Irish drone captures historic abandoned home on desolate island

The only house on Bartragh Island (also known as Bartra Island) near Killala, Co. Mayo is a distant and isolated place, sitting in the Moy estuary, inaccessible most of the time except by boat. The question must be asked is why did Charles Kirkwood choose to build a house in such a location in the early nineteenth century? Access to the house, even in the twenty-first century, is still controlled by the tides and there are many tales of people being stuck on the island having misjudged the returning waters. Today the house, which is a perfect setting for an Agatha Christie novel, lies derelict having been the focus of a number of failed ambitions to restore it. Also it now appears from my research that the man who instigated the construction of the house on Bartragh Island in the 1830's, Charles Kirkwood, spent the last decade of his life in an asylum. Is Bartragh Island a harsh environment that takes its toll on all those who dare to make it their home? The earliest mention of an association between the Kirkwood family and Bartragh Island is when Miss Dorothy Kirkwood held a lease dated 1741 for lands at Moyne from Lord Tyrawley for a term of 999 years at a rent of £22 a year. However it appears that this lease was at some stage abandoned, for in 1827 the estate of Lord Tyrawley was sold by the Court of Chancery to a Thomas Jones, who again leased the lands to the Kirkwood’s in 1831 for 910 years at a rent of £21 5s 10d. The person who is responsible for the construction of the house on Bartragh Island is Captain Charles Kirkwood who was a midshipman on the gunboat ‘Fame’ and fought with Nelson at the battle of Trafalgar. Following his retirement from the Navy, Captain Kirkwood began a new career when he purchased a vessel and traded between England and India. As a result of this enterprise he became very wealthy and bought the townlands of Moyne, Bartragh, Kilcummin and Townparks West. His new home would be the only house ever built on the 350 acre island in the Moy estuary which is surrounded by other smaller islands known by names such as Calf and Horse Island. The single-storey house with half dormer attic wing to the rear was in use in 1838 and it appears that whoever designed the house certainly took heed to make it suitable for its environment. The house is nestled into a hill with a large land bank in front that protects it from the full force of the sea during a storm. The house is entered through a large entrance porch from which you enter through an off centre door to an inner hall that runs perpendicular. This hallway traverses the length of the main entrance front block and provides access to two large reception rooms with high ceilings. Accommodated in the entrance porch but accessed from the inner hall is a curved staircase that leads to the upper floor. The stairs is entered from the inner hall through a Gothic arch with plaster detailing that gives some impression of how the house was decorated when it was originally built. The house is U shaped and is built around a central court yard, the wing that extends from the rear of the main block is half dormered and appears to have once been bedrooms on both the ground and first floor. A long corridor on the ground floor provided access to these bedrooms on the courtyard side. This in turn led to a secondary or servant’s staircase which was located adjacent to the kitchen wing. At the time of the census in the early 1900’s it is recorded that the house comprised of 17 rooms. In April 1837, it was reported that three men were charged with breaking windows and ‘Gothic’ sashes of the house of Charles Kirkwood on Bartragh Island. The motive given for the vandalism by these men was that Kirkwood was selling mutton in Killala under market price. The vandals tore away the ‘Plaster of Paris ornaments’ off the lower part of the house and flung the pieces at the windows in order to break them. They broke 156 panes of glass, damaged railings and pulled up the newly planted shrubbery. At the time of the attack on the house on Bartragh Island, the Kirkwoods were living in a house in nearby Killala town. The reasons giving as to why the house on the island was unoccupied was due to it being winter and the building was ‘new’. Charles Kirkwood married a Miss Henrietta Knox in December 1838 and this may have been his reason for building the house on Bartragh Island. In September 1840, a son and heir was born at Bartragh House to Charles Kirkwood and his wife and by the end of the decade they would have five more children. Charles was a lieutenant in the Navy and since his retirement had resided in Mayo. Life on the island was obviously harsh which was illustrated in 1843 when a boat with six men were fishing for herring near Bartragh . A storm broke out and they were driven on to the shore.
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[@jansmall72]

Beautiful old house nice country

[@harmon1286]

Such Heartfelt for the builders of that Castle....! There’s a wonderful story here....!

[@jupiterbeings]

I wanna live there. Get away from the madness.

[@TheMargoCHANNING]

Exactly what I was thinking 😪

[@ai3674]

Beautiful

[@jankelley5527]

Ah, dear old Ireland. Tis me heart that yearns for ya...all the way from Texas.

[@mariahillier3822]

Oh wow take me there please🤗

[@elizabethstevenson9881]

Whoa that's so cool!!! I wonder what it was like to love there or who lived there. We don't have super old structures here in the U.S. like that especially in CA where I live. So cool.

[@aodonn5041]

Read the description box. All explained. You welcome.

[@mikemike1071]

Find out the backstory and let us know. Super cool.

[@touchofgrey5372]

A long way to get groceries!

[@BobBob-oe9uf]

I hope squatters don't see this.

[@andrewtucker7990]

I wanna go.

[@alberto.iiimartinez2992]

😮. 👍👍👍👍