placenamesFore
Baile Fhobhair
The estate’s towers, laundry wings and ornamental garden record different aspects of country-house life in north Westmeath.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile Fhobhair · Irish · main form
- Fobhar · Irish · main form
- Fore · English · main form
Place & story
Turning a house into a castle
Tullynally’s castellated appearance developed through successive alterations to an earlier house. In 1803 the second Earl of Longford employed Francis Johnston to add towers and battlements while retaining Georgian proportions. Another campaign followed in 1820 under James Sheil, including an octagonal dining room and a large hall. The estate’s account distinguishes these deliberate architectural transformations from the building’s earlier domestic core. [2]
The work behind the grand rooms
After the second earl’s death, his son continued the building programme. Two large castellated wings added in 1840 linked the main house with the old stable courtyard. They provided servants’ accommodation, a substantial kitchen and a three-room laundry. The laundry also served the family’s London house: hampers travelled back to Tullynally by boat and train until the First World War. [2]
A kitchen garden becomes ornamental
The architectural inventory dates one of Tullynally’s walled gardens to about 1740, with conversion to a flower garden around 1820 after another kitchen garden was developed farther west. Rubble limestone walls are partly lined with brick. An open Gothic summer house stands at the northern end, while a circular pond contains a fountain made from water-eroded limestone, known as the weeping pillar. [3]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Fore. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- History of the Castle · Tullynally Castle and Gardens
- Tullynally walled garden, NIAH15400340 · National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2020-09-04. How this page was prepared.