Nugent Castle, Delvin

Nugent Castle in Delvin, Ireland, was constructed by Anglo‑Norman builders. A strongpoint was established at Delvin soon after the Anglo‑Norman invasion. In 1181 Hugh de Lacy had a castle raised there for Gilbert de Nugent, who had come to Ireland with de Lacy in 1171 and took the title Baron Delvin. The fortress was placed to secure lands recently taken from Irish clans, and the Nugent family repeatedly faced threats and armed clashes with the O’Reillys and the Mahons as they held their territory.

In the sixteenth century the family remained a prominent local power. Richard Nugent, the twelfth baron and known as the “Black Baron,” constructed Ross Castle in 1532 on the southern shore of Lough Sheelin at the site of an O’Reilly stronghold. Tradition records a harsh anecdote about this Richard Nugent, claiming he ordered the hanging of an innocent beggar at Ross and that locals later marked the location with a cross. His successor, Richard Nugent, the thirteenth baron, was killed in combat with O’Reilly forces near Finne in 1559.

The Nugents kept their Catholic faith after the Reformation. Christopher Nugent, the fourteenth baron, acquired lands around Cavan and Finne, and during the Nine Years’ War, from 1594 to 1605, the barons Delvin supported the English crown. In 1639 Richard Nugent, later created the first Earl of Westmeath, had a new residence built on the town’s outskirts; the older stronghold at the town centre was then left to fall into decay.

During the 1641 uprising the Nugent family joined the Irish insurgents, and after the rebellion was put down by forces under Oliver Cromwell their estates were taken from them. A branch of the family continued to hold land in Cavan, at Farrenconnell in the barony now called Mountnugent, and that settlement takes its name from the family. Major‑General Sir Oliver Nugent, who led the 36th Division in the First World War, belonged to this line, and the last member of that branch died at Farrenconnell in the 1980s. The site itself has been referred to both as Nugent (or Newgent) and as Delvin Castle, a name also applied to the nearby Clonyn Castle.