Tyrone House, Galway – ‘lost’ – Irish Historic Houses

Tyrone House, Galway – ‘lost’

*Tyrone House, County Galway, photograph courtesy Daniel Finnerty instagram* @greatirishhouses ‘.

*Tyrone House, County Galway, entrance front c. 1870.* 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.*

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. 279. “(St. George, sub French/IFR) A large square cut-stone house by an inlet of Galway Bay; built 1779 for Christopher St. George, reputedly to the design of John Roberts, of Waterford….After enjoying his magnificent house for about 20 years, Christopher St. George handed it over to his son and retired to Kilcolgan Castle nearby, where he lived with a “chere amie,” turning Catholic to please her. In 1808, the great house was described as standing start on its eminence, without a tree, bush or offices in sight; later, woods grew up around it. Christopher St. George’s son and grandson were both very fashionable; but by the end of C19, life at Tyrone was not quite what it had been; the grandson’s widow and other members of the family inhabited various corners of the house, the cooking was done over an open fire in a room on the top floor, and the drawing room and dining room were most of the time kept locked. However, the family had not come down in the world nearly as much as Violet Martin imagined it had when she visited Tyrone 1912, which gave her the inspiration for The Big House of Inver, written after her death by Edith Somerville. When she saw it, the house stood empty, having been abandoned by the family 1905, though the continued to own it. From then until 1920, when it was burnt, it was a favourite haunt of trippers from the neighbouring towns, who were allowed to dance in the dining room. It is now a gaunt and rather sinister ruin which can be seen for miles around, the woods having all gone. Facing the house is a medieval church and the crumbling St George family mausoleum, which inspired a well-known poem by Sir John Betjeman:

“There is pinnacle protection,

One extinguished family waits,

A Church of Ireland resurrection

By the broken, rusty gates.”

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. 78. “…Similar in many details to Moore Hall, County Mayo. Very fine plasterwork in main rooms. … Ruin is now in the care of the Irish Georgian Society.”