Trabolgan

Edmund Roche was created Lord Fermoy and his eldest son and heir, Edward, 2nd Baron Fermoy, was an inveterate and apparently not very good gambler - as was his younger brother, Jim, who married the American heiress, Frances Ellen Work (1857-1947), much to the disapproval of her father. A story is told that the 2nd Baron lost the estate in a bet with a guest on a greyhound race: "He thought he had a champion greyhound, but the errant dog spotted a crow and chased the bird rather than the hare"! The story itself might be true, but the real demise of the Roche estate was somewhat more mundane: the bank foreclosed on the mortgage in 1881 and placed it on the market for a couple of years without any success. It was sold privately a few years later to the Clarke family who made their fortune manufacturing Player's cigarettes, and even grew tobacco here during the war! In 1947, the Clarkes were obliged to sell up to the Irish Land Commission. The mansion was demolished in 1982 and today the land is used as a holiday activity center.