The Clonbrock Estate is a country house in County Galway that was built around 1790, as a modern replacement to a castle on the grounds.

Clonbrock House was designed by architect William Leeson. It was the crowning jewel on an estate that comprised more than 28,000 acres.

The estate’s primary occupants were an ancient family called Dillon. The Dillons of Clonbrock, Ahascragh, could trace its roots back to Sir Henry de Leon who came to Ireland in 1185 with the future King John.  

The old castle was destroyed in 1807 after it caught fire during a fireworks display to celebrate the birth of Lord Clonbrock’s son.

Times were turbulent but the Dillons weathered the political winds nicely until the turn of the century.

The Wyndham Act of 1903 was designed to encourage landlords to sell and tenants to purchase their farms. The Fourth Baron did not want to sell off his property. His tenants, however, had other ideas. It would cost them less to buy their homes than to pay rent.

In the face of the Baron’s refusal to sell, the tenants “subjected the estate to extreme agitation between 1903 and 1907.” By 1909, the Baron was compelled to sell off large pieces of his property.

By 1914, the majority of the tenanted lands had been sold.  The Baron made a fortune in the sale (about $20 million) but his investments turned out to be a disaster.

The Fifth Baron inherited the estate in 1917 but he only possessed it for eight years before his own death in 1925. Four years later, the stock market crashed and took the Dillons remaining wealth with it. After 1929, the once fabulously rich Dillons could no longer afford to employ servants. 

After the Fifth Baron’s death, his sister Ethel stayed at Clonbrock until the 1960s. Ethel sounds like a character. We get a glimpse at her personality through her favorite axiom: “All change is for the worse.” 

When the estate passed to Sir Luke Dillon Mahon, he decided to sell what was left in the mid-1970s. In 1984 the house was destroyed by fire. The ruins are still visible today.

In happier days, before the Wyndham Act, social unrest, and terrible investments crushed the Dillons’ finances, the family employed a gardener named Joseph Quinn. This gentleman was the father of the two little girls in the final picture, Ellen (left) and Maggie (right). This photo was taken on the Clonbrock Estate in 1903, probably by a member of the Dillon family.