Lismore Castle (Irish: Caisleán an Leasa Mhóir) is a castle located in the town of Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland. It belonged to the Earls of Desmond, the Earls of Cork, and then to the Cavendish family from 1753. It is currently the Irish home of the Duke of Devonshire. The first castle on the site was built in 1185, and replaced, twice, in the 16th century. It was largely rebuilt in the Gothic style during the mid-nineteenth century for the 6th Duke of Devonshire.
Early history
Built as the sister castle to Ardfinnan Castle in 1185 by the Lord of Ireland, Prince John of England to guard the river crossing, the castle site was originally occupied by Lismore Abbey, an important monastery and seat of learning established in the early 7th century. It was still an ecclesiastical centre when King Henry II of England stayed here in 1171, and except for a brief period after 1185 (when he had assigned his son King John of England to build a 'castellum' here) when it served as the episcopal residence of the local bishop. It was a possession of the Earls of Desmond, whose lands were broken up during the plantations following the killing of Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond, in 1583. In 1589, Lismore was leased and later acquired by Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh sold the property during his imprisonment for High Treason in 1602 to Richard Boyle, who was later made the 1st Earl of Cork in 1620.
Earls of Cork and Burlington Boyle came to the Kingdom of Ireland from the Kingdom of England in 1588 with only twenty-seven pounds in capital and proceeded to amass an extraordinary fortune. After purchasing Lismore he made it his principal seat and transformed it into a magnificent residence with impressive gabled ranges each side of the courtyard. He also built a castellated outer wall and a gatehouse known as the Riding Gate. The principal apartments were decorated with fretwork plaster ceilings, tapestry hangings, embroidered silks and velvet. It was here in 1626 that Robert Boyle, the Father of Modern Chemistry, the fourteenth of the Earl's fifteen children, was born. The castle eventually descended to the 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork (1694–1753), who was a noted influence on Georgian architecture (and is usually known in architectural histories as the Earl of Burlington). Lismore featured in the Cromwellian wars when, in 1645, a force of Catholic confederacy commanded by Lord Castlehaven sacked the town and castle. Some restoration was carried out by the 1st Earl of Burlington and 2nd Earl of Cork (1612–1698) to make it habitable again, but neither he nor his successors lived at Lismore.
Dukes of Devonshire
The castle (along with other Boyle properties – Chiswick House, Burlington House, Bolton Abbey and Londesborough Hall) was acquired by the Cavendish family in 1753 when Lady Charlotte Boyle (1731–1754), the daughter and heiress of the 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork, married the Marquess of Hartington, who later became, in 1755, the 4th Duke of Devonshire (1720–1764), a future Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Great Britain. Their son, the 5th Duke (1748–1811), carried out improvements at Lismore, notably the bridge across the River Blackwater in 1775, which was designed by Cork-born architect Thomas Ivory.
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