[1] Bence-Jones, Mark. 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.
Factory Hill, Glanmire, Co Cork
p. 123. “(Hoare, Bt, of Annabella/PB; Dring/IFR) A small Georgian house in the Palladian manner, consisting of a centre block joined to tiny pavilions by curved sweeps; and with the farmyard at the back. A seat of the Hoare family; bought ca 1954 by Mr John Dring, who sold it some years later.” [1]
Fahagh Court, Beaufort, Co Kerry – Killarney Country Club
p. 122. (Morrogh-Bernard/IFR) An irregular two storey house with a shallow battlemented bow and a rusticated doorcase of sandstone on its front, and a gable at the back. Now an hotel.” [1]
Fairfield House, Co Galway (see Carrowmore)
Fairy Hill, Mallow, Co Cork
p. 123. “(Sarsfield/LGI1958) A later Georgian house of one story over a basement. Irregular façade with bow and Wyatt window.”
Fairy Hill, Borrisokane, Co Tipperary
Fairy Hill, Borrisokane, Co Tipperary courtesy National Inventory
p. 123. “A two storey three bay C18 house with a pediment and a fanlighted doorway with sidelights and blocking. In 1837 the seat of W.H. Cox.” [1]
Faithlegg House, Waterford, Co Waterford – a hotel
Faithlegg House Hotel, Co Waterford, Courtesy Colin Shanahan_ Faithlegg House Hotel 2021, for Tourism Ireland.
p. 123. (Power/IFR; Gallwey/IFR) A three storey seven bay block with a three bay pedimented breakfront, built 1783 by Cornelius Bolton, MP, whose arms, elaborately displayed, appear in the pediment. Bought 1819 by the Powers who ca 1870 added two storey two bay wings with a single-storey bow-fronted wings beyond them. At the same time the house was entirely refaced, with segmental hoods over the ground floor windows; a portico or porch with slightly rusticated square piers was added, as well as an orangery prolonging one of the single-storey wings. Good C19 neo-Classical ceilings in the principal rooms of the main block, and some C18 friezes upstairs. Sold 1936 by Mrs H.W.D. Gallwey (nee Power); now a college for boys run by the De La Salle Brothers.” [1]
Falls Hotel (formerly Ennistymon House), County Clare
Falmore Hall, Dundalk, Co Louth courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
p. 123. “(Bigger, sub Hamilton/IFR; Windham-Dawson, sub Dartrey, E/PB1933) A two storey Georgian house of five bays, with an eaved roof and a bow on one front...” [1]
Falmore Hall, Dundalk, Co Louth courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
Fanningtown Castle, Croom, Co Limerick – whole house accommodation
Photograph courtesy of Fanningstown Castle website.
Farragh House (also known as Farraghroe), Longford, Co Longford – demolished
Farragh, County Longford, photograph courtesy of Mark Bence-Jones, A Guide to Irish Country Houses.
p. 124. “(Bond/LGI1958) A somewhat composite house, originally a shooting box but greatly enlarged by Willoughby Bond between 1811 and 1833, his architect being John Hargrave, of Cork. Subsequent additions were made in the Victorian period. Entrance front of three storeys and five baysm with Wyatt windows in centre above pillared porch. Side elevation of two storeys and three bays framed by giant plain pilasters; round-headed windows in arched recesses in upper storey of outer bays; two windows in middle above a single-storey Victorian bowed and balustraded projection. Other elevation of three storeys and four bays with a pediment extending over its whole length. Large two storey central hall with gallery and bifurcating staircase, too-lit through skylight with stained glass incorporating family motto, “Deus providebit,” which may have been set by mistake the wrong way round, so that from below the letters read back to front; people said that this had been done intentionally, so that the Almighty, looking down from above, would be able to read the motto and thus be reminded of his obligations. Farragh was sold ca 1960 by Mr B.W.Bond, it was subsequently demolished.” [1]
Farran, Coachford, Co Cork – Hidden Ireland whole house rental
Farran, Coachford, Co Cork courtesy National Inventory
p. 124. “(MacNeale.LGI1912; and sub McNeile/LG1972) A two storey gable-ended house of ca 1770. Five bay front, pedimented Doric doorcase.” [1]
Favour Royal, Aughnacloy, County Tyrone
p. 124. “(Moutray/LGI1912) A somewhat austere Tudor-Gothic house of 1825, said to be by an architect named William Warren; built for John Corry Moutray to replace a house of 1670 destroyed by fire 1823. Two storey with attic of rather low-pitched gables in front; three storey at the back. The front of the house has large rectangular windows with elaborate Gothic tracery and hood mouldings over them. Now owned by the Forestry Commisson.” [1]
Fellsfort, Co Cork (see Mitchellsfort)
Fellows Hall, Killylea, County Armagh
p. 124. “(Maxwell, sub Farnham, B/PB; Armstrong, IFR; Stronge, Bt/PB; McClintock/IFR) A Victorian Italianate rebuilding of a house of 1762, itself a rebuilding of a C17 house burnt 1752. Two storeys over basement; five bay front, round-headed windows with keystones in upper storey, rectangular windows with entablatures on console brackets above them in lower storey. Tripartite doorway with triple window above it. Roof on bracket cornice. Passed through marriage from the Maxwell family to the Armstrong and Stronge families, and then to the McClintock family.”
Fenagh House, Bagenalstown, County Carlow
Fenagh House, County Carlow, photograph courtesy of National Library of Ireland.
p. 124. “(Pack-Beresford/IFR) A plain and austere C19 house of stone. Irregular in plan, and extensive; but with a symmetrical entrance front of three bays, the centre bay being recessed with a pillared porch.” [1]
Fenaghy House, Galgorm, County Antrim
p. 124. “A two storey, five bay gable-ended C18 house, refaced as a stucco Italianate villa in mid-C19. Entablatures on console brackets over ground floor windows; two storey projecting porch with a Corinthian column on either side of the entrance doorway; pierced roof balustrade. Conservatory at end of house, of pretty ironwork. Good interior plasterwork.” [1]
Fennypark, Co Kilkenny
p. 124. “A Georgian house consisting of a two storey three bay centre with Wyatt windows and a pedimented pillared porch, joined to one storey one bay pedimented wings by links with iron verandahs.” [1]
Fermoy House, Fermoy, Co Cork – ‘lost’
Fermoy House, County Cork, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 125. “(Anderson, Bt of Fermoy/PB1861; Cooke-Collis/IFR) A house of ca 1790, consisting of a centre block and wings. The seat of John Anderson, the enterprising army contractor who laid out the town of Fermoy. Later a seat of the Cooke-Collis family. Now demolished.” [1]
Ferns Castle, Wexford – OPW
Ferns Castle, photograph by Chris Hill, 2014 for Tourism Ireland, Ireland’s Content Pool.
p. 125. “(Bomford/IFR) A two storey five bay late-Georgian house with an eaved roof. Sold ca 1970; burnt 1972, subsequently rebuilt for institutional use.” [1]
Ferry Quarter, Strangford, County Down
p. 125. (Cooke/IFR) “A large stucco early-Victorian house, overlooking the entrance to Strangford Lough.” [1]
ffrankfort Castle, Dunkerrin, Co Offaly – a ruin
Ffrankfort Castle, County Offaly, entrance front, photograph: Standish Stewart, Varnishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 125. “Rolleston/IFR) A Georgian castellated house, with a battlemented parapet, pointed windows and a turret, incorporating part of a medieval castle and surrounded by the original fosse and a fortified wall of predominantly late C18 or early C19 appearance, with twin Gothic gateways opening into a forecourt in front of the house. Originally the seat of the ffranks; passed to the Rollestons through the marriage of the adopted daughter of Capt James ffrank to Francis Rolleston 1740. Now demolished except for some walls and moat.” [1]
Fields of Odin, Co Dublin (see St. Enda’s)
Finnebrogue House, Downpatrick, County Down
Finnebrogue House, County Down, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 125. “(Perceval-Maxwell/IFR) A fine late C17 house, built on an H plan: a central range with wings projecting at the front and back.
The house is of two storeys over a basement, with an attic storey in the side and rear elevations.
The entrance front is of five bays, with two additional bays at the end of each wing.
The upper storey of the central range is treated as a piano nobile, with higher windows than those below. The house was altered and brought up to date at end of C18 by Dorothea, Mrs Waring-Maxwell, sister and heiress of Edward Maxwell, of Finnebrogue, having stood empty for some 25 years.
The original high-pitched roof was replaced by a roof that was lower, though still high by late 18th century standards; late-Georgian sash windows were inserted, and some of the 1st floor rooms were given high coffered ceilings similar to those of the Down Hunt Rooms in Downpatrick, which date from the same period. Some of the internal partition walls are of peat or turf, as in certain other Irish houses.” [1]
Finnstown, Lucan, Co Dublin – hotel
Finnstown, County Dublin, photograph courtesy of finnstowncastlehotel.com
p. 125. Two storey gable-ended Georgian house; three bay front; later projecting porch, three bay return.” [1]
Fisherwick Lodge, Ballyclare, County Antrim
p. 125. (Chichester, Donegall, M/PB) A hunting lodge of the Marquesses of Donegall; rebuilt ca 1805 as a hollow square with two single-storey fronts of nine bays each. Tall windows, reaching almost to the ground; pedimented wooden doorcase, with fluted columns.” [1]
Fishmoyne, near Templemore, Co Tipperary
p. 125. “(Carden/IFR) The seat of the junior branch of the Cardens; a three storey C19 block built to replace an earlier house destroyed by fire. Pedimented entrance door in three sided bow in middle of front, two bays on either side. Entablatures over ground floor and first floor windows; eaved roof. Octagonal hall.” [1]
Flesk Castle, Co Kerry (see Glenflesk Castle)
Flood Hall, Thomastown, Co Kilkenny – demolished
p. 125. (Solly-Flood/LGI1912; Hanford-Flood/LGI1912) A two storey Georgian house with C19 Gothic embellishments. Front with pediment flanked by small crockets; single-storey three sided bow below. Hood mouldings. Irregular C19 end. The home of Henry Flood, the great C18 statesman and Irish patriot. Demolished 1950.” [1]
Florence Court House, County Fermanagh – open to the public
Forenaghts (used to be townland of Little Forenaghts), Naas, Co Kildare
p. 128. “Wolfe/IFR) A three storey early or mid- C18 house, probably originally of five bays but subsequently extended to form a three storey front of seven bays, with an addition of ca 1831 which is of two storeys on the entrance front and a single high storey on the garden front. Also in the C19 the house was given an eaved roof on a bracket cornice and a single storey Doric portico; and it was refaced in stucco. The garden front is of six bays, with a two bay projection at one end; C19 wing on this side has a curved bow. Low ceilinged rooms in the main block. Hall with slightly curving staircase at back, enlarged early C20 aby taking in the adjoining room to the left, which in turn has been opened, with arches on either side of its fireplace, into the library beyond, which has bookcases incorporated in its panelling. Beautiful early C19 drawing room in the garden fron ton the wing, with a curved bow and a high coved ceiling decorated with elaborate C19 plasterwork. This room was probably made – and the wing added – by Rev Richard Wolfe, for his fashionable wife, who was Lady Charlotte Hely-Hutchinson, sister of 2nd Earl of Donoughmore.” [1]
Fort Etna, Patrickswell, Co Limerick
p. 126. “(Peacocke/LGI1912; Reilly, sub Simonds-Gooding and Peart/LGI1958) A two storey five bay C18 house with a Venetian window and a pedimented and shouldered doorcase. Five bay side. Gable-ended farm buildings treated as wings. The seat of the Peacocke family; afterwards of the Reilly family.” [1]
Fort Frederic, Virginia, Co Cavan – a ruin
p. 126. “(Sankey/LGI1912) A two storey mid-C18 house with a central three sided bow and two bays on either side of it. Georgian Gothic doorcase. Single-storey wings, one of them with two bows in its end wall.” [1]
Fort Robert, Ballineen, Co Cork – ‘lost’
Fort Robert, County Cork, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 126. “(Conner;IFR) A late C18 weather-slated house of two storeys over high basement, built by R.L.Conner 1788. Eight bay front, with wide fanlighted doorway. Three bay side. Empty and decayed by 1854; ruinous by end of C19.” [1]
Fort Stewart, Ramelton, Co Donegal
p. 126. “(Stewart, Bt, of Ramelton/PB) A three storey gable-ended C18 house. Seven bay entrance front, with single-storey, two bay wings. C19 pilastered porch with door at side. Entrance hall with four engaged Tuscan columns and shallow rib-vaulting rising from them. Early C19 decoration in reception rooms.” [1]
Fort William, Tivoli, Co Cork
p. 126. “Baker/IFR) A late-Georgian house consisting of a two storey five bay centre block with single-storey bow-ended wings. Now part of the Silver Springs Hotel.” [1]
Fort William, Doneraile, Co Cork (see Kilmacoom)
Fort William, Glencairn, Lismore, Waterford
Fortwilliam, Glencairn, Lismore, Co Waterford courtesy Michael H. Daniels and Co.
Fortfergus (also known as Mountfergus), Killadysert, County Clare
p. 126. “(Ross-Lewin/LGI1912; Stacpoole/IFR) A long, irregular house of vaguely Georgian appearance, incorporating, or on the site of, a house built by Captain George Ross 1688. Passed by descent to Ross-Lewins; transferred by W.G. Ross-Lewin to his uncle, John Stacpoole, 1800. Sold under Encumbered Estates Act 1855 to Major William Hawkins Ball. Burnt 1922.” [1]
Fortfield, Terenure, Co Dublin
p. 126. “Yelverton, Avonmore, V/PB1910) A three storey house built ca 1785 for Chief Baron Yelverton, afterwards 1stViscount Avonmore. Seven bay front; central Venetian window above single-storey portico and with three oculi in the centre of top storey. Very wide staircase.” [1]
Fortgranite, Baltinglass, Co Wicklow
Fortgranite, Baltinglass, Co Wicklow Courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
p. 126. “(Dennis.IFR) A house of ca 1730 built by George Pendred, of Saunders Grove – whose son assumed the name of Saunders – which came to T.S. Dennis through his marriage to Katherine Saunders 1810; he remodelled it 1810-15, so that it is now predominantly late-Georgian in character. Two storey; entrance front with recessed centre and single storey Doric portico. Adjoining front is five bay with two single-storey three sided bows. Parapeted roof. The house was modernized 1870-1 by M.C. Dennis. The grounds contain a notable arboretum, planted ca 1820.” [1]
Fortland, Easkey, Co Sligo
p. 126. “(Brinkley/LGI1912) A Georgian house. Tripartite doorway with rusticated piers and pediment extending over door and sidelights.” [1]
Fortwilliam, Milford, Co Cork
Fortwilliam, Milford, Co Cork, photograph courtesy National Inventory.
p. 297. “(Sheehy/IFR) A house of mid-C19 appearance in the cottage style, with gables and ornamented bargeboards.”
Fortwilliam, Ballinasloe, Co Galway
p. 126. “(D’Arcy/IFR) A small Georgian house with Victorian additions.” [1]
Fosterstown House, Trim, Co Meath
Fosterstown House, Trim, Co Meath photograph courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
p. 127. “(Chambers. LGI1937 supp) A two storey three bay gable-ended late C18 house. The residence of the great Duke of Wellington (as Hon. Arthur Wellesley) when he was Member for Trim in the Irish Parliament.” [1]
Fota House, Arboretum and Garden, Carrigtwohill, County Cork – open to public
Fountainstown House, Crosshaven, Co Cork courtesy National Inventory.
p. 128. “(Hodder/IFR) A three storey double gable-ended early C18 house built by Samuel Hodder.” [1]
Fox Hall, Letterkenny, Co Donegal
Fox Hall, County Donegal, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 128. “(Chambers/LG1863) A stucco-faced house of mid-C19 appearance, but in a straightforward late-Georgian manner, with large rectangular windows and astragals. Of two storeys over basement. Projecting porch, with two ball fiials, not centrally placed; roof on plain cornice.” [1]
Fox Hall, County Donegal, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Foyle Park House, Eglington, County Derry
p. 128. “(Davidson/IFR) A plain two storey irregular late-Georgian house, built ca 1820 and opened 1827 as the North West of Ireland Society’s Literary and Agricultural Seminary and School of Classics. Come to the Davidson family by marriage later in C19. Sold 1920 by James Davidson to Mr H. Whiteside, who sold it back to Lt-Col K.B. L Davidson, of The Manor House, Eglington, 1968.” [1]
Frankville House, Athboy, Co Meath
Frankville House, County Meath, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 128. “A two storey house of late-Georgian appearance. Three bay front, with Wyatt windows and an enclosed porch with a die. Four bay side, with two Wyatt windows in the lower storey not related to the windows above.” [1]
Frascati (or Frescati), Blackrock, Co Dublin – ‘lost’
Frescati House, Blackrock, County Dublin, courtesy of National Library of Ireland.
p. 128. “Fitzgerald, Leinster, D/PB) The seaside house of the Leinsters in C18, where Emily, Duchess of Leinster, lived during her widowhood and where her son, the United Irish leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, spent much of his youth. A long, plain two storey eighteenth century house, wiht a pedimented doorway between two three sided bows. Drawing room with ceiling by Thomas Riley, who decorated the gallery at Castletown, County Kildare for Emily Duchess’s sister Lady Louisa Conolly. Demolished 1981-3.” [1]
French Park, County Roscommon – lost
French Park, County Roscommon, entrance front 1954. photograph: National Parks and Monuments Branch, OPW, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 128. “(De Freyne, B.PB) An early Palladian winged house of red brick; probably built ca 1729 by John French to the design of Richard Castle. Three storey seven bay centre block, three bay pedimented breakfront with lunette window in pediment; late-Georgian pillared porch, two storey wings five bays long and four deep joined to main block by curved sweeps as high as they are themselves; the curved sweeps having three windows in their upper storey and a door flanked by two windows below. Two storey panelled hall; stairs with slender turned banisters ascending round it to gallery; panelling with bolection mouldings; walnut graining. Dining room originally hung with embossed leather which was later replaced by wallpaper; nineteenth century plasterwork cornice and rosette and circle in centre of ceiling. Drawing room on 1st floor above dining room, with Bossi chimneypiece at one end and a late eighteenth century Ionic chimneypiece at the other; good compartmented plasterwork ceiling executed for Arthur French, 4th Lord De Freyne, late nineteenth century. Fine eighteenth century wrought iron entrance gates. Now a roofless ruin having been sold by 7th and present Lord de Freyne 1953 and afterwards demolished.”
supplement: “This house incorporated a mid-C17 house, built by Patrick French, a burgess of Galway who acquired the estate and other lands, and who died 1669.” [1]
Furness (townland of Great Forenaghts, or Phornauts), Naas, County Kildare
Furness, Naas, County Kildare courtesy myhome.ie
p. 129. “Nevill, sub Neville/IFR; Dering, Bt/PB; Beauman/LG1886; Synnott/IFR) A house built originally ca 1740 for Richard Nevill, and attributed by the Knight of Glin to Francis Bindon; consisting of a three storey centre block joined by single-storey links to a storey projecting wings of the same height as the links; the elevation being further prolonged by quadrants joining the wings to office ranges; so that it extends to a total length of 400 feet. The centre block has a three bay ashlar faced entrance front, with a lunette window above a window framed by an aedicule on console brackets consisting of two engaged Ionic columns and a pediment; above a frontispiece of coupled Doric columns and a Doric entablature framing the entrance doorway. There is an almost identical elevation in Clermont, Co Wicklow. The garden front of the centre block is five bays, with blocking round the ground floor windows. From ca 1780 onwards, Richard Nevill, MP, great-nephew of the builder of the house, carried out various additions and alterations; chief of which was the raising of the left-hand link, so that it became a two storey wing with a curved bow on the garden front. The whole of the centre block, on the entrance front, is taken up with a hall, consisting of two sections opening into each other with an arch; they were originally separate, but the Doric frieze is probably contemporary with the building of the house, as is the handsome staircase of Spanish chestnut, which rises on one side of the arch; though there are indications that it has been remodelled. On the frieze of the staircase and gallery is a Vitruvian scroll decoration. The drawing room has a ceiling, probably by Michael Stapleton, of delicate late C28 plasterwork with a medallion of Minerva attended by a kneeling hero. The dining room, in the wing, is. Large simple room with a curved bow. Richard Nevill, MP, also landscaped the grounds. At his deat 1822, Furness passed to his daughter and heiress, the wife of Edward Dering. Later it was sold to the Beauman family. In 1897, by which time it had become very dilapidated, it was bought by N.J. Synnott, who carried out a thorough – and for those days, remarkably sympathetic – restoration. The vista from the entrance front of the house is now terminated by a column formerly at Dangan, Co Meath, the boyhood home of the great Duke of Wellington. It was brought here and erected 1962, as a 21st birthday present to Mr David Synnott from his father. The house features in the film of the Somerville and Ross Irish RM stories. Mr David Synnott sold Furness 1987.” [1]
[1] Bence-Jones, Mark. 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.
2026 Diary of Irish Historic Houses (section 482 properties)
To purchase an A5 size 2026 Diary of Historic Houses (opening times and days are not listed so the calendar is for use for recording appointments and not as a reference for opening times) send your postal address to jennifer.baggot@gmail.com along with €20 via this payment button. The calendar of 84 pages includes space for writing your appointments as well as photographs of the historic houses. The price includes postage within Ireland. Postage to U.S. is a further €10 for the A5 size calendar, so I would appreciate a donation toward the postage – you can click on the donation link.
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donation
Help me to pay the entrance fee to one of the houses on this website. This site is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!
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I hope your year has started well. Here is a list of the Section 482 houses I have yet to visit – provided they are on future Section 482 lists. I am separating out tourist accommodation. The list unfortunately is usually published in late February, so we have a while to wait to see what properties will be on it this year.
As you can see, although I have visited more than 100 Section 482 properties, I still have over fifty to go! So, lots of travel for myself and Stephen. Below my places yet to visit, I have chosen twelve sites, to visit one per month, if we can manage that.
Happy visiting!
February
Griesemount House , Ballitore, Co. Kildare, R14 WF64
Open dates in 2026: Apr 5-6, 12, 19, 26, May 3-4, 9-10, 16-17, 23-24, 30-31, June 1, 6-7, 12, 14,20-21, 27-28, July 4-5,11-12,18,19, 25-26, Aug 1-3, 8-9,15-23, 29-30, Sept 5-6,12-13,19-20, 26-27, Oct 4,10,18, 25-26, 1pm-5pm
Fee: Garden and Museum With steam adult €20, OAP €15, (Sun and Bank Holidays),No steam (Sat) adult €15, OAP €10, Museum only -with steam, adult €15, OAP €10 (Sun and Bank Holidays), No steam (Sat) adult €10, OAP €7, Garden only –adult/OAP €7, student/child free
May
Kiltimon House, Newcastle, Co. Wicklow
Open dates in 2026: Feb 10, 13, 17, 20, 24, 27, Mar 3, 6, 10, 13, 20, 24, 27, 31, Apr 10, 14, 17, 21,24, 28, May 5, 8-10, 12-13, 15-16, 19, 22, 26, June 9-10, 12-13, 16, 19, 23, 26, Aug 15-23, Sept 1, 4, 8, 11-12, 15, 18-19, 22, 25-26, 29, 9am-1pm
Fee: adult €10, OAP/student/child €5
Griesemount House , Ballitore, Co. Kildare, R14 WF64
Open dates in 2026: Jan 5-30, Feb 3-27, March 2-31, April 1-30, May 1-29, June 2-30, July 1-31, August 1-31, Sept 1-30, Oct 1-30, Nov 2-30, Dec 1-19 Mon-Fri, National Heritage Week, Aug 15-23, 10am-5pm
Fee: Free
16
Brookhill House, Brookhill, Claremorris, Co. Mayo
Open dates in 2026: Mar 13-26, Apr 17-25, June 12-26, July 8-24, Aug 15-23, 2pm-6pm
Fee: adult €8, OAP/child/student €3, National Heritage Week free
Open dates in 2026: Jan 7 -31, Feb 4-28, Mar 4-31. Nov 4-30, Dec 2-20, Wed-Sat, Apr 2-30. May1-31, Sept 1-30, Oct 1-31, Tues-Sun, June 2-30, July 1-31, Aug 1-31, Mon-Sun All Day
Fee: adult €7.50, family €18- up to 2 adults and 3 children
November
The Old Rectory, Rathkeale, Co. Limerick
Open dates in 2026: May 2-Nov 29, Saturday and Sundays, National Heritage Week, Aug 15-23,
10am-2pm
Fee: adult €8, child/OAP/student €3
December
Kilcarbry Mill Engine House, Sweetfarm, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford, Y21 F7YD
Open dates in 2026: Feb 4-5, 8-11, Mar 11-12, 16-19, May 10-11, 22-31, July 4-5, 13-14, Aug 3-30, Dec 19-22 12 noon-4pm
Open dates in 2026: Jan 5-30, Feb 3-27, March 2-31, April 1-30, May 1-29, June 2-30, July 1-31, August 1-31, Sept 1-30, Oct 1-30, Nov 2-30, Dec 1-19 Mon-Fri, National Heritage Week, Aug 15-23, 10am-5pm
Fee: Free
Newtown Castle, photograph courtesy of National Library of Ireland.
Cork
Ashton Grove, Ballingohig, Knockraha, Co. Cork, T56 V220
Open dates in 2026: Jan 7-31, Feb 4-28, Mar 4-31. Nov 4-30, Dec 2-20, Wed-Sat, Apr 2-30. May1-31, Sept 1-30, Oct 1-31, Tues-Sun, June 2-30, July 1-31, Aug 1-31, Mon-Sun All Day
Fee: adult €7.50, family €18- up to 2 adults and 3 children
Open dates in 2026: June 2-30, Tues-Fri, July 1-31, Tue-Sat, Aug 4-23, 10am-2pm
Fee: adult €10, entrance fee is a voluntary donation in honesty box at door
Farm Complex, Killeek, St Margaret’s, Co. Dublin
Open dates in 2026: Jan 9-12, 16-19, 23-26, 30-31, Mon-Fri, 9.30pm-1.30pm, Sat-Sun, 1pm-5pm, May 11, 15-18, 29-31, June 5-8, 12-15, 19-22, Aug 14-23, Sept 11-12, 18-21, 25-28, Oct 16-19, 23-24, Mon- Fri 9.30am-1.30pm, Sat-Sun 2pm-6pm
Fee: adult €6, student/OAP/child €5
Knocknagin House, Coney Hill, Ballbriggan, Co Dublin, K32 YE00
Open dates in 2026: June 2 – 27, July 1 – 31, Aug 1-14, Tues – Sat, National Heritage Week, Aug 15-23, 9.30am-1.30pm
Open dates in 2026: Jan 12-16, 19-23, 26-27, 29-31, Feb 3, 5-8, May 1-5, 7-13, 21, 23-34, 26-27, June 25-29, July 2, 20-21, 23-28, Aug 15-23, 8.30am -12.30pm
Open dates in 2026: Apr 5-6, 12, 19, 26, May 3-4, 9-10, 16-17, 23-24, 30-31, June 1, 6-7, 12, 14, 20-21, 27-28, July 4-5,11 12, 18, 19, 25-26, Aug 1-3, 8-9, 15-23, 29-30, Sept 5-6, 12-13,19-20, 26-27, Oct 4,10,18, 25-26, 1pm-5pm
Fee: Garden and Museum With steam adult €20, OAP €15, (Sun and Bank Holidays),
No steam (Sat) adult €15, OAP €10, Museum only -with steam, adult €15, OAP €10 (Sun and Bank Holidays), No steam (Sat) adult €10, OAP €7, Garden only – adult/OAP €7, student/child free
Open dates in 2026: Jan 5-30 Mon-Fri 2.30pm-6.30pm, June 8-22 Mon-Fri 2.30-6.30pm, Aug 15-23 Mon-Sun 9am-1pm, Sept 7-22, Mon-Fri, 2.30pm-6.30pm, Sat-Sun, 9am-1pm
Fee: Free
Kilpeacon House, Crecora, Co. Limerick
Open dates in 2026: May 2-30, June 1-30, Mon-Sat, Aug 15-23, 10am-2pm
Stephen and I visited Lucan House during Open House Dublin in 2025. I am delighted that the house and thirty acres of parkland and woodland on the River Liffey have been purchased by South Dublin City Council in 2024, and they are being prepared for use as a public amenity.
Volunteer guide Colin took us around the outside of the house first, and to the stables, then back to the house where we were allowed to wander around on the ground floor, marvelling at the plasterwork by Michael Stapleton and the joinery detail.
The house we see today replaced an earlier medieval house. A painting by Thomas Roberts produced shortly before its demolition shows what appears to be a late-medieval tower house with a manor house with castellated roofline to one side. [1] It was demolished by Agmondisham Vesey (1708–85) to make way for the current house.
A painting by Thomas Roberts produced shortly before its demolition shows what appears to be a late-medieval tower house with a fortified manor house with castellated roofline to one side.
We passed the ruin of a medieval period church, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the way along the driveway to the house – I am not sure if the original house was attached to this ruin.
Robert O’Byrne tells us that Vesey’s wife Elizabeth lamented the destruction of the older building, ‘with its niches and thousand other Gothic beauties,’ but her husband was determined to build the new house.
Our guide told us that William Sarsfield acquired the site in 1566. A later William Sarsfield (d. 1675) who lived at the Lucan House property married a woman said to be an illegitimate daughter of King Charles II, Mary Crofts (c. 1651-1693) (also called Mary Walters). Mary Crofts’ mother Lucy née Walter (d. 1658) was also mother of James Scott (1649-1685) Duke of Monmouth, who was recognised by Charles II as his offspring. Both Mary and James took the name Crofts as she and her brother were placed with with William Crofts, 1st Baron Crofts, a close friend of the King, to be raised. James changed his name to Scott, taking his wife’s name when he married. Lucy Walters was also a lover of Theobald Taaffe, 1st Earl of Carlingford (c. 1603 – 1677), who may have been Mary Crofts’s father.
Portrait by Godfrey Kneller. This could be Mary Crofts, who married William Sarsfield. She was the daughter of Lucy Walter, mistress of Charles II and mother of James, Duke of Monmouth. The Duke was placed at an early age with Lord Crofts, a close friend of the King, and took the name Crofts. It appears that his half sister Mary also took the name Crofts though her father was not Charles II but probably Theobald, Earl of Carlingford. Follwing Sarfield’s death in 1675 she married William Fenshaw, a Master of Requests. [ https://picryl.com/media/portrait-of-a-lady-possibly-mary-crofts-c-1651-1693-by-sir-godfrey-kneller-34c8af ]Lucy Walter (1630-1658), as a Shepherdess by Peter Lely; Abbotsford, The Home of Sir Walter Scott; http://www.artuk.org/artworks/lucy-walter-16301658-as-a-shepherdess-208642
William Sarsfield (d. 1675) and Mary Crofts had a daughter, Charlotte (d. 1699), who married Agmondisham Vesey (d. 1738). It was his son, Agmondisham Vesey (1708–85), who built the current Lucan House, with the help of William Chambers.
William’s brother was Patrick Sarsfield (d. 1693) 1st Earl of Lucan. They grew up at another property, Tully in County Kildare, but they moved to Lucan when their father inherited the property in the early 1650s. Their mother Anne was the daughter of Rory O’More, a leader of the 1641 rebellion.
Patrick Sarsfield Earl of Lucan d.1693 attributed to Hyacinthe Rigaud, French, 1659-1743.Honora Bourke (1675-1698), Countess of Lucan and Duchess of Berwick, French School 17th century. This portrait hangs in Kilkenny Castle. She married, firstly, General Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan, son of Patrick Sarsfield, circa 9 January 1689/90 and secondly, James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick-Upon-Tweed, son of James II Stuart, King of Great Britain and Arabella Churchill, on 26 March 1695 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Île-de-France, France. She was the daughter of William Bourke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde and Lady Helen MacCarty. Honora’s sister was Margaret, Lady Iveagh, wife of Thomas Butler of Kilcash. Honora died aged 22 at Pesenas in France. Both her sons inherited their father’s titles. Oval, 1/2 length portrait. Sitter wears a yellow dress with a blue ermine-trimmed, blue wrap. It was possibly taken from a portrait painted on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of Berwick at St-Germain-en-Laye.
Both Sarsfield estates were confiscated by the Cromwellian regime and the family was transplanted to Connacht in 1657. Their father was restored to the Tully lands in 1661 by order of Charles II. In 1654 Lucan house was given to Cromwellian soldier Theophilus Jones (d. 1685) who later turned against the Cromwellians and helped to restore King Charles II to the throne.
The Sarsfields were Catholic. Patrick Sarsfield joined the military – the Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us that he served in one of the English regiments in the French army. These had been formed as a result of the secret treaty of Dover and allowed Catholics to avoid the test act and serve as officers. However, Sarsfield was implicated in the Popish Plot, and was dismissed from the army.
During a brief visit to Ireland he tried unsuccessfully to regain the family estate at Lucan to which he was then the heir presumptive. [2]
His military reputation soared as a consequence of his significant role in the defeat of Monmouth’s rebellion (1685) – who was his brother-in-law! James II promoted Patrick Sarsfield to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He fought in Ireland with the Jacobites against William III, and James created him earl of Lucan in January 1691. He was involved in negotiations for the Treaty of Limerick. He went on to fight in the French army and died of battle wounds in 1693. The Dictionary of Irish Biography continues:
“He married Lady Honora Burke, the 15-year-old youngest daughter of the 7th earl of Clanricarde, sometime during the winter of 1689–90. Their only child was born (April 1693) at the court in exile of James II in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and was named (in honour of the prince of Wales) James Francis Edward. He served in both the French and Spanish armies and died without issue in St Omer in 1719.“
Patrick Sarsfield is memorialised by a memorial in the garden designed by James Wyatt.
Agmondisham Vesey was the son of John Vesey (1638-1716) Archbishop of Tuam, who also served as Lord Justice of Ireland and Privy Counsellor. He claimed the Lucan estate on behalf of his wife and by 1674 and was able to purchase the estate at a low price. [3] Theophilus Jones was compensated by lands elsewhere.
Charlotte Sarsfield died only three years after her marriage to Agmondisham Vesey. They had two daughters: Henrietta, who married Caesar Colclough (1696-1766) of Tintern Abbey in County Wexford; and Anne Vesey, who married John Bingham (d. 1749), 5th Baronet of Castlebar, County Mayo. Their son Charles Bingham (1735-1799) 7th Baronet was created 1st Earl of Lucan in 1795, but these Earls of Lucan did not inherit Lucan House.
John Bingham, 5th Bt., of Castlebar Attributed to Robert Hunter courtesy Christie’s Irish Sale 2001.Charles Bingham, 1st Baron of Lucan (1735-1799), later 1st Earl of Lucan, Engraver John Jones, After Joshua Reynolds, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
Instead, Lucan House passed down to a son of Agmondisham Vesey’s second wife, Jane Pottinger. She was the widow of Thomas Butler (d. 1703) 3rd Baronet of Cloughgrenan, County Carlow, with whom she had no children. She and Agmondisham went on to have several children, the eldest of whom was Agmondisham Vesey (1708–85).
Agmondisham Vesey (1708–85) was a politician: a member of the house of commons for Harristown, Co. Kildare, 1740–60, and Kinsale, 1765–83. He was accountant and controller general from 1734 to his death, and a member of the privy council from 1776 to his death. He was also an amateur architect, and he designed his residence, Lucan House, built in 1772, with the help of William Chambers, who also designed the Casino in Marino in Dublin, built over the years 1758-76 (see my entry https://irishhistorichouses.com/2023/11/09/office-of-public-works-dublin-the-casino-at-marino/ ).
The fine stable block was designed earlier, in 1750s. Chambers may have been involved in the design of the stable block.
Bence-Jones describes the house as two storey over basement with a central feature of a pediment raised on a three bay attic, carried on four engaged Ionic columns. The ground floor is rusticated on the projecting three bays. The outer bays on the ground floor were also rusticated but the rustication was removed.
The house has five bay side elevation and a garden front with central curved bow containing an oval room which may have influenced James Hoban, designer of the White House in Washington DC (also said to be inspired by Leinster House).
Mark Bence-Jones tells us that Agmondisham Vesey consulted with James Wyatt (1746-1813) of London and Michael Stapleton for the interiors of the house. Robert O’Byrne adds he was aided by Wyatt’s Irish representative Thomas Penrose. James Wyatt had a flourishing country house practice in Ireland from the early 1770s until his appointment as Surveyor General of the King’s Works in England in 1796. [4]
The front hall has a screen of columns marbled to resemble yellow Siena, with squared pilasters to match on the back wall of the hall.
All the rooms on the ground floor at Lucan House are as they were when the house was completed in 1780, with the exception of a new floor in the library and bathrooms, which the Italian embassy added in the 1950s. [5] There is a large kitchen in the basement which we did not see.
In the Wedgwood Room, to the left of the hall, has a splendid ceiling. After much research an exact match for the original paint in the Wedgwood Room was found when the house was restored. The powder blue emphasises the marvellous stucco work by Michael Stapleton, and trompe l’oeil rondels said to be by Peter de Gree. However, Robert O’Byrne tells us that these are in fact prints that have been painted over. The ceiling curves downwards at the corners giving the effect of a shallow dome. At the centre of the gently domed ceiling is a medallion depicting a warrior kneeling before Minerva and by her maidens.
The room off the front hall to the back of the house is the Oval Room. The curve of the bow window is reflected in a facing curved wall, creating the oval shape. The bow has three windows placed in arches with decorative semicircles over the windows, which reflect the round decoration in the centre of the ceilng.
Robert O’Byrne points out that the arrangement of the front hall with the screen of columns to the rear with a central door opening into an oval room is also found in Castle Coole, County Fermanagh, which was designed in the early 1790s by James Wyatt – which is probably than the arrangement laid out in Lucan House (see my entry about Castle Coole https://irishhistorichouses.com/2024/03/21/castle-coole-county-fermanagh-a-national-trust-property/ ).
The large arch over the door entering from the front hall is repeated in the walls, which hold mirrors that look like doors. This room, Robert O’Byrne tells us, was designed as the Drawing Room but in later years served as a dining room. On the walls plaster “girandoles”, ornamental candle holders that are normally mounted on walls. O’Byrne tells us that Michael Stapleton created the design of these plaster girandoles. [see 1].
The room held an exhibition by Foley Architects, who prepared plans for South Dublin City Council for their transformation of Lucan House and its demesne for public use, including delicate watercolour paintings by Jérémy Cheval (his name is apt due to the prominent presence of the horse in the front hall!). Foley architects examine the entire site, with its Church Tower House ruin, main residence, boathouse, bathhouse (which we did not see as it is further from the house) and stables, its watercourse and vegetation.
The other room on the ground floor is a library with shelving units. I don’t know whether these units were in the house originally, or whether they are a later addition.
Robert O’Byrne tells us that the ceiling has been covered in plasterwork centred on another medallion, featuring, unusually, he points out, the Christ child and infant John the Baptist together with a lamb.
Vesey married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Right Reverend Sir Thomas Vesey, 1st Baronet, Bishop of Killaloe and of Ossory. Elizabeth Vesey was one of the founders of the Blue Stockings Society! This was an informal women’s social and educational movement in England in the mid-18th century that emphasised education and mutual cooperation. They liked to discuss literature, and invited men also to their gatherings. Elizabeth and Agmondesham did not have children, and they lived much of their time in London, where Elizabeth held her intellectual literary salons.
Robert O’Byrne tells us that like his wife Elizabeth, Vesey also took part in a conversational club. In 1773, during the period that work was underway on the new house, he was elected to the ‘Club’, the informal dining and conversational group established ten years earlier by Samuel Johnson and Joshua Reynolds. Johnson and James Boswell granted him the notional title of ‘Professor of Architecture,’ and the latter wrote that Vesey had ‘left a good specimen of his knowledge and taste in that art by an elegant house built on a plan of his own at Lucan.’ [see 1]
Behind the house is a boat house, on the River Liffey.
A sulphur spring was discovered in 1758, and a health spa opened that year in the area.
Watercolour painting by Jérémy Cheval of the spring, which must be located within the grounds of Lucan House.
The house passed to the son of a younger brother of Agmondisham. The younger brother, George, married a second cousin, Letitia Vesey. Their son George (1761-1836) inherited Lucan House. He married Emily La Touche (1767-1854), daughter of David La Touche (1729-1817) of Marley House in Dublin.
George and Emily’s daughter Elizabeth married Nicholas Conway Colthurst (1789-1829) 4th Baronet of Ardrum, County Cork. We came across the Colthurst family when we visited Blarney Castle in Cork. Their second son, Charles Vesey Colthurst, changed his name to Charles Vesey Colthurst-Vesey in 1860. He served as Justice of the Peace for Kildare and for Dublin, and High Sheriff of Dublin, and he lived at Lucan House. The house passed through their family until 1921, when it was sold.
Portrait of Mrs. George Vesey and Her Daughter Elizabeth Vesey, later Lady Colthurst, 1816 by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867). Location: Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University Massachusetts USA.
Capt Richard Colthurst (afterwards 8th Bt) sold it 1932 to Charles Hugh O’Conor, President of Irish Association of the Order of Malta and brother of the O’Conor Don of Clonalis House in County Roscommon. Charles Hugh O’Conor and his wife Ellen Letitia More O’Ferrall were parents of the next O’Conor Don, Father Charles O’Conor (see my entry about Clonalis https://irishhistorichouses.com/2020/10/16/clonalis-castlerea-county-roscommon/ ).
A daughter, Mary Ellen O’Conor, married Luke William Teeling, Conservative MP for Brighton in the UK, who sold Lucan House after WWII to the Italian government, for use as their embassy. First it was leased by the Italian ambassador as a residence in 1942, and then bought by the the Italian government in 1954.
2026 Diary of Irish Historic Houses (section 482 properties)
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The Battle of the Boyne museum is housed in Oldbridge Hall, which is built on the site where the battle of the took place. The house is maintained by the Office of Public Works.
Stephen and I have a personal connection, as Oldbridge was built by the Coddington family, and a daughter from the house, Elizabeth Coddington (1774-1857), married Stephen’s great great grandfather Edward Winder (1775-1829).
Battle of the Boyne painted by Jan Wyck, in the National Gallery of Ireland. The point of view is that of the Williamites who were based on high ground north of the River Boyne, looking southwards towards Donore Hill where James II and his troops were based.
The Battle of the Boyne, 1st July 1690, was just one of several battles that took place in Ireland when the rule of King James II was challenged by his son-in-law, a Dutch Protestant Prince, William of Orange. James II was Catholic, and he attempted to introduce freedom of religion, but this threatened families who had made gains under the reformed Protestant church. When James’s wife gave birth to a male heir in 1688, many feared a permanent return to Catholic monarchy and government. In November 1688, seven English lords invited William of Orange to challenge the monarchy of James II. William landed in England at the head of an army and King James feld to France and then to Ireland. William followed him over to Ireland in June 1690.
There were 36,000 men on the Williamite side and 25,000 on the side of King James, the Jacobites. William’s army included English, Scottish, Dutch, Danes and Huguenots (French Protestants). Jacobites were mainly Irish Catholics, reinforced by 6,500 French troops sent by King Louis XIV. Approximately 1,500 soldiers were killed at the battle.
After winning the battle, William gained control of Dublin and the east of Ireland. However, the war continued until the Battle of Aughrim in July 1691, which led to the surrender at Limerick the following autumn. The surrender terms promised limited guarantees to Irish Catholics and allowed the soldiers to return home or to go to France. The Irish Parliament however then enacted the Penal Laws, which ran contrary to the treaty of Limerick and which William first resisted, as he had no wish to offend his European Catholic allies.
John Coddington (1691-1740) purchased the land in 1729 from Henry Moore the 4th Earl of Drogheda. John’s father Dixie (1665-1728) fought in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 on the side of King William III. The unusual name “Dixie” comes from the maternal side, as Dixie’s father Captain Nicholas Coddington of Holm Patrick (now Skerries) in Dublin married as his second wife Anne Dixie, possibly a daughter of Sir Wolstan Dixie, 1st Baronet (1602-1682).
John married Frances Osbourne in 1710, and with the marriage came property in County Meath including Tankardstown. Tankardstown House is a boutique hotel and a section 482 property (see my entry https://irishhistorichouses.com/2020/07/11/tankardstown-estate-demesne-rathkenny-slane-co-meath/ ). John Coddington served as High Sheriff of County Meath in 1725, before he acquired the property at Oldbridge.
John’s son, also named John, predeceased him, tragically drowning in the Boyne. In the Meath History Hub Noel French recounts a story about how a young woman refused to marry John because she dreamed that he would die, as he did, before the age of twentyone. [1] I have obtained most of my information in today’s entry from the wonderfully informative Meath History Hub website.
Noel French tells us that the office of High Sheriff had judicial, electoral, ceremonial and administrative functions and executed high court writs. The usual procedure for appointing the sheriff from 1660 onwards was that three persons were nominated at the beginning of each year from the county and the Lord Lieutenant then appointed his choice as High Sheriff for the remainder of the year. Often the other nominees were appointed as under-sheriffs. Members of the Coddington family held the position in 1725, 1754, 1785, 1798, 1843, 1848 and 1922. [see 1]
After John’s death in 1740 the house at Oldbridge was advertised for lease, described as the house, gardens and demesne, so the house must have been built by this time. [see 1] The property passed to John’s brother Nicholas’s son, Dixie Coddington (1725-1794).
I am confused about the date of construction. According to the notice for lease, a house stood at the site in 1740. Evidence that the current house was built around 1750 however was found in an inscription on piece of baseboard of a stair removed during repairs carried out in 1960s that reads: ‘ December 1836 Patrick Kelly of the City of Dublin / Put up these Staircases. / I worked at this building from April / till now. / 86 years from the first / Building of this house/ till now as we see by a stick like this found.’
In The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster, The Counties of Longford, Louth, Meath and Westmeath (published in 1993), Casey and Rowan accept that the house was built around 1750. They suggest that it may have been designed by George Darley (1730-1817), due to affinities with Dowth Hall nearby and to Dunboyne Castle.
Dowth Hall, County Meath, photograph courtesy Sherry Fitzgerald.Dowth Hall, County Meath, photograph courtesy Sherry Fitzgerald.Dunboyne Castle, County Meath, now a hotel, photograph courtesy of hotel website.Signage at Oldbridge House, County Meath, including an old photograph of the house.
The house is three storey with a plain ashlar frontage of seven bays, with the centre three slightly advanced. Christine Casey and Alistair Rowan tell us in The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster, The Counties of Longford, Louth, Meath and Westmeath (published in 1993) that the house was originally designed as a three bay three storey block with low single-storey wings, and the upper stories of the wings were added later. [2]
In the early nineteenth century two floors were added to each wing. Casey and Rowan tell us that this was apparently carried out by Frederick Darley (1798-1872).
Quadrant walls link the house to its park, with rusticated doors.
It has a centrally located tripartite doorcase with pilasters surmounted by a closed pediment, which holds a canonball from the fields of the Battle of the Boyne. It has a string course between ground and first floors and sill course to first floor, and three central windows on first floor with stone architraves. [3]
Dixie Coddington (1725-1794) married Catherine Burgh, daughter of Thomas Burgh (1696-1754) of Burgh (or Bert) house in County Kildare. Burgh Quay in Dublin is named after a sister of Thomas Burgh’s, Elizabeth, who was the wife of the Speaker of the House in Ireland, Anthony Foster. Thomas Burgh’s uncle, another Thomas Burgh (1670-1730), was Surveyor General and architect.
On 13 April 1757 Dixie Coddington of Oldbridge sold Tankardstown. [see 1]
Dixie Coddington served as MP for Dunleer, County Louth. He and his wife had several daughters who all died in infancy, and no son, so Oldbridge passed to his brother, Henry Coddington (1728-1816). Dixie had previously leased Oldbridge to his brother, and has spent most of his life living in Dublin on Raglan Road. [see 1]
Henry Coddington (1728-1816) was father to Stephen’s ancestor Elizabeth. Henry was a barrister, and served as MP for Dunleer, County Louth, and he married Elizabeth Blacker from Ratheskar, County Louth. He served as High Sheriff for County Louth, then for County Meath, and was Deputy Serjeant-at-Arms between 1791 and 1800. He served as Justice of the Peace also for Counties Louth and Meath.
Henry and Elizabeth’s son Nicholas (1765-1837) followed in his father’s footsteps, and served as MP for Dunleer before the Act of Union in 1800, and also served as high sheriff for counties Louth and Meath. Nicholas and his son, Henry Barry, carried out a number of improvements on the estate. The house was re-modelled in the 1830s to the drawing of Frederick Darley. [see 1]
The Oldbridge Estate then passed to Henry-Barry Coddington, son of Nicholas. Henry-Barry Coddington was born on May 22nd in the year 1802; he was the eldest surviving son of Nicholas Coddington and Laetitia Barry. Henry Barry took a Grand Tour of Europe and kept a diary. He married Maria Crawford, eldest daughter of William Crawford of Bangor Co. Down in 1827.
Noel French tells us of Maria Crawford’s father and his role in tenant land rights:
“William Sharman Crawford, was the owner of 5,748 acres in County Down … as well as 754 acres at Stalleen in County Meath. William Sharman Crawford took an active interest in politics. He is best known for his advocacy of Tenant Right – the Ulster Custom which gave a tenant greater security through the three “f”s: fair rent, fixity of tenure and free sale of goodwill. Crawford called this “The darling object of my heart”. This idea was not popular with other landlords, but Crawford remained a strong advocate of it for the rest of his life. In 1843 Crawford managed to persuade Sir Robert Peel, the Conservative prime minister, to establish the Devon Commission to investigate the Irish land question. Tenant right, the subject of eight successive bills drafted by Sharman Crawford, was eventually conceded in the Land Acts of 1870 and 1881.”
Despite the admirable work of his father-in-law, Henry-Barry Coddington was a slave owner. He inherited an estate in Jamaica from his great uncle, Fitzherbert Richards. The estate, Creighton Hall in the parish of St. Davids in Jamaica, had previously belonged to Fitzherbert’s brother Robert Richards. The estate was 1165 acres. 399 acres was planted with sugar cane in 1790. The plantation produced sugar, rum, molasses, cotton, ginger, coffee, cocoa and pimento. [see 1]
In A Parliamentary Return of 1837-38, which listed names of those who claimed a loss of “property” after slavery was abolished in 1834, Henry-Barry Coddington was recorded as the `Master` to 235 enslaved individuals. It seems, however, that Coddington was unsuccessful in his claim for compensation.
Oldbridge House was occupied by the National Army in July 1922. In 1923 Arthur F. Coddington of Oldbridge brought a claim against the government for damages done by the National Army forces when they occupied Oldbridge House. The repairs included slates, plumbing, painting and six trees felled.[see 1]
Captain Arthur Coddington, his daughter Diana with the dog, Arthur’s wife Dorothea née Osborne from Smithstown, Julianstown in County Meath, and possibly Denise another daughter.
Arthur’s son Dixie fought in World War II then returned to live in Oldbridge, where he began a commercial market gardening business, and where he trained young people in horticulture.
The Meath History hub tells us that in 1982 a gang broke into Oldbridge House and stole £600,00 in antiques. Two years later, Dixie’s son Nicholas and his wife were held at gunpoint for eleven terrifying hours in their house. Among the items stolen was an eight-foot picture of King William III, dating back to 1700, a number of landscape paintings and a number of family portraits. The haul included items that had been recovered from the robbery two years previously. In 1984 Nicholas Coddington put the house and contents up for sale.
Oldbridge House was purchased by the state in 2000 as part of the Good Friday Peace Agreement, and renovation began.
Oldbridge House, County Meath.Coddington photographs of a tennis match at the house.
To the left of the house there is a cobble stone stable yard with fine cut stable block. This originally contained coach houses, stables, tack and feed rooms.
To the right of the house is a small enclosed courtyard which contains the former butler’s house.
The gardens of Oldbridge House have been restored, with an unusual sunken octagonal garden, peach house, orchard and herbaceous borders, with a tearoom in the old stable block. Throughout the year outdoor theatre, workshops and events such a cavalry displays and musket demonstrations help to recreate a sense of what it might have been like on that day in July 1690.
[2] p. 446. Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan, The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster, The Counties of Longford, Louth, Meath and Westmeath. Penguin Books, UK, 1993.
As you can see as I work my way though the contents of Mark Bence-Jones’s A Guide to Irish Country Houses [1], there are thousands of “big houses” in Ireland – though many are “houses of middle size.”
Note that the majority of these are private houses, not open to the public. I discovered “my bible” of big houses by Mark Bence-Jones only after I began this project of visiting historic houses that have days that they are open to the public (Section 482 properties).
This is a project I have been working on for a while, collecting pictures of houses. Enjoy! Feel free to contact me to send me better photographs if you have them! I’ll be adding letters as I go…
[1] 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.
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Eastgrove, Cobh, Co Cork
Eastgrove, Cobh, Co Cork, courtesy National Inventory.
p. 118. “(Bagwell/IFR; Jenkinson, B/PB) An early C19 house in the “Cottage Gothic” style overlooking East Ferry, a heavily-wooded backwater of Cork Harbour; built by Dorcas (nee Bagwell), wife of Benjamin Bousfield, on land which had belonged to her mother’s family, the Harpers of Belgrove. Shallow gables with bargeboards; trellised iron verandah on front overlooking Ferry. A polygonal tower, with an eaved roof, was subsequently added at one end of the house and known as Wellington Tower. It contains a large and impressive dining room with curved walls. There is also a large and handsome drawing room. At one side of the house is a range of castellated outbuildings, with a slender tower like a folly; there is another tower in the woods...” [1]
Ecclesville, Fintona, County Tyrone
p. 118. “(Eccles, sub McClintock/LGI1912; Lecky-Browne-Lecky, sub Browne, IFR) A plain late-Georgian house… Now a home for the elderly.” [1]
Echlinville House (afterwards Rubane House), Kircubbin, County Down
p. 118. “(Echlin/LGI1912) An early to mid-C18 house, largely rebuilt 1850; but the library, a four bay pavilion with Ionic pilasters and Gothic astragals in its windows, survives from the earlier house; inside is a vaulted ceiling with two floating domes. In the grounds there is a small Classical bridge and a pebble house with pinnacles. Subsequently the seat of a branch of the Cleland family, its name being changed to Rubane House.” [1]
Eden Vale, Ennis, Co Clare
Eden Vale, County Clare, photograph courtesy Sothebys.
p. 118. “[Stacpoole/IFR] A C18 house, enlarged and embellished during 2nd half of C19 by Richard Stacpoole. Irregular entrance front with three bays on one side of tower-like central feature, and four bays on the other. Porch with pilasters and pierced parapet. At the end of the house are two Venetian windows, one on top of the other. Sold ca. 1930; now an old peoples’ home.” [1] It is no longer an old peoples’ home.
Edenfel, Omagh, County Tyrone
p. 118. “(Buchanan, sub Hammond-Smith/IFR) A Victorian house with gables and bargeboards…” [1]
Edenmore, Stranorlar, Co Donegal
Edenmore House, Ballybofey, County Donegal, photograph courtesy Rainey Estate Agents Oct 2024.
p. 118. “(Cochrane/IFR) A two storey gable-ended late C18 house. Front with three sided central bow and one bay on either side of it. The house is flanked by detached office wings running back, one much longer than the other; the front ends of these wings have three sided bows, matching the bow in the centre of the house; they are linked to the house by walls, forming one long elevation...” [1]
Edermine House, Enniscorthy, County Wexford
Edermine House, Enniscorthy, County Wexford courtesy of National InventoryEdermine, County Wexford, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 118. “(Power, sub O’Reilly/IFR) A two storey Italianate villa by John B. Keane, built ca 1839 for the Powers, owners of the firm of John Power & Son, Distillers, of Dublin. Eaved roof on bracket cornice; three bay front with pillared porch, and triangular pediments over downstairs windows. Five bay side elevation, with a central Venetian window recessed in a giant blind arch. Grecian interior, fluted Doric columns in hall, paired Ionic columns and pilasters on staircase landing. A Gothic chapel was subseqnetnly built at one side of the house to the design of A.W. Pugin, a family friend; it was originally free-standing, but was afterwards joined to the house by an addition at the bck which includes a small Italianate campanile. At right angles to the chapel, a magnificent early Victorian iron conservatory, gracefully curving in the Crystal Palace manner, was built; probably by the Malcolmson Works in Waterford, or the Hammersmith Iron Works in Dublin; it is joined to the corner of the chapel by a cast iron verandah.” [1]
Edgeworthstown House, Edgeworthstown, County Longford – nursing home
Edgeworthstown Manor, County Longford, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 118. “(Edgeworth/LGI1912; Montagu, sub Manchester, D/PB) An early 18th century house built by Richard Edgeworth MP, with small windows, low, wainscoted rooms and heavy cornices; much enlarged and modernized after 1770 by Richard Lovell Edgeworth, the inventor, writer on education and improving landlord, father of Maria Edgeworth, the novelist.
It comprises two storeys over a basement, with two adjoining fronts; prominent roof and dentil cornice. The entrance front has three bays between two triple windows in the upper storey, with doorway in a pillared recess between two shallow single-storey curved bows below; in the Victorian period, the right-hand triple window was replaced by two windos and the right hand bow by a rectangular single-storey projection. Adjoining front has a three-bay breakfront which rises above the roofline as a pedimented attic, and two bays either side. On the ground floor, Richard Lovell edgworth enlarged the rooms by throwing them into single-storey three bay rectangular projections, linked in the centre by an arcaded loggia; in the Victorian period one of the projections was replaced by a glass lean-to conservatory, and the loggia was removed. Curved top-lit staircase in centre of house.
In Richard Lovell Edgeworth’s time, the house was full of labour-saving devices: sideboards with wheels, pegs for footwear in hall, leather straps to prevent doors banging, a water pump which automatically dispensed 1/2d to beggars for each half-hour that they worked it. Inherited 1926 by Mrs. C.F. Montagu (nee Sanderson) whose mother was an Edgeworth; sold by her to Mr Bernard Noonan, who bequeathed it to an order of nuns, by whom it is used as a nursing home; the exterior of the house being much altered, and the interior gutted and rebuilt.” [1]
Edgeworthstown Manor, County Longford, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.Edgeworthstown House, Edgeworthstown, Longford courtesy National Inventory
Edgeworthstown Rectory, Edgeworthstown, County Longford
Old Rectory Edgeworthstown, photograph courtesy Murtagh Brothers Estate Agents2024.
p. 119. P. 119. “(Edgeworth/LGI1958) A two storey three bay gable-ended early C18 house. The birthplace of Henry Essex Edgeworth, better known as Abbe Edgeworth de Fermont, who attended Louis XVI to the scaffold.” [1]
Edmondsbury, (formerly Newtown), Co Laois
Edmondsbury, (formerly Newtown), Co Laois courtesy National Inventory
p. 119. “(Butler, now Butler-Bloss/IFR) A house probably built by Edmond Butler soon after 1734. Good chimneypiece in hall. Sold 1910.” [1]
Edmondstown (Bishop’s Palace), Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon
Edmondstown (Bishop’s Palace or St. Nathy’s), Ballaghaderreen Co Roscommon, photograph from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
p. 119. “A high Victorian house of stone with brick polychromy; pointed windows, pyramidal roofed turret.” [1]
Eglantine, Hillsborough, County Down
“(Mulholland, sub Dunleath, B/PB) A nineteenth century house with a remarkable double-ramped staircase.” [1]
Eglington Manor House, County Derry
Manor House Eglinton, photograph courtesy Pauline Elliott Estate Agents.
p. 119. Eglinton, Manor House, County Derry: “(Davidson/IFR) A two storey late-Georgian house with an eaved roof and a fanlighted doorway, built by the London Company of Grocers, who owned and developed the village of Eglinton. Bought by James Davidson ca. 1840, and subsequently enlarged by the addition of a battlemented wing, with a snall battlemented turret at the junction of the wing and the original house. The wing and turret have large vemiculated quoins; and the original house has similar quoins.” [1]
Eglish Castle, Birr, County Offaly – a ruin
Eglish Castle, Birr, County Offaly photograph courtesy National Inventory.
p. 119. “A two storey house with a pediment.” [1]
Elm Hill, Ardagh, Co Limerick
Elm Hill, Ardagh, Co Limerick courtesy National Inventory.
p. 119. “(Studdert/IFR) A weather slated C18 house of two storeys over a high basement. Six bay front; pedimented doorway with sidelights. Archway of curving Baroque shape, the main arch being surmounted by a round-headed opening, at side of house, leading to yard.” [1]
Elm Park, Farran, Co Cork
p. 119. “(Ashe, sub Woodley/IFR) A two storey five bay early C19 house, the two left-hand bays of the front projecting forwards, with a glazed pilastered porch in the angle thus formed. The other end of the house is slightly curved. Eaved roof...” [1]
Elm Park, Clarina, Co Cork – demolished
p. 119. “(Massy, Clarina, B/PB1949) An irregular early C19 cut-stone castellated house, mostly of two storeys over a basement; with round and square towers… Now demolished, except for the gate arch.” [1]
The Elms, Portarlington, Co Laois
The Elms, Portarlington, Co Laois courtesy National Inventory.
p. 119. “(Stannus/IFR) A Georgian house consisting of a gable-ended centre of three storeys over a basement, with lower symmetrical wings. The centre with a three bay front and large fanlighted staircase window not centrally placed in its rear elevation. The home of Lt-Col T.R.A. Stannus, father of Dame Ninette de Valois, the ballerina and choreographer.” [1]
Ely Lodge, Castle Hume, County Fermanagh
Ely Lodge, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh for sale 2025 photograph courtesy Savills.
p. 119. “(on the same estate as Castle Hume) (Hume, Bt/EDB; Loftus, Ely, M/PB; Grosvenor, Westminster, D/PB) Richard Castle built his first Irish Palladian house here for Sir Gustavus Hume, Bt, MP 1729; it was named Castle Hume. Fine stable-court, with rusticated openings, some of them surmounted by oculi, and an interior of vaults supported by Doric columns, as at Strokestown. The estate subsequently passed to the Ely family though the marriage of the Hume heiress to Nicholas Loftus, afterwards 1st Earl of Ely. In 1830s a new house was built a couple of miles away, on a promontory in Lough Erne, by [John Loftus (1770-1845)] 2nd Marquess of Ely, and named Ely Lodge; to provide stone for it, the main block of Castle Hume was demolished, so that only the stable-court remains. Ely Lodge, which was to the design of William Farrell, consisted of a two storey five bay gable-ended block with Doric pilasters along its whole front and a Doric porch, the gable-ends being treated as pediments; at one end was a single-storey wing set back, with corner-pilasters and a curved pilastered bow in its side elevation. In 1870, Ely Lodge was blow up as part of 21st birthday celebrations of the 4th Marquess, who intended to build a new house; it is also said that he blew the house up in order to avoid having Queen Victoria stay. In the event, the new house was never built, doubtless for the reason that the young Lord Ely spent too much money on rebuilding his other seat, Loftus Hall, County Wexford. The former stables at Ely Lodge have since been extended to form a house, which is the Irish seat of the Duke of Westminster; it contains a number of interior features of the now demolished Eaton Hall, Cheshire.” [1]
Emell Castle, Moneygall, County Offaly
Emell Castle, County Offaly, courtesy of National Inventory.
p. 119. “(Stoney/IFR) A large C16 tower-house of the O’Carrolls, with a gable-ended C18 house of two storeys over a basement and five bays built onto the front of it. Fanlighted doorway. The C18 addition was almost certainly built by Captain Robert Johnstone, who bought the property 1782 and left it at his death 1803 to his nephew, Thomas Stoney. Some work was carried out on both the tower and the house during C19, without altering the original character of either.” [1]
Emo Court, (also known as Emo Park), Portarlington, County Laois – OPW
Emsworth, Malahide Road, Kinsealy, County Dublin, Kinsealy, Co. Dublin, for sale July 2025 photograph courtesy of Sherry Fitzgerald.
p. 121. “The only one of James Gandon’s villas to survive intact; built ca. 1790 for J. Woodmason, a Dublin wholesale stationer. A pediment extends over the whole length of the two storey three bay centre, which is flanked by single storey one bay overlapping wings. Fanlighted doorway under porch of engaged Doric columns and engablature; ground floor windows of centre, and windows of wings, set in arched recesses. Chimney urns on wings.…” [1]
Enniscoe House, Co Mayo – section 482 plus accommodation
Ennismore, Cork, Co Cork – owned by religious order
“(Leycester/LG1952) An early C19 single-storey “villa in the cottage style” with wrought iron verandahs, facing down the Lee estuary. Long and wide hall, running through the middle of the house; large and lofty reception rooms, which formerly contained a notable collection of pictures. Sold ca 1952, now owned by a religious order.” [1]
Ennistymon House, Ennistymon, Co. Clare, now part of the Falls Hotel
Falls Hotel, formerly Ennistymon House, County Clare, photograph for Failte Ireland, 2021. [see Ireland’s Content Pool].Ennistymon House, County Clare, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Erindale, County Carlow, courtesy of Jordan Residential.
p. 121. “(Vigors/LGI1912; Alexander/IFR) A remarkable two storey red-brick house of ca 1800, with a Gothic flavour and an ingenious plan made up of curved bows; so that one of the two bows on the entrance front serves as one of the end-bows of the adjoining elevation, which itself has a single centre bow. The windows in the entrance front are pointed; first floor centre window, and also two cntre ground-floor windows of the bows, being Venetian windows made Gothic. There is a very large semi-circular fanlight extending over the door and side-lights, with elaborate fancy glazing whith Dr Craig considers to be original. Wide eaved roof.” [1]
Errew Grange, Crossmolina, Co Mayo
Errew Grange, County Mayo courtesy of National Inventory.
p. 122. “(Knox) A large plain Victorian Gothic house on a peninsula jutting out into Lough Conn; rather similar to Mount Falcon, and, like it, probably by James Franklin Fuller; built ca 1870s. Became a hotel and gutted by fire 1930s, recently half rebuilt, also as an hotel.” [1]
Esker House, Lucan, Co Dublin – gone
p. 122. “A two storey Georgian house with a five bay centre and two sided bow at either side, the bows being of the same height as the centre, but with their upper storey windows close to the cornice so as to make the ground floor look higher. Small porch….” [1]
Eureka House, Townparks, Co Meath
Everton House, Crockaun, Co Laois
Everton House, Crockaun (or Oldderrig), Co Laois courtesy National Inventory
p. 122. “ A two storey C18 house with front consisting of two deep curved bows separated by one bay with a fanlighted doorway; with an additional bay to the left of the left-hand bow and a curved end-bow. Later two storey wing prolonging the front to the right of the right-handed bow...” [1]
Evington House, Carlow, Co Carlow
Evington House, Newgarden, Carlow, Co Carlow courtesy National Inventory.
p. 122. “A two storey three bay late-Georgian house with an eaved roof. Doorway with large fanlights extending over door and sidelights.” [1]
Eyrecourt, Co Galway – ‘lost’
Eyrecourt, County Galway, c. 1890. Photograph copy: David Davison. Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 122. “Eyre/IFR) One of the only two important mid-C17 Irish country houses to survive intact into the present century, the other being Beaulieu, Co Louth. Built 1660s; of brick faced with rendered rubble. Of two storeys, with a dormered attic in the high, wide-eaved sprocketed roof; seven bay entrance front, with three bay pedimented breakfront centre; six bay side. Massive wooden modillion cornice. Splendid if somewhat bucolic doorcase of wood, with Corinthian pilasters, an over-wide entablature, carved scrolls, a mask and an elliptical light over the door surrounded by a frame of foliage. Windows with C18 Gothic glazing. Richly decorated interior. Hall divided by screen of arches and primitive wooden Corinthian columns from vast and magnificent carved oak staircase with two lower ramps adn a single central return leading up to a landing with elaborately moulded panelling and a plasterwork ceiling… staircase went to Detroit Institute of Arts, having been removed there after the house was left to decay from 1920 onwards, since when it has fallen into ruin.” [1]
[1] 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.
We visited Leinster House, the seat of Irish Government, during Open House Dublin 2025. We were lucky to get tickets! Open House Dublin events book out almost immediately.
Leinster House was built from 1745-1752 for James Fitzgerald (1722-1773) 20th Earl of Kildare and first Duke of Leinster.
James Fitzgerald (1722-1773) 20th Earl of Kildare later 1st Duke of Leinster, by Robert Hunter c. 1803, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
James’s father, Robert FitzGerald (1675-1744) 19th Earl of Kildare, made Carton in County Kildare his principal seat and employed Richard Castle (1690-1751) from 1739 to enlarge and improve the house (see my entry https://irishhistorichouses.com/2024/06/04/carton-house-county-kildare-a-hotel/ ). Before that, the Earl of Kildare had lived in Kilkea Castle in County Kildare.
After the destruction of Maynooth Castle, occupied by Earls of Kildare, in 1641, George, 14th Earl of Kildare, resided at Kilkea Castle from 1647-1660, and it continued as the family’s principal seat until Robert, the 19th Earl, built Carton House. [1]
Robert, 19th Earl of Kildare (1675-1744) after Frederick Graves, courtesy of Adam’s auction 15th Oct 2019. Robert FitzGerald, (1675 – 1744) was married to Mary O Brien, daughter of William O’Brien 3rd Earl of Inchiquin. They had 12 children but only 2 survived to majority. They had lived quietly at Kilkea Castle, near Athy, but in 1739 Robert bought back the lease of Carton, in Maynooth, for £8,000. He commissioned Richard Castle, the eminent architect, to reconstruct the existing house. In the pediment over the South front, previously the main entrance, is the coat of arms of Robert FitzGerald and his wife Mary O’Brien. Robert also employed the La Franchini brothers to construct the wonderful ceiling in the Gold Salon. The additions to Carton were not finished when Robert died in 1744 but he left instructions in his will to finish the restoration according to his plans. A monument dedicated to Robert FitzGerald is situated in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. (This portrait hung in Carton until 1949 when the Fitzgerald family sold the estate. It hung in Kilkea Castle until 1960. It was in the FitzGerald family collection in Oxfordshire until 2013.)
The 20th Earl, James, employed Richard Castle from 1745 to build him a new house in the city, which is now called Leinster House, and began to be so called around 1766 when James Fitzgerald was created Duke of Leinster. He was told that this was not a fashionable area to build, as at that time most of the upper classes lived on the north side of the Liffey around Mountjoy Square and Henrietta Street. He was confident that where he led, fashion would follow, and indeed he was correct.
The building as it was originally constructed is a double cube of granite on the east and north fronts and Ardbraccan limestone on the west entrance front. It has a forecourt on the Kildare Street side, which Christine Casey tells us in her Dublin volume of the Pevsner series The Buildings of Ireland is in the French seventeenth century manner, which probably derived via Burlington House in London, a house which would have influenced Richard Castle. The form is Palladian, an eleven bay block of three storeys over basement with a “tetrastyle” (i.e. supported by four columns) Corinthian portico over advanced and rusticated central bays. “Rustication” in masonry is a decorative feature achieved by cutting back the edges of stones to a plane surface while leaving the central portion of the face either rough or projecting markedly, emphasising the blocks. [2]
Casey points to the unusual arrangement of pediments on the windows of the first floor, as an alternating pattern would be the norm, rather than the pairs of segmental (i.e. rounded) pediments flanked by single triangular pediments in the bays to either side of the central three windows. [see 2]
The centre block has a balustraded balcony, and the attic and ground floor windows have lugged architraves: the architrave is the classical moulding around the window and “lug” means ear, so the windows have “ears,” otherwise called shoulders. The term “Lugs” was made famous as a nickname for a policeman in the Dublin Liberties, “Lugs” Branigan, a man known for his sticking-out ears. A heavyweight boxing champion, he had a reputation as the country’s toughest and bravest garda. The ground floor windows have are topped with a further cornice – a horizontal decorative moulding.
Originally, Casey writes, the house was linked to the side walls of the forecourt by low five-bay screen walls with Doric colonneads and central doorcases flanked by paired niches. The colonnade was given a pilastered upper storey in the nineteenth century, and was rebuilt in the 1950s when the colonnade was filled in, Casey explains. The lower storey on the left side when facing the building (north side) still has the colonnade: you can compare the stages of building the colonnades in the pictures below. In fact this colonnade was reinstated after being filled in. It was recently (when written before 2005) reinstated, Casey tells us, by Paul Arnold Architects, and topped with the nineteenthy century screen wall above which we see today.
In the Malton drawing of Leinster house we can see that the side walls of the forecourt had pedimented arches. The present piers, wrought iron gates and railings were added in the 1880s, built by T.N. & T.M. Deane.
To the south of the forecourt lay a stable court, with a stable and coach house block and a kitchen block which was linked to the house by a small yard, which must have been very inconvenient when dinner was served!
The garden front is fully rusticated on the ground floor, with advanced two-bay ends.
The central first floor window has a triangular pediment. The door porch was added in the nineteenth century. The lawn lay on property leased from Viscount Fitzwilliam.
Irish Architectural Archive exhibition about Leinster House.It was designed by Richard Castle (1690-1751) with later input from Isaac Ware (1704-1786) and Thomas Owen (d. 1788). Here we see the location of the Main Hall, Supper Room and Parlour and Drawing room on first floor, Picture Gallery and principal bedrooms on second floor and Nursery and children’s and staff rooms on third floor. There is a separate kitchen and stores block and stable block.
James’s father died in 1744 before his house at Carton was complete, so it was finished for James the 20th Earl. James was the second son of his parents the 19th Earl and his wife Mary (d. 1780), eldest daughter of William O’Brien, 3rd Earl of Inchiquin. His elder brother died in 1740.
The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us that James’s political career began on 17 October 1741, when (then known as Lord Offaly) he entered the Irish house of commons as member for Athy. In 1744 he moved to the House of Lords after he inherited the earldom. [3] It was then that he embarked on his town house in Dublin. Now the houses of parliament are located next to Leinster house, but at the time, they were located in what is now the Bank of Ireland on College Green in Dublin.
Parliament House, Dublin, with the House of Commons dome on fire, 27th February 1792.Parliament Buildings Bank of Ireland, College Green, Dublin, between ca. 1865-1914, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.House of Lords, Parliament Building, Bank of Ireland, Dublin, between ca. 1865-1914, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
The Dictionary of Irish Biography continues:
“His seniority in the peerage, popularity, and electoral interests ensured his appointment to the privy council (12 May 1746). He was made an English peer, Viscount Leinster of Taplow, Bucks. (1 February 1747), and appointed lord justice (11 May 1756). Master general of the ordnance (1758–66), he became major-general (11 November 1761) and lieutenant-general (30 March 1770). He was also promoted through the Irish peerage, becoming marquis of Kildare (19 March 1761) and duke of Leinster (26 November 1766).” [see 3]
James married Emilia Mary Lennox (1731-1814) in 1747, two years after Richard Castle began work on James’s townhouse. She was the daughter of General Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond. Her grandfather the 1st Duke of Richmond was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England. Emilia’s sister Louisa (1743-1821) married Thomas Conolly (d. 1803) and lived next to her sister in Carton, at Castletown in County Kildare (see my entry https://irishhistorichouses.com/2024/03/15/castletown-house-and-parklands-celbridge-county-kildare-an-office-of-public-works-property/
Emily Fitzgerald née Lennox (1731-1814) Duchess of Leinster 1770s by Joshua Reynolds.This terrific portrait of William Conolly (1662-1729) of Castletown, County Kildare is in the dining room.
Richard Castle died in 1751 before the town house was complete. He died at Carton, the Earl of Kildare’s country seat, while writing a letter with instructions to a carpenter at Leinster house. Isaac Ware stepped in to finish the house. An exhibition about Leinster House in the Irish Archictural Archive explains that following the death of Richard Castle in 1751, little further about the building is recorded until 1759. By this time, English architect Isaac Ware, famous for his A Complete Body of Architecture published in 1756, had become involved with the project. The Fitzgeralds began to use the house in 1753 while work on the interior continued.
Inside, the house has a double height entrance hall with an arcaded screen of Doric pillars toward the back which opens onto a transverse corridor that divides the front and rear ranges. I found the hall hard to capture in a photograph, especially as we were part of a tour group. The hall reminded me of the double height entrance hall of Castletown, and indeed Christine Casey notes in her Buildings of Ireland: Dublin that the plan and dimensions of Leinster House relate directly to those of Castletown house in County Kildare, which was built in 1720s for William Conolly, and which was probably, she writes, built under the direction of Edward Lovett Pearce, possibly with the assistance of Richard Castle. [2]
It is the double height that reminds me of the great hall in Castletown, although Castletown has a gallery and Leinster house does not. The niches remind me of the similar front hall in Gloster house in County Offaly, which although a private family home, in 2025 is a Section 482 property which you can visit on particular days.
The black and white flooring is original to the house. [see 2] The red marble doorframe was added later.
The coffered ceiling in the Hall in Leinster house is different from the ceilings in the front hall in Castletown or Gloster. The deep coffered cove rises to a plain framed flat panel with central foliated boss. There is an entablature above the Doric columns around the four sides of the hall. The square ovolo framed niches above have statues and above the main door the niches have windows.
The chimneypiece in the front hall, Casey tells us, was originally faced with a pedimented niche on the north wall opposite, flanked by the doorcases. The chimneypiece is of Portland stone, she describes, with ornamental consoles and above the lintel, enormous scrolls flanking a bust pedestal.
The principal stair hall is a two bay compartment north of the front hall. Casey tells us that Isaac Ware inserted an imperial staircase – one in which a central staircase rises to a landing then splits into two symmetrical flights up to the next floor – into a hall compartment which was meant for a three flight open well staircase. The staircase is further marred, Casey tells us, by a later utilitarian metal balustrade. Casey does not mention the plasterwork here, which is very pretty. The wooden staircase is a later addition.
Beyond the stair hall is the former Supper Room, which is now the Library of the Oireachtais, which fills the entire depth of the house. I found the lights rather offputting and think they ruin the intended effect of the room and the ceiling, which Casey tells us derives from Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554), an Italian architect who was part of an Italian team who built the Palace of Fontainbleau, and Tutte l’opere d’architettura et prospetiva (All the Works of Architecture and Perspective) is Serlio’s practical treatise on architecture.
The room has three screens of fluted Ionic columns – one at either end and one in front of the bow at one side of the room. Originally, Casey informs us, there were six fluted columns to each screen, paired at the ends of the room and in the centre of the north bow, but in the 19th century one column was removed from each pair. On the walls the corresponding pilasters would have matched the six columns.
The bow is considered to be the first bow in Dublin, and the design of the house is said to have inspired the design of the White House in Washington DC, designed by a man from Kilkenny, James Hoban.
A pedimented doorcase is flanked by ornate chimneypieces based on a design by William Kent. These are surmounted by Corinthian overmantels after a design by Inigo Jones, possibly made to frame portraits, Casey suggests, of the Earl and Countess of Kildare painted by Reynolds in 1753-54. [see 2]
Next to the Supper Room on the garden front is the large dining room, also designed by Isaac Ware. It is of three bays, and has decorative doorcases and a beautiful ceiling attributed to Filippo Lafranchini.
Christine Casey next describes the Garden Hall, with a more modest shell and acanthus ceiling and a chimneypiece with claw feet. Next is the former Private Dining Room, she tells us, a room from 1760, which has a ceiling with acanthus, rocaille shells and floral festoon forming a deep border to a plain chamfered central panel.
Casey tells us that the Earl of Kildare’s Library is at the southeast corner of the house, and that it has pedimented bookcases. It too was designed by Isaac Ware.
Designs for the ceiling of the Earl of Kildare’s dressing room by Richard Castle, 1745, IIA 96/68.1/1/17, 18, 19. Irish Architectural Archive exhibition about Leinster House.As with the several surviving designs for the front elevation of Leinster House, these three beautifully executed drawings for proposed ceilings in the Earl of Kildare’s dressing room are indicative of the attention to design detail which Richard Castle brought to the project in an effort to satisfy his demanding clients. The third variant shows the ceiling almost as executed.
Before we go into the separate building that holds the current Dáil chamber, let us go up to the first floor. The former gallery now holds the Senate Chamber, and it fills the north end of the eighteenth century house. Both Richard Castle and Isaac Ware prepared plans for this room, but the room was unfinished when the Duke of Leinster died in 1773.
James died on 19 November 1773 at Leinster House and was buried in Christ Church cathedral four days later. His eldest son George predeceased him, so the Dukedom passed to his second son, William Robert Fitzgerald (1748/49-1804). The 2nd Duke completed the picture gallery in 1775 to designs by James Wyatt (1746-1813).
The ceiling as designed by James Wyatt is tripartite. I defer to Christine Casey for a description:
“at its centre a chamfered octagon within a square and at each end a diaper within a square, each flanked by broad figurative lunette panels at the base of the coving and bracketed by attenuated tripods, urns and arabesque finials… It remains among the finest examples of Neoclassical stuccowork in Dublin.“
Irish Architectural Archive exhibition about Leinster House: Sketch showing the interior of the Senate Chamber of Leinster House by Con O’Sullivan, 1930s (IAA 96/145.1). Founded in 1747, Henry Sibthorpe & Co were one of the leading painting and decorating firms in Dublin from the first half of the 19th century to the mid 20th, and they closed in 1970s. Some of its records survive in the National Archives and in the IAA. Drawings showed perspective views of proposed decorative schemes to prospective clients. This dawing by Sibthorpe employee Con O’Sullivan shows a proposed repainting of the Senate Chamber.
Wyatt created an elliptical vault over the principal volume of the room and a half-dome above the bow.
On the inner wall of the room Wyatt places three ornate double-leaf doorcases and between them two large white marble chimneypieces. The chimneypieces have high-relief female figures to the uprights and on the lintel, putti sit “between headed spandrels enclosing urns and confronted griffins.”
Unfortunately with the tour group I was unable to get good photographs of the room, the chimneypieces or the carved doorframes.
At the south end of the ground floor corridor is a top-lit stair hall which leads to the Dáil chamber. This separate building originally housed a lecture theatre, built in 1893 by Thomas Newenham and Thomas Manly Deane. Before this was built, let us look at the rest of the history briefly of the Dukes of Leinster who continued to use the house as their Dublin residence.
The first duke’s wife Emilia went on to marry her children’s tutor, William Ogilvie. This would have caused quite a scandal, and she and her husband lived quietly in Blackrock in Dublin at their house called Frascati (or Frescati), which no longer exists. She and the Duke of Leinster had had nineteen children! She had happy times when the children were young and their tutor would take them bathing in the sea near Frescati house. She and her second husband went on to have two daughters.
Frescati House, County Dublin, photograph by Robert French (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
A younger son of Emilia and the Duke of Leinster, Edward (1763-1798) became involved in an uprising in Dublin, inspired by the French Revolution, and he was put in prison as a traitor and where he died of wounds he’d received while resisting arrest.
Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798)
Another son, Charles James (1756-1810) served in the Royal Navy. He also acted as M.P. for County Kildare between 1776 and 1790, Commissioner of Customs between 1789 and 1792 and M.P. for County Cavan between 1790 and 1797. He held the office of Muster Master-General of Ireland between 1792 and 1806 and Sheriff of County Down in 1798. He was M.P. for Ardfert between 1798 and 1800 and was created 1st Baron Lecale of Ardglass, Co. Down [Ireland] in 1800. He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Arundel in England between January 1807 and April 1807.
A sister of Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798), Emily Maria Margaret (1751-1818) married Charles Coote 1st Earl of Bellomont, County Cavan.
William Robert Fitzgerald, 2nd Duke of Leinster, K.P. (1749-1804), circle of Joshua Reynolds courtesy of Christie’s Irish Sale 2002.
The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us about the second duke:
“He was returned as MP for Dublin city in 1767, though he was too young to take his seat, and it was only in October 1769 that he returned to Ireland to sit in parliament. He represented the constituency until 1773, supporting the government for most of this period. On learning that he was a freemason, the grand lodge of Irish freemasons rushed to make him their grand master and he served two terms (1770–72 and 1777–8). On 19 November 1773 he succeeded his father as 2nd duke of Leinster. The family home of Carton in Co. Kildare had been left to his mother but he, somewhat vainly, was determined to own it and purchased her life interest, a transaction that was the major source of his future indebtedness. His aunt, Lady Louisa Conolly, believed that he was ‘mighty queer about money’ and that his ‘distress’ about it was ‘the foundation of all that he does’ (HIP, iv, 160). In November 1775 he married Emilia Olivia Usher, only daughter and heir of St George Usher, Lord St George, a union that helped to ease some of his financial problems.“
HUGH DOUGLAS HAMILTON portrait of Emilia Olivia née St. George, 2nd Duchess of Leinster courtesy of Bonhams Old Master Paintings 2018.
The 2nd Duke was active in politics. He died in 1804 and is buried in Kildare Abbey.
William Robert Fitzgerald (1749-1804) 2nd Duke of Leinster wearing Order of St. Patrick, by Gilbert Stuart, courtesy Christies.
One of William Robert Fitzgerald’s daughters, Emily Elizabeth (1778-1856) married John Joseph Henry of Straffan house in County Kildare, now the K Club. A son, Augustus Frederick (1791-1874) became the 3rd Duke of Leinster. He sold the town house in 1814. Since the Union in 1801 when there was no longer an Irish Parliament, a townhouse in Dublin was no longer essential. It was purchased by the Dublin Society, a group founded for “improving Husbandry, Manufactures and other useful arts and sciences.”
Augustus Frederick Fitzgerald (1791-1874), 3rd Duke of Leinster, engraver George Saunders after Stephen Catterson Smith, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
From 1815-1922 Leinster House was the Headquarters of the Royal Dublin Society – the “Royal” was added to the Society’s name in 1820. Rooms in the house were used to accommodate the Society’s library and museum as well as offices and meeting spaces. The original kitchen wing of the house was converted to laboratories and a lecture theatre. Gradually more buildings were added around the house, including sheds and halls for the Society’s events, namely the Spring Show and the Horse Show.
Note at Irish Architectural Archive exhibition about the RDS at Leinster House.Irish Architectural Archive exhibition about Leinster House.Configuration of Leinster house as RDS and centre of culture, learning and innovation the site of The Dublin Society (1815-1820) and the RDS (1820-1922). The School of Drawing (1845) was to the left, and later became the Metropolitan School of Art and the National College of Art and Design which continued as the National College of Art on this site until 1980, when it moved to Thomas Street and its facilities were incorporated into the adjacent National Library. The former kitchen and stable block were amended and expanded to host sculpture galleries, a stone yard, laboratories and lecture facilities. It had a 700 seat lecture theatre. To the right, Shelbourne Hall and the Agricultural Hall in the mid 19th century had facilities to display agricultural and industrial products, and it was later the site of the Museum of Archaeology. The Museum of Natural History (1857) and the National Gallery of Art (1860) were first developed for RDS collections, an dwere later expanded in conjunction with the Department of Science and Art/South Kensington and the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction.
Leinster Lawn was the site of industrial and agricultural exhibitions. In 1853, the Great Industrial Exhibition ran on the RDS grounds at Leinster House, just two years after Prince Albert’s Exhibition in the Crystal Palace in London. Constructed of iron, wood and glass, the Irish Industrial Exhibition building was paid for by William Dargan and installed by Richard Turner on Leinster Lawn in a matter of months. Its architect was John Benson, who was knighted for his efforts.
Spring Shows and Industries Fairs (1831-1880) and early Horse Shows (1864-1881) were also held on Leinster Lawn.
Irish Architectural Archive exhibition about Leinster House.Opening of the Dublin Great Exhibition, Illustrated London News 4th June 1853, IIA 80/010.20/1. A successor to the Great Exhibition held in the Crystal Palace, London in 1851, the Great Industrial Exhibition ran on the RDS grounds at Leinster House from 12 May to 31st October 1853. As much a marvel as any of the objects on display was the edifice in which the exhibition was housed. Constructed of iron, wood and glass, the Irish Industrial Exhibition building was paid for by William Dargan and installed by Richard Turner on Leinster Lawn in a matter of months. Its architect was John Benson, who was knighted for his efforts.
The National Museum and National Library were built in 1890, and were designed by Thomas Newenham Deane and his son Thomas Manly Deane.
The museum and library were designed as a pair of Early Renaissance rotundas facing each other. The rotundas have a single storey yellow sandstone Roman Doric colonnade surrounding them. Above is a row of circular niches. Above that are columns framing round headed windows and panels of red and white marble. The pavillions next to the rotundas have a rusticated ground floor, with Venetian windows on first floor level and Corinthian pilasters.
The Lecture Theatre was built in 1893, and was also designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The lecture theatre is a horseshoe shaped top-lit galleried auditorium with a flat west end that originally accommodated a stage and lecture preparation rooms.
Irish Architectural Archive exhibition about Leinster House: The RDS lecture theatre.
Single and paired cast iron Corinthian columns support the gallery in the former theatre. The building was appropriated as a temporary Dáil chamber in 1922 on Michael Collins’s recommendation, and in 1924 the government acquired Leinster House to be the seat of the Oireachtais. The theatre was remodelled: a new floor was inserted over the central block of seats to make a platform for the Ceann Comhairle, the clerk of the Dail, and the official reporters. The lower tier of seating was replaced with rows of mahogany and leather covered seats designed either by Hugh O’Flynn of the OPW, as the exhibition in the Irish Architectural Archive tells us, or by James Hicks & Sons according to Christine Casey, and the upper tiers became the press and public galleries. The stage was closed in and replaced by a press gallery and adjoining press rooms. The gallery was remodelled around 1930.
To enter Leinster house, you go through a security hut upon which a controversial sum was spent by the Office of Public Works. I love the way the hut goes around a large tree. I assume a large part of the cost of the hut was the beautiful marble countertops!
[1] MacDonnell, Randal. The Lost Houses of Ireland. A chronicle of great houses and the families who lived in them. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London, 2002.
[2] Casey, Christine. The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin. The City within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the Phoenix Park. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2005.
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When I saw that Roderick Perceval was giving a tour of his home, Temple House in County Sligo, during Heritage Week 2025, I jumped at the chance to see it and booked straight away. I had booked to stay there in the past but had to cancel, and before this tour, the only way to see this section 482 property was to stay, as it was listed as tourist accommodation. And before you get your hopes up, unfortunately it no longer is providing individual bed and breakfast (with dinner optional) accommodation, as Roderick and his family have decided to focus instead on larger group accommodation and weddings. The website now gives the option to book three or more double rooms for your stay. There is also a self-catering cottage available, which has 4 bedrooms: 1 King, 1 Double, 2 Twin.
The Percevals have lived at this location since 1665. Before the current house was built, around 1820 according to Mark Bence-Jones, they lived in another property closer to Templehouse Lake, part of the Owenmore River. [1] The remnants of the earlier house sit adjacent to the ruins of a Knights Templar castle from around 1181, after which the property takes its name. [2]
We came across the medieval order of knights when we visited The Turret in County Limerick during Heritage Week in 2022, a house which was built on the foundations of a construction by the Knights Hospitaller, a different branch of religious warriors. The Knights Templar were a religious order established in the eleventh century to protect Jerusalem for Christianity, and were named after Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. Like other religious orders, the members took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.
A book review by Peter Harbison of Soldiers of Christ: the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller in medieval Ireland edited by Martin Brown OSB and Colmán Ó Clabaigh OSB tells us that Templars came into Ireland under the protection of the English crown and acted on behalf of the king against the native Irish. Templar Knights helped govern Ireland and often gained high office. [3]
When Stephen and I stayed at nearby Annaghmore house with Durcan O’Hara, he told me that he is related to the Percevals of Temple House. An O’Hara, it is believed, may have joined the Knights Templar and donated the land near Temple House. [see 2]
The Templar castle passed to the Knights of St. John the Hospitallers when the Knights Templar were disbanded in the 1300s. In France, Templars were burnt at the stake and their land seized by the crown but in other countries their property was transferred to the Knights Hospitallers, known today as the Knights of Malta.
Robert O’Byrne tells us in his blog that the land formerly owned by the Knights Templar came into the hands of the O’Haras, and that they built a new castle here around 1360. He adds that in the 16th century the same lands, along with much more beside, were acquired by John Crofton, who had come here in 1565 with Sir Henry Sidney following the latter’s appointment as Lord Deputy of Ireland. [4]
Roderick told us that the Croftons acquired the property around 1609, and that Henry Crofton built a thatched Tudor house around 1627. The National Inventory tells us that the remains of the house near the Templar ruins are of a two-bay two-storey stone house, built c.1650. [5]
George’s father Philip (1605-1647) came from England to Ireland to serve as registrar of the Irish court of wards, along with his brother Walter. This position would have given him an insight to property ownership in Ireland. When a son inherited property before he came of age, he was made a Ward of the state, and the someone would be chosen to act on the child’s behalf.
When Walter died in 1624, Philip inherited the family estates in England and Ireland. The land at Burton Park was named after his estate in Somerset, Burton.
Philip’s grandfather Richard Perceval was ‘confidential agent’ to Queen Elizabeth’s Minister Lord Burleigh. He had correctly identified Spanish preparations for the Armada and this vitally important information was rewarded with Irish estates. [6]
Richard Perceval (1550-1620), agent for Queen Elizabeth and Lord Burleigh, he spotted preparations for the Spanish Armada.
Philip settled in Ireland, and by means of his interest at court he gradually obtained a large number of additional offices. In 1625 he was made keeper of the records in the Birmingham Tower at Dublin Castle.
Thomas Wentworth 1st Earl of Strafford (1593-1641) on left, Lord Deputy of Ireland 1632-1640 for King Charles I. This portrait is in Castletown House.
Perceval was close to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford. With the fall and execution of Wentworth in May 1641, Perceval lost his major patron and protector. In September 1641 Perceval narrowly avoided prosecution in England when his part in a shady land transaction was revealed. By that time, Perceval owned over 100,000 acres in Ireland, which he obtained partly through forfeited lands.
Philip Perceval married Catherine Ussher, daughter of Arthur Ussher and Judith Newcomen. She gave birth to their heir, John (1629–1665), who was created 1st Baronet of Kanturk, County Cork in 1661. George (1635-1675) was the younger son. He held the position of Registrar of the Prerogative Court in Dublin.
George Perceval’s wife Mary’s father William Crofton was High Sheriff of County Sligo in 1613 and Member of Parliament for Donegal in 1634, so George and Mary might have met in Dublin. Mary, as heiress, was a good match, and since George was a younger son, marrying into property would have suited him well.
Robert O’Byrne tells us that they lived in the old castle which had been converted by the Croftons into a domestic residence in 1627. [see 4] It is not clear to me whether George and Mary lived in a house next to the Templar castle or in some version of the castle itself. O’Byrne tells us that the castle had been besieged and badly damaged in 1641, but was repaired. [see 4].
George died at the young age of forty when on a ship crossing to Holyhead, when his son and heir Philip (1670-1704) was only five years old. [7] Philip’s mother remarried, this time to Richard Aldworth, who was Chief Secretary of Ireland. Philip also died young, after marrying and having several children, and the property passed to his son John (1700-1754), who was also minor when his father died.
Philip Perceval (1723-87) married Mary Carlton of Rossfad, County Fermanagh. Their son and heir Guy died soon after his father so the property passed in 1792 to Guy’s brother Reverend Philip Perceval.
The house is featured in a chapter of Great Irish Houses by Desmond Fitzgerald the Knight of Glin and Desmond Guinness. They tell us that in 1825 Reverend Philip’s son Colonel Alexander Perceval (1787-1858) built a neo-classical two story house up the hill from the castle on the present site.
What is the now the side of the house was once the front.
The house at this time was of two storeys and had five bays on the front, with the centre bay slightly recessed, with an enclosed single storey Ionic porch, and a Wyatt window over the porch.
Before building the house, Alexander Perceval (1787-1858), in 1808, married Jane Anne, eldest daughter of Colonel Henry Peisley L’Estrange, of Moystown, King’s County.
Alexander Perceval (1787-1858).
After building the house, Alexander served as MP for Sligo between 1831 and 1841, and from 1841-1858 was sergeant-at-arms to the House of Lords in England.
During the Famine, Alexander’s wife Jane sought to alleviate the suffering of the poor and she died of cholera or typhus in 1847.
Jane née L’Estrange, with her children.Fitzgerald and Guinness write about this portrait: “Vogel, the artist, depicts her with three of her children while on holiday in Germany in 1842. A touching letter of the time tells of her reminding those around her “not to neglect the tenant families between my death and my funeral.” [see 2]
When Alexander died in 1858, his son Philip was unable to afford the death duty tax and he had to sell the property. The house was bought by the Hall-Dares of Newtownbarry, County Wexford.
Newtownbarry House, County Wexford, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
The Hall-Dares did not remain owners for long. After they evicted some tenants, these tenants actively sought the return of the Perceval family. Four years after Philip Perceval’s sale of the house, his brother Alexander, who had made a fortune in business in Hong Kong, re-acquired the property. Philip had married and moved to Scotland. Alexander brought back many of the dispossessed families from America and Britain, gave them back their land and re-roofed their homes. [see 2]
In the 1860s Alexander Perceval enlarged and embellished the house, hiring Johnstone and Jeane of London. He added a higher two storey seven bay block of limestone ashlar on the right (north) side of the house, which formed a new entrance front, knocking down a north wing in the process. [see 2]
Fitzgerald and Guinness tell us that Alexander also commissioned the company to design and build the furniture for the entire house.
The newer entrance has a large arched single-storey porte-cochére with coupled engaged Doric columns at its corners and two small arched side windows. Above is another pedimented Wyatt window in a larger pediment over two pairs of Ionic pilasters. The centre windows on either side of the porte-cochére on the ground floor are pedimented and on the upper storey the centre windows have curved arch pediments. The other windows have flat entablatures.
To the right of the newer front is a single storey two bay wing slightly recessed. The house is topped with a balustraded roof parapet.
Looking toward the south facade, we see a three-bay three storey section of the house, as well as more beyond to the west. The windows on the ground floor of the east and south elevations have corbelled pilasters.
We gathered inside the front hall for the tour, with its impressive tiled floor and geometrically patterned ceiling. It has carved decorative doorcases and arched carved and shuttered side lights by the front door, and a large window facing the front door lights the room.
The ceiling has a Doric freize and a rose of acanthus leaves. A collection of stuffed birds and trophies line the wall, and a fine chimneypiece original to the house. [see 2]
Alexander did not get to enjoy his renovated home for long, as he died in 1866 of sunstroke, which occurred while fishing in the lake by the house. His wife lived a further twenty years. His son Alec (1859-1887) married a neighbour, Charlotte Jane O’Hara from Annaghmore.
From the front hall we entered the top-lit double-height vestibule with a grand sweeping staircase and gallery lined with paintings of ancestors.
I’m dying to know who features in the wonderful portraits. The vestibule is so impressive, it is hard to know where to look! The ceiling has intricate detail.
Temple House, Sligo, photograph courtesy of website.Temple House, photograph courtesy of the house facebook page.The detail in the ceiling is incredible, as seen in this close-up. Temple House, photograph courtesy of the house facebook page.
The upper level of the stair hall is lined with arches and Corinthian pilasters.
When Alec died of meningitis in 1887, Charlotte took over the running of the estate for 30 years. Alec’s son Alexander Ascelin was injured in the first world war. He married the doctor’s daughter, Nora MacDowell. In financial difficulty, he had to sell some of the land. His wife predeceased him and toward the end of his life, he lived alone in this house of about ninety seven rooms, living in only three rooms. The rest of the house was closed up, dustsheets over the furniture.
Five years after being closed up, in 1953, Ascelin’s son Alex, who had been a tea planter in what was then known as Burma, returned with his wife Yvonne to run the estate. They renovated the house, patched up the roof and installed a new kitchen. Alex modernised the farm.
It was their son Sandy and his wife who decided to take advantage of the size of the house to run a bed and breakfast, which opened in 1980. In 2004 their son Roderick returned to Temple House with his wife and children and took over running the business and the farm.
Roderick told us about the family as we toured the stair hall vestibule, drawing room and dining room, then brought us across the front hall to the newly renovated part of the house, which includes a former gun room passage. He managed to find craftsmen to do repairs, including the windows, moulding and plasterwork. After the tour, he kindly let us wander around the house, including up to the bedrooms.
Guinness and Fitzgerald tell us about the bedrooms:
“The bedrooms are immense. They all have their own bathrooms and a wonderful collection of matching furniture; in each of them a different wood has been used. The individual character of oak and beech and mahogany and others are evident as you stroll from one bedroom to the next. There are magnificent wardrobes – in one room it is 22 ft long – beds, sideboards, dressing tables, chairs. The largest of the bedrooms is so impressive it is called the “Half Acre.”” [see 2]
There is a walled kitchen garden which unfortunately we did not get to visit, where food is grown, including old varieties of apple, plum, pear and fig, and a stable yard. The Percevals preserve most of the 600 acres of old woods and the bogs in their natural state, and they also farm a further 600 acres.
[1] Bence-Jones, Mark. 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.
[2] Great Irish Houses. Forewards by Desmond FitzGerald, the Knight of Glin, and Desmond Guinness. Photographs by Trevor Hart. IMAGE Publications, 2008.
[3] Book Review by Peter Harbison, History Ireland issue 5 (Sept Oct 2016), volume 24.
I am sad to see that Frybrook House in Boyle, County Roscommon, is once again advertised for sale, with Savills Estate Agent. We visited it recently during Heritage Week this year, 2025, and the owner, Joan, who showed us around gave no indication that she was planning to sell. It was previously sold in 2017, and since then, the owners spent time, effort, money and love renovating and decorating, preparing it for bed and breakfast accommodation. The thirty three windows took a year for a joiner to renovate, and the total renovation took about six years.
They decorated with flair, filling the house with cheeky art and historical elements, researching the history of the house.
The sign on the gate of Frybrook during Heritage Week 2025.
Frybrook is a three storey five bay house built around 1753. [1] A pretty oculus in the centre of top storey sits above a Venetian window, above a tripartite doorcase with a pediment extending over the door and flanking windows. [2] Due to the proximity to the river the house is unusual for a Georgian house in not having a basement.
Henry Fry (1701-1786) built the house for his family and established a weaving industry. The website for the house tells us that in 1743 Lord Kingston, who at that time was James King (1693 – 1761), 4th Baron Kingston, invited Henry Fry, a merchant from Edenderry in County Antrim, to establish the business in Boyle. [3] The Barons Kingston lived in the wonderful Mitchelstown Castle in County Cork and were related to the Kings of King House in Boyle and of Rockingham House, the Baronets of Boyle Abbey (see my entry about King House, https://irishhistorichouses.com/2023/02/02/king-house-main-street-boyle-co-roscommon/.
Henry Fry’s grandfather was from the Netherlands. Henry’s brother Thomas (1710–62) was an artist, recently featured in an exhibition at Dublin Castle.
The “Neglected Genius” Thomas Frye, featured in an exhibition in Dublin Castle.
The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us that by 1736 Thomas Frye was in London and had become sufficiently established to be commissioned to paint the portrait of Frederick, Prince of Wales, on the occasion of his becoming “the perpetual master of the Company of Saddlers.” Thomas also co-founded a porcelain factory, one of the earliest in England, and he experimented with formulas and techniques for making porcelain, obtaining a patent for his work.
Thomas’s brother Henry Fry (1701-1786) married twice; first to Mary Fuller, with whom he had several children, then after her death in childbirth, to Catherine Mills, with whom he had more children.
Joan brought us inside. The house has its original beautiful plasterwork and joinery, and the tiles in the hall too and staircase are probably original to the house.
The house had been empty for about ten years before the owners bought it in 2018. Most of the fireplaces had disappeared and had to be replaced. There would have been a fine Adam chimneypiece at one time, which was sold by Richard Fry to a member of the Guinness family, our guide told us.
Upstairs are the bedrooms. One in particular is gorgeously decorated with sumptuous colours and fittings and has a carved chimneypiece and jewel-like en suite. The owner asked us not to post photographs as it is the guesthouse piéce de resistance. I do hope the new owners, if it is sold, will maintain it as a guest house as it would be a lovely place to stay! Although it would also make a fabulous home for some lucky family. It has seven en-suite bedrooms.
Robert O’Byrne tells us that “in 1835, Henry Fry of Frybrook and his relative, also called Henry Fry, of another house in the vicinity, Fairyhill, were founding members of the Boyle branch of the Agricultural and Commercial Bank (although this venture failed nationally after only a couple of years). Successive generations of Frys continued to live in the family home until the 1980s when, for the first time, it was offered for sale.” [4]
Another son of Henry Fry, Magistrate, (1701-1786) was Oliver (1773-1868), major of Royal Artillery, Freemason, Orangeman, and diarist. Our guide on the tour of the house read us an excerpt of his diary. The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us that in 1793 Oliver had to leave Trinity college to go home to help his brother Henry defend his house from the “Defenders.” The Defenders were a Catholic Agrarian secret society that originated in County Armagh in response to the Protestant “Peep o’ Day Boys.” The Defenders formed Lodges, and in 1798 fought alongside the United Irishmen. In later years they formed the “Ribbonmen.” The Peep o’ Day Boys carried out raids on Catholic homes during the night, ostensibly to confiscate weapons which Catholics under the Penal Laws were not allowed to own. [5] The Defenders formed in response, and oddly, grew to follow the structure of the Freemasons, with Lodges, secrecy and an oath swearing obedience to King George III. The Peep o’ Day Boys became the Orange Order.
The Defenders carried out raids of Protestant homes to obtain weapons. When Britain went to war with France in 1793, small Irish farmers objected to a partial conscription as they needed their young men for labour, which increased membership in the Defenders.
The Dictionary tells us about Oliver Fry:
“He was a member of the force of Boyle Volunteers that defeated a large group of Defenders at Crossna and subsequently defended the residence of Lord Kingston (1726–97) at Rockingham. During this latter skirmish he captured the leader of the Defenders, and was later presented with a commission in the Roscommon militia by Lord Kingston.”
Oliver served in the Royal Irish Artillery. The Dictionary of Irish Biography entry about him tells us more:
“In 1822 Fry wrote a retrospective account of his early life, and thereafter kept a very detailed diary. While some of the accounts of his military service were somewhat exaggerated, his diary remains an invaluable source of information on the major events of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, including the agrarian disturbances of the 1820s–40s, the repeal movement, the cholera epidemic of 1831, and the Great Famine. Other more colourful events were also described, such as the visits of Queen Victoria, the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1851, and the Dublin earthquake of 1852. He died 28 April 1868 at his Dublin home, Pembroke House, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, and was buried at Mount Jerome cemetery.“
Despite the oppositional stance with Catholics, our guide told us that the family were generous in famine times, as evidenced by the Bakehouse, the remains of which are next to the driveway to the house. However, a bakehouse isn’t evidence that the family gave out the bread for free!
A sign next to the Bakehouse at Frybrook.
Further evidence of the Fry’s hospitality, Joan told us, are the “hospitality” stones on the piers at the entrance to the house.
The pier stones resemble worn pineapples. The only reference I can find to “hospitality stones” in a quick google search is that hospitality stones were like ancient admission tickets: stones with some marking on them given by someone to indicate that the bearer could produce the stone and receive hospitality in return. The stones on the entrance piers resemble worn pineapples. In the eighteenth century pineapples became a symbol of luxury, wealth and hospitality. A blog of the Smithsonian Museum tells us:
“The pineapple, indigenous to South America and domesticated and harvested there for centuries, was a late comer to Europe. The fruit followed in its cultivation behind the tomato, corn, potato, and other New World imports. Delicious but challenging and expensive to nurture in chilly climes and irresistible to artists and travelers for its curious structure, the pineapple came to represent many things. For Europeans, it was first a symbol of exoticism, power, and wealth, but it was also an emblem of colonialism, weighted with connections to plantation slavery...
“…the intriguing tropical fruit was able to be grown in cold climates with the development, at huge costs, of glass houses and their reliable heating systems to warm the air and soil continuously. The fruit needed a controlled environment, run by complex mechanisms and skilled care, to thrive in Europe. Pineapples, thus, became a class or status symbol, a luxury available only to royalty and aristocrats. The fruit appeared as a centerpiece on lavish tables, not to be eaten but admired, and was sometimes even rented for an evening.
“…The pineapple became fashionable in England after the arrival in 1688 of the Dutch King, William III and Queen Mary, daughter of James II, who were keen horticulturalists and, not incidentally, accompanied by skilled gardeners from the Netherlands. Pineapples were soon grown at Hampton Court. The hothouses in Great Britain became known as pineries. With its distinctive form, the cult of the pineapple extended to architecture and art. Carved representations sit atop the towers of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and other prominent buildings, perhaps an adaptation or reference to the pinecones used on ancient Roman buildings.“
“…During the 18th century, the pineapple was established as a symbol of hospitality, with its prickly, tufted shape incorporated in gateposts, door entryways and finials and in silverware and ceramics.” [6]
The 37-foot-high Dunmore Pineapple, the north front, showing the entrance (photograph by Keith Salvesen from geograph.org.uk (via Wikimedia Commons) [6]
The lovely cafe in the gate lodge is situated on the river, next to the triple arch stone bridge over the River Boyle which was built in 1846 (or 1864, according to the National Inventory). [7]
“A bell was positioned on the roof of Frybrook house and it rang every day to invite the locals to dine in Frybrook, and when there was no room inside the house, tents were erected on the lawn.
“During the 1798 rising (‘Year of the French’) even the officers of the opposing French army were dining in the house.
“Frybrook House also supplied soup to the locals during the Great Famine (1845 to 1852), evidenced by a very large Famine Cauldron in the kitchen.“
I don’t know how it was that the Frys would host the French when Oliver was serving in the army fighting against the French! Perhaps this information is in Oliver’s diary. It would be a fascinating read. The Dictionary of Irish Biography gives a reference for his diary: William H. Phibbs Fry, Annals of the late Major Oliver Fry, R.A. (1909).
The bell may have been used to serve to tell the time for the weaving employees. The rope ran from the top of the house to the ground floor.
The weaving industry had 22 looms, our guide told us. Frybrook wasn’t a landed estate, and the owners did not make their money from having a large amount of land and tenants. The house had six acres. In later years the Fry family sold vegetables, and Lord Lorton established a market shambles for meat and vegetables.
Not all cauldrons were used to feed the public during the Famine. In the kitchen of the house there is a large cauldron that would have been used for washing clothes. The kitchen of Frybrook has many original features.
It has a Ben Franklin designed stove, which was invented to be a stove that was safe for children to be around.
The Famine in the 1840s hit Boyle hard. Information boards in King House tell us about Boyle in famine times. For the King family of Boyle, it was a time of trouble with tenants, as outlined in The Kings of King House by Anthony Lawrence King-Harmon.
This large portrait in the dining room of King House in Boyle is General Robert King (1773-1854), 1st Viscount Lorton, who was the second son of Robert King, 2nd Earl of Kingston.
Robert Edward King (1773-1854) joined the military and distinguished himself in the Caribbean. When he inherited Kingston Hall at Rockingham, Boyle, in 1797, he returned to Ireland and joined the Roscommon Militia and worked his way up to become a General. With Rockingham, however, came debt. In 1799 he married his first cousin, Frances Parsons Harman, daughter of his aunt Jane who had married Lawrence Parsons Harman (1749-1807), who owned the Newcastle Estate in County Longford. Robert worked hard to reduce the debt, and was a tough landlord, evicting many tenants.
In famine years, however, he lowered rents and provided work. The information boards in King House tell us that in the 1800s, Boyle residents suffered with poverty. One third of the population died of hunger and hundreds went to the workhouse. In the 1830s about 500 men, women and children were evicted from Lord Lorton’s estates around Boyle. Many were paid to emigrate to North America.
King House, 2022.King House, 2022.In King House.
The Fry family would have been in the centre of such poverty and hardship, and it must have been a dreadful time. They remained in the town and survived.
Joan told us that the Frys owned a mill, but the information board for the nearby mill does not mention Fry ownership. The current mill seems to have been built around 1810, according to the National Inventory, and the information board tells us that it was originally established by the Mulhall family and has been run by the Stewart family since 1885.
Thank you to Joan for the wonderful tour and for being so generous with her time. She and the owners deserve thanks for bringing Frybrook back so vibrantly to life.
Artwork in Boyle, home of the annual Boyle Arts Festival.
[2] Bence-Jones, Mark. 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.
[5] Brendan McEvoy (1986). The Peep of Day Boys and Defenders in the County Armagh. Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society.
I have been exploring the beautiful photographs of Robert French in the National Library of Ireland this week. The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us about the wonderful photographer who took such clear precisely composed photographs:
“French, Robert (1841–1917), photographer, was born 11 November 1841 in Dublin, eldest of the seven children of William French, a court messenger, and Ellen French (née Johnson). At the age of nineteen, in September 1860, he joined the Constabulary (later RIC) as a sub-constable, giving his occupation as ‘porter’. He was stationed at the barracks at Glenealy, Co. Wicklow. Having served almost two years, he resigned in August 1862.“
All Hallow’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“French next found employment in Dublin as a photographic printer, possibly at the portrait studio operated by John Fortune Lawrence at 39 Grafton Street. He later joined the more successful studio run by John Fortune’s brother, William Mervin Lawrence (1840–1932), which opened at 7 Upper Sackville (later O’Connell) Street in March 1865. Progressing upwards through the grades of printer, colourer-retoucher and assistant photographer, he attained the rank of photographer in the mid-1870s. Meanwhile, William Mervin Lawrence had developed a lucrative trade in the sale of topographical views and he gave French the task of providing a comprehensive range of scenic photographs representing all parts of the country. French performed this role with dedication and distinction for almost forty years until his retirement in 1914.
“French’s function was to provide photographs for a market that favoured views of picturesque landscapes, seaside resorts, and the streets of cities, towns, and villages. Lawrence was in charge of marketing strategy and planned French’s itineraries, but French selected the individual views. He travelled throughout the country, identifying and photographing appropriate subjects, generating stocks of negatives from which Lawrence’s printers produced multiple images for sale in the medium of prints, stereoscopic views, and lantern slides. The images were also widely used in commercial advertising and in publications designed for the tourist market, particularly in the extensive postcard trade that Lawrence developed in the late 1890s. As people wanted views that were up-to-date, many of the images, particularly those of urban scenes, were periodically retired and replaced, the replacements almost invariably being taken from the same optimum viewpoint. The photographs presented the more positive aspects of Ireland and contemporary Irish life, with evidence of social deprivation appearing only incidentally, and with few instances of social or political conflict other than a relatively small number of eviction scenes.“
Eviction scene, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“French married, 1 December 1863, at St Peter’s church, Dublin, Henrietta Jones, daughter of Griffith Jones, a farmer at Newcastle, Co. Wicklow. The couple had eleven children, some of whom long afterwards recalled their father as a fervent unionist, fond of singing rather loudly in the congregation at St Patrick’s cathedral, and infuriatingly painstaking when taking family photographs. He is portrayed in a number of his own photographs as a dignified figure with a fine full beard. In his later years he lived on Ashfield Avenue, Ranelagh. He died 24 June 1917.
“While French played a central role in the success of the Lawrence firm, which dominated the photographic trade nationally for a generation, his historical significance arises from the extensive archive of surviving negatives. These make up the greater part of the Lawrence collection (held by the National Photographic Archive in Dublin), amounting to approximately 30,000 of the 45,000 images in the collection. They reveal him as a talented and extremely competent photographer. His compositions presented sites to best advantage, and the images are invariably sharp and engaging and suggest the inherent atmosphere of the place. The predominant factor, however, is that the photographs provide an invaluable visual record of urban and rural Ireland over a period of almost forty years. They document the process of change and modernisation in various aspects of environment and society, reflecting the considerable economic and social progress in the decades of relative peace and prosperity leading up to the first world war. While engaged in the relatively mundane profession of commercial photographer, French emerged as one of the foremost chroniclers of his generation, albeit unwittingly, and endowed posterity with a unique cultural and educational resource.” [2]
Derryquin, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
As you can see as I work my way though the contents of Mark Bence-Jones’s A Guide to Irish Country Houses [1], there are thousands of “big houses” in Ireland – though many are “houses of middle size.”
Note that the majority of these are private houses, not open to the public. I discovered “my bible” of big houses by Mark Bence-Jones only after I began this project of visiting historic houses that have days that they are open to the public (Section 482 properties).
This is a project I have been working on for a while, collecting pictures of houses. Enjoy! Feel free to contact me to send me better photographs if you have them! I’ll be adding letters as I go…
[1] 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.
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Daisy Hill (see Roe Park), Derry
Dalgan Park, Kilmaine, Co Mayo
“A two storey early C19 Classical house of cut limestone. Nine bay front, the three centre bays being framed by Ionic pilasters; medallion and plaque over entrance door. Parapeted roof. Bow at end. Impressive hall with Corinthian columns, lit by dome.” [1]
Dalyston, Loughrea, Co Galway – ‘lost’
Dalyston, County Galway c. 1970, photograph: David Davison, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.Dalyston, Loughrea, Co Galway courtesy National Inventory
“A good three storey late C18 house built for Rt Hon Denis Daly, MP. Three bay entrance front, of cut stone; tripartite doorcase with pilasters and pediment extending over door and sidelights; plain window surrounds. Deep and elaborately moulded roof cornice. Plain five bay side elevation. Small room off hall with decorated ceiling… Now a ruin.” [1]
Damer House, Roscrea, Co Tipperary – open to public
Danesfort (formerly Clanwilliam House), Belfast, County Antrim
“One of the finest High-Victorian mansions in Ireland, built 1864 for Samuel Barbour to the design of William J. Barre. Described by Mr Brett as “a sort of a French-Italian chateau”; dominated by a tall and very ornate tower with a mansard roof resting on an arcade of what Mr Brett calls “square cabbage columns” which constitutes a porte-cochere.” [1]
Danesfort, County Kilkenny
Danesfort, County Kilkenny courtesy of Mark Bence-Jones.
“A two storey C18 house with a handsome front of two bays on either side of a pedimented centre, with a Venetian window above a round-headed doorway between two windows. Blocked window surrounds; heavy roof cornice with urns; round-headed window in pediment. The two bays on either side of the centre were treated as pavilions and carried up into the attic storey by a lunette; these were later raised and battlemented to give the impression of Gothic towers, which, like the entrance gates of Castle Martyr, revealed themselves to be no more than stage scenery when viewed from the side... Now demolished.” [1]
Dangan Castle, Trim, Co Meath – a ruin
“The seat of the Wesley family, inherited by Richard Colley who assumed the name of Wesley (which later became Wellesley) and was created Lord Mornington; his son, 1st Earl of Mornington, was the father of the great Duke of Wellington, who, according to tradition, was born here. The house appears to have been early to mid C18, of two storeys and with a solid roof parapet; it was described (1739) as having “a noble piazza of seven curious turned arches in front of it.” Near the house was a stable block with central turret and pedimented ends. The grounds were said to (1739) to boast of at least 25 obelisks, a Rape of Prosperine weighing three tons, and a fort with cannon which fired salutes on family birthdays down by the lake; where three vessels – a 20 ton mar of war, a yacht and a packet boat – rode at anchor.” [1]
Daramona House, Street, Co Westmeath
The National Inventory tells us it is: “Three-bay two-storey country house, built c.1855, with a projecting tetrastyle cut stone Doric entrance porch to the centre of the front facade. A very fine and elegant mid nineteenth-century Italianate essay with the rear pavilions adding substance this medium-sized house. It is one of the most attractive houses of its type and date in Westmeath.”
Dartrey House (formerly Dawson’s Grove), Co Monaghan – demolished
Dartrey House (formerly Dawson’s Grove), County Monaghan, courtesy of Archiseek.
“A large Elizabethan-Revival mansion by William Burn, built in 1846 to replace an earlier house of about 1770.…The Elizabethan-Revival mansion which took the place of this house, built by Richard Dawson, 3rd Lord Cremorne and later 1st Earl of Dartrey, had long and somewhat monotonous elevations of curvilinear gables, mullioned windows and oriels, with, sporadically, a square turret and cupola. There were numerous Tudor chimneys, a generous application of strapwork and a two-tier terrace along the garden front with many yards of latticed balustrading.” [1]
“A plain three storey Georgian block, with a five bay front and sides of five and four bays; extended at back by two storey wings, to form a small three sided court. The entrance front has a magnificent doorway with a delicately leaded fanlight and side-lights, engaged Ionic columns and a baseless pediment extending over all. Late C18 and C19 interior plasterwork.” [1]
Dawson’s Grove (see Dartrey House), Co Monaghan
Dean’s Hill, Armagh, County Armagh
“Formerly the Deanery. A Georgian house built 1772-74 by Very Rev Hugh Hamilton, Dean (C of I) of Armagh, subsequently Bishop of Clonfert and Bishop of Ossory; altered 1887 under the supervision of J.H. Fullerton; a wing added 1896 to the design of H.C. Parkinson.” [1]
Debsborough, Nenagh, Co Tipperary
Deel Castle (see Castle Gore), Ballina, Co Mayo – lost
The Deeps, Crossabeg, Co Wexford
The Deeps, County Wexford, photograph courtesy Savills Ireland 2018.
Deerfield (United States Ambassador’s Residence), Dublin
“A house originally built 1776 by Sir John Blaquiere, MP (afterwards raised to 1st Lord de Blaquiere), Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant and one of the leading figures in the political life of Ireland during later C18; in a demesne carved out of Phoenix Park which he obtained on the strength of being the Park’s bailiff. In 1782, he was asked to surrender the house and grounds in return for some compensation, and the house became the official residence of the Chief Secretary, the principal executive of the government of Ireland under British rule. The house was enlarged and altered at various times, but has a predominantly late-Georgian character; of two storeys, with a bowed projection at either end of its principal front. Along this front is a fine enfilade of reception rooms. A large glass conservatory was added at one end 1852 by Lord Naas (afterwards 6th Earl of Mayo and Viceroy of India), while he was Chief Secretary. Later in the century, probably 1865 during the Chief Secretaryship of Chichester Fortescue (afterwards Lord Carlingford), the two bowed projections were joined by a single-storey corridor, into which were thrown the centre rooms, making them much deeper; the main wall of the house being carried by Ionic columns. The house became afterwards the United States Legation 1927, afterwards the Embassy.” [1] And it’s now the Ambassador’s Residence.
Delaford, Rathfarnham, Co Dublin – ‘lost’
“A three storey house, originally an inn, onto which an elegant single storey bow ended front was built ca 1800 by Alderman Bermingham. The front is of five bays, the two bays on either side breaking forwards; the slightly recessed centre being emphasised by two urns on the parapet. In the centre is a very wide fanlighted tripartite doorway, the segmental fanlight extending over the door and the sidelights, which have curving astragals. Large bow-ended rooms on either side of the hall.” [1]
Delamont Park, Killyleagh, County Down
“A mildly Tudor-Revival early to mid c-19 house, rather like a simplified version of one of Richard Vitruvius Morrison’s Tudor houses. Of two storeys, plus an attic with dormer-gables. Front with central polygonal bow, raised above the skyline to give the effect of a tower, flanked by two narrow oriels topped by dormer-gables. Irregular gabled side elevation, considerably longer than front. Slender polygonal turret with cupola at back of house. Altered 1968, to the design of Mr Arthur Jury.” [1]
Delville, Glasnevin, Co Dublin – ‘lost’
Delville, County Dublin, eating parlour c. 1950, photograph: Phyllis Thompson. Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
“A two storey early C18 house with five bay front… In C18 the seat of Dr Patrick Delany, Dean of Down, whose wife was the famous Mrs Delany, the letter writer and autobiographer. Together, they landscaped the grounds…It had a grotto, and an Ionic temple, which Mrs Delany painted with a fresco of St. Paul, and a medaliion bust of Mrs Johnson, “Stella”, who in the past used to come here with Swift. In 1837, Delville was the residence of S. Gordon. Towards end of C19, it was the residence of Sir Patrick Keenan, whose niece, Daisy, Countess of Fingall, a prominent figure in the Irish Revival as well as in Edwardian fashionable society, had her wedding reception here. The temple was demolished 1940s, and the house some time post 1951.” [1]
Delvin Lodge, Gormanston, Co Meath
“A plain three storey house with gables and dormer gables. Now a convent.” [1]
John Jameson acquired the Bow Street distillery in 1780 and by 1800 Jameson’s were the second largest producer of whiskey in Ireland and one of the largest in the world. James, the second son of John Jameson of Prussia Street, Dublin, established himself at Delvin Lodge.
In 1957 the Sisters of St. Clare acquired Delvin Lodge and opened a guest house for ladies needing a place for retirement but not requiring nursing care. The house was extended in the 1960s. The property is now in use as a privately operated nursing home.
Derk, Pallasgreen Co Limerick
Derk, Pallasgreen Co Limerick courtesy National Inventory
“A two storey house of ca 1770 with an eaved roof; five bay entrance front; pedimented and fanlighted Ionic doorcase; pedimented centre window above.” [1]
Derrabard, Omagh, County Tyrone
“A two storey Georgian house of rough stone blocks with ashlar facings…The house was derelict and falling into ruin by 1970.” [1]
Derreen House, Lauragh, County Kerry – garden section 482
Derry, Rosscarbery, County Cork photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A house of late Georgian appearance… A seat of the Townshends; inherited by Charlotte Frances Payne-Townshend, wife of George Bernard Shaw, who sold it. Derry was the home of A.M.Sullivan, KC, the last Irish Serjeant-at-Law. It was burnt ca 1922.” [1]
Derrycarne, Dromod, Co Leitrim – derelict
Derrycarne, Dromod, Co Leitrim courtesy of Lord Belmont.
“A house on a promontory in the River Shannon between Lough Boderg and Lough Bofin, consisting of a two storey three bay bow-ended late Georgian front with Wyatt windows and an enclosed Doric porch; and a two storey 4 bay castellated wing extending back at right angles. Now derelict.” [1]
Derrylahan Park, Riverstown, Co Tipperary – burnt 1921
“A High Victorian house with steep gables and roofs, plate glass windows and decorative iron cresting on the ridges. Built 1862 at a cost of £15,000, to the design of Sir Thomas Newenham Deane. Burnt 1921.” [1]
Derrymore House, Bessbrook, County Armagh – National Trust, open to public
Derrymore House, County Armagh, courtesy of National Trust images, photographer Derek Croucher.
Derryquin Castle, Sneem, Co Kerry courtesy ArchiseekDerryquin, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.Derryquin, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Derryvolgie, Lisburn, County Antrim
“A square two storey house of ca 1840 with an eaved roof and an iron veranda, built onto a cottage said to date from the early C18 or late C17. Enlarged 1898 by S.W. Ewart, who added a wing with three sided bow surmounted by a half-timbered gable. The interior appears to have been altered at about the same time: a large hall formed by making an arch between the staircase hall, which contains a curving staircase, and the adjoining room; both rooms being given fretted ceilings; while the drawing room was given a frieze of Georgian style plasterwork and an Adam Revival chimneypiece set under an inglenook arch. Sold 1972 by Sir Ivan Ewart, 6th and present Bt, to the Ministry of Defence.” [1]
Derryvoulin House, Woodford, Co Galway
Derryvoulin, County Galway, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A two storey three bay late C18 house. One bay breakfront; fanlighted doorway, surround with blocking. Ground floor wider than those above. Single-storey projection at side.” [1]
Desart Court/Dysart, Co Kilkenny – ‘lost’
Desart Court, County Kilkenny entrance front c. 1915, photograph: Milford Lewis, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
“A Palladian house consisting of a centre block of two storeys over basement joined to two storey wings by curved sweeps; built ca 1733 for John Cuffe, 1st Lord Desart, almost certainly to the design of Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. Centre block with seven bay front; central feature of four superimposed engaged Doric and Ionic columns and Doric entablature. Rusticated niche over rusticated doorway; ground floor windows also rusticated. Balustraded roof parapet; perron with double steps. Rusticated basement. Engaged Doric columns on curved sweeps. In the garden front of the centre block the entire lower storey was rusticated and the central feature consisted only of four engaged Ionic columns in the upper storey. there was also a balustraded parapet on this side and a large perron. Hall with wood dado, plasterwork panels, pedimented doorcases and ceiling of elaborate rococo plasterwork. In separate halls at each end of the house were two grand staircases with magnificent carved scroll balustrades; leading up to a bedroom corridor lit by a lantern. the drawing room, in the centre of the garden front, had a ceiling of rococo plasterwork similar to that in the hall. The house was burnt 1923, it was afterwards rebuilt by Lady Kathleen Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington, daughter of 4th Earl of Desart; the architect of the rebuilding being Richard Orpen. Some years later, however, it was sold and then demolished.” [1]
Doe Castle, Creeslough, Co Donegal – can visit, OPW
Doe Castle, Donegal, photograph from Ireland’s Content Pool, photograph by Gardiner Mitchell, 2014, for Tourism Ireland.
Dollanstown or Dolanstown, County Meath, courtesy Savills.
“An early C18 house of two storeys and seven bays, with a central breakfront, a Venetian window and a tall pedimented doorcase. Brackets under eaves on one side rather similar to those at Eyrescourt Castle, Co Galway.” [1]
Dollardstown, Slane, Co Meath – a ruin
“A house grandly remodelled in red brick ca 1730 for Arthur Meredyth, probably by Richard Castle. Three storey over a high basement with a parapet-attic of blind windows above the cornice. Seven bay front, three bay breakfronted centre, with Castle’s favourite sequence of a blind oculus above a niche above the entrance doorway, which is pedimented and pillared. Two bay side elevation, with Venetian windows in both principal storeys, triple windows above and triple blind windows in the attic and also in the basement; which, instead of being brick faced with stone, is of stone faced with brick. The principal front is flanked by two tall pedimented pavilions. Passed by inheritance to the Somerville (Athlumney) family; occupied by a farmer as early as 1837. Now a ruin.” [1]
Dolly’s Grove, Dunboyne, County Meath
“A two storey late-Georgian house; three bay front, with ground floor windows set in arched recesses; four bay side. Oval staircase. In 1814, the residence of James Hamilton.” [1]
Donacomper, Celbridge, Co Kildare
Donacomper, County Kildare, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A house enlarged and very successfully remodelled in Tudor-Revival by William Kirkpatrick ca 1835.Simple elevations with partly-stepped gables, mullioned windows and hood-mouldings; polygonal lantern and cupola. Lofty hall with timbered ceiling. Drawing room funning full depth of house with good plasterwork ceiling. Library of great beauty; ribbed timber ceiling, oak bookcases with carving and Gothic tracery, original C19 wallpaper in brown and gold. Staircase newels carved to resemble swans.” [1]
“A medieval and C17 castle, with a bowed centre of ca 1800 by Richard Morrison. Medieval doorways and fireplaces in some rooms. Doric entablatures in others on the first floor. Castellated gateway. Bequeathed by Miss C.M. Aylmer 1935 to the Church of Ireland, by which is was subsequently sold. The castle is now a ruin.” [1]
Donaghadee Manor House (Manor House Donaghadee), County Down
“A plain two storey Georgian house with its entrance front behind railings on the High Street of the town; six bay entrance front with pillared porch; three sided bow in side elevation.” [1]
Donaghcloney (see Straw Hill), County Down
The Donahies (Newbrook House), Co Dublin – ‘lost’
“A two storey three bay Georgian house faced with attractive brick. Pillared porch, three sided end bows. Adamesque interior plasterwork. Seat of the Casey family. Now demolished.” [1]
Donamon Castle, Roscommon, County Roscommon
“A c15 castle with a tall arch between its towers, like that at Bunratty Castle, given regular sash windows and Georgian-Gothic battlements towards end of C18 and further altered and enlarged mid c19. Staircase gallery with plaster fan vaulting. Now owned by the Divine Word Missions.” [1]
Donamon Castle, County Roscommon, photograph by dougf, CC BY-SA 2.0
Donard House, County Wicklow
Donard House, County Wicklow, Photograph courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
A two-storey five bay house with a fanlighted doorway.
Donard Lodge (and Spa House), Newcastle, County Down– demolished
Donard Lodge, County Down, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A distinguished two storey Classical house of granite ashlar, built in two stages 1830s by 3rd Earl Annesley as a marine residence. The architect at first was John Lynn, who later acted merely as contractor, carrying out plans by Thomas Duff, of Newry, and his partner, Thomas Jackson, of Belfast. Entrance front with central projecting bay (in fact a two storey porch) and a boldly projecting three sided bow at either side; the centre being joined on each side to the projecting ends by short Doric colonnade; one of these colonnades serving as the entrance portico, the door being in one side of the central projection. Garden front with curved and three sided bows and round headed ground floor windows. Elegant semi-circular conservatory by John Lynn at one end of the house. Donard Lodge is now demolished.” [1]
Donard Lodge, County Down, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A two storey late C18 house of brick, with wings extending back to form a U plan. Pedimented ionic doorcase in central three sided bow with three bays on either side, the end bays projecting slightly. now a ruin.” [1]
Donore, Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath – demolished
Doolistown, Trim, Co Meath – a ruin
“A two storey three bay Georgian house with good doorcase... Now a ruin.” [1]
The Doon, Togher, County Offaly
The Doon, County Offaly, courtesy of National Inventory.
“A square two storey house built 1798 by R.J. Enraght-Moony, incorporating a late C17 or early C18 house which had been the dower house when the family lived in the old castle nearby. Three bay front with single-storey portico; three bay side.” [1]
Doonass, Clonlara, Co Clare
Doonass, Clonlara, Co Clare courtesy of National Inventory.
“A two storey hosue of ca 1820 in the late Georgian-villa style. Entrance front with slightly recessed centre, one bay on either side, the windows set in two storey blind arches. Fanlighted doorway under two windows in centre; Wyatt windows on either side in lower storey. Eaved roof; curved bow at side. The back wing of the house has been demolished. A noteable folly tower dating from ca 1760 stands down by the river. It has a detached turret for a spiral staircase. A hell-fire club is said to have met there.” [1]
Doory Hall, Ballymahon, Co Longford – ruin
Doory Hall, Ballymahon, Co Longford courtesy National Inventory
“A house of ca 1820, by John Hargrave, of Cork. Two storey, five bay, centre bay projecting. Pediment, wide entance door under porch with fluted Doric columns, wide window over. Carved bow at end. Now a ruin.” [1]
Downhill Castle (or House), near Coleraine, County Derry – ruin, open to public
Downhill House, County Derry, photograph by Pocket Squares
Downhill, County Derry (here listed as Antrim?), photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.Downhill, County Derry (here listed as Antrim?), photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Dowth Hall, near Slane, County Meath
Dowth Hall, County Meath, courtesy Sherry Fitzgerald.
“A small and extremely elegant mid-C18 house, built for 6th Viscount Netterville; with a two storey front, but with an extra storey fitted in as a mezzanine at the back. The front, of ashlar, is five bay; the lower storey is rusticated; the windows in the upper storey are higher than those below, and have alternate triangular and segmental pediments over them. Urns on roofline; pedimented doorway with Doric columns and frieze. Splendid interior plasterwork, possibly by Robert West, who may in fact have been the architect. Doric frieze in hall. Beautiful rococo decoration on walls and ceiling of drawing room. Dining room ceiling with birds and clouds. Library with simple rococo ceiling and swags on walls.” [1]
Drenagh House (formerly Fruit Hill), Limavady, County Derry
It tells us “Nestled in beautiful parkland and surrounded by our gardens, you will find our grand Georgian Mansion House which is perfect for weddings, family get togethers, corporate events and much more.“
“An imposing three storey stone house of ca 1745, attributed to Francis Bindon, built for Barry Barry. Seven bay entrance front with three bay central breakfront; round-headed window framed by pilasters and segmental entablatures in the centre of each of two upper storeys; ground floor windows with rusticated surrounds, shouldered architraves round windows in upper storeys. Later enclosed porch with fanlight and Ionic columns and pilasters. Curved bow in one side elevation, but not in the other. Two storey hall with the staircase rising behind a bridge-gallery; a rare feature in Irish country houses at this date, though there is another example of it only a couple of miles away across the Westmeath border at Ballinlough Castle. As at Ballinlough, both the stair and gallery have slender wooden balusters; and there is C18 panelling on the walls. The doorcases, both upstairs and down, have heavy triangular or segmented pediments; and the ceiling is decorated with somewhat bucolic plasterwork.” [1]
Drewstown, County Meath, courtesy National Inventory.
Drimina House, Sneem, Co Kerry
Drimina House, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A gabled Victorian house on the shores of Sneem Harbour. Noted sub-tropical garden.” [1]
Drimnagh Castle, Dublin – sometimes open to public
“A large “strong-house” built 1626 by Sir Wiliam Villiers, 1st Bt, whose half-brother, James I’s and Charles I’s favourite, the Duke of Buckingham, was granted an extensive tract of land here. It had blank, forward facing gables and many massive chimney-stacks. Now a ruin.” [1]
Dromana, Co Waterford – section 482, Accommodation
A gabled early C17 semi-fortified house on a rock above the river Blackwater; now a ruin. Entrance court with Jacobean doorway. [1]
Dromin House, Dunleer, Co Louth
Dromin House, Dunleer, Co Louth courtesy National Inventory
“Georgian house of two storeys over basement; five bay front with later porch; parapeted roof.” [1]
Dromkeen, Co Cavan – convent
Dromkeen (or Drumkeen), Co Cavan – now Loreto convent, Courtesy of National Inventory.
“A two storey early C19 house; front of two bays on either side of a central three sided bow, crowned with battlemented gables and finials. Plain entablatures over ground floor windows. Now a convent and much altered.” [1]
Dromkeen House, Pallasgreen, co Limerick
Dromkeen House, County Limerick, courtesy of National Inventory.
“A gable ended Georgian house of two storeys over basement and five bays. Simple doorcase.” [1]
Dromoland Castle, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare – hotel
Dromoland Castle, County Clare, photo care of Dromoland Castle, for Tourism Ireland 2019, Ireland’s Content Pool.
“A fine three storey late C18 block, built 1781 by Hon William Beresford, Bishop (C of I) of Dromore, afterwards Bishop of Ossory, Archbishop of Tuam and 1st Lord Decies. “Improved” by Beresford’s successor, Thomas Percy, the antiquary and poet, who laid out plantations, gardens and a glen, adorned with painted obelisks. In Bishop Percy’s time, the Palace was frequented by a circle of poets and painters, notably the poet Thomas Stott and the painter Thomas Robinson, a pupil of Romney. Sold 1842, when the diocese of Dromore was merged with Down and Connor; used for some years in late C19 as a school, and after that, empty; now ruinous.” [1]
Dromore Castle, Pallaskenry, County Limerick – ‘lost’
Dromore Castle, Pallaskenry, County Limerick courtesy National Inventory
“The most archaeologically correct C19 Irish castle, rising from a wooded ridge above a lough; built 1867-70 for 3rdEarl of Limerick to the design of the English architect and “aesthete” Edward William Godwin, who measured and studied the construction of at least a dozen old Irish castles before producing his plans. The grouping, the strength of detail, the solidness of the light grey stonework all make it a building of exceptional quality. A tall main block, with a massive keep at one end balanced by a reproduction of an ancient Irish round tower at teh other, has a lower hall range attached to it at right angles, as a Askeaton Castle; forming two sides of a courtyard which is enclosed on the tierh two sides by battlemented walls wiht corner towers and a narrow gateway. The walls of the castle are as much as six feet thick, with a batter; the details, which are beautifully wrought, are copied exactly from Irish originals; if not of C13 and C14, as Godwin believed, at any rate of C15 and C16; there are Irish battlements, bold chimneys, bartizans and machicoulis on stout corbelling, trefoil windows and angle loops. All the main rooms were made to face into the courtyard, and on the ground floor there is hardly a single outside windows, though this was not just archaeological but, as the Building News explained at the time, “so that in the event of hte country being disturbed, the inmates of Dromore Castle might not only feel secure themselves but be able to give real shelter to others,” this being the year of the Fenian rising, wen at least one other Irish country house, Humewood, County Wicklow – also by an English architect – was designed with a view to defence. A vaulted gateway, over which was a chapel, led into the courtyard; one one side it was the entrance to the banqueting hall, which had a high timber barrel roof and alarge stone fireplace wiht a sloping hood carried on corbels’ on the other was the entrance to the main block, from which a straight flight of stone stairs under a very unusaul stepped barrel vault led up to first floor corridor, off which opened the dining room and two drawing rooms. The larger drawing room, in the keep, had pointed arches in teh thickness of its walls, some of which were supported by marble columns. All three rooms had timbered ceilings with painted decoration in which celtic motifs were mixed with Japanese; Godwin being one of the chief protagonists of the Japanese taste. As if cut through the solid stone, the staircase continued up to the bedroom floor, where the corridor was particularly attractive, with a long row of deep window recesses and a timber barrel roof. The walls of the main room where to have been painted by the historical painter, Henry Stacy Marks, who actually started work, but the scheme had to be dropped owing to the damp – something which also caused Godwin trouble at his other Irish country house, Glenbeigh Towers, Co Kerry. Dromore was sold by the Limerick family between the two world wars to the McMahon family, who occupied it until ca 1950. An attempt was then made to find a buyer for it; and when this proved unsuccessful, the castle was dismantled. The ruins remain, as solid as any of the old ruined castles of the Irish countryside, but larger and more spectacular than most of them.” [1]
Dromore Castle, County Limerick drawing room chimneypiece 1986, photograph: William Garner, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Dromore Castle, Kenmare, County Kerry
Dromore Castle, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“An early C19 castle by Sir Thomas Deane, built ca 1831-38 for Rev Denis Mahony; replacing a long low two storey house on a different site built on one side of a courtyard with the stables on the other, which still survives; and which itself replaced an old castle of the O’Mahonys, on a different site again. The present castle is of two storeys over basement and is faced in a golden-brown Roman cement imitating ashlar, with grey limestone dressings. The entrance front, which is dominated by a machicolated round tower and turret, at one side of a central heavily machicolated porch-tower, has a certain grimness; the windows are few and narrow. The garden front, facing down wooded slopes of sub-tropical luxuriance to the Kenmare River, is more graceful and friendly; there are fewer machicolations and the windows are wider; in the centre is a Perpendicular window of great height. At either end of the garden front is a three-sided bow, with corner-bartizans. Apart from the staircase window, the windows are rectangular, and combine wooden Gothic tracery with Georgian glazing; some of them incorporating rather unusual half Gothic fanlights. Inside the castle, a vast hall, like a long gallery, runs almost the full length of the front; it has a timbered ceiling and oak-grained doors with panels of Gothic tracery. In the centre, opposite the front door, an arch opens onto an imperial staircase of oak with Gothic balusters, lit by the great Perpendicular window...” [1]
Dromore Castle, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.Dromore Castle, Kenmare, County Kerry courtesy National InventoryDromore Castle, County Kerry, courtesyabandonedworldphotography.com
Drumadarragh House, Kilbride, County Antrim
“A two storey three bay C18 house with a fanlighted doorway, to which two wings were added, probably 1827; they are of two bays each, similar in style and proportion to the centre; but each has a pediment gable with an oeil-de-boeuf window. The rear of the house is similar, except for a wing in the same style as the rest of the house, added 1903.” [1]
Drumalis, Larne, County Antrim
Drumalis, County Antrim, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A rambling two storey late-Victorian or Edwardian mansion, dominated by a four storey central tower and turret. Eaved roof; camber-headed windows; pillared porch; solid parapet on tower and turret.” [1]
Drumalis, County Antrim, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.Drumalis, County Antrim, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Drumbanagher, Poyntpass, County Armagh – demolished
“A very large Italianate house by William Playfair of Edinburgh, built ca 1837 for Maxwell Close, brother-in-law of 1stLord Lurgan who built Brownlow House, also to the design of Playfair. Two storey centre block with higher three storey wings set at right angles to it, and projecting beyond it both in the entrance and garden fronts; the space between the wings in the entrance front being filled by vast arched porte-cochere. Roofs of wings eaved and carried on bracket cornices; roof of centre block with balustraded parapet. Plain pilasters framing downstairs windows in ends of wings. Now demolished.” [1]
Drumbaragh House, Kells, Co Meath
Drumbaragh, County Meath, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A tall three storey three bay C18 block. Central chimneystack; C19 pillared porch and window surrounds.” [1]
Drumboe Castle, Stranorlar, Co Donegal – a ruin
“A Georgian house consisting of three storey centre with a three sided central bow and pillared porch, and bow-ended wings. A Wyatt window on either side of the centre bow.” [1]
Drumcairn, Stewartstown, County Tyrone
Drumcar, Dunleer, Co Louth – hospital
Drumcar, Dunleer, Co Louth courtesy National Inventory.
“A square block of ca 1778, three storeys over a basement with a five bay front, embellished C19 and extended by the addition of two large single-storey Italianate wings prolonging two adjoining fronts, one of them ending in a handsome archway. Doorcase with four engaged Ionic columns and pediment over middle two; mid to late C19 Doric portico; segmental pediments over ground floor windows. Doorcase with Tuscan pilasters in hall. Ballroom in one of the wings. Now owned by St. John of God Brothers.” [1]
Drumcar, County Louth, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
Drumcarban, Crossdoney, Co Cavan
“A late C18 house of three storeys and three bays; doorcase with very delicate fanlight; flues grouped in one long stack.” [1]
Drumcashel, Castlebellingham, Co Louth – ruin
Drumcashel, Castlebellingham, Co Louth courtesy National Inventory.
“A C19 Tudor-Revival house with hood mouldings.” [1]
Drumcondra House, Drumcondra, Dublin – All Hallow’s College
Drumcondra House, Dublin, courtesy of Archiseek.
“A very important three storey C18 house, with two adjoining fronts. The grander of these two, which has a boldly projecting central feature of giant Corinthian pillars supporting a balustraded Corinthian entablature and is richly adorned with niches, aedicules and triangular and segmental pediments over the windows and two doorways, of unknown authorship; the simpler, which is plain but for a two storey pedimented frontispiece with a pilastered Venetian window in its upper storey, by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, his earlier recorded private house work, which he carried out 1727 for Marmaduke Coghill, MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Judge of the Prerogative Court. The interior, which has C18 panelling and good contemporary chimneypieces, has been altered at various times, but some of it is by Pearce. On the lawn is a temple with a pediment and Cornithian pilasters, probably by Alessandro Galilei, the Italian architect who designed the main block of Castletown, Co Kildare. Now All Hallow’s College.” [1]
All Hallow’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Drumconora (formerly Nutfield), Ennis, Co Clare
“A handsome stone-faced mid-C18 house of three storeys over basement, attributed to Francis Bindon. Pedimented breakfront with triple window over round-headed tripartite doorway; 2 bays on either side. Quoins; string courses; window surrounds with keystones. Seat of the Crowes (see Dromore), afterwards of the O’Loghlens, the family of the eminent lawyer Sir Michael O’Loghlen who 1836 became the first Catholic to sit on the Judicial Bench in Ireland or Britain since the Revolution of 1688. Drumconora was sold by the O’Loghlens 1930s and subsequently demolished.” [1]
Drumcree House, Collinstown, Co Westmeath
Drumhierney, Co Leitrim
“A two storey six bay house with a two bay pedimented breakfront and conservatory with fluted Ionic pilasters. Now derelict.” [1]
Drumlargan, Co Meath
“A two storey double gable-ended house, probably early C18 but with C19 windows and a C19 two storey gabled projecting porch. Owned by the Bomford family until ca 1850.” [1]
Drummilly, Loughgall, County Armagh
Drummilly, County Armagh, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A plain, vaguely Georgian house with remarkable two storey elliptical structure of glass and art nouveau ironwork projecting from its centre and constituting the entrance. Elliptical windows in the upper storey of this addition.” [1]
Drumnasole House, Garronpoint, County Antrim
p. 113. “(Turnly/IFR) An early 19C house, in what was described (1845) as “a most romantic and sheltered site at the base of the perpendicular hills.” Begun sometime ante 1819 and not completed until ca 1840, built for Francis Turnly, who had been in the East India Company and spent much of his early life in China. Of basalt from the hill behind; two storey over basement, entrance front has breakfront centre with window flanked by two narrower windows above and fanlighted doorway under shallow porch of four engaged Doric columns below; one bay on either side. Side of house is five bay. Long hall with plasterwork ceiling; stairwell lit by dome.” [1]
Drumreaske House, Monaghan, co Monaghan
“A two storey C19 Tudor-revival house of the “cottage” type, with gables and decorated bargeboards.” [1]
Drumsill, County Armagh
“Owned by the MacGeough family from the C17. A house of ca 1788, remodelled by Francis Johnston, ca 1860. Sold 1916. An hotel 1957-72, when it was blown up.” [1]
Duarrigle Castle, Millstreet, Co Cork – ‘lost’
Duarrigle Castle, County Cork, entrance front, photograph: Robert French, Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A castellated house of early C19 appearance, consisting of 3 storey block and a two storey block with a round turret at their junction. Simple battlements; regularly disposed mullioned windows with ogival-headed lights; entrance doorway wiht ogival fanlight at the head of a flight of steps with wrought-iron railings. Hood mouldings. The seat of the Justice family, more recently of the O’Connors, maternal forebears of Mr Norman St John-Stevas, (whose mother, Mrs Stephen S Stevas, was formerly Miss Kitty St John O’Connor, of Duarrigle Castle). Now a ruin.” [1]
“A three storey pedimented cut-stone house of ca 1750, attributed to Richard Castle or his school, built for Thomas Trotter, MP. Three bay front; central breakfront with triple window above Venetian window above pedimented tripartite doorway. Balustraded roof parapet.” [1]
Duleek House, County Meath, courtesy National Inventory.
Dunany House, Togher, Co Louth
Dunany House, Togher, Co Louth courtesy National Inventory.
“A “U” shaped house with a courtyard, partly early C18, but much altered late C18 and made to look Gothic in early C19. Bolection chimneypiece in hall.” [1]
Dunany House, Togher, Co Louth courtesy National Inventory.
Dunboden Park, Mullingar, Co Westmeath
“A house of early to mid C19 appearance…”[1]
Dunboy Castle and Puxley Manor, Castletownberehaven, Co Cork
Dunboy Castle, County Cork, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Under Dunboy Castle in Mark Bence-Jones:
“A castellated house of 1838 and earlier to which H.L. Puxley, owner of the Berehaven Copper Mines, added a vast new building of razor sharp ashlar 1880s; a sold, vigorous, three dimensional composition in with Ruskinian Gothic arches and windows were combined wiht the “Old English” oriels. Whilte the overall effect was High Victorian, it was not wholly uninfluenced by subsequent trends in English domestic architecture, having certain similarities to Norman Shaw’s Cragside, Northumberland. There were no battlements, but a skyline of steep and pointed roofs and tall chimneys. A high-roofed tower rose from the middle of the entrance front, and another from a corner of the front facing the water, which had an arcaded basement beneath it; at one side of the latter tower was a tremendous buttress, combined with a chimneystack. The chief feature of the interior was the series of transverse diaphragm arches spanning the hall. Burnt 1921, now a spectacular ruin.” [1]
Dunboy Castle, County Cork, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.Puxley Mansion, Co Cork, courtesy of National Inventory.
Dunboyne Castle, Dunboyne, County Meath – accommodation
Dunboyne Castle, County Meath, courtesy National Inventory.
“This C18 house which replaced the old castle here as the seat of the Dunboynes. From its appearance, dating from two different periods, the front being later; probably inspired by Sir William Chambers’s Charlemont House in Dublin and added either by Pierce Butler, 10th Lord Dunboyne, who succeeded 1768, or by his son, 11th Baron, who died 1785. Of three storeys and seven bays, the ground floor being rusticated and treated as a basement and the first floor as a piano nobile with pediments over the windows. Tripartite pedimented and fanlighted entrance doorway; urns on parapet. Single-storey four bay rusticated wing. Good interior rococo plasterwork...” [1]
“A pleasant, comfortable unassuming house of ca 1860 which from its appearance might be a C20 house of vaguely Queen Anne flavour. Two storey, five bay centre, with middle bay breaking forward and three-sided single-storey central bow; two bay projecting ends. Moderately high roof on bracket cornice; windows with cambered heads and astragals. Wyatt windows in side elevation.” [1]
Dundalk House, County Louth, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A Georgian Gothic house of two storeys, with pointed windows and a three sided bow, originally seat of the Earls of Roden, who inherited the estate from the Earls of Clanbrassill of 2nd creation; acquired C19 by the Carrolls, owners of the tobacco firm of P.J. Carroll & Co, whose factory was nearby. Demolished ca 1900 owing to its site being unhealthy, and replaced by red brick gabled house of the period, which was given to P.J. Carroll and Co for use as offices 1936.” [1]
Dundanion, Blackrock, Co Cork
Dundanion, Blackrock, Co Cork courtesy of National Inventory.
“A two storey home of the Cork architect Sir Thomas Deane, who supervised its building, though it was designed by the Morrisons. Single storey Ionic portico; eaved roof.” [1]
Dundarave House, Bushmills, County Antrim
Dunderave, County Antrim, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
“A very fine Italianate palazzo by Charles Lanyon; built 1847 for Sir Edmond Workman-MacNaghten, 2nd Bt, to replace a castellated house which his father, Sir Francis MacNaghten, had built only ten years earlier...” [1]
Dundermot, Ballintober, Co Roscommon
Dundermot, County Roscommon, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
“A three storey C18 double gable-ended house of three bays with two storey two bay wings almost as high as the centre. Regency ironwork porch’ ironwork balconies in front of ground floor windows of wings. Tall and massive chimneystacks on gable ends of centre block.” [1]
Dundrum House, County Tipperary – was previously a hotel
Dundrum House, County Tipperary, photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
“A C18 Palladian mansion consisting of a centre block of two storeys over a high basement joined by short links to flanking wings or pavilions, very much in the style of Sir Edward Lovett Pearce: the seat of the Maude family, Viscounts Hawarden. Entrance front of seven bays, with a three-bay pedimented breakfront, links and wings of one bay each. Central, round-headed window with keystone above pedimented doorcase; similar windows on either side of door and in wings. Graceful perron in front of door with partly curving double stairs and iron railings. Oculi and camber-headed windows in basement; prominent quoins on centre block and wings. Large hall with compartmented ceiling. Impressive, double-pedimented stable block at right-angles to the entrance front.
“An extra storey, treated as an attic above the continuous cornice, was added to the centre block about 1890 by the 4th Viscount Hawarden, who was 1st and last Earl de Montalt. This did away with the pediment and spoilt the proportions of the house; making the centre block massive and ungainly, so that it dwarfs the wings. After being sold by the Maudes, the house ws for many years a convent; but it is now in private occupation once more.” [1]
Dundullerick, Lisgoold, Co Cork
“A Georgian house consisting of a two storey three bay centre with single storey two bay wings.” [1]
Duneske, Cahir, Co Tipperary
“A three storey asymmetrical Victorian house with a high roof and some gables; built ca 1870 for R.W. Smith to the design of Sir Thomas Drew. Plate glass windows, bows in various places. Porch with sinuous, rather art-nouveau style decoration in stucco…” [1]
Duneske House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
Dungar, Coolderry, Co Offaly
Dungar House, County Offaly, courtesy of National Inventory.
“A two storey C19 house with a front and side elevation of three bays, the centre bay of the front being recessed, and that of the side breaking forwards. Porch and arches and rusticated piers; single-storey curved bow in centre of side elevation; prominent quoins; entabaltures over ground floor windows; eaved roof on bracket cornice.” [1]
Dungiven Castle, Dungiven, County Derry
“A C19 castle with a long two storey battlemented front, having a central polygon tower with a pointed Gothic doorway and a pointed window over, and a round tower at each end. Five bays on either side of centre.” [1]
Dunguaire Castle (or Dungory), near Kinvara, County Clare
Duninga, County Kilkenny courtesy of National Inventory.
“A house with a three storey centre and two storey projecting wings, joined by a Doric colonnade.” [1]
Dunkathel House (or Dunkettle), Glanmire, Cork
Dunkathel, County Cork, 1981.
“A house in the Palladian manner, consisting of a two storey nine bay centre block joined by screen walls with rusticated niches to office wings extending back; the front ends of the wings being treated as two storey two bay pavilions with oculi in their upper storey. The front of the centre block has quoins at its sides and framing a three bay breakfront; a solid roof parapet and fanlighted doorcase with an entablature and engaged Tuscan columns.…” [1]
Dunleckney Manor, Bagnelstown, Co Carlow
Dunleckney Manor, County Carlow, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 116. “(Newton, sub Bagenal/IFR; Vesey sub de Vesci, V/PB) A C19 Tudor-Gothic house by Daniel Robertson, of Kilkenny. Built ca 1850 for Walter Newton, who inherited the estate from his mother, the heiress of the Bagenal family of Dunleckney. Faced in smooth limestone ashlar; steep gables and overhanding oriels; a slender polygonal corner turret decorated with panels of miniature tracery in the manner of English Perpendicular architecture; similar ornament on the bow of the garden front. Interior has plaster fan vaulting. Elaborately carved staircase of wood...” [1]
Dunleckney Manor, County Carlow, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.Dunleckney Manor, County Carlow, by Daniel Robertson, 1835. Photograph from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
Dunluce Castle, County Antrim – heritage visitor site
p. 116. (Shee, Bt/PB1869; Dering, Bt/PB) “A late C18 house of three storeys over a basement, incorporating an earlier house. Three bay bow-ended entrance front, with one bay central breakfront. Wide fanlighted doorway.” [1]
Dunmore House (also known as Dunmore Palace), Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny, now Dunmore Cottage
Dunmore cottage, Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny courtesy National Inventory
p. 116. “(Butler, Ormonde, MPB) A C17 red brick house on a palatial scale built post Restoration by Duchess of Ormonde, wife of the great Duke. Its chief interior feature was a staircase of carved wood, “so large the twenty men might walk abreast.” The Duchess also laid out elaborate gardens here. When the Duke was showing some people his improvements at Kilkenny Castle, one of them said: “Your Grace has done much here,” to which he replied “Yes, and there the Duchess has Dunmore; and if she does any more, I shall be undone.” The house was neglected and eventually demolished during C18.” [1]
Dunmore, Durrow, County Laois
Dunmore, County Laois, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
“An early Georgian house of brick, plastered over, consisting of a three storey five bay gable-ended centre block with two storey projecting wings...” [1]
Dunnstown, Co Kildare
p. 116. “A two storey pedimented C18 house flanked by two free-standing wings with small pediments. The pediment of the main block was made into a barge-boarded gable C19.” [1]
Dunore House, Aldergrove, County Antrim
p. 117. “The only full-blown country house example in Ireland of the Eyptian taste; and a rather late example, having been built post 1857. Of smooth rusticated granite’ the doorcase being composed of four tems with Pharoahs’ heads, originally surrounded by hieroglyphics; the pediment being topped with an obelisk.” [1]
Dunsandle Castle, Co Galway – ‘lost’
Dunsandle, County Galway c. 1950, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 116. (Daly/IFR) A large plain mid to late C18 Palladian house, until recently the finest house in Co Galway, very tentatively attributed by the Knight of Glin to David Duckart. Built for Rt Hon Denis Daly MP… Sold ca 1954 by Major Bowes Daly; subsequently demolished.”
Dunsandle Castle, Co Galway courtesy National Inventory
Dunsany Castle, Dunsany, Co Meath section 482 in 2019
“A castle founded ca 1200 by Hugh de Lacy; and which, in 1403, passed by marriage, along with the neighbouring castle of Killeen, to Sir Christopher Plunkett; who left Killeen to his eldest son, ancester of the Earls of Fingall, and Dunsany to his second son, 1st Baron of Dunsany. The castle eventually consisted of two tall blocks, each with a pair of square corner-towers, joined by a hall range so as to enclose a shallow three sided court. The 13th Lord Dunsany restored and modernised the old castle in the 1780s, filling in the old court between the projecting tower blocks to form a spacious staircase hall, putting in pointed Georgian-Gothic windows and decorating the principle rooms in the fashionable style of the period. 14th Lord Dunsany carried out various additions and alterations to the castle around 1840, which can be safely attributed to James Shiel, who was working at the nearby Killeen Castle at that time. Shiel replaced the Georgian-Gothic windows on the entrance front and at the end of the castle with tracery and mullioned windows; but he was much more sparing with his medievalism here than he was at Killeen; so that the old grey castle with its square towers keeps all the character and atmosphere of a house that has grown through the ages, rather than looking merely like a castle of the 19th century…” [1]
Dunsland, Glanmire, Co Cork – ‘lost’
p. 117. “(Pike;LGI1958) A late-Victorian house with an eaved roof, half-timbered gables and pediments and entablatures over the ground floor windows. Home of Joseph Pike, burnt 1920.” [1]
Dunsoghly Castle, Finglas, Co Dublin
Dunsoghly Castle, Finglas, Co Dublin courtesy Irish Antiquities, by Brian T. McElherron.
p. 117. “(Dunne/LGI1912) A C15 castle built by Thomas Plunkett, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench; consisting of a tall four storey tower with tapering corner-turrets rising above the parapet of the centre block. At one side of the tower is a detached chapel, built 1573 by Sir John Plunkett, Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench, and his third wife, Genet Sarsfield. The lowest storey of the tower is vaulted, those above it had timber floors. The castle still keeps its original roof, with massive oak timbers...” [1]
Durrow Abbey, Tullamore, Offaly
Durrow Abbey, County Laois, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
p. 117. “(Graham-Toler, Norbury, E/PB; Slazenger, sub Powerscourt, V/PB) Originally a plain three storey 7 bay C18 house with a pillared porch; replaced ca 1837 by a Tudor-Gothic house built for 2nd Earl of Norbury, who was murdered here 1839. The house now consists of two two storey ranges at right angles to each other, one of them standing on slightly lower ground, with a small battlemented tower at their junction. The higher range has a central projecting porch-gable, with a corbelled oriel over the entrance door, and a slightly stepped gable at each end. There are tall Tudor-style chimneys and a few pinnacles. The house was rebuilt in the same style 1924. Nearby is the site of an ancient abbey, with a fine C10 High Cross...” [1]
Dysart, Delvin, Co Westmeath
[1] 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.
We visited in March 2023. The house was built in 1779 for Samuel Hayes and may have been designed by James Wyatt (1746-1813), or by Samuel Hayes himself. It then passed to the Parnell family and was the birthplace of the politician Charles Stewart Parnell. In 1904 the state purchased the Avondale Estate to develop modern day forestry in Ireland.
Avondale, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert French [between ca. 1865-1914], Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Mark Bence-Jones writes in his A Guide to Irish Country Houses (1988):
p. 15. “A square house of two storeys over basement, built 1779 for Samuel Hayes, a noted amateur architect who possibly designed it himself. Five bay entrance front, the three centre bays breaking forward under a pediment; small Doric porch with paired columns, Coade stone panels with swags and medallions between lower and upper windows. Garden front with central bow; the basement, which in the entrance front is concealed, is visible on this side with its windows have Gibbsian surrounds. Magnificent and lofty two storey hall with C18 Gothic plasterwork and gallery along inner wall. Bow room with beautiful Bossi chimneypiece. Dining room with elaborate neo-Classical plasterwork on walls and ceiling; the wall decorations incorporating oval mirrors and painted medallions. Passed to William Parnell-Hayes, brother of the 1st Baron Congleton, and grandfather of Charles Steward Parnell, who was born here and lived here all his life with his mother and elder brother. Now owned by the dept of Lands, Forestry Division, which maintains the splendid demesne as a forest park…The house has in recent years been restored by the Board of Works.” [1]
Samuel Hayes who built the house also planted a forest. He was an expert on trees and wrote books and planted experimentally to see what trees grow best in Ireland. Hayes wrote A practical treatise on planting and the management of woods and coppices (1794). Intended to be a practical guide to the planting of trees and the managing of wood for timber, it was in fact Ireland’s first full-length book on trees. It is fitting that the property is now owned by Coillte, and that they also grow trees and ran the “Great Tree Experiment” here at Avondale. For several years after the house passed into the ownership of the state a forestry school was located in the property.
Avondale, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert French [between ca. 1865-1914], Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.Avondale, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert French [between ca. 1865-1914], Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.Avondale, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert French [between ca. 1865-1914], Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.Avondale, County Wicklow, photograph by Robert French [between ca. 1865-1914], Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.
The house contains Gothic features in the front hall, especially in the stuccowork. The front hall is double-height and has an overlooking balcony.
Samuel Hayes was the great grandson of Thomas Parnell (1625-1686), the first of the Parnell family to come to Ireland, and from whom Charles Stewart Parnell was also descended. Thomas’s son John (1680-1727) became Judge of the Court of King’s Bench and built a house at Rathleague in County Laois. According to the family tree framed in the Drawing Room, John had a daughter Anne who married John Hayes and gave birth to the builder of Avondale, Samuel Hayes.
In 1766 Samuel Hayes married Alice Le Hunt, daughter of Thomas Le Hunt, MP and wide streets commissioner of Dublin, but he died childless. The estate was initially inherited by Sir John Parnell (1744–1801), 2nd baronet. John Parnell (1680-1727) married Mary Whitshed, daughter of Thomas, Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Carysfort, County Wicklow between 1692 and 1698. Their son John (d. 1782) became 1st Baronet Parnell, of Rathleague, Queen’s County in 1766, after being High Sheriff for County Laois and MP for Maryborough in Laois (now Portlaoise).
1st Baronet Parnell married Anne Ward from Castle Ward in County Down. They had a son John (1744–1801), 2nd Baronet. He married Laetitia Charlotte Brooke, daughter of Arthur, 1st Baronet Brooke, of Colebrooke, Co. Fermanagh.
Portrait of John Parnell, 2nd Baronet, by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni, from National Trust, Castle Ward.
By the terms of Hayes’s will, Avondale passed from the 2nd Baronet to his son William Parnell (1777–1821), writer, landlord, and MP. Hayes stipulated in his will that rather than being inherited by the eldest son of the family, the estate would be inherited by a younger son. William was the younger brother of John Augustus, 3rd Baronet, who was disabled and died childless, and of Henry Brooke Parnell, who became 4th Baronet Parnell and later, 1st Baron Congleton, of Congleton, Cheshire, which had been the birthplace of the original Thomas Parnell who emigrated to Ireland.
As a result of his inheritance of Avondale, William Parnell assumed the name ‘Parnell-Hayes.’ [2] William married Francis Howard, granddaughter of Ralph Howard, 1st Viscount Wicklow. They had a son John Henry, who was Charles Stewart Parnell’s father. Charles Stewart Parnell inherited Avondale as he also was not the oldest son, but the seventh of eleven children. It was an unusual stipulation that Samuel Hayes made.
Delia was a member of the Plymouth Brethren, and converted a building on the property into house for worship. The 2nd Baron Congleton also converted to the Plymouth Brethren who met in Aungier Street in Dublin.
When Charles Stewart Parnell inherited Avondale estate, it was mired in debt. He sought to increase his income by mining the local area. He became a politician chiefly, our tour guide told us, to earn money to support the estate. The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us:
“Parnell invested heavily in mining and quarrying ventures in Wicklow, in particular stone quarrying at Big Rock, near Arklow, from which he supplied paving setts to Dublin corporation. He expended money and effort in seeking to revive the old lead mine and to relocate the lodes of iron and seams of copper that had formerly been worked in the vicinity of Avondale. Through the late 1880s his chief recreation was the quest for gold in Wicklow, assaying samples of ore in his workshops successively at Etham and Brighton.” [3]
He may have been influenced in his politics by his mother’s Republican views, i.e. anti-monarchy. He sought home rule for Ireland and was President of the Land League, which sought to enable tenants to own the land on which they worked. He was arrested for this and put in rather luxurious quarters in Kilmainham Gaol, where he was incarcerated for six months.
By this time he was having an affair with Katherine O’Shea who was called “Kitty” in the press in order to belittle her. She was the wife of another MP who allowed the affair, presumably to maintain his position in parliament as Parnell commanded wide support. He fathered three children with Katherine and when her husband divorced her, they married, but she was unable to inherit Avondale, which passed to Parnell’s older brother.
The Irish turned against Parnell due to his affair, as discussed in James Joyces’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man where Stephen Daedalus’s father and aunt argue about Parnell and Stephen’s father laments “Ireland’s poor dead King.” There is a lengthy biography about him in the Dictionary of Irish Biography.
“Katharine Parnell lived on in deteriorating circumstances and died in Littlehampton, Sussex, on 5 February 1921. After Claude Sophie, who died shortly after her birth, Parnell and Katharine had two further daughters, Clare (1883–1909) and Katharine (‘Katie’) (1884–1947). Clare, who bore a haunting resemblance to Parnell, died in labour. Her son Assheton Clare Bowyer-Lane Maunsell, a lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers, died of enteric fever in India on 29 July 1934, aged 24. As Parnell’s biographer F. S. L. Lyons wrote, ‘the line of direct descent from Parnell therefore ends in a cemetery in Lahore.’ “
The forest planted by Samuel Hayes mostly did not last, as we see from a photograph from 1900. However, the forestry school reinstated the forest, now owned by Coillte.
There are many walks on the estate, including a “tree top walk” and a viewing tower, which has a large enclosed screwshaped slide, which Stephen and I could not resist sliding down! Be prepared to lose all control to speed!
[1] Bence-Jones, Mark. 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.
Irish Historic Houses 
