Summerhill (or Summer Hill) House, Killala, Co Mayo – lost 

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.

“(Palmer/LG1875) A distinguished gable-ended mid-C18 house of two storeys over basement; with a resemblance to the nearly homonymous Summer Grove, Co Laois. Five bay front with one bay pedimented breakfront centre. Pediment with oculus and broken base-moulding; central Venetian window above shouldered doorcase with entablature flanked by small windows. Rectangular light above door with curving diamond glazing. Interior plasterwork in a simple and somewhat primitive rococo, complete with the odd rather amateurly moulded bird. Originally the seat of a branch of the Bourke family, subsequently of the Palmer family; now falling into ruin.”

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. 111. “A very interesting and attractive mid18C pedimented and gable-ended house. A two storey wing was added at a later date. The roof is of interest in that it is covered with sandstone slabs rather than slates. In 1814 the seat of Thomas Palmer. Derelict.”

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/31301502/summerhill-house-rathfran-mullaghnacross-co-mayo

Detached five-bay two-storey over part raised basement country house with dormer attic, extant 1777, on a shallow cruciform plan centred on single-bay full-height pedimented breakfront; three-bay two-storey rear (north) elevation centred on single-bay full-height gabled breakfront. Occupied, 1911. Sold, 1929. Derelict, 1976. Now in ruins. Pitched roof on a cruciform plan now missing with fine roughcast chimney stacks having shallow stringcourses below cut-limestone capping, and no rainwater goods surviving on tooled cut-limestone “Cyma Recta” or “Cyma Reversa” cornice centred on “Cyma Recta” or “Cyma Reversa” open bed pediment (breakfront). Fine roughcast walls on chamfered cushion course on fine roughcast base with concealed tooled hammered limestone flush quoins to corners. Square-headed central door opening approached by flight of overgrown steps with dragged cut-limestone lugged surround supporting “Cyma Recta” or “Cyma Reversa” cornice on pulvinated frieze. Square-headed flanking window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and dragged cut-limestone surrounds with four-over-four timber sash windows now missing. “Venetian Window” (first floor) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sill, and dragged cut-limestone surround centred on keystone with six-over-six timber sash window now missing. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and drag edged dragged cut-limestone lintels with six-over-six timber sash windows now missing. Square-headed window openings (gables) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing some four-over-two timber sash windows. Interior in ruins including (ground floor): central hall retaining remains of carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled reveals or shutters with remains of carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled reveals, and run moulded plasterwork cornice to ceiling; and remains of timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled reveals with remains of timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled reveals or shutters. Set in unkempt grounds on a slightly elevated site with drag edged rusticated limestone ashlar piers to perimeter having beaded stringcourses below drag edged dragged cut-limestone capping. Additional photography by James Fraher 

Appraisal 

The shell of a country house representing an important component of the mid eighteenth-century domestic built heritage of north County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one annotated as “Summer hill [of] Palmer Esquire” by Taylor and Skinner (1778 pl. 219), confirmed by such attributes as the deliberate alignment maximising on panoramic vistas overlooking the medieval Rathfran Abbey [SMR MA015-031005-] with the meandering Palmerstown River estuary as a backdrop; the symmetrical footprint centred on a Classically-detailed breakfront; the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings on each floor; and the high pitched roof once showing a so-called “Lackan Stone” or “Mayo Slate” finish (cf. 31301406). Although reduced to ruins in the later twentieth century, a prolonged period of neglect eradicating all traces of ‘plasterwork in a simple and somewhat primitive Rococo’ (Bence-Jones 1978, 268), the elementary form and massing survive intact together with fragments of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding much of the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent outbuildings (extant 1838); and a walled garden (see 31301503), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained estate having historic connections with the Palmer family including Thomas Palmer Senior (—-), one-time High Sheriff of County Mayo (fl. 1809; Lewis 1837 II, 610); and Thomas Palmer Junior JP (—-; Burke 1871 II, 1045); and the McCormick family including William Ormsby McCormick JP (1819-94) and Frederick C. McCormick (—-), ‘Farmer’ (NA 1911). 

In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland II: More Portraits of Forgotten Stately Homes. Collins Press, Cork, 2012. 

Scant Remains

The shell of Summerhill, County Mayo, a house that retained its roof within living memory. Summerhill is believed to have been built in the 1770s for the Palmer family its five-bay façade centred on a pedimented breakfront with first-floor Venetian window. The site on raised ground was chosen to provide a view down towards the Palmerstown river beside which stand the ruins of the Dominican Rathfran Friary. Today the two complexes rival each other in decay. 

In the Summer Time

Summerhill, County Meath has featured here before (see My Name is Ozymandias « The Irish Aesthete)  and is well-known as one of Ireland’s great lost country houses. But its namesake in County Mayo is probably less familiar to readers, although its striking remains are hard to miss when travelling through that part of the island. This second Summerhill was built and occupied by a branch of the Palmer family, which has also featured here (see Lackin’ a Roof « The Irish Aesthete). According to Burke’s Landed Gentry of 1846, ‘This family, long settled in Co Mayo, derives from a common ancestor with the Palmers of Palmerstown and Rush House, and is presumed to have been originally from Kent.’ By the second half of the 18th century, the Palmers owned a number of estates in north Mayo, Summerhill being one of them.  

Summerhill may have been built by Thomas Palmer, who died in 1757, or perhaps by his son, also called Thomas (as were successive generations of this branch of the family), meaning it was likely constructed around the mid-18th century. In 1798 the property was let to one John Bourke who, in August, following the landing nearby of a French force under General Humbert, organised to have the house secured. This proved a wise precaution as a number of other such properties in the area, including Castlereagh, seat of Arthur Knox, and Castle Lacken, owned by Sir John Palmer, were attacked and pillaged by a mob. Bourke’s home found itself under siege by the same band until a French officer based in Killala, Col Armand Charost, despatched a number of his troops, as was later reported, ‘to Summerhill to appease the mob, and another party of men to Castlereagh to save what remained of the provisions and liquors. The appearance of the emissaries ended the siege at Mr. Bourke’s house; but the Castlereagh party, which consisted entirely of natives, could think of no better expedient for preserving the spirits from the thirsty bandits that coveted them than by concealing as much as they could in their own stomachs. The consequence was that they returned to Killala uproariously drunk. As for Castle Lacken, it was completely gutted, and the occupant and his large family were driven out to seek shelter as best they could find it.’ Within a few years of these events, the Palmers were back in residence at Summerhill, and recorded as living there by Samuel Lewis in 1837 and also by Burke in his 1846 guide to landed gentry. However, in the second half of the 19th century, the property was sold to the McCormack family, who remained there until c.1929 when what remained of the estate, running to some 296 acres, was broken up by the Land Commission and the house subsequently abandoned. 

In his 1978 Guide to Irish Country Houses, Mark Bence-Jones noted certain stylistic similarities between Summerhill and Summergrove, County Laois (see A Gem « The Irish Aesthete). Both houses are of five bays and two storeys over raised basement, with the central pedimented breakfront single bay featuring a doorcase reached by a flight of steps and flanked by sidelights below a first-floor Venetian window. Summerhill’s facade has an oculus within the pediment, whereas Summergrove has a Diocletian window, but certainly the two buildings share many features. However, whereas the latter still stands and is in good condition, the latter is now a roofless shell: photographs from just a few decades ago show the majority of slates still in place, but the house is now open to the elements. When Bence-Jones visited, the interiors were still reasonably intact: he included a photograph of ceiling stuccowork, describing it as ‘in a simple and somewhat primitive rococo, complete with the odd rather amateurishly-moulded  bird.’ All now gone, as can be seen, and inside the house nothing left but bits of timber and plaster.