Our History
The History Of Dunmore GardensDunmore’s Beginnings
The history of Dunmore starts with the Ulster plantations. Dunmore is situated just outside Carrigans, near Derry. It overlooks the Foyle and is just down the road from the castle of Mongavlin, where Red Hugh O’Donnell was born. After the flight of the Earls in 1607, when the O’Neills and the O’Donnells fled, the estates of these great Gaelic lords were confiscated and distributed among planters. Carrigans was a planter town. And it was the Scottish Stewarts and Cunninghams who settled in the area.
The Harveys of Malin Head, who had been merchants in Bristol, originally owned Dunmore. Their daughter, Elizabeth, married William McClintock, apparently in 1685.
A gatepost shows four key dates associated with Dunmore:
- 1620
- 1678 dh (David Harvey)
- 1709 wm (William McClintock)
- 1742 jm (John McClintock).
Michael Priestly Architect
Michael Bence-Jones describes Dunmore House in Burke’s Guide to Country Houses 1978 as “A gable ended mid C18 house which Dr Craig considers may be by Michael Priestly. 2 storey with an attic lit by windows in the gable ends, 5 bay front with central venetian window above tripartite doorway later obscured by a porch. Lower 2 storey wing added later. Staircase extending into central projection at the back of house.”
The Siege Of Derry
The siege of Derry is a key event in the history of the area. The army of King James may have burnt the original house as it retreated.
In 1709 the McClintocks demolished the ruins of Dunmore although the cellars remained and thus predate the existing house. The house as we know it was built in 1742.
The McClintocks & Dame Agatha Christie
Robert McClintock, 1804 -1859, built the walls of the walled garden in the early 19th century. Certainly there was work on the walls as famine relief. There is a plague on the wall of the garden with the date of 1845.
The oldest known picture of Carrigans village shows a mill. The mill was apparently built on the ruins of Carrigans castle.
Dame Agatha Christie, 1890-1976, apparently visited Dunmore and enjoyed its gardens on a few occasions as a guest of the McClintocks of Dunmore, to whom she was related through marriage. She enjoyed her picnics in Co. Donegal.
In the 20th century Robert McClintock lived at Dunmore. He was a keen and talented engineer. He built a series of interconnected ponds and a collection of sundials, scattered through the walled gardens. He also invented the Bangalore torpedo while in the British Indian Army unit, the Madras Sappers and Miners, at Bangalore, India, in 1912. They were a means of exploding booby traps and barricades left over from the Boer and Russo-Japanese Wars and were used at the Battle of the Somme.
For more information on the plantations visit The Monreagh Ulster Scots Centre
And to find out about the siege of Derry visit The Siege Museum
