Description
On a recent visit to this amazing area of Mullaghmore I was focusing on trying to obtain a great close up image of this castle. Suddenly within a few minutes the sky started to change colours as sunset started. I wasted no time and ran and slid down the nearby cliff face and swapped my lenses over, zoomed out and captured this sunset scene over the beautiful Classiebawn Castle and in the distance Ben Bulbin Mountain
Classiebawn Castle is a country house built for Viscount Palmerston on what was formerly a 10,000 acre estate on the Mullaghmore peninsula near the village of Cliffoney, County Sligo, in the Republic of Ireland. The current castle was largely built in the nineteenth century.
In 1916 the house was cleared and remained empty until 1950. It was inherited by Edwina, Lady Mountbatten (when she was still officially styled as Lady Louis Mountbatten), in 1939 who, with her husband Admiral of the Fleet The 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, made a number of improvements, installing electricity and a mains water supply. After his wife’s death in 1960, Lord Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, spent his summers there until his death when his boat was blown up off the coast of Mullaghmore by the IRA in August 1979
The castle and surrounding lands are now owned by the estate of Hugh Tunney, a deceased businessman, who bought the castle and 3,000 acres of surrounding estate in 1991 after having leased it for many years
