The MacDermotts were an important and prestigious family down through the centuries and was one of the five Irish families entitled to the prefix “The” before their name.
According to the Taylor and Skinner maps, Rathmore (Ramore) was the seat of the Browne Family in 1783. By 1814 the property was the residence of Major McCann. Lewis records that in 1837 it was occupied by James MacDermott. Griffith’s Valuation 1855 also intimates that the property was occupied by James MacDermott, a family with which it was associated for many years. He was one of the principal lessors in the parish of Killimorbologue, barony of Longford, and Clontuskert, barony of Clonmacnowen, County Galway in 1856.
The Rathmore Estate amounted to three thousand five hundred acres in the 1870s. In 1873, Anthony Joseph MacDermott married Liza Crean-Lynch, daughter and co-heir of Patrick Crean-Lynch of Clogher, Co. Mayo. In 1906 James MacDermott owned two hundred and fifteen acres of untenanted land, and the Mansion House at Rathmore was valued at £39. It is noteworthy that over three thousand acres owned by him and others was vested in the Congested Districts’ Board on 13th March 1913.
The MacDermott family left Ramore in 1929. In the early 1930s local people purchased the land in various lots from the Land Commission. Patrick Barrett and family then occupied Rathmore House. The house is still extant. The gate-lodge is also extant and occupied, having undergone extensive renovation.
A detailed history of the MacDermott Family and Life in Ramore can be read in Chapter 5 of “Killimor Our Parish and Our People”.
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