Details
Founded: 1794Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in Finland
Historical period: The Age of Enlightenment (Finland)
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Jokioinen manor was established in 1562 when Erik XIV, the king of Sweden, donated the area as fiefdom to Klas Kristersson Horn. The heyday of Jokioinen manor was in the 18th century at the time of R.H. Jägerholm (he bought the manor in 1752), when the manor owned 32000 hectares land around the Jokioinen. After him several famous families have owned Jokioinen including Flemings, Jägerhorn af Spurilas, Reuterholms, von Willebrands sekä Mannerheims.
The present manor house was built in 1794. With 30 rooms it was then second largest building in Finland. The garden is from the 17th century. Today it is owned by the MTT Agrifood Research Finland. The manor outdoor areas are open to the public.
Dating from the 15th century, Kisimul is the only significant surviving medieval castle in the Outer Hebrides. It was the residence of the chief of the Macneils of Barra, who claimed descent from the legendary Niall of the Nine Hostages. Tradition tells of the Macneils settling in Barra in the 11th century, but it was only in 1427 that Gilleonan Macneil comes on record as the first lord. He probably built the castle that dominates the rocky islet, and in its shadow a crew house for his personal galley and crew. The sea coursed through Macneil veins, and a descendant, Ruari ‘the Turbulent’, was arrested for piracy of an English ship during King James VI’s reign in the later 16th century.
Heavy debts eventually forced the Macneil chiefs to sell Barra in 1838. However, a descendant, Robert Lister Macneil, the 45th Chief, repurchased the estate in 1937, and set about restoring his ancestral seat. It passed into Historic Scotland’s care in 2000.
The castle dates essentially from the 15th century. It takes the form of a three-storey tower house. This formed the residence of the clan chief. An associated curtain wall fringed the small rock on which the castle stood, and enclosed a small courtyard in which there are ancillary buildings. These comprised a feasting hall, a chapel, a tanist’s house and a watchman’s house. Most were restored in the 20th century, the tanist’s house serving as the family home of the Macneils. A well near the postern gate is fed with fresh water from an underground seam. Outside the curtain wall, beside the original landing-place, are the foundations of the crew house, where the sailors manning their chief’s galley had their quarters.