FREDERICK WILLIAM HENRY FRANCIS COYNGHAM: THE 7TH Marquess of Conyngham has died in South Africa at the age of 84.
Frederick William Henry Francis Conyngham was known familiarly as Mount from his courtesy title, Mount Charles, by which he was called until his father died in 1974.
He lived at Slane Castle in Co Meath when, with the introduction of wealth tax, he handed it over to his eldest son, Henry, and went to live in the Isle of Man.
Mount was brought up in Scotland, went to Eton and then joined the armoured division of the Irish Guards – during mortar practise, he sent a mortar bomb down the chimney of the house of his commanding officer.
After he had left the British army, he went to Slane which was in a dilapidated condition, as his father never lived there and it had been empty for a time.
With his first wife, Eileen, they worked hard to modernise the castle and to mechanise the farm on which sheep and cattle were raised.
Mount was a very good tennis player, particularly at doubles; a first rate shot, an excellent golfer and a natural fisherman; he was fortunate therefore to own fishing on the river Boyne.
In the 1960s, the National Waters Restoration League was formed to protest against individual landowners continuing to own fishing rights.
On an evening in 1970, 13 members of the league dressed in full military uniform entered the castle and barricaded the windows and doors.
Eileen Mount Charles behaved with great composure and sat on the stairs talking to them until the local gardaí had called in reinforcements and the intruders were evicted.
Mount did much to consolidate the family finances. The house in Kent was demolished and The Hall, the Conyngham house in Donegal, was sold.
In 1967, the Conynghams, who were always generous at lending the castle and the grounds in order to raise money for the church, local associations and charities, had a fete in aid of the Conquer Cancer Campaign and for the Meath Hunt.
There were tours of the house and Eileen Mount Charles was showing a group around. She was taking them up the cantilevered stone stairs and was pointing out a picture of the Battle of the Boyne when part of the staircase collapsed.
One member of the public said as she fell: “King Billy is still not done throwing us down!” Fortunately no one was killed, though three people had to be taken to hospital.
The Conynghams, originally from the lowlands of Scotland, settled in Donegal in the first years of the 17th century.
They took their strange motto after a Scottish King, who pursued by his enemies jumped into a haycock that the Conynghams were building and kept calling out “Over Fork Over” until he was completely concealed.
Slane came to them through marriage and the castle was built in a gothic revival style, designed by James Wyatt and James Gandon; the impressive gate lodges were built by Francis Johnston. In the tower overlooking the river there is the finest gothic revival room in Ireland, where the ceiling is so delicate and elaborate that it looks like filigree.
Early in the 19th century, a Marquessate was created. Possibly with help of the Lady Conyngham of the time who was the stout middle-aged mistress of George IV.
It is said that the very straight road from Dublin to Slane was engineered to smooth the progress of the King’s visits to the castle, when he was in Ireland on his two royal journeys. Mount handed over the castle in 1976 to his eldest son Henry Mount Charles.
He has made imaginative and profitable use of the natural amphitheatre in front of the castle to hold successful rock concerts with such groups as the Rolling Stones, U2 and this summer Oasis is to perform.
In 1991, the castle caught fire and enormous damage was done, but it has since been restored and is open to the public.
Mount lived in the Isle of Man though he continued to make frequent visits to Ireland. He married four times, first to Eileen Newsam and when that marriage was dissolved, he married Elizabeth Rudd née Hughes. His third wife was Daphne Walker née Armour who died and he then married Annabel Agnew. He had three sons by his first marriage.
Frederick William Henry Francis Conyngham, 7th Marquess of Conyngham: born March 13th, 1924, died March 3rd, 2009