Parkstown, Ballivor, 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 three storey five bay gable-ended house of ca 1770, with a pedimented doorcase and niches in the centre of each floor.” 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/14327001/parkstown-house-parkstown-ballivor-co-meath

Detached five-bay three-storey country house, built c.1770, with return. Replacement pitched slate roof with rendered chimneystacks. Rendered walls, with sill course at first floor level and with niches to central upper floor bays. Timber sash windows with stone sills. Pedimented stone doorcase with spoked fanlight and timber panelled double doors. Internal double doors with Art Nouveau glass panels. Cast-iron water pump attached to rear elevation. Outbuildings to rear. Ashlar limestone octagonal gate piers to front. 

Appraisal 

The classical proportions and understated external decoration of this house enhance the form and scale of this imposing house. The stone doorcase and the rendered niches enliven the regular form. The setting of the house is enhanced by the related outbuildings to the site. 

Record of Protected Structures: 

Parkstown, townland: Parkstown, town” Ballivor 

Detached five-bay three-storey country house, built c.1770, with return. Outbuildings to rear. Ashlar limestone octagonal gate piers to front. 

National Register: 14327001 

Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.  

p. 140. 

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

Parkstown House is located just outside Ballivor on the road to Trim. Casey and Rowan described Parkstown as a tall thin three storey gable ended house. Bence-Jones pointed out the  pedimented doorcase and niches at the centre of each floor. Erected about 1770 the house has internal doors with Art Nouveau glass panels. 

In 1721 Francis Fleetwood of Parkstown leased the townland of Parkstown to Thomas Bomford of Rahinstown. Fleetwood held lands at Colronan, Cornelstown and Crossenstown. 

In 1786 Robert Fleetwood held Parkstown. Robert married Catherine Margaret Hopkins. Their daughter, Hester, married James Rynd of Dublin and their son, Robert Fleetwood Rynd, lived at Ryndville. The name Fleetwood continued down the generations in the Rynd family. In the early 1800s a Robert Fleetwood married Maria Rynd but they seem to have lived in the parish of Rathcore. 

In 1805 Michael Campbell of Parkstown married Miss Dowdall, daughter of George of Causetown, Co. Meath. In 1835 the house was the residence of Mr. Campbell. 

In 1854 William Hone leased Parkstown House and the townland of 346 acres from the Earl of Darnley. 

In 1911 Mary Anne Parr and her family lived at Parkstown. Mary Anne was a widow aged 83 in 1911. In 1928 B.C. Parr sold Parkstown. Bernard Cecil Parr, was the son of Bernard W. Parr of Ballyboy House, Rathmore. The house was described as “ the residence which is picturesque situate, is approached by front and back avenues and contains a large hall, two sitting rooms, five bedrooms, two dressing rooms, kitchen, dairy, W.C. Laundry etc.”  Bernard C. Parr married Sidney Bell of Dublin in St. John’s Pro Cathedral, Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1932.