Aghaboe, Ballybrophy, Co Laois
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 2. “A 2 storey 7 bay house with a pedimented and fanlighted doorcase, probably dating from 1st half of C18; formerly linked to two flanking wings, one of which has disappeared; the surviving wing being in fact a small late C17 house with plaster panelling in its interior.“
https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/12802206/aghaboe-house-glashina-cross-roads-aghaboe-aghaboe-co-laois
Detached seven-bay two-storey Georgian house, built c.1730, with pedimented doorcase. May incorporate seventeenth century fabric. Double-pitched and hipped roof with replacement fibre-cement tiles and nap rendered chimneystacks. Replacement nap render to front elevation wall over random rubble stone. render removed to rear, with cornice to eaves. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills, limestone voussoirs three-over-three and six-over-six timber sash windows. Round-headed door opening with pedimented stone doorcase and timber panelled door with overlight. Interior not inspected. House is set back from road in own grounds; landscaped grounds to site. Detached seven-bay two-storey wing to site. Detached two-storey outbuilding to site.
The house was advertised for sale by Clement Herron:
sold for €675,000.00. 5 bedrooms.
Clement Herron Real Estate are delighted to welcome Aghaboe Estate to the sales market.
Aghaboe House is a period property dating back to the 17th century standing on twelve and half acres accessed via a tree lined avenue.
The property includes a private orchard and a range of out buildings and detached mews bounded by the estate wall and over looks Aghaboe Abbey. This substantial one of a kind detached five bedroom property is a seven bay two-storey Georgian house c. 1730, with pedimented doorcase and may incorporate 17th century fabrics. This property has earned it’s place on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage due its centuries of history.
This attractive and private historic home is pleasantly positioned and within easy commuting distance of Dublin city and airport by road (M7 approximately ten minutes from Borris in Ossory) and / or rail.
The layout consists of bright high ceilings, rooms with period features and a wine cellar located in the basement with capacity for 6,000 bottles which is fully ventilated and finished with hydraulic lime.
Main entrance with original pine timber flooring opens up to a spacious hallway with access to the basement down a stone staircase. Ground floor consists of kitchen, utility, reception room, dining room, downstairs bedroom with ensuite, and original cut string stair case leading to half landing with two double ensuite bedrooms (one with private dressing-room). Second floor consists of two bedrooms (one ensuite).
Accommodation:
Entrance hall: 5.48m x 4.21m
Georgian Door with fan light opening up to original cut string staircase and pine timber flooring.
Basement: 4.54m x 11.5m
Preserved in hydraulic lime, beams, stone floor and stair case, lighting, secure cast iron doors on wine cellar with capacity for 6,000 bottles, RSJ, extractor fan for ventilation.
Reception: 7m x 5.51m
Original pine timber flooring, dual aspect, three bay sash windows with shutters. Original cast iron fireplace with pellet stove, high ceilings, plaster mouldings and skirting.
Diningroom: 6.70m x 5.59m
Concrete floor finished with carpet, two bay sash windows with shutters, cast iron fireplace with pellet stove, high ceilings, plaster mouldings and skirting.
Kitchen: 4.95m x 4.82m
Flag stone flooring, two bay sash windows, oil fired Aga range and timber beams.
Utility: 1.86m x 2.83m
Tiled flooring, bay sash window, Belfast sink.
Side entrance hall: 2.72m x 2.92m
Tiled and flagstone flooring.
Rear entrance hall: 5.15m x 2.44m
Georgian tiled floor.
Downstairs bedroom (5): 4.86m x 4.87m
Original pine timber flooring, two bay sash windows with shutters, pellet stove.
Ensuite: 2.68m x 1.92m
Shower, w.c., w.h.b., tiled flooring.
Separate w.c.: 2.68m x 2.81m
W.C., w.h.b., sash window with shutters, tiled flooring.
First Floor:
Landing: 4.22m x 5.5m
Original pine timber flooring.
Master bedroom (1): 7.06m x 5.51m
Original pine timber floor, pellet stove, high ceiling, plaster mouldings and two bay sash windows.
Ensuite/changing room: 4.85m x 2.7m
Concrete floor finished with tiles, free standing bath, w.h.b., sash window and shutters.
Bedroom 2: 6.68m x 5.55m
Pine floor, single aspect, pellet stove, high ceilings, skirting and plaster moulding.
Ensuite: 2.95m x 2.7m
Concrete floor finished with tiles, w.h.b., w.c., corner bath with mixer shower, hot press.
Second Floor:
Landing 2: 4.92m x 2.7m
Pine timber flooring, sash window with shiplap ceiling.
Bedroom 3: 4.875m x 4.91m
Pine floor, shiplap ceiling, solid fuel Stanley stove and two bay sash windows with shutters.
Bedroom 4: 4.88m x 4.93m
Pellet stove, pine shiplap ceiling, two bay sash windows with shutters.
Ensuite: 2.75m x 1.78m
W.c., w.h.b., shower with mixer and bay sash window with shutters.
East wing C. 1,330 sq.ft.:
This is a self contained bright and spacious four bedroom, two bathroom (one with bath and shower and one with shower) detached mews with new tiles and fixtures.
Accommodation consists of open plan living room/diner with pellet stove, kitchen, four bedrooms, main bedroom ensuite, and bathroom,
Sheds and Storage:
Storage 1: 3.5m x 5.8m
Shed: 11.4m x 6m with water and electricity.
Storage 2: 3.5m x 5.8m
Coach House: 4.83m x 6.5m with concrete first floor.
Cut limestone out house: 13.1m x 7.1m with RSJ’s and concrete roof.
Two storage sheds C. 500 sq.ft. each.
Hay shed with 5 bays (suitable for stables): 19.1m x 9.6m with galvanised roof, sliding door and concrete floor.
Barn: 19.1m x 6.12 with concrete floor, galvanised roof.
Mezzanine 7m x 6.18m
Boiler House: 3.1m x 5.7m with concrete floor, two insulated accumulator tanks, zoned three ways. Dual heating via pellet or solid fuel.
AGHABOE HOUSE : A BRIEF HISTORY
Aghaboe, with its Castellum was given by King Colman of Ossory to Saint Canice (Caineach) in 560 A.D.
Aghaboe with its Abbey and adjoining Village eventually became the See of the Diocese of Ossory which is the only Irish Diocese which corresponds almost entirely with an ancient Irish Kingdom, Ossory.
The See was later translated to Kilkenny which at the time was shown on maps as Ossory. Strongbow and his entourage were largely responsible for this development. However, an earlier legend concerning the appearance of two coffins at the funeral of Cainneach may suggest an earlier trend in this direction.
After centuries of fighting between the men of Upper Ossory and those now operating out of newly named Kilkenny (Church of Cainneach) a stone church was constructed by Finghin MacGiollaPhadraig (Fitzpatrick) on the site adjoining Aghaboe House in 1383.
The site of the present Aghaboe House previously one of the tower houses built throughout Upper Ossory between 1480 and 1530.
In 1537 Brian MacGiollaPhadraig entered into an Indenture with Henry VIII (and became a Lord in the Irish government with the title of Baron of Upper Ossory. As part of this arrangement Brian was given Aghaboe Abbey and allowed to operate a weekly market on the site which now encompasses Aghaboe House and grounds.
Barnaby Fitzpatrick, the Second Baron of Upper Ossory operated a “tame stud” or breeding operation on the property. A famous and well documented case involved claims that O’Carroll had stolen some of his “wild stud” or stallions which were typically allowed to roam the “Criche” or borderlands between Upper Ossory and Eile.
Subsequent to Cromwell it is believed that the tower house was demolished and the current buildings which comprise Aghaboe House, along with its extensive perimeter walls and ice houses, were constructed. Once a section of the Village of Aghaboe the estate was taken under single ownership and the main house was extended and converted to a Georgian style home in approximately 1730.
Once home to Vicar Roger Ledwich, author of the two volume Irish Antiquities with related etchings of local historic sites, Aghaboe House was acquired in 1984 by descendants of residents of the Parish of Aghaboe who were displaced during the “Great Hunger”.
Aghaboe House is now ready for the next Owner to preserve and protect its place in Irish History.
https://laoishouses.wordpress.com/2016/04/
Till the 14th Century Aghaboe was probably quite a significant town, centred around St Canice’s Abbey. It stands on the Slighe Dhála, one of the five great bronze age, or possibly stone age roads, and crossed Ireland from Loop Head to Tara. To the South of Aghaboe a townland called Boherard (the great cow path or high road) suggests that a road branched off here to the south – maybe towards Cashel or Kilkenny – there are the remnants of a chain of medieval churches at Cuffsborough, Bordwell and Kilbreedy to the Motte of Monacoghlan and on down to Aghmacart. The bronze age structures found at Cuffesborough during the construction of the M8, especially the circular 17m diameter structure, suggest the area had been a centre of habitation for millennia.
Though the only visible evidence of the medieval town is the abbey and the motte, aerial photography in dry summers shows the layout of the town. At an angle North East to the present house are a row of buildings that were converted into barns at one stage, which would appear to be town houses dating from at least the 17th Century. The one nearest to the present house retained raised and fielded plaster panelling of the early 18th century, and evidence of a stone spiral staircase in the south wall.
In the 1640 survey of Upper Ossory recorded by Ledwich, it appears that Aghaboe was in the possession of Mr. Carpenter. From the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 1874 we learn that the Rev SC Harpur communicated the existence of a silver chalice belonging to the Parish church of Aghaboe Queen’s County with the following inscription Ex dono Ursula Carpenter Viduae Joshua Carpenter nuper de Siginstown in Com Kildare armi . Ecclesice parochiali de Aghaboe 14 Maij 1663 Daniele Nilon Sa: The Doctore Rectore. Joshua Carpenter died in 1655 and is buried in St David’s Church in Naas and was of Sigginstown, (aka Jigginstown) where he was the steward of Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford and very unpopular Lord Deputy of Ireland. Wentorth had been attainted for treason and executed in May 1641. The next few years were pretty dreadful for Carpenter as well, who was also charged with treason and imprisoned in Dublin Castle. Sir George Radcliffe intervened with Ormonde on Carpenter’s behalf, causing the charges to be dropped in 1644 (whilst he was charged with treason he could not give evidence on Wentworth’s behalf). So what brought Joshua to Aghaboe. A possible connecrtion is Wentwoth’s brother George, to whom he was close, who married Anne Ruish, sister of Strafford’s great friend Eleanor Loftus, second daughter and co-heiress of Sir Francis Ruish, of Ruish Hall, at Castletown, M.P. for Offaly, and of the Privy Council in the reign of King James I. It is tempting to conjecture that Wentworth’s agent, whose many building projects included Jigginstown and Black Tom’s Cellars at Dunlavin, might have also built the early houses at Aghaboe, to which his family may have moved after Wentworth’s fall and Joshua’s imprisonment – the funeral entry in naas tells us that Josua Carpenter, Esq., was borne at Liaie in Devonshere ; hee tooke to wife Ursula, daughter of Richard Vinegor of Sackfield Hall, in the Nine Parishes, SufFolke, Esq., by whome hee had issue foure sonnes, viz. John, Thomas, Josua, and Phillipp ; and five daughters, Cissillia, Anne, Arabella, Ursula, and Mary
Next door in Cross lived Anthony Cashin whose family were the ancient proprietors of Aghaboe under the Fitzpatricks. Conoly Cassin of Aghaboe was a doctor of physic who like many others fled from Ireland to France on the arrival of Cromwell and returned on the restoration. He practiced in Dublin where he published a medical text in 1667
Aghaboe House from the Incumbered Estates sale particulars
The Vicarage of Aghaboe belonged to the Carr family, who took up the vicarage for their own family on several occasions – the vicar of Aghaboe, in 1744, was Thomas Carr. In 1841 George Carr. Sheffield City Archives holds a marriage settlement dated 3 November 1812 relating to land at Aghaboe between The Rev. Thomas Carpenter Carr of Aghaboe and Frances Susanna Mongan, daughter of the late John Mongan of the County of Monaghan. This last gives us the clue as to how the Carrs came to the area. Joshua Carpenter’s granddaughter Ursula, daughter of Thomas Carr (son of Sir George Carr of Yorkshire) of Donore, in the County Kildare, died on the 26th of May, 1675, “and was buried the 27th of the same month in the towne [? tomb] of her grandfather, Josua Carpenter, Esq., in the chancell of the Nase [church]. (from the funeral entry). The ‘Dublin Evening Post’ of 11th April 1797 noted that John Carr of Mount Rath was searching for a distiller. ‘Saunders Newsletter’ of 9th December 1805 published a letter of thanks from John Carr of Mountrath to the Globe Insurance Company for making good his losses following a fire in his corn stores, a mere three days after taking out the policy. The following year the ‘Saunders’ edition of 8th December 1806 advertised a sale at the Excise Office of 12,000 gallons of seized spirits, distilled by John Carr of Mountrath, under seizure for non-payment of excise. He was finally declared bankrupt in August 1811, and emigrated to Canada. In 1797 Thomas Carr was recorded as having 593 acres between Aghaboe, Cross and Friar’s Land
But where do the White family fit into this jigsaw? In 1657, during the last years of Cromwell’s protectorate, Charles White arrived in Ireland from Oxford. Whether he was a soldier, a cleric or an adventurer is not at present known. He married a Miss Lyons of Meath and acquired Kilmartin and Raheen, just outside Borris in Ossory, which remained the main family home till the 20th Century. By 1748 his grandson Charles was living at Aghaboe, married to Elizabeth Spunner from Milltown House at Shinrone. Charles’ second son Robert who was born in 1748 and married Charlotte Hamilton (dau of James Hamilton of Sheephill & Holmpatrick) in 1779 died at Aghaboe in 1814. Ledwich noted in the statistical Account of Aghaboe in 1798 that the parish contained some plain comfortable houses, as Mr. Robert White’s, at Aghaboe; In 1825 James White, late of Aghaboe, in the Queen’s County, died and the property was inherited by his brother Hans White, named in honour of his illustrious Hamilton ancestor – the Rev Hans Hamilton, who was the son of Archibald Hamilton of Raploch, and first protestant vicar of Dunlop in Ayrshire. His name was actually John, which is Johannes in Latin, and so shortened to Hans.
Hans White, who married Anne Armit, daughter of John Armit of Dublin in 1825, was killed in a riding accident 4 years later in 1829 It was reported that he parted from friends at 1 o’clock in the afternoon who came upon him minutes later lying in the road just by his own gates, having fallen from his horse. His eldest son, General Sir Robert White, was commissioned into the 17th Light Dragoons on 15 October 1847. He fought and was severely wounded at the Battle of Alma in September 1854 during the Crimean War. He was also badly wounded at the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854 in the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. He went on to be Commander of the 22nd Brigade, based at Norton Barracks in Worcestershire, in 1873 and General Officer Commanding Eastern District in September 1882. In 1868 General White married Charlotte, the daughter of the Rev John Meara of Headfort, Co Galway. They had 6 children: Hans Stannard White, Robert FH White, Henry Ernest White (who married Lord Ashbrook’s daughter and lived at Knockatrina) and 3 other children
One would assume that Ledwich himself was leasing Aghaboe House, but that conflicts with Robert White being there. Ledwich writes about his orchard and farm at Aghaboe, but maybe it was on the site of the current glebe house, that was not built till 1820. Ledwich does note that it was very hard for a Vicar to find accommodation in the parish, and that one might have to live at some distance. He himself was brought up at Oldglas, where Granston Manor is now, about 6 miles away, which he then rented when he was first appointed to the Vicarage. The 1786 Post Chaise Companion says “At Aghaboe on the R is the seat of the Reverend Dr Edward Ledwich near the church” That surely has to be Aghaboe House. In 1777 Taylor & Skinner show it as being the seat of the Rev. Dr Carr. Maybe the Whites had a house on the site of the present Grange.
However in 1854 Aghboe was sold under the Incumbered Estates Act by Robert White (presumably the General). It was bought by Parnell Maillard of Huntingdon, Portarlington, who leased it to Jerimiah and Anna Maria Dunne. Their son Francis Xavier Dunne was a private in the Machine Gun Corps and was killed in the battle of the Somme in 1916. Hans White, the general’s son, acquired the freehold in 1876, but the Dunnes remained tenants until Anna Maria Dunne’s death in 1926. For the next 10 years Hans White’s brother Robert FH White leased it to Thomas Collier, and then from 1935 to 1968 to John Baggot. The house was then abandoned and fell into a state of dereliction before being rescued in the 1980s by Mike Fitzpatrick, an American descendant of a local family. Sadly in the intervening years much of the finest interior detail had been pilfered by thieves and vandals – the very fine Adamaesque black marble fire surround reappeared mysteriously in a house in the suburbs of Waterford City, and shutters and bannisters were senselessly smashed by omadhauns.
The main house at Aghaboe was built at two district periods – the seven bay South front facing the road is the earlier, perhaps around the 1730s when the Whites moved in, or more probably dating from a far earlier time – the 1630s maybe, but was done up in the 1730s. The South front has a fine Kilkenny limestone door case, possibly of Colles manufacture, with a fanlight in the pediment that was probably put in in the 1750s. The north front is of 5 bays, the centre bay having an arched door on the ground floor, above which is a Venetian window beneath a shallow pediment. Twelve paned sash windows on the ground floor, with smaller 6 paned windows upstairs, and a steep tall roof with coved ceilings in the bedrooms. The staircase is on the north side of the house, rising round three sides of the hall with a cut string and ramped hand rail. It is very similar to the nearby Cuffsborough House. The rooms all have shouldered doorcases and a heavy chair rail, and had raised and fielded panelled shutters with 4 panelled doors upstairs and 6 panelled doors downstairs.
Some of the yard buildings have very fine chalk pointing, a detail which suggests a date of the 1760s.
The Buildings of Ireland Survey describes Aghaboe thus:- “Detached seven-bay two-storey Georgian house, built c.1730, with pedimented doorcase. May incorporate seventeenth century fabric. Double-pitched and hipped roof with replacement fibre-cement tiles and nap rendered chimneystacks. Replacement nap render to front elevation wall over random rubble stone. render removed to rear, with cornice to eaves. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills, limestone voussoirs three-over-three and six-over-six timber sash windows. Round-headed door opening with pedimented stone doorcase and timber panelled door with overlight.”
Aghaboe Grange
Detached three-bay two-storey Victorian house, built c.1880, with veranda to front having gablet over entrance. Double-pitched and hipped slate roof with nap rendered chimneystacks and overhanging eaves. Nap rendered walls. Square-headed window openings in segmental-headed recessed arches with two-over-two timber sash windows. It was built by the General, Sir Robert White, and is now the home of Roger White.
Aghaboe Glebe
Where Ledwich’s successor John Morris lived, who became Vicar in 1791, we do not know. However by 1806 he was residing in Wales by permission of the Bishop for the benefit of his health and his duties were discharged by his Resident Curate The Rev Thomas Jackson at a Salary of 75 per annum. (Carlisle’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, 1810)
Morris’s successor Joseph Thacker built the glebe-house by aid of a gift of £100 and a loan of £1350 from the Board of First Fruits in 1820; Thacker was still there in 1840, according to Lewis’s Topography. The glebe house is a simple 2 storey over basement 3 bay house with a hipped roof, with a fanlight over the front door.
Irish Historic Houses 