www.kilmokea.com

(Tourist Accommodation Facility)

Gardens Open in 2025: April 1-Nov 2, 10am-6pm

Fee: adult €9, OAP €6, student /child €5, family €25

Kilmokea is listed under section 482 as Tourist Accommodation. The owners open the gardens to the public for a small fee. The stables and coach house have been converted to self-catering rental.

Mark Bence-Jones tells us in his A Guide to Irish Country Houses (1988) that it is a former glebe house, that is, it was on the grounds of the church, built in 1794 (the National Inventory says 1806 – the website explains that it was not finished and occupied until the later date). It served as the residence for the Whitechurch parish Church of Ireland rector. The website for the house tells us that it is located on the site of an ancient monastery.

Kilmokea is on Great Island, which is not actually an island, although it is largely surrounded by water. The website tells us that the River Barrow, which converges with the River Nore just upstream from New Ross, forms the “island’s” western boundary, and the inner reaches of Waterford Harbour border Great Island to the South. The Campile River, to the east, also flows into Waterford Harbour, while the connecting isthmus to the ‘mainland’ of County Wexford is largely low-lying and prone to floods, hence the name Great Island. It was previously known as “Hervey’s Island” as it was part of the barony belonging to Anglo-Norman Hervey de Montmorency.

The National Inventory tells us that the composition of the house is attributed to Francis Johnston (1760-1829) “confirmed by such attributes as the deliberate alignment maximising on scenic vistas overlooking landscaped grounds with the meandering River Barrow in the near distance; the near square plan form centred on a restrained doorcase; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression.”

It is a two-storey over basement house, roughly square, with a three-bay facade protected by a later porch. The garden front is of four bays and the rooms at the rear are set high above the lawn and treated as a piano nobile.

The National Inventory lists the rectors who lived here: Reverend Thomas Hancock (d. 1836); Reverend Joseph Miller (d. 1838); Reverend John Keefe Robinson (d. 1862); Reverend Edward Moore (d. 1865); and Reverend Robert Gordon Stowell Greer (1871-1929), ‘Rector of [Whitechurch] Parish for 29 years.’

The gardens were created by previous owners David and Joan Price, from whom the current owners purchased the property. The website tells us that when the Prices purchased the property in 1948 it was dilapidated, and they restored and extended the house, removing the external rendering and stripping and waxing the internal joinery by hand. 

The subtropical microclimate allows many rare and tender plants to flourish. The Prices surrounded the house with a series of interconnecting garden ‘rooms’ of varying size. Across the road the garden continues with a reconstructed millpond which feeds a small stream, which winds its way through a woodland garden to the River Barrow.

In 1997 Mark and Emma Hewlett purchased the property. They have extended and enhanced both house and garden, and built a new conservatory. Upstairs was completely renovated.

The entrance door inside the porch is topped by a spiderweb fanlight, leading to a generous entrance hall. The National Inventory tells us that the carved timber door surrounds, the moulded plasterwork cornice and acanthus ceiling rose are original to the house.

The National Inventory tells us that the drawing room (north-west) retains a carved timber surround to the door opening framing a timber panelled door, and carved timber surrounds to window openings with framing timber panelled shutters. It retains a cut-black marble Classical-style chimneypiece, and moulded plasterwork cornice to the ceiling centred on “Grape and Vine”-detailed plasterwork ceiling rose.

The National Inventory tells us that the staircase is on a dog leg plan with replacement turned timber “spindle” balusters supporting a carved timber banister terminating in a volute. The study, now an office, has a cut-white marble Classical-style chimneypiece. It retains a picture railing below a moulded plasterwork cornice to the ceiling which is centred on a plasterwork ceiling rose.

There’s even a four poster bed for the children!

Mark showed us the other bedrooms in the renovated coach house and stables.

Some of the trail is geared toward children, to let imaginations populate the woods.

There’s a leisure area in a stone building with an indoor heated swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, aromatherapy treatments and a gym area. An all weather tennis court and croquet lawn complete these facilities which are for the use of residents.

Kilmokea Country Manor has won numerous awards for its hospitality and fine dining. Kilmokea is also a member of Hidden Ireland and has been recommended by Alastair Sawday’s special places to stay in Ireland, Karen Brown’s Ireland Charming Inns and Itineraries, Georgina Campbell’s guide to Ireland and The Hidden places of Ireland.

[1] Ireland’s Content Pool, https://www.irelandscontentpool.com/en

Text © Jennifer Winder-Baggot, www.irishhistorichouses.com