Tynan Abbey
Encyclopedia
County Armagh
-History:Ancient Armagh was the territory of the Ulaid before the fourth century AD. It was ruled by the Red Branch, whose capital was Emain Macha near Armagh. The site, and subsequently the city, were named after the goddess Macha...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
was a large neo-gothic-romantic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
country house built circa 1750 (later renovated circa 1815) and situated outside the village of Tynan
Tynan
Tynan is a village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies within the civil parish of Tynan and barony of Tiranny.- History :Tynan won the status as the most well preserved rural Irish village in 1993...
. It was home to the Stronge family until 1981, when It was bombed; its ruin was finally demolished in 1998, having stood for 249 years.
History
The original house on this site was called Fairview and was the home of the Manson family, it was acquired by the Stronges through the marriage of Dr. John Stronge and Elinor Manson. At this time Fairview was described by Thomas AsheThomas Ashe
Thomas Patrick Ashe born in Lispole, County Kerry, Ireland, was a member of the Gaelic League, the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a founding member of the Irish Volunteers...
as a "very pretty house, well timbered and regularly built. It is two stories high. There are good chambers and garrets above staires, a hansome parlour, a common Hall, a Kitchen Sellars and their Convenient Offices a Good Stable Barne and Cow house a Good Garden and Orchard". The library, in which the last of the Stronges were killed, was believed to have dated to this original house.
The building of Tynan Abbey itself (as Fairview would become) took place under the ownership of the Stronges. By 1816 Mrs Calvert, Sir James Stronge, 1st Baronet
Sir James Stronge, 1st Baronet
Rev. Sir James Stronge, 1st Baronet was born in Tynan Abbey, County Armagh, Ireland. Tynan Abbey was built by his father.On 27 May 1785, Reverend Stronge married Helen Tew of County Armagh and had issue:...
's mother-in-law, described the house, which was under construction, as "very ugly...I don't think I shall ever like the house...I have a comfortable enough room...all the other rooms are unfinished and even without windows...the staircase without banisters and all about unfinished". By 1822 Mrs Calvert thought Tynan Abbey "very pretty and the place very nice, but somewhat exposed".
By 1838 George Petrie of the Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
described it as a "fine specimen of bastard and vile gothic architecture." In 1855, however, Sir Bernard Burke
Bernard Burke
Sir John Bernard Burke, CB was a British officer of arms and genealogist.-Personal life:He was born in London, and was educated in London and in France. His father, John Burke , was also a genealogist, and in 1826 issued a Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the...
said it has a "picturesque appearance", one hundred years after this assertion Tynan Abbey was still being pondered upon; Richard Hayward questioned its "dubious...architectural integrity, but mellowed by time, humanised by generations of affectionate occupancy."
Tynan included an octagonal stone spire and square turret
Turret
In architecture, a turret is a small tower that projects vertically from the wall of a building such as a medieval castle. Turrets were used to provide a projecting defensive position allowing covering fire to the adjacent wall in the days of military fortification...
(resembling a chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
), in reality this merely housed the water tanks. The castle was surrounded by an extensive estate, once amounting to over 8,000 acres (32 km²) , including park-land and a lake.
Even though there is a wealth of celtic cross
Celtic cross
A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...
es on the site it seems there was never an abbey proper in the vicinity.
Royal Ulster Constabulary occupation and the Second World War
In 1923, part of the building was occupied by the Royal Ulster ConstabularyRoyal Ulster Constabulary
The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...
rent-free for protection purposes. During the Second World War, it was again occupied by Scottish, Belgian and American troops; leaving a legacy of Nissen huts
Nissen hut
A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated steel, a variant of which was used extensively during World War II.-Description:...
.
Later years
At the time of Sir Norman Stronge'sNorman Stronge
Captain Sir Charles Norman Lockhart Stronge, 8th Baronet, MC, PC , JP was a senior Unionist politician in Northern Ireland....
killing, the Irish Times reported that, "They [the Stronges] were completely the local big family, still living in an enormous mansion though everyone knew the father and son used only a few rooms of it, with a housekeeper and a landsteward who lived out. Neither had much interest in farming - most of the acres was let."
Destruction of Tynan Abbey
On 21 January 1981, 86-year-old Sir Norman Stronge, Bt.Norman Stronge
Captain Sir Charles Norman Lockhart Stronge, 8th Baronet, MC, PC , JP was a senior Unionist politician in Northern Ireland....
, and his only son, James, 48 (both former MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
s), were killed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
. The house was then burnt to the ground. The bodies of the father and son were later recovered from their blazing home..
They were targeted as they sat in the main library of their 230 year-old mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
. The paramilitaries who carried out the killings forced entry into the Abbey by bombing the heavy front doors. Afterward the building was fire bombed. The fire raged until the next morning, leaving the contents of the Abbey destroyed and the house itself burned to the ground.
Legacy
In 1995 the Historic Buildings Branch of the Department of the EnvironmentDepartment of the Environment (Northern Ireland)
The Department of the Environment is a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister for the Environment.-Aim:...
recalling that listed building consent to partial demolition had been granted in 1983, but noted it was keen to have the "listing status retained or stabilised as a ruin. It still holds a lot of historic and architectural interest in its present state."
In 1998, prior to the ruins of Tynan Abbey being demolished, a man was seriously injured in a mysterious explosion there, which may have been a booby-trap bomb.
The lands, several thousand acres, remain in the possession of the family of Sir Norman Stronge's
Norman Stronge
Captain Sir Charles Norman Lockhart Stronge, 8th Baronet, MC, PC , JP was a senior Unionist politician in Northern Ireland....
daughter Daphne Kingan (d. 2002) - James and Kate Kingan and their three children, Charlotte, Esme and Edward, (James was an Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
candidate in the elections of 1993 and 1997). Tynan Abbey was demolished in 1998 due to the unstable structure of the ruin, all that remains is the arch of the front door surround. The family do, however, hope that a new house may be built on the site
In September 2007 The Three Estates Walking Festival was held within the Tynan estate, along with the lands at Caledon
Caledon, County Tyrone
Caledon , historically known as Kinnaird , is a small village and townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It is in the Clogher Valley on the banks of the River Blackwater, 7 miles from Armagh. It lies in the southeast of Tyrone and near the borders of County Armagh and County Monaghan. In the...
and Castle Leslie
Castle Leslie
Castle Leslie, home to an Irish branch of Clan Leslie, is located on the 4 km² Castle Leslie Estate adjacent to the village of Glaslough, north-east of Monaghan town in County Monaghan, Ireland.-Architecture:...
.
See also
- Abbeys and priories in Northern Ireland (County Armagh)
