In 1724 the "bawn" and demesne lands were purchased by Sir Arthur Acheson, Bart the ancestors of the Gosfords. 

The Gosfords had a huge castle two and a quarter miles from Hamilton's Bawn on the Markethill road. During the last war the castle was used as a barracks by English and American soldiers. It was also used as a prisoner-of-war camp for Germans, of which there were about 500. Up till half a century ago noblemen from England came to Gosford's estate for a week or so of shooting at the hundreds of pheasants and other game which were there.

Some of the old inhabitants of Hamilton's Bawn delight in telling stories of how they raised pheasants for Lord So-and-so, and for this they received as much as half a sovereign for their week's work. In those days that was a considerable sum of money. Several hundred pheasants would be shot every day and these would be put in cases and taken to Hamilton's Bawn station where they would be dispatched to England. At the end of the week's shooting a huge ball was held in the ballroom of the castle. Nowadays the land belonging to the castle is leased every year and the castle is looked after by caretakers appointed by the Gosfords. The present Earl of Gosford lives in America but he still keeps an intense interest in local affairs.

But back to the past again and to Sir Arthur Acheson. In 1728, when the famous Dean Swift (the author of "Gulliver's Travels") was visiting Sir Arthur, he thought of installing his friend Sheridan, the famous schoolmaster,  in the "castle" (Hamilton's "bawn") and founding a scholastic establishment in opposition to the flourishing one in Armagh, that is to say the Royal School which was founded in 1608.

It is not quite clear why Sir Arthur Acheson bought Hamilton's "bawn". Around 1729 he evidently had some project under his deliberation for its use.  Swift wrote an amusing set of lines about Sir Arthur's dilemma entitled - "The Grand Question Debated as to whether Hamilton's "bawn" should be turned into a Barracks or a Malt-House".  

Click here to read more about Jonathan Swift

The "bawn" became a barracks in 1731 and its first occupants were two troop of horse. It probably remained in use until the start of the nineteenth century because 250 French prisoners were taken from Kinsale, after the famous battle of Kinsale, to Hamilton's bawn in 1798.

A lease between Sir Arthur Acheson and the Government, in May 1731, shows the famous barracks in use. Many references to it - including a minute account of the interior - appeared in the "House of Commons Journal" of 1760.

Dean Swift must have been impressed by the hard-working people of Hamilton's Bawn at the time because he also wrote a humorous little poem about the village:-

Newry town for mice and rats,

Armagh city for dogs and cats,

Hamilton's Bawn that keeps no Sunday,

For every day is an Easter Monday.

 

 2008 - Gosford Castle is been renovated and refurbished into apartments.

Click here for recent images of Gosford Forest Park and the Castle.