Use the NEXT above to go through the gallery Dromahair village, closer to the Bonet river than ancient Drumlease, was actually designed early in the 19th century by a Yorkshire absentee landlord, George Lane Fox Senior. The Fox family can be traced back to the 17th century in the North of England, and eventually was joined in marriage to the Lane family, hence its double-barrelled name. Buckingham passed the castle and 11,000 acres on to his brother Sir William Villiers, who later sold the estate to Sir George Lane of Tulsk in Roscommon. (Lanesborough in Roscommon derives from the Lane family.) Through inheritance it passed to the wealthy Fox family based in Bramham Park near Leeds in Yorkshire. Sir George Lane was the son of Richard Lane of Tulsk, County Roscommon and was granted the Irish peerage title, Viscount Lanesborough, in 1676. He was Secretary of State for Ireland and received lands in the baronies of Roscommon and Ballintober, and in county Longford in 1678 and 1679. In 1724 the Lanesborough title became extinct with the death of his son. The Lanesborough estates in England and Ireland were inherited by the 2nd Viscount's sister who was married to Henry Fox. The Lane-Fox family held substantial property in both counties Leitrim and Waterford. For the most part they were absentee landlords, their estates being managed by a succession of stewards, including Joshua Kell, who was a member of the Grand Jury for Leitrim in 1851, Robert and David Stewart and Francis La Touche from Harristown in Co Kildare. Captain George Hewson bought Villiers Castle and the Lodge, with many acres of farming and hunting land, in 1894. He served as High Sheriff of Leitrim in 1896 and was also a land agent for some time. George Lane-Fox (1793–1848), of Bramham Park in Yorkshire, was a British landowner and Tory politician. He served as MP for Beverley and wedded, in 1814, Georgiana Henrietta, daughter of Edward Percy Buckley. He rarely visited Leitrim, disliking its humid windy winter climate, and left administration
Gallery: The fascinating history of the Abbey Hotel in Leitrim
