In one of the long corridors you’ll find in Curraghmore House, is a wall of maps. These maps roll down from ancient wooden cases, like a blind. You’ll find maps of the different parts of the world, and of course, a map of Curraghmore Estate. Expertly hand-drawn in 1884, on fading brown paper, this map shares exquisite detail of how the estate came to be developed.
What’s fascinating to see is how the estate was planted with an abundance of trees in many different places. Curraghmore Estate is now home to hundreds of thousands of trees, of many different varieties, and it’s all down to the foresight of our ancestors – who, we can see from these maps, planted part of the estate with trees as far back as 1882. These trees were planted for a variety of reasons; to provide a natural boundary to the estate, provide cover for game, and enhance the natural beauty of the landscape. Some of these trees are now 140 years old, and as they naturally fall, we plan to use them to make Curraghmore Whiskey Casks (which you can read more about here).
We can also see the names assigned to fields and paddocks, often named after the families that worked the land on the estate, and these names remain to this day. The Mayfield, Ashmores and Shepherds are fields that we now use to grow barley and oats for Curraghmore Whiskey.
Take a moment to appreciate the skill and craftmanship apparent in this map; the meticulous detail, perfectly drawn by hand, is still beautiful and useful to this day.
This map tells a big part of the Curraghmore Whiskey story. How the estate as we know it today came to be organised, planted and named. It was crafted by hand 140 years ago, and it’s still appreciated, valued and used today – the very thing we’re hoping to achieve with Curraghmore Whiskey.
