In a land far, far away, at a time when Donegal land was being acquired by Lords of this, that, and the other, William Sydney Clements, the 3^rd Earl of Leitrim secured hundreds of acres near the village of Downings, off Sheephaven Bay.  The Lord was highly unpopular due to known evictions of good people committing minor infractions. He would continue to rule over much of the land until one fateful morning.

It was a fresh and cold, typical, spring morning in April 1878 that Lord Leitrim lost his life after being trapped and attacked by three men near Mulroy Bay.  He was shot several times, surviving each time, before finally succumbing to the final blow to the head by the end of a rifle.  This was the end of one era and the thankful beginning of another.

Though estranged from his aforementioned uncle, the land known now as Rosapenna, was willed to Robert Bermingham Clements, the 4^th Earl of Leitrim. Admiration from the people of Donegal grew as the new Lord began restoring many of the tenants who had previously been evicted.  They received their homes and fields back, and life in Donegal was once again alive.