Lough Lannagh Lodge is the main house, reception, and restaurant of the Lough Lannagh Holiday Village in Castlebar. The lodge was originally Creagh Villa which was the ancestral home of well-known local family, the Gillespies.
The Holiday Village was a project undertaken by Castlebar Town Council to develop the site of the house and lands into a facility providing self-catering accommodation and meeting rooms which was much welcomed by the town. It sits right on the shores of Lough Lannagh. The Village offers bed and breakfast accommodation, with individual and group accommodation as well as self-catering accommodation in their holiday cottages. They can hold up to 120 residential visitors in B&B and holiday cottages.
The Gillespie family are very well known locally and were one-time owners of the local newspaper, The Connaught Telegraph. They were one of the last families to live in the original house. One of the current holiday cottages, Gillespie Cottage, is named after them. In the 1950s and ‘60s, Creagh Villa was a working farm with poultry, cattle, sheep, and pigs, and was almost self-sufficient. Local historian, Johnny Mee, some time ago Johnny Mee, wrote in The Connaught Telegraph wrote about a canal that runs from Saleen Lake to Lough Lannagh, entering the lake at the Lough Lannagh car park. Full article here: https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2020/03/14/the-unique-story-of-a-mayo-canal/
With Lough Lannagh recently developed into a leisure area with loops walks around the lake and two playgrounds as well as other outdoor exercise equipment, this area is a real gem in Castlebar's town centre.
Lough Lannagh Holiday Village recently featured on the Brennan Brothers, At Your Service.
