Altinaghree Castle

Altinaghree Castle, also known historically as Liscloon House and locally as Ogilby's Castle, is a ruined stone structure located on private farmland just outside Donemana in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Situated south of Londonderry near the B49 road connecting Dunamanagh and Claudy, the building was constructed around 1860 for William Ogilby. Originally designed as a large and elegant residence, the castle featured impressive architecture made from cut stone and included luxurious amenities such as a magnificent banquet room. Although it is technically a country house, its grand scale and current state of decay have earned it the colloquial title of a castle among locals and historians alike.

The site holds a poignant historical significance marked by rapid decline and family tragedy. The estate was inherited by William's eldest son, Claude William Leslie Ogilby, whose mismanagement led to bankruptcy. Claude died in 1875 at the age of forty-three from kidney failure attributed to chronic alcoholism, leading to the property's abandonment by 1885, only twenty-five years after its completion. Further adding to the site's lore, William's younger son, James Douglas Ogilby, was forced to elope with a Catholic factory seamstress due to family opposition before eventually emigrating to Australia, where he became a renowned ichthyologist.

Today, Altinaghree Castle stands as a derelict shell within an active agricultural setting. While the main building is not open to the public and remains on private land, it can be viewed and photographed from the adjacent main road. The associated worker's dwellings, known as Liscloon Cottages, still exist to the southeast of the ruins and have been repurposed as farm outbuildings. The castle serves as a visible reminder of the Victorian era's social rigidities and the fleeting nature of landed gentry wealth in nineteenth-century Ulster.