Twin Trees Heywood Festival.
Sham Castle at Heywood, Ballinakill.
Situated at Heywood Demesne, Ballinakill, Sham Castle, and the Gothic Ruin, were constructed as follies, which were whimsical and fashionable additions to wealthy estates, at the time. The Trench family, who lived in Heywood House, intentionally had the follies constructed as ruins. They appear as they were meant to – in a faux ruinous state, and there was never any intention to complete the structures.
The area was used by the family to entertain guests, showing off the wonderful views of the lake, and no doubt the opulence which allowed them to construct the follies in the first place.
The window of the Gothic Ruin, which frames the lake view, is an authentic medieval structure, and it is thought that it may have been acquired from the ruins of Aghaboe Abbey.
Sham Castle, also constructed as a ruin, has four towers – one at each corner of the building.
Gothic Ruin & Sham Castle.
sham
/ʃam/Submit
noun
noun: sham; plural noun: shams
1.
a thing that is not what it is purported to be.
synonyms: pretence, fake, act, fiction, simulation, imposture, fraud, feint, lie, counterfeit;
“George abhorred sham and affectation”
A person who pretends to be someone or something they are not.
“He was a sham, totally unqualified for his job as a senior doctor”
Synonyms: charlatan, fake, fraud, impostor, pretender, masquerader, dissembler, wolf in sheep’s clothing; More
2.
bogus; false.
“a clergyman who arranged a sham marriage”
synonyms: fake, pretended, feigned, simulated, false, artificial, bogus, synthetic, spurious, ersatz, insincere, not genuine, manufactured, contrived, affected, plastic, make-believe, fictitious; More
antonyms: real, genuine
verb: sham; 3rd person present: shams; past tense: shammed; past participle: shammed; gerund or present participle: shamming