Living Quarters

The first floor housed the main dwelling rooms of what was originally called Castle Skeagh, granted by King James I to Lord Michael Balfour of Burleigh (Fife in Scotland) during the Plantation of Ulster. He sold the lands to his younger brother James, Lord Balfour of Glenawley in 1615.

James himself had two sons – another James and a Michael. They were granted three plots of land in Fermanagh: the father James was here in Lisnaskea, one son was in Derrylin, and the other was in Crom.

In 1618/19 Captain Nicholas Pynnar reported that Balfour had “laid the foundation of a bawn of lime and stone 70 feet square, of which the two sides are raised 15 feet high. There is also a castle of the same length, of which the one half is built two stories high and is to be three stories and a half high”.