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Cabra Castle


Cabra Castle is the name given to two castles, one now ruined, the other now used as an luxury hotel. They are near the hamlet of Cabra, which is very near Kingscourt (Irish: Dún a' Rí) in south-east County Cavan, Ireland.

The current Cabra Castle (located just off the R179, known locally as the Carrickmacross Road) was constructed in a mixture of the "neo-Norman-style" and the "Gothick-style" in the first decade of the 19th-century. Much of the exterior is in a form of what might be described as the "neo-Norman-style", while the interior is mainly "Gothick" (as opposed to the later neo-Gothic styles). This structure was originally called Cormey (or Cormy) Castle, after the local townland where it was built. It was constructed for the Foster family, a local "Ascendancy" family. However, the cost of building the new country house effectively bankrupted the Foster family. So, in 1813, shortly after the new Cormey Castle had been completed, the Fosters sold their new country house to their much wealthier neighbours, the Pratt dynasty, who were another local 'Ascendancy' family.

The Pratt family lived just across the Carrickmacross Road at the original Cabra House (also sometimes known as Cabra Castle) on the Cabra Estate, the family's huge country estate. The Pratt family had owned the Cabra Estate since 1699. In 1813, Colonel Joseph Pratt added the new Cormey Castle and much of the Fosters' Cormey Estate to his own Cabra Estate. Cormey Castle replaced the original Cabra House as the chief "seat" of the Pratt dynasty in County Cavan. Around 1820, the Pratt family renamed Cormey Castle as Cabra Castle, the name it retains to this day.


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