Liss Ard Estate, County Cork, now a hotel €
We visited Liss Ard in June 2022, in order to see the Sky Garden by James Turrell. James Turrell is a “light artist” and a Quaker, and his works aim to cause contemplation. I was excited to see his work, and to see Liss Ard. The house has been converted to a hotel but still has the feel of a historic house, while at the same time being modern, stylish and spacious.
Upon our visit I learned that there is more to the gardens than the Sky Garden. The hotel is surrounded by miles of trails, which weave whimsically and which reveal magical settings with artfully placed walls and steps. It is also the site of a ring fort: the Irish “Lios Aird” means high fort.
The website invites us to “Escape to 163 acres of pristine nature with manicured gardens, a 40 acre private lake and James Turrell’s renowned Irish Sky Garden. The Estate features 26 unique guest rooms in the heart of West Cork, the culinary capital of Ireland.” For more about the Sky Garden and the garden trails, see my entry above, in Places to Visit.
We booked in for lunch, in order to make a booking to spend time in the Sky Garden. The house is two storey over basement, built in 1853. The National Inventory describes it as a fine early Victorian country house built by H.W. O’Donovan, who succeeded his brother as “The O’Donovan” in 1870. The Victorian Lake House, also available to guests, was built in 1870.
The garden front has a central canted bay. The inventory suggests that the house was reoriented and extended in the nineteenth century.
Two windows light the staircase – a large round one and an arched one and the upper hall has top-lit lantern ceiling.
There is also a library for guests.
I did not take a picture of the restaurant as it is in the basement and is more modern. Despite being in the basement it is full of light.
Liss Ard estate is now a hotel, but you can book lunch and a visit to the Sky Garden, and wander around the gardens of the estate. The hotel is surrounded by miles of trails, which weave whimsically and which reveal magical settings with artfully placed walls and steps. It is also the site of a ring fort: the Irish “Lios Aird” means high fort.
The art dealers/collectors Claudia and Veith Turske purchased Liss Ard estate and in the 1990s and created public gardens with waterfalls, an arboretum with 10,000 newly-planted trees and had plans to create further land artworks after James Turrell’s installation, which was created in 1992. The property has since changed hands. It first came to my attention when a music festival was held in its grounds.
The website describes James Turrell’s The Irish Sky Garden
“For over half a century, the internationally renowned landscape artist James Turrell has worked directly with light and space to create artworks that engage viewers with the limits and wonder of human perception. New Yorker critic Calvin Tompkins writes, “His work is not about light, or a record of light; it is light — the physical presence of light made manifest in sensory form.” ”
The Irish Public Art directory describes the Sky Garden:
“The ‘Irish Sky Garden’ is a giant earth and stone crater embedded into the landscape of the Liss Ard Estate gardens. The artwork consists of an archway, a long megalithic-like passage, and stairs leading to an oval shaped, grass-lined crater, which measures 50 x 25 metres. In the centre of the crater’s ‘bowl’ is a large stone ‘vault purchase’ or plinth (not unlike an Egyptian sarcophagus). This is where the visitor should lie back and look at the sky, which is framed by the edges of the elliptical crater.
”The most important thing is that inside turns into outside and the other way around, in the sense that relationships between the Irish landscape and the Irish sky changes” (James Turrell).”
It is impossible to capture the feel of the earth work creation in a photograph although the aerial view from the ‘myhome’ website gives us an idea.
Bence-Jones, Mark. 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. 188. “[O’Donovan/IFR] A long two storey early Victorian house, built ca. 1840 by H.W. O’Donovan, who succeeded his brother as The O’Donovan 1870. Entrance at end; fine rooms. Sold ca 1924 by Col. M.W. O’Donovan, The O’Donovan. In recent years the home of the late Captn and Mrs Richard Ansdell.”
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 45. Few significant country houses were built during the latter half of the C19. Most are of small to middling size, often with minimal Tudor or Italian trim. Unpretentious Italianate is found as Lissard (1854-5) near Skibbereen, Farran (1866) and Ballyvolane (1872) near Castlelyons. The finest of these Italianate houses is Montenotte House in Cork, with its double height top-lit cortile in the manner of Barry’s clubs in London. Lewis Villamy designed Lisselane (1851-3) near Clonakilty in a loose French-chateau idiom. Gothic houses are much rarer; exceptions include Dunboy (1866-70) near Castletownbere, a virtuoso Tudor Gothic house wiht mullioned-and-transomed windows mingled with Continental motifs in an assured and robust composition.
p. 46. With its Scots Baronial stepped gables and corbelled tourelles, Blarney Castle House (1871-5) by the Belfast architect John Lanyon, is unique in Cork. The influence of Ruskin in both detailing and materials can be seen in a number of houses designed by William Atkins: Velvetstown, Ardavilling, and Parknamore. Lettercollum (1872) near Timoleague, by William H. Hill, and Thorncliffe (1865) at Monkstown, by Thomas N. Deane, are in a similar vein. After the 1880s major houses are rare, but there are good late C19 Jacobean interiors at Fota and Lota Lodge (Glanmire).
The Edwardian Domestic Revival or Free Style, which favoured picturesque forms in brick and terracotta with gables, tall chimneys, tile-hanging, and mullioned and leaded windows, is generally confined to lodges, as at Castletownsend and Castle Mary (Cloyne), and to suburban houses in Cork city. Ashlin’s Clonmeen House (Banteer) is a rare country-house example. The Pavilion at Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork, is also Free Style and incorporates some Art Nouveau decorative elements. The last great country house to be built in Cork is Hollybrook Hall near Skibbereen, in a Free Style employing classical and rustic elements, with a wonderfully eclectic range of interiors. The garden buildings by Harold Peto at Ilnacullin were designed in a similar spirit.”
Irish Historic Houses 