An Ancestral Family Home

In the fertile valley of the river Roe in County Derry, rising from gentle parkland and protected by ancient trees, stands one of the great houses of the northwest, Robert McCausland inherited the estate from speaker Thomas Conolly of County Kildare in 1729 - it is said for taking a troublesome woman off his hands.

Just over a century later, Drenagh was built for the McCauslands to the classic designs of Sir Charles Lanyon.  It was the first country house commission for this bright and budding young Northern Irish architect, at the time freshly appointed surveyor for the County of Antrim.  He built many more houses, bigger and more flamboyant, but none as charming as Drenagh.

Each generation has left its stamp.  Lady Margaret McCausland, daughter of Earl Mount Edgecombe, embellished the botanical beauty of its park with a pink and blue English garden and an all white moon garden.  Today, Marcus McCausland's direct decendant, Conolly McCausland lives at Drenagh with his wife and children.  He and his wife Sheelagh, nee Williams from the Tullamore Dewn Whiskey family run the 1800 acre estate.

The family name McCausland goes back more than 900 years to an O'Cahan named Anselan, son of Kyan, King of Ulster. Anselan was forced to leave Ireland in about 1016 on account of his share in a 'memorable stratagem where he and other young Irishmen dressed in women's attire surprised and slaughtered their Danish oppressors' (The Vikings). When Malcolm II of Scotland heard of Anselans feats he invited him to become his Master Of Arms and 'bestowed ample lands upon him in The Lennox'.

Twelve generations later, in the 1540s, his descendant Baron Alexander McAuslane returned to Ulster with his brother Andrew and settled in the Strabane area. The first McCausland to live at Drenagh (then called Fruithill) was Robert McCausland, Alexander's grandson. Robert was bequeathed the Estates when he married the daughter of William Conolly, a wealthy self made man and speaker of the Irish Parliament.

Robert named his first son Conolly in reverence to his father-in-law, the name is still used in alternate generations to this day. A large painting of Robert and his family now hangs in the dining room at Drenagh. The first Conolly married the heiress Elizabeth Gage from Bellarena (five miles up the coast) and had a son, Conolly, who also formed another lucrative union with Theodosia Mahon from Strokestown House, Co. Roscommon.

It was their son Marcus McCausland (1787-1862) who was responsible for commissioning Sir Charles Lanyon to build the present house. The former house (Fruithill) can be seen through a window painted in the portrait of Robert McCausland and his family. Marcus and his wife, Marianne, nee Tyndall from The Fort at Bristol, produced an heir Conolly Thomas(1828-1902). A delightful portrait of him dressed in his Eton cricketing clothes also hangs in the dining room at Drenagh.

Conolly Thomas's son Maurice Marcus lived through both the best and worst of times at Drenagh as in 1902, through the Irish Land Acts, the Government compulsorily purchased 75% of the Estate. Drenagh was lucky; many Irish Estates were taken off their owners in their entirety. Some say this was no bad thing, as landlords the Irish landed gentry could be brutal in their treatment of their tenantry, indeed some were burnt out before they could be bought out. Conolly Robert, Maurice's son, fought in the 2nd World War and was so profoundly affected by what he experienced that he changed his Faith to Catholicism. This he did despite knowing he had signed a codicil to his fathers will barring him from inheriting should he become a Catholic. The will was contested but it was found that although the codicil applied to Conolly Robert, it did not do so to any of his direct descendants. So, on his death in 1968, his son Marcus inherited Drenagh. Currently, Conolly McCausland lives at Drenagh with his wife, Sheelagh and their four daughters.