Bellegrove (also Rathdaire), Ballybrittas, Co Laois – (demolished) 

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. 

“(Adair/LG1863) A large Regency house built around three sides of an entrance court, which was later filled in as a winter garden by Cornelia, nee Wadworth, the rich American wife of J.G. Adair, whose wealth also helped to create Glenveigh Castle. Mrs Adair also added an immense conservatory to Bellegrove, designed by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane, with Romanesque arcades supported by pairs of ornate terracotta columns, reproductions of those surviving from the original Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome. Having been burnt, the house stood as a ruin until 1970, when it was demolished.” 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/12800907/bellegrove-house-bellegrove-county-laois

Remains of detached two-storey over basement Italianate house, built c.1835, with entrance bay to centre having full-height flanking bows. Burnt down c.1887. Now in ruins with basement filled-in. Site of former winter garden to site. Now dismantled. No roof. Nap rendered rubble limestone and brick walls with ruled and lined detail, rendered quoins, limestone stringcourse and rendered cornice to first floor. Brackets to eaves and limestone blocking course. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills, rendered lugged architraves with pediments (triangular and segmental) to ground floor. Limestone Doric doorcase; fittings now gone. Interior now in ruins. Set back from road in own grounds; grounds now in use as tillage field. Stable complex, pair of detached gate lodges, gateway and site of former winter garden to site. 

http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2014/06/rathdaire-house.html

THE ADAIRS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN THE QUEEN’S COUNTY, WITH 9,655 ACRESThe family of ADAIR were originally from Scotland and settled in Ireland about 1690, at the time of the battle of the Boyne.  

THOMAS ADAIRE, son of Archibald Adaire, wedded Mary Hamilton, and settled in the Queen’s County (Laois).

His son,

ARCHIBALD ADAIRE, married and was father of

JOHN ADAIR, of Rath, Queen’s County, High Sheriff of Queen’s County, 1782, who died in 1809, and was father of

GEORGE ADAIR JP DL (1784-1873), of Rath, High Sheriff of Queen’s County, 1822, who married Elizabeth, second daughter of the Very Rev Thomas Trench, Dean of Kildare (brother of the 1st Lord Ashtown), and had an only son,
JOHN GEORGE ADAIR JP DL (1823-85), of Rathdaire, Queen’s County, and GLENVEAGH CASTLE, County Donegal, High Sheriff of Queen’s County, 1867, County Donegal, 1874.

George and his son John George, better known as Jack, built a “state of the art” farmyard at Belgrove in 1851. To justify their investment they ejected their tenants from the best land in Ballyaddan, Rathroinsin, Belgrove, etc., expecting to run the land more efficiently in a larger unit, rather than depending on what they could extract from their tenants.

Jack himself acquired more land in Tipperary, Kildare, and Donegal, and also a large ranch in Texas called the JA Ranch. He died in 1885 on his way home from the States, aged 62 years. Thanks to Dr. Bob Spiegelman of New York we have learned a great deal more about the JA Ranch and Jack’s connections with it, as well as Glenveagh in Donegal. When the Irish Land Commission acquired the Estate in 1935 they divided it among some of the Estate employees and enlarged many of the small farms in the area.

The farmyard was divided between four families, and four of the farm buildings were converted into dwellings. Later on three of the families moved elsewhere or changed from farming. As the other families left the Murphy family bought out the rest of the yard. Michael Murphy Sr. was yard-man on the estate when he was a youth and he got a quarter of the farmyard in the 1935 division; he survived to see his family own the whole farmyard eventually.

Mr Adair married Cornelia, daughter of General J S Wadsworth, US Army, in 1867, and died without issue.

Former seats – Rathdaire, Monasterevin, County Laois; Glenveagh Castle, County Donegal.

RATHDAIRE HOUSE, or Bellegrove, was a two-storey over basement Italianate house of ca 1835, with the entrance bay to the centre having full-height flanking bows.

It was burnt in 1887 and is now in ruins with the basement filled-in.

The fittings are now gone; the interior ruinous.

The house is set back from road in its own grounds, now in use as a tillage field.

Stable complex, pair of detached gate lodges, gateway and site of former winter garden to site.

First published in June, 2012.

https://theirishaesthete.com/2021/11/03/bellegrove-i/

A Landlord’s Legacy 

The striking remains of Bellegrove, County Laois, which has remained a ruin ever since being accidentally gutted by fire in 1887. The core of the house dates from the early 19th century: in 1814, when owned by Thomas Trench, Dean of Kildare, it was described as ‘newly built in a superior style.’ However, the Italianate villa seen today was created much later, in the early 1870s, its architect thought to be William Caldbeck, although other names (among them James Franklin Fuller and Sir Thomas Newenham Deane) have also been suggested. By this time Bellegrove was occupied by John George Adair, his mother having been one of the dean’s daughters. Much given to buying up estates and then either raising the rents or ejecting the tenants, Adair was one of the most reviled landlords of the period; when collecting rents in Laois, he had to be given a police escort. Eleswhere in the country, in County Donegal he acquired 28,000 acres and there in the late 1860s built the Scottish Baronial-style Glenveagh Castle on land that had been cleared. By this time, Adair had married a rich American widow, Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie, and together they profitably invested in a large Texan ranch (the JA Ranch, its initial’s being those of Adair) which grew to over 700,000 acres, thereby further increasing his wealth. Two years after his (unlamented) death in 1885 Bellegrove was, as mentioned, destroyed by fire but not restored by his widow. What remains today is only part of a formerly larger building, since a substantial winter garden (to the right of the house in the photograph below) designed by Sir Thomas Deane & Son in 1865 has since been taken down; some of the columns in its grand arcade – inspired by the cloister of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome – were rescued and can be seen elsewhere in the county. 

https://landedfamilies.blogspot.com/search/label/Leix

Adair of Bellegrove and Glenveagh Castle 

The Adairs of Rath claimed descent from Col. Sir Robert Adair (1659-1745), knighted by King William III at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, whose ancestors were the Adairs of Kinhilt (q.v.) in Wigtownshire.  Thomas Adair of Clonterry (Leix) died in 1758, and his grandson John (c1731-1809) was apparently the first to settle at Rath (also known as Rathdaire), near Ballybrittas (Leix).  His son George (b. 1784) built a new house on the estate about 1835, which became known as Bellegrove (occasionally Belgrove).   
 
George’s only son, John George Adair (1823-85), originally intended for the Foreign Office, proved to have too fiery a temperament and to restless a spirit for the diplomatic service, and went to America where he made money in brokerage and land speculation.  In 1857-59 he bought up land in Co. Donegal to form the Glenveagh estate, from which over 200 tenants were ruthlessly cleared in 1861.  Here, between 1867 and 1873 he built Glenveagh Castle in a Scots Baronial style to the design of his cousin, J.T. Trench.  He also added a large winter garden to Bellegrove in 1869, to the design of Sir T.N. Deane.  In 1869 he married a wealthy widow, Cornelia Wadsworth Ritchie (1838-1921), and they divided their time between Ireland and America, where they lived first in New York and later in Denver.   
 
In 1874, during a hunting trip, they met a Texas cattleman, Charles Goodnight (1836-1929), who persuaded them to purchase land for cattle ranching on the open range in the beautiful Palo Duro country southeast of Amarillo, Texas, where the cattle had sufficient water, excellent grass in summer and could winter comfortably in the protection afforded by the canyon walls. Adair and Goodnight entered into a partnership, by which Adair put up the money for building a massive ranch in the canyon, and Goodnight would became the manager of the ranch and supplied the initial herd of cattle. Adair financed two thirds of the cost, and Goodnight borrowed his one-third share at 10 percent interest from Adair. Goodnight would also draw a $2,500 annual salary. It was Goodnight’s suggestion that the ranch be named the “JA Ranch” from the initials of his partner.  Goodnight had a free hand in managing the ranch and rapidly increased the acreage through shrewd land purchases.  As a result the undertaking had made a profit of $510,000 by the end of the first five-year contract. Goodnight continued as manager until 1888, by which time Adair had died and been succeeded by his widow.  She was sole owner of the ranch until her death, and it remained in her family, passing to the descendants of her first marriage.  Her grandson, Montgomery Harrison Wadsworth “Montie” Ritchie (1910–1999), worked at the ranch and was the manager from 1935 until his retirement in 1993.  For the history of the ranch, see here.

Although Cornelia Adair became a British citizen and continued to divide her time between England, Ireland and the USA in her widowhood, her children and grandchildren were and remained American at heart and the Irish estates did not remain in the family long after she died in 1921.  Bellegrove had anyway been burnt out in 1887 and was not rebuilt; it remains a ruin.  Glenveagh was sold in 1929 to another American, Professor Arthur Kingsley Porter.  After he disappeared in mysterious circumstances from Inishbofin in 1933 (an episode which is now the subject of a book, soon to be made into a film), the castle was sold in 1937 to an Irish-American art collector and connoisseur, Henry Plumer McIlhenny (1910-86).  He sold the estate to the Office of Public Works as a National Park in 1975, and gave the castle and grounds to the Irish government in 1981. 

A large Regency house of c.1835, built for George Adair round three sides of an entrance court, which was later filled in as a winter garden by J.G. and Cornelia Adair.  This immense conservatory, designed by Sir Thomas Newenham Deane, had Romanesque arcades supported by pairs of ornate terracotta columns, copied from those in St John Lateran in Rome.  Having been burned in 1887 the house was not restored as the Adairs had moved their principal home to Glenveagh Castle in Donegal.  The winter garden was demolished in 1970, but the ruins of the original building were still standing and free of ivy in 2011.  A gate lodge is known to have been designed by William Farrell, who may have been the architect of the house as well. 

Descent: John Adair (c.1731-1809); to son, George Adair (1784-c.1850); to son, John George Adair (1823-85), to widow, Cornelia Wadsworth Adair (formerly Ritchie) (1837-1921); sold by her or her executors… in 1935 the estate was acquired and divided among the tenants by the Irish Land Commission.  The Adair family of Bellegrove and Glenveagh Castle 

John Adair (c.1731-1809) of Rath.  Elder son of Archibald Adair and his wife Jane, daughter of Mark Anthony Chateneuf; born c.1731.  He married 26 February 1776, Rebecca, eldest child of George Maquay of Dublin, esquire and had issue: 

(1) George Adair (1784-after 1850) (q.v.); 

(2) John Adair (1792-1839), dsp;  

(3) Elizabeth Adair;  

(4) Jane Adair, m. F.W. Fortescue of Miltown Grange (Louth) esq.;  

(5) Mary Adair;  

(6) Sarah Adair;  

(7) Charlotte Adair. 

He purchased an estate at Rath (Leix) on which Bellegrove was built by his son. 

He died 14 July 1809. 

George Adair (1784-1873), of Bellegrove.  Elder son of John Adair (c.1731-1809) and his wife Rebecca, daughter of George Maquay of Dublin; born 13 September 1784.  JP and DL for Co. Leix; High Sheriff of Leix in 1822.  In 1850 he created a model farm on the estate which won him prizes for modern agricultural methods but led to the eviction of some tenants.  He married 16 May 1822 Elizabeth (1794-1823), second daughter of the Very Rev. Thomas Trench, Dean of Kildare, and had issue: 

(1) John George Adair (1823-85) (q.v.). 

He inherited the estate at Rath from his father in 1809 and built Bellegrove House there in 1835.  He probably made over the estate to his son before his death. 

He died on 2 August 1873 and was buried on 6 August at Coolbanagher church (Leix).  His wife died 21 March 1823, two weeks after the birth of their son, and is commemorated by a monument at Coolbanagher. 

John George (known as Jack) Adair (1823-85), of Bellegrove and later of Glenveagh Castle.  Only child of George Adair (1784-1873) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Very Rev. Thomas Trench; born 3 March 1823.  Educated at Trinity College, Dublin.  High Sheriff of Co. Leix, 1867 and Co. Donegal, 1874.  He set up a brokerage business in the United States in the 1860s and later became a ranch owner and property speculator.  Although he did not inherited Bellegrove until 1873, he was probably in control of the estate for some years before his father’s death.  He married, 30 May 1867 at the English episcopal church, Paris (France), Cornelia (1837-1921), daughter of Gen. James Samuel Wadsworth of New York and widow of Col. Montgomery Ritchie, but died without issue. 

Bellegrove was apparently made over to him during his father’s lifetime and he was listed as owning 9,655 acres in Co. Leix in 1872.  He was probably responsible for adding a winter garden designed by Sir T.N. Deane 1869.  In 1857-59 he purchased land in Co. Donegal to form a new estate at Glenveagh, where he built Glenveagh Castle to the designs of his cousin, J.T. Trench.  At his death his estates passed to his widow and the Irish properties were sold after her death. 

He died 4 May 1885 in St. Louis (USA), and is buried in The Lea Church, Killenard, Leix; his will was proved in Dublin, 2 July 1885 (estate in England, £14).  His widow died 22 September 1921. 

Sources 

Burke’s Landed Gentry, 1863; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2nd edn, 1988, pp. 139, 291; E. Malins & P. Bowe, Irish Gardens and Demesnes from 1830, 1980, pp. 56-57