Longford Castle

In 1717 Longford Castle became the Bouverie home, purchased by Sir Edward des Bouverie from the Coleraines. It is said that Sir Edward saw and fell in love with the castle in the valley as he rode past, having enough money in his saddle bags to effect the purchase there and then.[2] Subsequent generations of the family beautified the interior of the castle and surrounding park. However, Jacob, 2nd Earl of Radnor (1749-1828), employed James Wyatt to change Longford from a reasonably modest chateau into a hexagonal palace "to the despair of future generations".[2] He destroyed one of the Elizabethan towers and replaced it with a larger one of his own design, added two more towers and linked each to each other. The palace concept was not finished. It was Jacob, 4th Earl of Radnor (1815-1889), who oversaw the last significant changes to the castle architecture, undertaken by Anthony Salvin. These included the formation of a second courtyard, the doming over of the central courtyard and the addition of a square tower that can be seen in the aerial photograph.