Brittas Castle, Thurles, 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. 48. “(Langley/IFR; Knox/IFR) The earlier castle here was burnt ca 1820, when occupied by Henry Grace Langley. His nephew, Major Henry Langley, began building what, if it had been completed, would have been the first “archaeological” C19 castle in Ireland; more closely based on medieval origins than any earlier Irish Medieval-Revival castle, and surrounded by a moat. It was designed by the versatile William Vitruvius Morrison; but in 1834, when only the great gate-tower had been built, Major Langley was killed by a falling stone and the work was abandoned. The gate-tower is of massive stonework, the gateway being set between a tall arch and flanked by polygonal turrets. It rises stark from the surrounding meadow, fronted by part of the moat which still holds water. Behind it is the very modest single-storey C19 house with which subsequent owners of Brittas have made do. The estate was sold 1853 to a branch of the Knox family. It was then bequeathed by Captain John Frederick Knox to Miss Mabel Anna Langley, so it is now back in the Langley family.”
Detached castle, built c.1830, and unfinished except for front elevation and lower parts of other walls. Polygonal battlemented towers to corners of front elevation. Ashlar limestone walls with battered base. Round-arched loop windows, with double-ogee light to west side of front part. Machicolations to towers and west wall. Four-centred arched entranceway, with chamfered surrounds and with slots for portcullis. Castle is surrounded by moat.
Appraisal
Built by Major Henry Langley, this castle was intended to be the first nineteenth century ‘archaeological’ castle in Ireland. Designed by William Vitruvius Morrison, work was abandoned in 1834 when Langley was struck by a falling stone on site and killed. The building retains many of its original interior and exterior features, including a dungeon and a working moat. The finely-cut limestone masonry used throughout the building attests to the skill of the nineteenth-century craftsmen and stone masons. Brittas Castle forms an imposing and striking silhouette on the surrounding countryside.
Detached L-plan single-storey house, built c. 1860, with six-bay front and three-bay south elevations and with lean-to addition to south-west and half-hipped outbuilding attached to north-west. Hipped slate main roof having rendered chimneystacks. Rendered walls with dressed limestone quoins. Square-headed openings with timber sash windows, mainly two-over-two pane, having margined one-over-one pane to south elevation, with limestone sills. Ashlar limestone block-and-start surround to square-headed door opening having glazed timber panelled door. Yard of single storey outbuildings to north, having pitched slate and corrugated-iron roofs, and some with cut stone walls, some having segmental-arched carriage openings. Multiple-bay two-storey outbuilding to north-west, with pitched slate roof, dressed limestone walls with cut limestone quoins and having bellcote to south gable.
Appraisal
Set close to the incomplete Brittas Castle, this modest country house retains many interesting features and materials such as the margined timber sash windows, ashlar limestone dressings and slate roof. The site of the house and castle is enhanced by the related outbuildings and fine gates which add context and interest.
Detached three-bay gate lodge, with single-storey front and formerly two-storey rear elevations, with gabled projecting central bay, built c. 1850, with recent extension to rear. Pitched slate roof having cut limestone chimneystack with recent rendered top. Rendered walls with dressed limestone quoins, plaque, dressings to openings and label mouldings. Square-headed openings to front, mullioned double segmental lights to lower gables and loops to upper gables, all with block-and-start surrounds, replacement windows and with label mouldings to all ground floor openings except ogee-headed windows in sides of porch. Wide entrance door openings with label moulding and recent brick infill to sides and having replacement timber door. Square-profile ashlar limestone piers and rendered walls with dressed limestone copings and having replacement cast-iron vehicular and flanking pedestrian gates to road.
Appraisal
This house retains much of its original form and structure. Textural interest is achieved through the juxtaposition of smooth render and the cut limestone dressings. The house retains its limestone sills, limestone plaque and slate roof. It forms part of an interesting group of related structures with the house, castle, gate lodge and outbuildings.
http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-list.jsp?letter=B
The original castle was burnt circa 1820 (Bence Jones) when the owner was Henry Grace Langley. His nephew Major Henry Langley [1784-1834] began to build a Medieval Revival castle to the design of William V. Morrison but died when only the gate tower was completed. The Irish Tourist Association surveyor wrote that it was to be a replica of Warwick Castle. In 1840 the Ordnance Survey Name Books commented that Brittas Castle was “a modern unfurnished building on a most magnificent scale but in all probability it will never be finished”! In the mid 19th century Henry Langley held the castle valued at £30 from the Court of Chancery. The sale rental of December 1853 records Thomas Kirwan as the tenant of the castle and 464 acres for 7 years from 25 March 1851 pending the cause of Langley v Langley. From 1853 Brittas belonged to the Knox family who lived in a single storey house located behind the gate tower. This house was described as a mansion house in 1906, valued at £25 and occupied by Fitzroy Knox.
The Tipperary Gentry. Volume 1. By William Hayes and Art Kavanagh. Published by Irish Family Names, c/o Eneclann, Unit 1, The Trinity Enterprise Centre, Pearse St, Dublin 2, 11 Emerald Cottages, Grand Canal St, Dublin 4 and Market Square, Bunclody, Co Wexford, Ireland. 2003.
Langley of Coalbrook, Brittas Castle and Archerstown
p. 116. Henry Langley [1732-1805] was the proprietor of Priesttown House and its estate, close to Drangan village, which was also then known as Langley Lodge.
In 1754 he married Margaret Grace, the daughter and heiress of Oliver Grace of Brittas, near Thurles. Oliver was descended from John Grace, to whom Brittas, a former Anglo-Norman manor, owned by the Dunboyne Butlers up until the Cromwellian period, was granted in 1667, after the restoration of charles II. It is not clear if Henry and Margaret lived at Brittas or in Langley Lodge… buried in the small graveyard of Brittas.
[their eldest son Henry Grace Langley] certainly lived in Brittas from the time he inherited it, and managed the estate for around 40 years. He was a magistrate and member of the Grand Jury…he was also responsible for many improvements on the estate, including tree landscaping, and probably additions the the house, which was erected against the old bawn walls of the castle.
p. 117. The major loss, which Henry had to contend with, was the burning of Brittas Castle about a year before his own death, which occurred in 1821. An etching, printed in 1823, shows the castle as consisting of three towers, two of which are square, the third a rounded one, and an attached three-storied house along the western side of the old bawn wall. Although Henry was married twice, (his second daughter being the youngest daughter of John Bagwell, MP, of Marlfield near Clonmel), he had no family. .. He was succeeded by his nephew, Major Henry, the son of his brother Oliver, who lived in Parkstown House, Horse and Jockey.
The extent of the damage done to the castle and residence by the fire is not konwn, but Major Henry, who was captain the tne 2nd Regiment of Life Guards, apparently found hte place uninhabitable, and sold it and [p. 118] part of the lands to his first cousin, Henry Augustus of Priesttown, another military man, a captain of the Dragoon Guards.
p. 120. Captain Henry’s son Henry [1820-1902] sold Brittas in the Encumbered Estates Court. The purchaser was Colonel William Knox from Mayo, who was said to be passing through Thurles when he happened to hear that the property was for sale. The total estate, including Priesttown, was 2509 acres.
p. 120. Brittas remained in the Knox ownership for some generations, and the extensive roadside woodland of the estate became known locally as Knox’s Wood. It has now returned into the ownership of a Langley again, through a bequest from Captain J. F. Knox, who was unmarried. Anna Mabel, daughter of John Finlow Langley, became the beneficiary of that bequest, and she resides in the single-storey house of Brittas, beneath the shadow of Henry Augustus’s great castle gate-tower, and manages the farm now reduced to around 500 acres.
Irish Historic Houses 