Bessborough, Blackrock, Co Cork – convent
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.
“(Pike/LGI1958) A three storey house of mid to late-C18 appearance; rendered with cut-stone facings. Seven bay front; pedimented breakfront with Diocletian window above Venetian window on console brackets above a pedimented doorcase which seems to have been substituted for the original doorcase in the Victorian period. Blind elliptical oculus in pediment; keystones over all the windows; well-moulded cornice; string course over ground floor. C19 single-storey wing fronted by an elaborate glass and iron conservatory with a curved roof and ending in a two bay bow-ended pavilion framed by quoins; with a die and two camber-headed recessed in which the windows are set. In 1814 the residence of J. Spence. For most of C19 and during the earlier years of the present century, the seat of the Pike family. Now a convent.”
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 23. The first notable exponent of the Palladian style in Ireland was Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, but neither he nor his successor, Richard Castle, is known to have worked in Cork, and there are no great Palladian houses here to river Castletown, Co Kildare, or Russborough. In part this may be explained by Cork’s limited links with Dublin, so that its architecture instead held tight to a conservative Anglo-Dutch idiom well into the mid C18. The Palladian formula of a central corps de logis linked to pavilions by quadrants therefore found little favour in Cork during the early Palladian period. Exceptions include the demolished Hollyhill (near Kinsale). Garrretstown was to have had a central block but only the two-storey wings were completed. Crosshaven’s wings are free-standing.
Instead, architects, builders and patrons made do with a simple and often tentative assimilation of Palladian elements. What did find favour was the sort of compact and economical four-square block employed by Pearce at Cashel and by Castle at the central blocks of Bellinter and Hazelwood. External refinements at such houses are confined to combinations of window and door surrounds, platbands, occasionally a cornice, and in rare cases a parapet to conceal the hipped roof. Early Georgian examples include Doneraile Court and Maryborough at Douglas; Bessborough at Blackrock (Cork city), and Crosshaven date from the mid century. Late C18 examples of these high, four-square blocks such as Coolmore (Ringaskiddy), Hoddersfield (Crosshaven) and Altamira (Liscarrol) are particularly plain, with an almost complete paring back of embellishment.
A modest expression of Palladianism is occasionally encountered in which a simple unadorned Venetian window is placed over the doorway, as at Knockane (Castlemartyr), or on the staircase at Kilmoney Abbey (Carrigaline). At Lisnabrin (near Conna) a Diocletian window, Venetian window and Venetian doorway are stacked one above the other, although here again the openings are left unadorned in an otherwise plain façade. The centre could be given further emphasis by making it advanced and giving it a pediment, as at Carker (Doneraile), Coliney (Charleville) and Assolas (Castlemagner). A modest but charming example is Park House near Doneraile, a single-pile gable-ended house with an ashlar façade articulated by a cornice and platband, the advanced centre having moulded architraves to the pedimented doorcase, first-floor Venetian window and a Diocletian window in the pediment. At Bessborough this formula is developed further, the seven-bay three-storey façade having rusticated quoins and stepped keystones to the flanking windows.
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In the 1770s the residence of Allen Esq. The seat of the Pike family for most of the 19th century. Occupied by J. Spence in 1814 and by Ebenezer Pike in 1837 and in the early 1850s. He held the property from the representatives of Bousfield and the house was valued at £78. This house was used as a convent in the 20th century.
Detached seven-bay three-storey house, built c.1760, having pedimented breakfront to the central bay and two-storey additions to rear c.1860. Originally flanked by single-storey wings with bow-ended room added to west wing c.1860 and first floor added to east wing 1922. Converted to use as convent, 1922, with hospital added to east, c.1930, chapel dated 1931 to west, and single-storey multiple-bay structure adjoining to the east, c.1960. Range of single-storey structures attached to north. Now in use as a health centre. Hipped slate roofs with rendered corbelled chimneystacks and carved limestone eaves course. Pitched slate roofs to chapel and some additions with later rooflights. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls having cut limestone quoins, platband and plinth course to main building, smooth-rendered walls to remaining buildings. Cut limestone cornice to west wing. Square-headed window openings with limestone keystones and sills, one-over-one timber sash windows to ground floor and some two-over-two sash windows to wings. Replacement windows to remaining openings. Cut limestone surrounds to Diocletian and Venetian windows with replacement windows. Blind elliptical oculus in breakfront pediment with cut limestone surround. Limestone doorcase, c.1870, comprising rusticated pilasters surmounted by console brackets supporting broken bed pediment framing round-headed window opening with fanlight and timber panelled door approached by limestone steps with replacement metal railings of c.1960. Glass and cast-iron conservatory to west wing having Corinthian capitals to pilasters. Quadrant gateway, c.1880, comprising four cylindrical limestone piers with carved finials and cast-iron railings and gates.
This complex comprises buildings of several phases of development since the original Georgian country house was constructed in the mid eighteenth century. Despite interventions over the course of two centuries, many important original features are retained including the proportions of the front façade and the finely cut limestone architectural details of the main house. Later nineteenth century additions to the building are of a high standard of construction and also include the very fine conservatory, added by Richard Turner c.1860, which has survived almost completely in its original form. The conversion of the house to a convent in 1922 resulted in further buildings being added to the complex. The Sacred Heart Sisters are still in residence today in the main house, while the remaining buildings provide important community and healthcare functions.
Irish Historic Houses 