Drumcree House, Collinstown, Co Westmeath
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. 113. “(Smyth/IFR) A distinguished early to mid-C18 house of ashlar; two storeys over basement. Pedimented breakfront centre, with oculus in pediment; doorcase with segmental pediment. Venetian windows with Ionic columns and pilasters above, flanked by niches. Now derelict.
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. 141. Very attractive two storey pedimented mid 18C house possibly designed by Michael Wills for the Smyth family. Doorcase with segmented pediment. Interior mostly remodelled in the early 19C and a new main staircase was created. Some original chimneypieces survive on the first floor. Derelict.
Detached seven-bay two-storey over basement Palladian country house, built c.1750. Now roofless and in ruinous condition. Central three bays on entrance front are advanced to form a breakfront with oculus to pediment. Constructed of coursed limestone with ashlar cornice, string courses and raised rusticated quoins to corners. Square-headed openings with moulded stone surrounds and cut stone sills. Centrally positioned doorcase with segmental pediment supported on Doric pilasters. Venetian window above to first floor with Ionic columns and pilasters flanked by round-headed niches. Entrance approached by limestone steps and wrought-iron railings. Set back from road in extensive mature parkland.
Appraisal
Elaborate Palladian style country house now in state of advanced dereliction. Enough survives of this building to indicate that it was a sophisticated residence with very fine masonry and architectural detailing. Layout and style is very typical of Palladian architecture with double-pile plan, pedimented breakfront and symmetrical entrance façade. The architect is unknown but this composition may have been the work of a someone of note. This house was built for a branch of the Smyth family, an important family in North Westmeath during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Smyth Family were noted architectural patrons and commissioned other fine country houses at Glananea and at Barbavilla, Collinstown. This substantial structure forms the focal point of an interesting group of demesne-related structures with a service tunnel and courtyard of outbuildings to the north-west. The house is built on the site of an earlier castle and is subsequently of archaeological interest. The house sits in mature parkland and makes a picturesque contribution to the landscape.
Paddy Rossmore. Photographs. Edited by Robert O’Byrne. The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, 2019.
Although already in a state of some dereliction, Drumcree was still inhabited when photographed by Paddy but has since fallen into ruin. The house is one of a number built by members of the Smyth family, originally from Yorkshire, who settled in this part of the country in the seventeenth century: other properties once owned by them include Barbavilla and Glananea. The estate around Drumcree ran to almost 4,500 acres, allowing successive Smyths to represent Westmeath first in the Dublin and then in the Westminster parliaments, although the last to do so, Robert Smyth, was described in the Dublin Evening Post in June 1826 as “the most stupid and silly man in the county.”
Drumcree dates from the mid-18C and has been tentatively linked by Christine Casey to the Dublin architect Michael Wills. Of two storeys over basement, its seven-bay limestone facade features three advanced and pedimented centre bays in which a short flight of steps give access to the doorcase beneath a segmental pediment. Directly above is a Venetian window flanked by arched niches. Until recently Drumcree was submerged beneath a dense quantity of vegetation but this has been cleared away, suggesting that the house might yet return to domestic use.”
Irish Historic Houses 