Castlepark House - What ever happened?

ShaneMc2012

I came across this article from 2007 that says the price of this old mansion hit €40m. I presume this sale never went through due to the property crash but does anyone know whats the story with it? Nice looking house with a massive 80 acre estate but €500,000 an acre so close to Moyross? That was hardly viable even in 2007!




http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/price-of-moyross-mansion-hits-40m-26340029.html

bigpink

Where is that place never heard of it?

ShaneMc2012

bigpink wrote: »

Where is that place never heard of it?

Just off the Knockalisheen road, on the border of Clare and Limerick.

boomerang

I always knew it as Delmege's? It's just past Glenagross on the way out to Meelick. Even when I lived around there in the 80s/90s it was pretty grim with vandalised gates and rubbish dumped everywhere, even dead animals! Road just outside it used to flood regularly.

Stellaluna

Well it's still standing! It's quite a way in off the road so it is difficult to spot due to all the trees on the old estate. Potted history from LandedEstates.ie:

The original building was a residence of the O'Briens of Thomond. Wilson, writing in 1786 refers to Castle-Park as the seat of Mr. Smith. In 1789 it became Ormsby property and was named Blackland Castle. The home of William Maunsell in 1814. In 1833 it became the property of Christopher Delmege who rebuilt most of it. The Ordnance Survey Field Name Book describes it as "a splendid edifice 4 story high overlooking the Shannon and estimated at £2,000." The house was valued at £55 in the early 1850s and Christopher Delmege held it from the Marquess of Lansdowne. It was the seat of James O'Grady Delmege in 1894. Occupied by James Lyons, Limerick city coroner in the late 20th century, the house was gutted by fire in 2001

The optimistic sales price in 2007 was partly due to the boom we were in and the announcement of the regeneration projects in Moyross and the Northern distributor road which would have opened up the estate and given it better transport links. It is still for sale.

The estate is largely being used as a dumping ground and as a place for locals to keep horses. In 2010 a body of a man killed over a drug debt was buried there in a shallow grave. http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/man-shot-dead-was-killed-by-limerick-gang-over-drug-debt-26658974.html More recently in May 2012 it was being used as a place to bag drugs http://www.limerickpost.ie/2012/05/15/garda-identifies-accused-in-drug-bagging-operation/

It attracts criminal activity because it is so secluded.

Here's a few recent photos of the house. There is also the remains of what would have been a lovely stables and yard at the back but it's very overgrown.










Detail on horse drinker in the stables

Mc Love

Would be nice to do up but would probably be better and easier to knock and build again

Stellaluna

I don't think you'd have any luck trying to do up or rebuild here, every family who occupied the house has has some aweful tragedy visited upon them. It's a protected structure listed on the national inventory of architectural heritage (buildings of Ireland) so there would be any number of hoops to jump through before you'd be allowed do anything with the buildings on site. To be honest I think they should raze the lot and turn it into a green field, either that or set it up as a stables so that it can be a legal place for locals to keep their horses safe. As it is, the site just provides plenty of cover for criminal activity.

Mc Love

Stellaluna wrote: »

I don't think you'd have any luck trying to do up or rebuild here, every family who occupied the house has has some aweful tragedy visited upon them.

There is a lot of talk of that in these old abandoned houses around Ireland, is there any truth in it?

Stellaluna

I seem to remember children dying young and the last owner having trouble from the local estate. I'll have a look later and see if I can dig out some decent references.

Stellaluna

Alas! I couldn't find anything much online apart from an estate worker who died while working on the estate while working for one of the Delmege family and a daughter who died unmarried and relatively young (though not a child). There's not much on the families who occupied the site prior to the Delmeges. It was reported that when the Delmeges bought the estate they extensively renovated the property and ejected locals from the estate lands. The estate was much larger than the 80 acre site it has now - over 1000 acres - the majority was taken by the lands commission. Anyway, the Lyons family don't seem to have had much luck with it as it was vandalised and burned shortly after the death of James in 2001 and remains unsold.

Mc Love

Thanks for checking Stellaluna - didnt expect you to go to that much trouble

newguy24

Wow I just stumbled across this post, near 3 years old! I basically lived /played around here growing up in moyross in the mid to late 90's. It was a playground, we had tree houses everywhere! I then walked my dogs around there until 2005 ish!
My friends and I actually painted some of the inside of it for Mr Lyons, there was a church like room to the right of it which had an alter area and couple of church pews! I wonder are they still there?

The main hallway was so grand, I vividly remember the curtains around the Windows, they were massive. The furniture was old but quality.
I went to Aras an uachtarian with moyross United recently and I was reminding of this place, the inside / furnishings Anyway.
Lyons I think lived there on his own for 20 years! He then took a lodger in who turned out to be a convicted paedophile! This man had 5 st Bernard's dogs, peacocks, pigs and all sorts and attracted lots of visitors.

Anyway I think this place was haunted, one day one of the younger lads of the group arrived up to the house while we were with mr Lyons and asked 'who is the young boy in the window'? There was no one at that window in years said Lyons, but told us there was a fire years ago where a young boy died!😦

As soon as the land dries out, I'm gonna go here with my kids! Might also rent a metal detector, for hidden treasures, not buried guns! Haha

jmch81

The house was for sale last year:

http://www.myhome.ie/commercial/brochure/castlepark-house-ballygrennan-city-centre-limerick-limerick-city/2565648

And appears to have closed:
https://www.propertypriceregister.ie/Website/npsra/PPR/npsra-ppr.nsf/eStampUNID/UNID-F16EFF50605D506980257DBF004CEF9C?OpenDocument

That's only the value attached to the house and not what the lands sold for.