Bracklyn, 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. 46. “(Fetherstonehaugh/IFR) A C18 house consisting of two storey five bay centre block with single-storey 1 bay wings. Wall carried up to form roof parapet. Early C19 pillared porch. Rustic stone arch at entrance to demesne.”
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement neoclassical country house, built c.1790, with projecting single-bay Doric porch to the centre of entrance front (west), c.1855, and single-storey bow-ended wings to either end (north and south), built c.1910. Shallow-hipped natural slate roof with rendered chimneystacks and an ashlar limestone eaves course. Raised parapet with ashlar limestone coping over to entrance front (west). Smooth rendered walls with projecting stone string course at ground floor level. Projecting porch constructed of ashlar limestone with extensive ashlar detailing, including Doric pilasters and columns having cornice over. Square-headed window openings with cut stone sills, plain stripped architraves and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Replacement windows to flanking wings. Round-headed doorcase to projecting porch with ashlar limestone surround. Round-headed window openings with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows to side elevations of porch (north and south). House bounded to front by low ashlar limestone plinth wall. Set back from road in extensive landscaped grounds to the south of Delvin with gate lodge (15401322) to west, mausoleum to north (15401406) and an extensive complex of outbuildings to rear (east) and to south side, many contemporary with the house. Three-storey extension to rear of house, c.1855.
Appraisal
A substantial and delicately detailed neoclassical country house, which retains its early form, character and much of its early fabric. It is built in a typically plain but well-proportioned Neoclassical idiom and represents an early example of this type of architecture in Westmeath. The later Doric porch, added c.1855, is correctly proportioned and well-detailed in crisp ashlar limestone and it creates a pleasant contrast with the plain detailing of the main body of the house. The regular form and restrained detailing of this country house is also in stark contrast with the boldly detailed water-weathered gate lodge to the west (15401322). Bracklyn House was built by a branch of the Fetherston-Haugh Family in the late eighteenth-century on land acquired from the Pakenham Family of Tullynally Castle, Castlepollard. The Fetherston-Haughs were an important landholding family in Westmeath during the nineteenth century and had further country seats at nearby Rockview House, at Griffithstown (near Kinnegad) and at Newpass (near Rathoath). The present house occupies the site of a fifteenth century tower house. It is quite likely that some of the fabric of this earlier structure may have been used in the construction of the main house or, more likely, in the construction of the complex of outbuildings to the rear. Bracklyn House forms the centrepiece of an important group of structures with the gate lodge (15401322), the mausoleum (15401406) and the extensive collection of ancillary outbuildings to the rear (east) and to the south.
Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge, built c.1821, comprising central segmental-headed carriage with pyramidal-shaped bellcote over, flanked by single-bay single-storey ‘lodges’ to either side (north and south). Hipped slate roofs to each lodge with curved ridges. Constructed of rusticated water-weathered limestone with a rusticated water-weathered pier on square-plan surmounted by a pinnacle to either side of each ‘lodge’. Cut stone shield motif over bellcote with incised date ‘1821’. Single segmental-headed opening set in segmental-headed recesses to each lodge, pointed-arched opening to bellcote with brick surround. Modern wrought-iron double gates with raised lettering reading ‘Bracklyn Estate’ to main opening. Gateway flanked to north and south by modern wrought-iron pedestrian entrances and by quadrant sections of rusticated water-weathered limestone walling terminated by piers on square-plan with pinnacles over. Road-fronted to west of Bracklyn House (15401405).
Appraisal
This curious entrance gateway is one of the most elaborate water-weathered features in Ireland and has a rather grotesque, yet picturesque, appeal. It is built in a very unusual combination of a Palladian-style plan with grotto-like Gothic detailing and is more like a folly than a gate lodge. This structure must be one of the most unusual gate lodges in Ireland and is a quirky addition to the architectural heritage of Westmeath. It contrasts attractively with the rigid neoclassical form of Bracklyn House itself and forms part of an important group of structures associated with this demesne, along with the main house (15401405) and the mausoleum (15401406).
https://theirishaesthete.com/2014/08/20/a-votary/
Plasterwork decoration in a recessed niche in the dining room of Bracklyn, County Westmeath. The house was built c.1790 by a branch of the Fetherston-Haugh family on land acquired from the Pakenhams in the same county. It occupies the site of a 15th century castle, some of which may have been incorporated into Bracklyn, which in keeping with the taste of the period has chaste neo-classical interiors throughout, as can also be seen below in this detail of an archway in the staircase hall.
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
p. 173.
Irish Historic Houses 