Newgrove, Co Meath

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.

A five bay C18 house with a pediment, containing an oculus, above a Venetian window, above a pedimented and fanlighted tripartite doorway. Buttresses at back. In 1814, the residence of Philip Reilly. Now a ruin.”

Record of Protected Structures:

Newgrove House, townland: Balngon Upper, town: Ballinlough

Stableyards, outbuildings, 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.

http://meathhistoryhub.ie/houses-k-p/

Newgrove House was located in Balnagon Upper townland, Kilskyre, 6 kilometres west of Kells. The original house has long decayed but it was a medium sized house of two storeys over a basement according to Mulligan. He dated the house to probably around 1760. The house was demolished in 1983. Attached to the house was a courtyard of buildings which still stand today. The stables had unusual flooring. The main entrance to the house has been restored recently. The neighbouring estate to the east was Sylvan Park. 

The lands at Newgrove were held by various families. In the late eighteenth  century they were held by the Reilly family.  In 1774 Hugh O’Reilly was the owner. Frances, widow of Hugh O’Reilly of Newgrove, married Rev. William Maziere Brady, a Protestant minister, who was later vicar at Donaghpatrick but who later  converted to Catholicism and lived in Rome. He wrote a number of books. In Rome he became Private Chamberlain to Pius IX and Leo XIII and was created a Papal Knight. 

In 1814 the residence of Philip Reilly. Mary Reilly made a defence of her house against the Defenders in 1794. The Defenders were a tenant based secret socity agitating for better conditions for the tenants. Mary Reilly died in 1816 and the property was inherited by her nephew, Hugh O’Reilly of Rathaldron Castle. In 1835 Newgrove was the residence of Counsellor O’Reilly. It was described as a neat house of two storeys and basement, with a good garden and offices and excellent lawn. Hugh O’Reilly of Newgrove was magistrate in 1834. In 1865 Hugh sold the estate to Standish Grady Rowley of Maperath, Kells.  The property was then inherited by his son, Clotworthy Rowley, who overspent and the property was purchased by his stepmother in 1902. She sold the house and 109 acres of land to Christopher Leavy in 1919.