Belle Isle, Lorrha, Co Tipperary
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. 38. “(Yelverton, Avonmore, V/PB 1910) A C18 house of two storeys with an attic. Pedimented front and ends, each pediment having a lunette window. The seat of a branch of the Yelverton family; passed through marriage to the O’Keefe family, and then back to another branch of the Yelvertons through the marriag of Cecilia O’Keefe to third Viscount Avonmore.”
Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c. 1800, having earlier five-bay two-storey with attic over basement block of c. 1790 to rear with pedimented three-bay breakfront. Single-storey over basement round bay to front and canted bay to south gable, of rear block. Projecting porch with hipped slated roof to front of entrance block. Slate roofs, pitched to rear block and hipped to front, with rendered chimneystacks to rear block. Rendered walls with render quoins and lined-and-ruled render walls to basement storey below limestone string course and with moulded stringcourse and cornice to round and canted bays. Square-headed window openings with round-headed to ground floor front and porch of entrance block, square-headed elsewhere. Lunette windows to pediment and upper gables of rear block. Timber sash windows to first floor and basement, with bipartite and tripartite casements elsewhere, all with limestone sills. Glazed panelled timber double door in recessed round-headed opening to entrance block. Lofted single-storey outbuildings to north having rendered walls. Quadrant gateway with roughcast walls and cast-iron gates with vehicular and pedestrian gateways with cut stone copings, piers to vehicular entrance and block-and-start surrounds to pedestrian gates.
Appraisal Belle Isle is an interesting house which appears to be of late-eighteenth century origin, extended and altered during the nineteenth century. As a result the house displays an interesting variety of doors and windows, some of which may date to the early nineteenth century and retain original glazing. The house is located on an elevated site overlooking the River Shannon and Portumna Bridge and is clearly visible from the Galway side of the river. Although not in use the roofs are intact and have helped protect the interior from the elements. However, long-term disuse has caused serious deterioration in the outbuildings and if continued will put the house itself at serious risk.
Irish Historic Houses 