Rostellan Castle, Rostellan, co Cork – demolished 1944  

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. 248. “(Inchiquin, B/PB; Wise/LG1886) A c18 house at the end of a broad peninsula jutting into Cork Harbour, built on the site of an old castle and possibly incorporating parts of it. The castle, which originally belonged to the Fitzgeralds, was captured in 1645 by Murrough O’Brien, 6^th Lord and afterwards 1^st Earl of Inchiquin – the notorious “Morrough of the Burings” – to whom it was granted . It was rebuilt as a house some time ante 1750, probably by the 4^th Earl of Inchiquin, a prominent member of the “water club,” founded 1720, which grew into the Royal Cork, the oldest yacht club in the British Isles. There is a legend that the building of the house disturbed an old graveyard, and that a woman cursed the Inchiquins for removing the gravestone of her family, predicting that they would hever have a direct heir. And indeed, neither 4^th Earl nor his three immediate successors had any sons; after which the male line of Morrough of the Burnings became extinct. In 1777, 5^th Earl, afterwards 1^st Marquess of Thomond, enlarged and remodelled the house, to which further additions and alterations were carried out early C19 by his nephew, 2^nd Marquess. …The 5^th Earl and 1^st Marquess built a tower in honour of Mrs Siddons, whom he entertained here. After the death of the 3^rd and last Marquess of Thomond, 1855, Rostellan was bought by Dr T.A. Wise. It was subsequently bought by the politician and colonial administrator, Sir John Hope-Hennessy, sometime owner of Myrtle Grove, It was finally owned by C.J. Engledow, MP. After standing empty for some years, it was demolished 1944.” 

Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.

The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020. 

p. 26. For the most part, the Gothic revival in the C18 was reserved for garden buildings and follies, of which the lodge at Woodhill (Montenotte, Cork city) is an much altered example. Late C18 battlemented towers are found at Trabolgan (Whitegate), Rostellan (near Cloyne) and Cloyne….lodge at Maryborough.