Benburb Castle is conserved and maintained by Environment and Heritage Service. It stands in Benburb Valley Park. The Castle is sometimes called ‘Wingfield Bawn’, and although the Wingfields never lived at Benburb they left a lasting mark on the landscape. Sir Richard Wingfield was an active and distinguished soldier, a member of a Suffolk family, from the east of England. After military service in Ireland and on the Continent, he was made Marshal of Ireland in 1600 and fought at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601. In 1610 he was granted 2,000 acres embracing the castle and town of Benburb and began to build both bawn and Church. There is a record of the sale of the estate to Nicholas White in 1615, but the significance of this is unclear as Wingfield was in possession of Benburb in 1618-19. Sir Richard was created Viscount Powerscourt in 1618 and died in 1634. The Wingfield family’s main lands were in Wexford and Wicklow, and their principalseat was Powerscourt near Enniskerry in County Wicklow
Inside the bawn walls a house was added by one of the Powerscourt family in the 1700's. In 1877, James Bruce a wealthy distiller from Belfast and a partner in the firm of Dunville & Co bought the Benburb Estate in its entirety from the then Viscount Powerscourt, and set about establishing his country home in Benburb.
James Bruce died in 1917 at the age of eight-two. The estate passed on to his brother Samuel who lived in London. He immediately sold the entire estate. After that it passed through a series of owners without anyone taking residence until 1940 when the War Office requisitioned the manor for the use as a military hospital. The army left the manor in 1946 and Fr. Peter Moore C.C. Moy and Fr. Thomas Soraghan P.P Clonfeacle purchased the estate on behalf of the Servite Fathers in 1947.
In the 1980's the Servites decided to release the buildings which had been used by student priests, for use by the wider community.
Benburb Castle