Overview
The Neale (Irish An Éill, “the strip of land”) sits on a limestone plateau a few kilometres north of Cong and south of Ballinrobe, reached from Cong by heading north on the R345. It’s a small village – thatched houses, a shop, a pub – but it carries an outsized amount of history for its size. The land between Lough Corrib and Lough Mask has been worked since prehistory, with cairns, ringforts and crannogs in the surrounding fields and the ruins of Norman castles once held by McDonnell mercenaries. Two things bring people here: a scatter of eccentric estate follies, and the fact that the word boycott was born just down the road.
The follies
The Neale was the demesne of the Browne family, later the Barons of Kilmaine, and inside the old walls they built follies that still dominate the ground.
- The Pyramid – a 30-foot (9 m) stepped pyramid on a base nearly 40 feet wide, built around 1760 for Sir John Browne and traditionally said to commemorate his brother, Sir George. It was once crowned by a lead figure of Apollo, later swapped for a wind-vane that logged the weather here for some thirty years, and the Office of Public Works refurbished it in 1990. Local lore adds that it doubled as relief work, paying tenants to clear and pile the estate’s stones.
- The Temple – built in 1865 by John Browne to mark his title of Lord Mount Temple: a hexagonal structure on six plain Doric columns, once timber-roofed, where the estate’s women came for tea and quiet.
- The Gods of The Neale – about 200 yards east of the village, inside the old demesne wall, a stone enclosure holds carved slabs of a griffin, a unicorn and an angel. The inscription names Deithe Feile, Diana Ffeale and The Gods of The Neale – and that last is where the village got its name.
- The Long Stone (Lia Lugha) – at the fork of the Cross and Cong roads, a standing stone said to mark the burial of the hand of Lugh Lámhfhada, the Tuatha Dé Danann hero killed at the Battle of Moytura.
If you see only one, make it the Pyramid – it’s the oddest thing for miles and the easiest to find.
Where the word ‘boycott’ comes from
Captain Charles Boycott managed the Lough Mask estate as its land agent. In the autumn of 1880, at the height of the Land War, when he moved to evict tenants during an agricultural slump, the community – organised by the parish priest, Fr John O’Malley – answered by simply refusing to deal with him. No one would work his fields, carry his post or sell him food. The tactic worked so completely that reporters came from across Europe and America to watch, and Fr O’Malley’s name for it – boycotting – was in newspapers worldwide within weeks. Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt both passed through with the Land League. In the village centre, Fr O’Malley Millennium Park, built in 2000 from stone of the old school and church, remembers him.
The heritage walk
A gentle, sign-posted walk ties the follies together – allow an hour and a half to two hours. It starts near the 19th-century Catholic church, loops past the millennium park and takes in the follies; it’s self-guided and free, with a downloadable map on the Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark site. The ground is uneven, with short steep bits near the Pyramid and Temple that will test a wheelchair or buggy; the Gods of The Neale, on a level platform, is the easiest to reach. Dogs are welcome on a lead near the monuments. Park in the village by the pub, and pick something up at the shop before you set off – there’s little else out here.
Nearby
A short drive south, Cong has Ashford Castle and Cong Abbey; Ballinrobe to the north has its racecourse and river walks. The whole area lies within the Joyce Country and Western Lakes Geopark, working toward UNESCO Global Geopark status. Download the walk map before you come, and leave time for a pint at the village pub once you’ve traced the Brownes’ strange architecture.