Places of Historic Interest in Castleblayney

The Alms House
When the 12th Lord Blayney died in 1874 he left money for the setting up of the Alms Houses. Built of red brick, the building is made up of twenty apartments with bed-sitter and a small scullery. In the grounds are a lodge and a memorial in memory of Cadawalladar the 12th and last Lord Blayney

Hope Arms
Pigots Directory of 1824 lists the "The Blayney Arms" owned by Wm Twibill, as one of two hotels in the town. This is now known as "Hope Arms" and situated directly opposite the entrance to Hope Castle. One of its most famous patrons was Charles Stewart Parnell, who stayed there on the night before polling in a famous Monaghan By-Election in 1883. Parnell refused to sleep in room No. 13, but his candidate, Tim Healy did and subsequently won the By-Election.

Mc Mahons Castle and the Temple of Concra
The ruins known locally as Mc Mahons Castle, off the Dundalk Road, on the south of Lough Muckno, has puzzled many scholars and historians. It even gave its name to an old and now disused name of the town: Caislean Mhathunach. The Mc Mahons of Gaelic rule in Ulster had no Castle in the Castleblayney area.
The Temple also at Concra, which has now fallen into disrepair and would appear to be of Greek design, was a resting/summer house for the Blayneys and the Hopes.

St Mary's Hospital
Built in 1840-42 under the direction of the Poor Law Guardians, this building was one of four workhouses in Co. Monaghan and its history has been fairly well documented. The years of the Famine were the most traumatic, for the workhouses. In March 1849 there were 1,850 inmates and disease was rampant. For many, the only relief was either death or emigration. Many of those who died were buried in the graveyard beside the hospital, known today as the "Garden of Remembrance". In 1926 it became the County Home, being extended and extensively renovated in 1969 when it was restyled as St Mary's Hospital.

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