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Cloonteem Lodge
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In 1840, the Marquis of Westmeath, George Nugent, owned a vast amount of land in Co. Roscommon. He owned around 6,000 acres in the parish of Kiltullagh, which is west of Castlerea .He also owned approximately 4,000 acres drawn in a line from Strokestown to Carrick-on-Shannon in the then parish of Kilmore, the parish of Kilglass and also some land in the parish of Aughrim. The Marquis was born in 1785. His main residence was at Cloyn in Co. Westmeath. . He also spent some time in Co. Roscommon at Cloonteem Lodge, which was located about one mile from Drumsna across the Shannon in Co. Leitrim. The lodge stood overlooking the river Shannon and faced Annaduff. An avenue led from the Lodge to the river where a rowboat was moored, which the family used to take them across the Shannon to attend Church Services in the Church of Ireland, Annaduff, Co. Leitrim. The Marquis was an absentee landlord and a firm of Land Agents from Dublin called Steward & Kinaid managed his estates. Stuart Maxwell managed Cloonteem. The Marquis was landlord during the Famine times. His tenants suffered greatly as their crops failed and they were unable to pay their rent. They were hungry and treated very badly by the Landlord's agent. They were evicted from their lands. Many tenants resorted to violence. A secret organisation known as the Molly Maguire's was very active in the area. They threatened people who moved into homes and lands from which other tenants had been evicted. In the month of August 1845, Cloonteem Lodge was a target of violence. A group of men arrived at the house. The doors were closed and they broke the parlour windows. They got in and took three guns and a bayonet with them. The police and the Magistrate for Roscommon, a Francis Waldron, pursued them but they were never captured. Cloonteem Lodge was accidently destroyed by fire in the early 1900's.Stones from the ruins were used to build local houses. When the Irish Government bought back their own land from the British, the Land Commission divided the estate between local people. The Flanagan family now owns the land where the Lodge once stood. All that remains today is the well used by the lodge keepers and the ruins of the dwelling where the coach keeper lived and where he kept his coaches. I live in Cloonteem now.