HISTORIC estate Dowth Hall, on the banks of the River Boyne, has been in the news recently after the State decided to purchase the entire estate including its 525 acres and Netterville Manor. Located beside the historic sites of Dowth, Knowth and Newgrange, the estate has been purchased from Owen Brennan, founder of Devinish Nutrition, to establish Ireland’s seventh National Park.

Netterville Manor, the main house on the estate, acted as the European headquarters for Devenish before the Belfast-based supplier of animal feed ingredients put the lands up for sale in April with a €10 million price tag.

The estate, provisionally named the Boyne Valley National Park, was purchased for €11 million through Sherry FitzGerald Country Homes with a masterplan to be drawn up over the next two years.

Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien said he expected some public access would be possible then, with the full grounds to open up gradually afterwards.

Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan said agricultural research would continue on site, with the emphasis on nature-friendly farming.

Hunting tradition

Looking back, Dowth Hall was always a sporting estate with a rich tradition of hunting with records of The Drogheda and Dowth Draghunt in 1867. The Little Grange Harriers were also kennelled in Dowth Hall and hunted by the then owner Clifford Cameron, and later by Barbara Jennings and Captain John Wentges. There were lawn meets of the Meath Foxhounds at the house and the Louth Foxhounds still have a meet just up the road at Dolly Mitchell’s Bar.

As Dowth Hall has a natural three-mile circuit it is an ideal point-to-point course, but there is also another nearby traditionally known as The Stand Racecourse where, it is understood, races were also held. The 1898 Aintree Grand National winner Drogheda was bred in Dowth Hall when it was owned by the Gradwell family.

Scene from Dowth Hall PTP in 2018

Tony Cameron

Dowth Hall was also the former home of Tony Cameron, one of the most distinguished horsemen to reside there, who excelled in many disciplines in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. A true Corinthian, an amateur jockey who rode in the Grand National and at Cheltenham, a double Olympic event rider, an honorary whipper-in to the Louth Foxhounds and a former field master of the Meath Foxhounds.

Tony was born in England but raised in Dowth Hall after his father Clifford came over for a day’s hunting with Billy Filgate, master and huntsman of the Louth Foxhounds. Although they had a tedious hack from the Louth kennels to the Meath Foxhounds meet in Headford, 24 miles each way, and hunted for the day, he enjoyed Ireland so much he purchased Dowth Hall Estate.

Many will remember Owen Brennan of Devenish Nutrition hosting one of the most successful point-to-point and country fair meetings of the Meath Foxhounds and Tara Harriers at which Tony Cameron served as a steward on the day.

Groom Eddie Devin

Life at Dowth Hall was all about horses, a stable of hunters, racehorses, eventers and broodmares. And a key member of the Cameron team was groom Eddie Devin, whose neighbour is another well-known horseman and former chairman of Horse Sport Ireland, Professor Patrick Wall. Eddie, who is 90 years young, lives across the road with his wife Kathleen and worked first for the Granwells and then for the Camerons for 33 years and went on afterwards to work with Thomas Matthews’ hunters for a further 42 years, a total of 75 years working, so far.

He recalled a staff in Dowth Hall of a butler and five house staff, four grooms, three gardeners and 20 farm workers. Eddie broke hundreds of horses in his day including hunters and racehorses like Light The Wad who won the Arkle Novice Chase in 1981, and Chow Mein who won the Galway Plate in 1985, both owned by Pat Downey and trained by Dessie Hughes.

Dowth Hall also stood the flat stallion Papist, once a favourite for the Epsom Derby. They were fed on hard feed of rolled oats, supplemented by raw eggs, porter and bran mashes. Eddie remembered loading Tony’s event horses on the boat for the annual trips to the horse trials in Badminton and Burghley. In those days there was no roll on roll off facility so horses had to be winched on board in a crate accompanied by a groom who had to stay in the crate until they reached Holyhead.

The summers were also busy getting ready for horse shows with all Tony’s horses aimed for the Dublin Horse Show in showing and show jumping.

One of the highlights of Eddie’s career in Dowth Hall was when he travelled as a groom with the Irish eventing team horses to the Olympic Games in Tokyo and Moscow and has great memories of touching the re-entry module that the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin came back to earth in when in Moscow, learning to dance with the Geisha girls and developing a taste for Japanese food while in Tokyo. The locals were so fascinated by how much the Irish could eat they followed them around taking photos of them.

Another former neighbour of Eddie’s is Patsy McCloskey who was the last person to live in Dowth Hall when his uncle’s family, the Pidgeons, owned it. Having flown planes for 50 years, including commercial flights from Shannon Airport, he still flies his Cessna near Dowth Hall. Patsy also has a strong connection in the racing world as he was co-pilot to Captain Ollie Conway on a Skyvan, owned by trainer Vincent O’Brien out of the airfield at Rosegreen. O’Brien was a great innovator and one of the first to fly horses to racecourses in his own aircraft.

Former Olympian Tony Cameron stewarding at the Meath and Tara point-to-point at his former home, Dowth Hall \ Noel Mullins

Field master

Tony Cameron had a stable of hunters and he whipped into his father Clifford when he hunted the Little Grange Harriers, with his mother hunting side saddle, and to Billy Filgate in the Louths before he became field master of the Meaths at the invitation of then joint master Gene Kruger when Johnny Henry was hunting hounds.

He recalled horse trainer Jessica (Fowler) Harrington who had recently married and was hunting with the Heytrop returning home occasionally to hunt young horses for her father with the Meaths.

One day Tony and Thomas Matthews were leading the field and approaching a challenging ditch which was complicated by electric wire just above head height. While deliberating, Jessica Harrington, who Tony says did not hang about and only knew one way across country and that was in a straight line, suddenly came flying through and away. This became an everyday occurrence and they had no option but to follow.

One day Matthews turned to Cameron and said: “The sooner that lady goes back to England the better before we are all killed!”

Tony maintained that a couple of his best hunters were Adonis, a small horse that he bought from Billy Filgate, and Sonnet, the horse he rode at the Rome Olympic Games.

Tony looked forward to hunting in Limerick with his then wife, Lady Jane Stanhope, a talented hunt follower and race rider and a daughter of Lord Harrington, joint master of County Limerick with Lord Toby Daresbury. His friend, Billy Filgate, master of the Louths had a different style to Daresbury who liked hounds to hunt a fast three miles and account on top, while Billy had the whippers-in hold up the lead hounds until they were all on.

Lord Harrington gave Tony a young horse to hunt. The horse, a gelding by Renwood, was bred in Kerry and sent later to be produced by Noel O’Dwyer, a son of Lt Col Ged O’Dwyer, and ridden a few times by Tommy Wade before he was sold to Joe McGrath and given to Seamus Hayes who formed a great partnership with him.

The horse turned out to be Goodbye who won the first Hickstead Derby in 1961 and again in 1964, a member of the Aga Khan winning team of 1963 and again in 1967 with Tommy Wade, Capt Billy Ringrose and The Hon Diana Conolly-Carew and again in 1967 with Capt Ned Campion. He went on to win the Puissance at Dublin, Wembley, Aachen, Ostend, Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Brussels.

Racing

Tony remembered riding his pony in point-to-points when he was only 16. He rode his own horses and for a number of trainers and rode a number of times at the Cheltenham Festival. He also kept himself fit riding out in Tom Dreaper’s yard and had the pleasure of riding the great steeplechaser Arkle before he was named.

But his big opportunity came at Aintree in 1962 on Gay Navaree. The horse had dropped a lot of jockeys including Toss Taaffe who had a smile when he heard that Tony got the ride in Aintree. But trainer Dick Hoey reminded Tony that the horse was a great jumper and never fell. He gave him a run at Navan with strict instruction not to interfere with the horse and let him work everything out himself. After a clear round they headed for Aintree.

At the start, a spectator held up a sign ‘Your Sins Will Find You Out’ and the 1965 Grand National winner Dave Dick said to Tony: “That means I will fall at the first fence!” Tony decided to go down the middle where he had loads of room and let the horse do his own thing and had a dream round. The extra mile for a three-mile chaser found him out and he had nothing left at the end but came a respectable fourth at 100/1. Fred Winter won it on Kilmore, owned by Nat Cohen who made the ‘Carry On’ films at 28/1. Mr What, who won it in 1958, was third with Johnny Lehane up.

Tony Cameron riding Black Salmon at the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games

Eventing

At 18 years of age, Tony Cameron was called up to train with the Irish eventing panel assembled at Curraghmore in Waterford. Little did he know that he would go on to be an Olympian. In that era eventing was long format with show jumping, dressage, roads and tracks, steeplechase then cross-country and at which the Irish-bred horses excelled.

The team line-up in for the Rome 1960 Olympics was Tony on Sonnet, Eddie Harty on Harlequin, Capt Ian Hume-Dudgeon on Corrigneagh and Capt Harry Freeman-Jackson on St Finbar. Australia won with Switzerland second and France third. Ireland were sixth out of 18 teams and the only team to produce four sound horses on the trot up on show jumping day.

But, they had to contend with problems as the course was not ready when they arrived and there were 59 falls of which nine occurred at fence 27. Their audience with Pope John Paul XXIII got delayed and they just made it back in time for the show jumping.

Tokyo 1964

The team in Tokyo was Tony on Black Salmon, Tommy Brennan on Kilkenny, John Harty on San Michele, Capt Harry Freeman-Jackson on St Finbar with the chef d’equipe Thady Ryan, master of the Scarteen Hunt. Professor Martin Byrne, who hunted with the Fingal Harriers, was the team vet. Italy won gold, USA took silver and bronze went to West Germany. Ireland finished just outside the medals in fourth place with Tony fifth in the individual rankings.

Although Fr Sweeney gave his blessing at Shannon Airport, the DC7C aircraft which flew by the North Pole via Iceland and Alaska had to contend with brake failure in Keflavik which caused a delay, and an engine blew in Anchorage. But there was no panic as Tommy Brennan discovered a local drink called Brenovich which he thought was named after him and became an instant favourite of the party!

As a result, by the time the horses arrived in Tokyo they had been standing for 57 hours, but they were all fit and well even after five days quarantine.

Burghley 1962

The European Championships in 1962 were held in Burghley with Tony on Sam Wellar, The Hon Patrick Conolly-Carew on Ballyhoo, Capt Harry Freeman-Jackson on St Finbarr, and Virginia Freeman-Jackson on Irish Lace.

It was a good result for Ireland as they were runners-up to the USSR with Capt Harry Freeman-Jackson fourth, Tony 10th, Patrick Conolly-Carew 13th and Virginia Freeman-Jackson 19th.

At the 1965 European Championships in Moscow, Tony was riding Lough Druid with Penny Morton on Loughlin, Virginia Freeman-Jackson on Sam Weller and Major Eddie Boylan on Durlas Eile. The winners were the USSR with Ireland runners-up. There was rain and thunder storms and the team had to sit up all night as their accommodation was not ready and horses were delayed in unloading and had to travel 15 miles in open trucks to Moscow Hippodrome

It is worth noting that the great combination of Major Eddie Boylan on Durlas Eile won the European Championship in 1967 and the Irish team were runners-up to Britain.

Tony Cameron riding Sam Wellar at Badminton Horse Trials

Great Badminton

Tony competed at Badminton on a number of occasions, finishing fourth in 1962 on Dignity and third on Black Salmon in 1964 with his wife Lady Jane 11th in 1962 on Sam Weller.

By his own admission, Tony earned the title as Tony Cameron IV as he was fourth in the Aintree Grand National, Cheltenham and the Olympics.

Dowth Hall has certainly seen glory days in equestrian sport, and it would be nice to think that horses like the Irish Draught and the Thoroughbred would once again roam the estate as an integral part of the tourist attraction on our newly acquired National Park on the East Coast, similar to the Connemara National Park and in Kylemore Abbey with their Connemara Ponies.