Built in the early 1630s at the southern edge of Dromahair village, this three-storey U-shaped house was constructed to fulfil the obligations of a royal land grant. When George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham and favourite of King James I, received over 11,000 acres as the Manor of Dromahaire in 1626, he passed it to his half-brother William in 1628. The terms were clear: William had to build a substantial house measuring 60 feet by 24 feet by 32 feet high, along with a defensive bawn 400 feet in circumference, all within four years. Though William died just a year later in 1629, the obligation was met with this impressive structure that stands about 60 metres north of the medieval O’Rourke castle ruins.

The house reveals sophisticated planning despite its defensive purpose, built of coursed limestone and sandstone with dressed quoins around three sides of an open courtyard. The main gallery occupies the southwest side, separated from the north and east wings by a substantial two-metre-thick wall, while narrow passages and a newel staircase connect the various sections. Each floor features multiple fireplaces and two or three-light windows with square hood-mouldings, and seven chimney stacks with diamond-shaped flues rise from the gable ends. The ground floor kitchen in the north wing contains its original large fireplace, oven and lintelled larder, though curiously it doesn’t connect directly with the rest of the house; instead, a wooden servants’ staircase once provided access to the upper floors. The principal gallery on the first floor boasts an ornately decorated central fireplace, while the attic level’s three chimney stacks on the northeast wall suggest there were once dormer windows on the now-destroyed front wall.

The surrounding bawn wall, though largely ruined except for sections on the northeast, northwest and southeast sides, still shows evidence of its defensive nature with gun-loops set into small rectangular embrasures. The original gatehouse at the southern end of the northwest wall preserves its narrow entrance passage complete with a portcullis niche, hanging eye and spud-stone for securing the door, which was once fastened with three metal hoops. The house remained in use through various ownerships, passing from the Villiers family to George Villiers in 1641, somehow surviving the rebellion intact, and eventually transferring, probably through marriage, to the Fox Lane family of Yorkshire. It may have been occupied until the 19th century when the current house was built immediately to the south, leaving this remarkable example of plantation architecture to stand as a testament to a turbulent period in Irish history.