Doolistown, Trim, Co Meath – a ruin 

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. 106. “(The Fox/IFR) A two storey three bay Georgian house with good doorcase. For six years the home of T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King (filmed as Camelot) and his beloved dog “Brownie.” Now a ruin.”

Not in National Inventory

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.

https://meathhistoryhub.ie/houses-a-d/

Doolistown or Doolystown is two storey three bay Georgian house with a good doorcase, located near Boardsmill, Trim. 

John Grierson of Doolistown was the son of Robert Grierson of Newtown, Co. Meath. John known as ‘Honest Johnnie Grierson’ married Elizabeth Higgins in 1728 and died 1775 aged 68. He and his wife are buried at Laracor graveyard. John left Doolistown to his youngest son, William, his oldest son James only got 5 shillings and was not to ‘pretend any claim to Doolistown.’ William lived at  Doolistown but he was also a merchant operating in Dublin selling tobacco at 40 Meath Street. William married Abigail Higgins of Higginsbrook. When William died in 1793 he was buried at Laracor and after his death his widow carried on his merchant business in Dublin. 

Doolistown appears to have been transferred to the ownership of the Grierson’s relatives, the Fox family.  Matthew Fox married Elizabeth Grierson, daughter of John Grierson of Doolistown. Matthew, born in 1745, died in 1808 leaving issue James, John, Joseph and William and five daughters. The third son, Joseph, succeeded at Doolistown. In 1807 he married Frances D’Arcy of Hyde Park, Co. Westmeath and they had three daughters. In 1835 Doolistown House was the residence of Mr. J. Fox. He died in 1855. 

In the early part of the twentieth century Doolistown was home to the McDonagh family. 

For six years Doolistown was the home of Terence Hanbury White, author of ‘The Once and Future King’, filmed as Camelot, and his beloved dog “Brownie”. His father, Garrick Hanbury White, a former Royal Irish Constabulary man from Co. Meath, had joined the Indian Civil Service. The name, Hanbury, is associated with Trim and Laracor. In the late 1930s the owners of Doolistown House were approached and asked would they take in White as a lodger. In February 1939 White moved to Doolistown where he lived out the international crisis and World War II. White took lessons in Irish and attended the religious devotions of the family almost converting to Roman Catholicism. In 1940 he began work on ‘Candle in the Wind’, the third book in his trilogy. T.H. White was a sad and lonely man and while at Doolistown he suffered ill health and depression. His fantasy ‘The Elephant and the Kangaroo’ is loosely based on his time at Doolistown. Trim Castle may have been the model for the room in the ‘The Queen of Air and Darkness’. White’s ‘The Elephant and the Kangaroo’ is very critical of the Irish people and the people at Doolistown were offended by their portrayal. Vincent Eivers of Roristown was an acquaintance of White’s and said his book was ‘a desperate thing.” White taught him how to divine water and took him on hawking expeditions.  Marie Mac Sweeney wrote an article on Terence Hanbury White in Meath in the 2004 issue of Ríocht na Midhe.   

J.R. H. Greeves wrote an article on the Griersons of Co. Meath in the Irish Genealogist in 1959.