The Maharaja who fished in Ireland
K.S. Ranjitsinhji and a castle in Connemara
Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II was born in 1872, became Prince of Nawanagar (a state in India), played cricket for England at the highest level, and led the Indian cricket delegation to the 1911 coronation of George V. In 1924, at the age of 52, he bought Ballynahinch Castle from a fishing lodge operator and lived here, off and on, until 1929. He brought his entourage, his servants, his style. He fished the lake. He threw parties. He brought India to Connemara in the 1920s and nobody seemed to find it odd. He died in 1933 in Jamnagar, India. Ballynahinch stayed a fishing lodge. But for a decade he was here, and the castle remembers it.
The fishing that made the castle
Atlantic salmon and Ballynahinch Lake
Ballynahinch Lake is a three-kilometre salmon fishery in the middle of Connemara. Atlantic salmon return from the ocean in spring to spawn — usually March to July. The fish come back to the rivers they were born in, and Ballynahinch catches them as they run. The casting is from the shore, the boats are light, the tackle is specialist, the knowledge is learned over years. A good day is three fish. A better day is five. The waiting between bites is the meditation. The hotel exists because of this fishing. The fishermen who come here know the rhythm of the seasons and the rhythms of the lake.
Built, rebuilt, survived
The castle on the lake
The castle was built in the 1820s as a fishing lodge — a solid stone building with thick walls and a slated roof, the way you built things to last in the west of Ireland. It was rebuilt and expanded in the Victorian era, expanded again in the 20th century. Ranjitsinhji added a wing. The Irish Free State saw it as a private house and taxed it accordingly. Wars came and went. The hotel survived by being useful — fishermen need a bed and a bar and a place to talk about the fish that got away. The building is four-storey stone, with a tower, and sits on the lake edge with the bog and the Twelve Bens behind it. It is not pretty in the way of tourist castles. It is solid in the way that things built to work are solid.
Stone and water and light
The lake walks and the bog
The walks around Ballynahinch Lake are not long but they are serious — bog, bog water, stone, the light changing on the lake. The loop around the lake edge is six kilometres and takes two hours. There are paths that lead up into the hills behind, tracks that cross the bog toward Benlettery and Bencullagh. The weather is its own opinion — bring a coat that means it. The best days are after rain, when the light breaks through and the lake sits still. The worst days teach you something about Connemara weather and about yourself.