St. Anne’s (also Thornhill), Clontarf, Dublin – ‘lost’
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. 252. “(Guinness, Bt/PB; Plunket, B/PB) The most palatial house to be built in Ireland during second half of C19; on the northern shore of Dublin Bay, approached by a long, straight avenue which crossed over a public road on its way. The original Georgian house here, known as Thornhill, was pulled down ca 1850 by Benjamin Guinness, afterwards the 1st Bt, head of the Guinness Brewery, and an Italianate house by Millard of Dublin built in its stead. Then, ca 1880, Sir Benjamin’s son Arthur, 1st and last Lord Ardilaun, doubled thehouse in size and made it into a palace comparable to the best of the mansions being built at that period in the USA by people such as the Vanderbilts, in taste no less than in grandeur… The architect of the building was James Franklin Fuller, the work being completed by George Ashlin…In the gardens, which were regarded as beautiful even by those who, like Lennox Robinson, thought the ouse too pretentious, there was a lakeside temple and a long clipped alley lined with statues. …When Lady Ardilaun died, 1925, St. Anne’s was inherited by her husband’s nephew, the Most Rev Hon Benjamin Plunket, former Bishop of Meath. Lady Gregory noted how Mrs Plunket was “very anxious to do what is right for Ireland by keeping up the place, 17 labourers paid every Saturday.” In 1939, however, St. Anne’s was acquired by Dublin Corporation, and in 1943, when it was being used as an ARP store – wits said as a store for firelighting equipment – the house was partially gutted by fire. It stood derelict until 1968, when it was completely demolished.”
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.
p. 65. “…Rich interior; entrance hall with Roman Ionic columns leading to a vast top-lit inner hall, wiht a gallery supported on Roman Ionic columns. To the right was the imperial main staircase in marble and on the left a palm court. The house was further enlarged to the design of George Ashlin who also designed the stables…”
Irish Historic Houses 