Carberry Family of Castkefreke

Off the top of my head, I know that Mark Bence-Jones has an entry for Castle Freke in his ‘Burke’s Guide to the Country Houses of Ireland’, also called ‘A Guide to Country Houses- Ireland’ or something (published originally by Burke’s Peerage in the UK, then republished by, I think, Constable). The book describes the buildings and lists occupants, former and current, and their ‘rank’ in the peerage- Baronet, Viscount, etc.
Also, Maurice Craig has written about it- I recall a mention in his ‘Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size’ (a tremendous book from the mid-1970s that’s sadly long out of print, but in most libraries), though the house is hardly ‘middle size’- I think he mentions it because of its unusual name.
Start with the Bence-Jones- it’s readily available. If you’re in the US, your local library could possibly do an inter-library loan with Trinity, UCD, Irish National Library, etc.
Good luck with your search.

Try this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Carbery

and this :

http://www.fasg.org/Ulmstead.pdf

and this:

http://nmichael.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_archive.html

there would be a lot of work in making anything of the castle, and very deep pockets would be required.

i remember many years ago staying overnight in the car park in our camper, and the kids having a good run around what must be a dangerous site. in the middle of the night my wife woke up to see a mass of lights closing in on us through the trees, and woke me. i armed myself with the handle of an old hammer, all i could find, but the lights passed us by. we realised that the pub in the vilage had just chucked out and the people from the nearby camp site where making their way home. those scary few minutes have stuck in my mind ever since.

does anyone know how the house came t be a wreck?

@david y wrote:

there would be a lot of work in making anything of the castle, and very deep pockets would be required.

i remember many years ago staying overnight in the car park in our camper, and the kids having a good run around what must be a dangerous site. in the middle of the night my wife woke up to see a mass of lights closing in on us through the trees, and woke me. i armed myself with the handle of an old hammer, all i could find, but the lights passed us by. we realised that the pub in the vilage had just chucked out and the people from the nearby camp site where making their way home. those scary few minutes have stuck in my mind ever since.

does anyone know how the house came t be a wreck?

The house burnt down at the turn of the (20th) century, it was rebuilt using reinforced concrete around the same time. Unfortunately it was later abandoned (1940’s I think) and the contents were stripped and sold off. The story goes that the Lord Carbery of the time shot the eyes out of his father’s portrait, locked the doors and never returned. The Evans-Frekes are currently renovating the castle, deep pockets required indeed.