 6th Gt Grandfather, Michael Creagh, in the early 1740s, and was where all his children were born. You can’t see the house from the road, so we parked the car and walked down the very long and winding driveway hoping to get a glimpse of the house (hoping the owner wouldn’t jump out with a shot gun!). We were nearly at the house when we came across the owner, Michael Smith, weeding. Michael and his wife Eileen are such lovely people and were very willing to show us around the house, both inside and out. The house has been in Eileen’s family for about a one hundred years (she has lived here all her life), and they are putting considerable effort into restoring and preserving the house. The house is a nicely proportioned Georgian style building which is flooded with light from the large windows in every room. We felt so privileged to be able to explore the house that our ancestor built so long ago. Since this is a private house, I have decided not to include any photos.
Mum and I knew of the nearby Hermitage House on the townland of Ballyandrew, which Mum’s 4th Gt Grandfather, Rev. John Bagwell Creagh had built in the early 1800s. Again, we parked on the road and walked down the driveway hoping to see the house. The lovely farmer, Seamus, had just arrived home and insisted that join him inside for a cup of tea with his mother and aunt. His aunt was 96 and his mum was 90 and had lived in Hermitage House all of their lives. They knew of the reverend, that he had died at Kinsale, and of the Creagh family in general. Seamus’ brother, Domhnall arrived home and organised for us to visit the private Creagh graveyard, as well as the private Creagh Castle and gardens which were at a separate property. He then insisted on driving us around to these locations, which was probably just as well because Mum and I would have got horribly lost. We are so lucky, as I would imagine so few people get to visit these sites. The Creagh Castle was down a very long drive which had an extremely impressive entrance gateway that was constructed in 1827. The castle itself consisted of a defensive tower, and we very bravely climbed the many stairs, past various great halls, up to the very top. The view over the valley and beyond was spectacular. Again, since we were on private property, I won’t include any photos.
Today we meet lots of people who were so kind and went out of
their way to make us feel welcome and to help us explore our family’s roots. We
are so very lucky!
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