Altnachree/Ogilby’s Castle, Donemana

Altinaghree Castle is in ruins situated on private farmland outside Donemana. It is known locally as Ogilby’s Castle and holds the most beautiful love story!

The castle is believed to have been built by William Ogilby around 1860. Ogilby had two sons and four daughters.

Claude William Leslie, eldest son of William, inherited the castle. After becoming bankrupt, the castle was abandoned in 1885. Claude died at the age of 43 from kidney failure caused by years of chronic alcoholism.

Folklore tells the love story of Claude’s younger son, James Douglas Ogilby. James fell in love with a factory seamstress, Mary Jane Jamieson who he met when returning from a hunt meeting at Donemana. Her father was a tenant farmer at Glenagoorland. James asked the girl to get into his horse-drawn buggy but she refused. She walked along beside him for a while before eventually join gin him in the buggy, before they reached Derry they fell in love. James wasn’t allowed to marry Mary Jane because she was a commoner and Catholic. Following his family’s opposition to their marriage, James was sent away to some friends in Co Cavan and then to Australia to get him to forget about Mary Jane. However, through a friend he continued to write to Mary Jane. The friend used an old Oak tree to leave James’s letters to Mary and to collect her replies to James. One day Mary opened a letter from James and it said ‘turn around’ …  She looked behind her to find James!  He asked her to marry him right away

They eloped and married in 1884 and moved to Australia where James was  appointed curator of the Australian Museum in 1885. The castle was abandoned by the end of the century and fell into disrepair.

Credit Images: Natural Stone Database NI