Though the early history remains somewhat murky, by the 1650s the Everards had established themselves firmly enough to warrant a castle at Randalstown, which appears on both the Down Survey maps of 1656-8 and in contemporary land records. John Everard, noted as an “Irish Papist” in the terrier, held between 290 and 447 acres here, depending on which survey you consult; a discrepancy that hints at the administrative chaos of the Cromwellian period.

What makes the Everard story particularly remarkable is their survival through Ireland’s most turbulent centuries. Despite being Catholic landowners during the Cromwellian settlement, the family managed to retain their property. Thomas Everard reclaimed Randalstown in 1661 following the Restoration, and his successor Mathias either demolished the old castle or substantially rebuilt it around 1700. When Mathias died in 1714, the estate passed to his nephew who took the pragmatic step of converting to Protestantism in 1748, ensuring the family could legally hold onto their ancestral lands under the Penal Laws.

The Everard connection to Randalstown lasted well into the twentieth century, though the house itself met an inglorious end in the 1970s when it was demolished to make way for Tara Mines’ tailing pond. Today, five memorial stones from Mathias Everard’s building work have found sanctuary in Donaghpatrick’s Church of Ireland church, whilst St Anne’s Chapel, likely the family’s private chapel, still stands about 525 metres west-southwest of where the castle once dominated the landscape. These scattered remnants are all that remain of a Catholic family’s five-century grip on their corner of Meath.