Windham Thomas Wyndham-Quin, 4th Earl of Dunraven and Mount-Earl, KP, CMG, PC (Ire) (12 February 1841 – 14 June 1926), styled Viscount Adare between 1850 and 1871, was an Anglo-Irish journalist, landowner, soldier, sportsman and Conservative politician.

He built a tourist hotel there but sold the land in the early 20th century, as he was under continuous pressure from settlers trying to encroach on his holdings.

While part of the Protestant Ascendancy, the Quin (Irish: Ó Cuinn)[2] family of Adare descended of Gaelic-Irish nobility as a prominent branch of the Dalcassians; they had several-times married into the Wyndham family, from whence they inherited Dunraven Castle and which members included the Earl of Egremont and Baron Leconfield.

[3][4] After serving as a lieutenant in the 1st Life Guards, a cavalry regiment, Dunraven became, at age twenty-six, a war correspondent for the London newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

[14] During the early stages of the South African War 1899–1902, the British Army suffered defeats at the hands of the Boer Commandos, composed of men who were first-class shots and good horsemen.

Lord Dunraven at the last moment decided to accompany the force and was posted as a supernumerary captain on the battalion staff.

[18] In January 1901, the government made a further call for yeomanry and between February and March, another 1,200 men were recruited by the Sharpshooters Committee.

The Sharpshooters fought many small-scale actions against the Boers, with increasing skill, and showed the value of mobile, well-armed and resourceful troops.

[21][22] On 22 November 1903, Major-General Baden-Powell, Inspector of Cavalry, unveiled a memorial in the Church of St Martin's in the Fields.

As a constructive moderate Unionist he sought to bring about a peaceful solution to the Irish land question and to the demand for Home Rule.

Following the initiative of George Wyndham, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, he was instrumental in forming the 1902 Land Conference of which he was chairman, representing the landlord side.

Together with William O'Brien, who represented the tenant side, the conference resulted in the publication of a unanimous report in January which led to the enactment of the Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903.

While reflecting primarily the views of progressive landlords like him, it was intended to rally all those who wished to see the 'conference policy' applied to other spheres of Irish life.

He first arrived in 1872, and met and befriended Texas Jack Omohundro, who acted as a guide and led the earl's party on buffalo and elk hunts.

This trip would be documented in his book Hunting in the Yellowstone or On the Trail of the Wapiti with Texas Jack in the Land of Geysers.

Later on the same trip, the young earl decided to make the whole of Estes Park, Colorado into a game preserve for the exclusive use of himself and his British friends.

By stretching the provisions of the Homestead Act and pre-emption rights, Dunraven claimed 15,000 acres (61 km2) in what later was designated as the present-day Rocky Mountain National Park.

[33] In 1876, the earl commissioned Albert Bierstadt to make a painting on canvas of Longs Peak and Estes Park for US $15,000, equivalent to $429,188 in 2023.

[33] Dunraven later described the influx of settlers and his consequent plans: Folks were drifting in, prospecting ... preempting, making claims; so we prepared for civilization.

Made a better road, bought a sawmill at San Francisco, hauled the machinery in, set it up, felled trees, and built a wooden hotel...Bierstadt, commissioned by Dunraven to paint at Estes Park, also helped select the site for Dunraven's 'English Hotel', which was built in 1877.

He later said: People came in disputing claims, kicking up rows: exorbitant land taxes got into arrears; and we were in constant litigation.

[38] On returning home in 1896 from Newport, Rhode Island, Dunraven alleged cheating by the winning American yacht, Defender.

He left all his unsettled property (acquired during his lifetime), including Garinish Island, his yacht and racehorses to his only surviving child, Aileen.