Читать книгу Irish Castles - Orna Mulcahy - Страница 17

also known as SPUR ROYAL CASTLE, AUGHER, COUNTY TYRONE

Augher Castle is a tower house built around 1615 by Thomas Ridgeway, a Devon man who served as Treasurer of Ireland and who assisted in the Plantation of Ulster. For this he was awarded 2000 acres of land in County Tyrone and later a title, the Earl of Londonderry. He built Augher Castle on the site of an older fortress but he didn’t spend much time there, and political ambitions found him often in London. Augher Castle was burned in 1689 by the Jacobites as the Siege of Derry was under way. It was originally a square, three-storey Plantation castle, with an unusual triangular tower in the middle of each of its sides. The castle was restored around 1832 by Sir James Richardson-Bunbury, who added two castellated wings, transforming the old castle into a Georgian mansion house. The house remains in the Richardson-Bunbury family today.