Railways & Landed Estate
Back To County Archives Collection
Estate papers
- Horatio Granville Murray Stewart and family, estate papers: 15 items, mainly volumes of rentals with details of tenants and amounts of rent paid and maps, Killybegs, Kilcar, Killaghatee, and other areas of South Donegal, 1749 – 1880.
- Captain Ernest Cochrane and family, Redcastle, Inishowen, estate papers: items include maps, letters and a journal, 1865 – c.1950.
- Edward H. Harvey, estate papers: 2 maps and 1 rental, Ballyliffin, Clonmany; and Inch, Inishowen, c. 1900.
- Sir Arthur Chichester: rental and particulars of Sale of estates held from the Marquis of Donegal, in Moville, Inishowen, 20 Dec 1951.
- Jane Doherty: Notice to Quit issued by [Richard] and Jane Doherty giving tenants six months’ notice of eviction, Donagh, Moville, 1866 – 68.
- Hamiltons, rentals etc of the estate of John and Abraham Hamilton and other members of the family, in Ballinamore and Fintown, 3 items, 1818 – 1849.
Hamilton Family Photograph
-
Groves of Castle Grove House, Letterkenny: included are photograph albums of family members; judicial rent cases; letters including letters from James R. W. Grove while serving in the Indian army during World War One; family recipe books from early 19th century; postcards; booklets; farm account books and other material, c.1820 - 1920.
Extract: Castle Grove Recipe Book
From Grove Family Photograph Album
- Montgomery’s and Boytons of Convoy House, bought in March 2005. Included are farm accounts (1920’s), rentals (1890’s); bundle of files (1920’s); and notebooks, 1890 – 1920’s.
- Alexander Stewart of Ards: Trustee Account of the will of Alexander Stewart (1873); and Agreement ledger including agreements between Stewart and his tenants, 1856- 1896.
- Captain Humfrey: rental of estate and expenditure account for repairs and work done to Cavanacor House and estate, 1822 – 1835.
- Lord Leitrim: a small number of items including a copy of a book of maps of Leitrim’s lands in the barony of Kilmacrennan, 1779; a handwritten letter -order- from Lord Leitrim, addressed to two tenants, 1865; a Grant in Perpetuity, 1870; and a map of Lord Leitrim's holdings in Carrigart 1874.
Gweedore Hotel Visitors' Books 19th Century Digitised and Conserved and Online
Two visitors' books for Gweedore Hotel, a hotel owned by reforming land owner Lord George Hill, brother of the Earl of Downshire in the mid-19th century.
The 19th century Gweedore Hotel was hugely popular with wealthy tourists from Ireland and abroad. The hotel was owned by Lord George Hill, brother of the Marquess of Downshire. Hill acquired much land in the northwest of Donegal in the early and middle years of the 19th century. By some, Hill was regarded as a 'good' reforming landlord though there was plenty of local opposition to his reforms, particularly when he brought in tenants from Scotland for the purpose of large scale sheep grazing. This escalated into the famous 'sheep war' of Gweedore.
Conservation and rebinding of two leather-bound Gweedore Hotel visitors’ registers dating from 1842 – 1874.
Creative Ireland project (2017)
The Gweedore Hotel is famous in County Donegal’s history. Owned by controversial landowner Lord George Hill during the 19th century, the hotel was hugely popular with wealthy tourists from Ireland and abroad. Hill acquired much land in the northwest of Donegal and was regarded by some people as a good reforming landlord, though there was plenty of local opposition to his reforms.
Both hotel books were donated to Donegal County Archives a number of years ago and were digitised and the digitised images placed online on the Donegal County Council Cultural Services Archives website. The two visitors’ books are unlike most visitors’ books you will encounter. They are an extremely significant source for social, economic and political history. They contain vivid handwritten comments by visitors on all the controversies of the day. There are stories, poems, treatises, sketches, opinion pieces and drawings relating to the hotel itself and to life in rural Gweedore, including relating to Lord George Hill’s dealings with his tenants. Themes include poverty and the Great Famine, farming, the rundale system, land reform, tenant rights, landscape, emigration, politics, illegal distillation of whiskey, and tourism. Visitors include the rich and famous of the time, such as Robert William Wilde, Sir James Dombrain, Thomas Carlyle, John Mitchel, Thomas Emerson Headlam and the Marchioness of Londonderry.
Donegal County Archives holds two hotel visitors’ books, covering the above dates. The books were both in extremely fragile physical condition, with almost all the pages torn or damaged and the spines broken. Both bound volumes could not be handled by the public, and needed urgent conservation work to the covers, binding and to the pages themselves. The Ox Bindery in Co. Sligo (www.oxbindery.ie) has done a wonderful job of painstakingly repairing the bound volumes. This was a huge undertaking and included manual repair of pages, ‘leaf casting’ (filling in missing parts of pages), trimming, sewing text block, adding spine lining, adding new cloth endpaper joint and new flyleaves, reattaching boards, creating a leather tone to match with the original, new leather re-back, pasting back the original leather, corner repairs, reshaping warped boards and creating a custom made phase box for storage. Some of this extensive work can be seen from the images.
The conservation project comes under Pillar 2 Enabling Creativity in every Community and promote the preservation and conservation of and access to our cultural heritage. The conservation work was funded by Creative Ireland and Donegal County Council.
Conservation Report from Mr Benjamin Van de Wetering of The Ox Bindery
Information and quotes from the visitors to the Gweedore Hotel during the 19th century
Private organisations/businesses
-
Gweedore Hotel Visitors’ Books. These two bound volumes contain detailed entries and comments from guests who stayed at the Gweedore Hotel. Lord George Hill (1801 - 1879) owned the hotel and the visitors’ books have some very detailed descriptions of the landlord, the area and the overall situation in Gweedore from 1842 - 1874. They hold references to subjects such as the local estate and tenants, emigration and the famine. The many notable visitors included: various members of the Downshire family; Thomas Campbell Foster; Sir James Dombrain; Thomas Carlyle; Thomas Emerson Headlam; Rev. Dr. Henry Cooke; and Dr. William Robert Wilde. There were also many visitors from the surrounding counties whose remarks on the changes they had seen are perhaps of even greater significance. The bound volumes date from 1842 – 1874. Below is pdf of low resolutions of both bound volumes; they are freely available to view.
Most listed railway records are available to the public. However, some of the Letterkenny & Lough Swilly railway records are of a private nature and of recent origin and are therefore not open to the public. However selected extracts can be made available, but on a restricted access basis.
- Letterkenny and Lough Swilly railway records: letters of complaint, telegrams, correspondence, daily activity dockets, receipts, invoices, accounts and personnel documents (with restricted access; should be requested at least a week in advance.)
- West Donegal Railway Drawings (1880)
- Finn Valley Railway plans (1860)
- Prints of Great Northern Railway Company (1956 – 60)
- Prints of Lough Swilly Railway trains (1951 – 59)
- Prints of Letterkenny and Burtonport Extension Railway (1951 – 59)
Burtonport Engine
- Prints of trains, stations and lines of Co. Donegal Railways Joint Committee (1951 – 61)
- Bye-laws, accounts, legal documents, timetables, leaflets and tickets, 1880 – 1960;
- Posters and flyers relating to railways, c. 1900 – 1950.
Buncrana Railway Station