Raheens House is just outside Castlebar, approximately 5km from the town centre on Newport Road. Sometimes it is spelled Rahins or Rahin. The house itself dates back to the early 1800s and is said to have replaced an earlier house. It originally belonged to the Browne family. The Browne family was related to Lord Sligo, from Westport House, the Brownes of Breaffy House, and the Brownes of The Neale.
The estate comprises of over 1000 acres with a long, winding, tree-lined avenue from the gatehouse on Newport Road. The original house was surrounded by a moat and four bastions. It is said locally that the estate began during the Cromwellian plantation and that Cromwell gave the estate to one of his soldiers who did not want it and he offered it to anyone who would give him a horse to take him on a journey to Athlone. A soldier named Browne gave him a white horse in exchange for the estate.
There is also an 80' high obelisk on the grounds that was erected in 1809 by Dodwell Browne in memory of his late wife Maria nee O'Donnel. The obelisk is said to be built at the spot 400 yards from the house, where local history tells us, that the horses drawing the carriage in which Maria sat while on a journey to Dublin as she was ill, stood and refused to move. After some time, the horses moved reluctantly but Maria died shortly after she arrived in Dublin. Dodwell is said to have believed that the incident with the horses was an omen.
It is also said that General Humbert visited the house on some occasions during his stay in Castlebar in 1798.
It was also the site for the famous music festivals in Castlebar in 1981 and 1982 known as 'The Occasion At The Castle'.
