For over 1 500 years, the Clonalis estate has been the ancestral seat of the «O'Connor Don» (don means king or ruler), the descendant of the High Kings of Ireland and head of the O'Connors from Connaught. The present-day house, built on a hillock by the Suck River, was designed in 1878 by Pepys Cockerell in an Italianised Victorian style. The house contains a large number of outstanding artefacts and furniture which used to belong to the O'Connors.