A Brief History of Anner Castle

The MANDEVILLES, a Norman-Irish family already long in Co. Tipperary, first came to Ballinahimore, as it was then called, in 1684 when it was purchased by Ambrose Mandeville. The old house, on high ground near the banks of the river Anner, not far from the great ford, was one of those gaunt square castles so often found in Ireland.

Ambrose's grandson, John Shaw Mandeville, married Sophia Herbert of Carrick on Suir, a younger sister of Dorothea, author of 'Retrospections of Dorothea Herbert', in 1803. These diaries give a fascinating insight into the lives of such families. The original manuscripts have been loaned to Trinity College, Dublin where they can be viewed.

The Rev. Nicholas Herbert Mandeville, our great grandfather –‘little Nick’ in the ‘Retrospections’ married an heiress, Elizabeth Roe, eldest daughter of John Roe of Rockwell (the love of Dorothea’s life), Co. Tipperary. He inherited the property, then known as 'Ballyna', in 1842 together with the 'Retrospections’ diaries.

Soon after, Nicholas employed a Cork architect, Mr Anderson, to design an extension to the old square castle. Only a small part of the old building was incorporated in the new design, mainly in the SW corner. This earlier stonework is still clearly visible. The extension included the building of a very tall tower in the NW corner, living accommodation culminating in the twin octagonal towers and a new entrance porch. It took about 12 years to build, during which Mr Anderson fled to America, leaving the work only half completed, as one of his earlier high towers for another castle collapsed! There are memoirs of a great Uncle who describes the octagonal towers as shells only occupied by the jackdaws and other birds. Elizabeth was not at all pleased to see her money which she brought into the family used on such an extravagant design.The building gave much needed work in famine times and a fine song was written about the building of sweet Ballyna - later renamed Anner Castle. It is thought that Anderson helped design the Capitol building in Washington D.C. Nicholas died in 1872 when our grandfather, Henry Ambrose, inherited the Castle.

Cork architect, William Atkins, completed the building after Henry Ambrose married Sarah Cecilia Parnell, the only surviving child of the 2nd Lord Congleton in 1895. She was also an heiress. Our grandfather used her money to complete the grand design. In Burke's 'Guide to Country Houses' the impressive entrance front and battlemented towers have been praised.

Henry Ambrose died in 1917, leaving the property over to our Uncle, John Parnell, the eldest son. For various reasons John Parnell made the property over to our father Geoffrey Fortescue in 1926.

It was during the handover from our Uncle to our Father, that tragedy took place in that a great fire destroyed most of the Castle. Anner was described at that time in the newspapers as ‘one of the finest mansions in Tipperary’. An eye witness early on the scene stated that the building was afire in two distinct places. But later examination showed five different places, indicating it was not accidental.

The caretaker at the time, October 12th 1926, was a man named Burke. He was described as having eccentric habits. Details from the ‘Clonmel Chronicle’ of Saturday 16th describe the search of the outbuildings and finding Burke, caretaker and gardener ‘ dead in the coach house with a double barrelled fouling piece, which had recently been discharged, laying beside him, his arms clasped round it’.

Only the NE octagonal tower with its pitch pine staircase was relatively untouched. Luckily, the large cabinet, known in the family as the 'Brian Boru' and a beautiful mirror were saved. They are still in the castle's reception rooms.

It has been suggested that the fire inspired Daphne Du Maurier to use the fire image at the beginning of her book ‘Rebecca’ where the house is called ‘Manderley’.

The insurance from the fire allowed our father to rebuild the front half of the castle to his own design.It has not changed since then. In August 1933 he married Frances de la Poer, whose family lived at Gurteen le Poer, a large gothic mansion still standing on the banks of the River Suir at Kilsheelan. Our father served in the Royal Navy and our mother ran the farm. The family lived in Anner apart from a short period before the war when our father was lecturing at the Royal Naval College. He was killed in action in 1942.

The family went to live in England in 1948 and Anner was let to long term tenants. Our mother returned to Ireland in 1965 and lived on the estate in Ballyna Chalet until her death in 1986. In 1977, she with Geoffrey, her eldest son, and Linda, his wife, decided to let the Castle for self catering holidays. It was not until 1991 that Geoffrey and Linda began to convert the old stables and coach houses into a house for themselves in retirement. They came back permanently to Anner in March 1996.Sadly Linda died in 2001. Geoffrey continued to run the business until February 2007 when he unexpectedly died

The Estate is now held in trust and run by Geoffrey’s youngest brother, Michael.


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