Clonalis House
Set on a wooded, 700 acre estate just outside the town of Castlerea in Co. Roscommon, Clonalis House is a Victorian mansion turned guesthouse with four en-suite bedrooms and four self-catering cottages, and a kitchen garden.
Staying at Clonalis House provide guests with an opportunity to explore a rich example of history. Clonalis House is the is the ancestral home of the O'Conors of Connacht, descendants of Ireland's last High Kings and traditional Kings of Connacht. Pyers O'Conor Nash, along with his wife Margaurite, continue in this long tradition at Clonalis House, an unbroken line of descent stretching back for more than a thousand years.
The present Clonalis House was built in 1880, designed Italianate style by the English architect, Samuel Pepys Cockrell. It is a massive premises, containing some 45 rooms. The O’Conor Nash welcome guests into their family house, with Marguerite organizing the house, preparing the meals, and looking after guests. Each of the guest rooms are highly atmospheric and command fine views of the demesne. Many of them have four poster or half-tester beds.
Clonalis House contains many unique historic treasures, including a harp of the blind Irish composer and harpist, Turlough O'Carolan, a fine collection of family portraits, the library of the famous 18th century antiquarian, Charles O'Conor of Belnagare (which includes the largest private collection of original documents in Irish) and the O'Conor Coronation Stone, on which the Kings of Connacht were crowned from time immemorial.
Guests to Clonalis House will enjoy wandering the extensive woodland estate, quite large by Irish standards at 700 acres, but had originally been much larger, laid out for pheasant shooting. To this day hunting remains a tradition at Clonalis House, though the target of choice is woodcock shoot.
Nearby to Clonalis House are many archaeological treasures, including the ruined O'Conor castle at Ballintubber and the King House in Boyle, while the despoiled demesne at Rockingham with it many gates and lodges is still well worth visiting. Guests at can fish for trout in the River Suck which flows thorough the estate, or on nearby Lough O'Flynn, or they can walk through the area along the Suck Way.
