 The Lindesay family return to Loughry  |
The Lindesay family return to Loughry
21 September 2010 The Lindesay family returned to their ancestral home at Loughry Campus, Cookstown to embrace the past, live the present and look forward to the future. The Lindesay family have a long association with Loughry, starting in 1610, when Robert Lindesay arrived from Scotland as part of the Plantation of Ulster. The family remained here until 1893, surviving rebellion and war, contributing to glittering social occasions, entertaining prominent authors and adding to the social history of the Cookstown area. Sadly the Estate could not survive the excesses of the spendthrift second last owner and the changes in tenant laws, which resulted in the estate eventually becoming the Ulster Dairy School in 1908 – the forerunner of Loughry Campus, College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE). This year some of the descendants of the Lindesay clan decided to pay a visit to their ancestral home and “walk the ground that their forefathers walked.” Seven members of the family made the trip from the Wirral, Liverpool and Devon to visit Loughry Manor House, Swift’s Cottage, Desertcreat Church, Tulllyhogue Fort and the family burial ground at Donaghrisk. They also had lunch in the impressive Board Room of the Manor House, a room largely unchanged in layout since it was last renovated by their ancestors in the 1890’s. To commemorate the “Lindesays’ return to Loughry” the family planted an evergreen Irish oak tree in the campus grounds, close to the Manor House.
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