Rochestown House, Cahir, Co Tipperary – lost
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 302. “(Riall/LGI1958; Barton/IFR; Wise;LG1886; and sub McClintock/IFR) A two storey late Georgian house… Originally the property of Col Lawford Miles, inherited by his sister, the wife of Rev Samuel Riall; passed to the Bartons through their daughter, who married Dunbar Barton. The artist Rose Barton, whose sister was the wife of the over-hospitable Sir George Brooke of Summerton was born here 1856. Rochestown was sold a few years later by Christopher Barton to the Wise family, for whom the house was altered 1867 to the design of Thomas Newenham Deane. The house was burnt 1922 and left a ruin, a new house being built on a different site. Inherited by Mrs James McClintock, nee Wise.”
Detached irregular-plan multi-period country house, comprising surviving south circuit of medieval bawn with square-plan tower house built c.1450 at south corner and on site of or possibly incorporating fabric from late-twelfth/early-thirteenth-century castle, and having eighteenth- and nineteenth-century additions. Tower house is four-storey with two-bay side elevations and has four-bay three-storey block of c.1750 added to north side, having slightly advanced west bay, with further two-storey block to west presenting one-bay to front elevation and two to rear, and with lower canted single-bay two-storey entrance link between these later blocks, link and west block being built c.1885. Link block echoed in rear elevation by angular one-bay three-storey block. Twelve-bay single-storey flat-roofed block to east side east block, running on north-east to south-west axis. Pitched slate roofs with stepped crenellations to tower house and simpler crenellations elsewhere. Lines of dripstones to south and east elevations of tower house, and moulded course to base of slightly projecting parapets of projecting part of main later block and to west block. Crowstep parapet to east elevation of four-bay block, simple crenellations to west end and stepped battlements to western block. Rubble limestone chimneystack to four-bay block, with brick quoins, brick and rendered elsewhere, with cast-iron rainwater goods. Single-storey block has parapet with sloping coping and stepped crenellations to centre and ends, with moulded string course to base of parapet. Coursed rubble and dressed limestone front elevation to four-bay block, rubble limestone to east elevation of tower house and rendered to other elevations, and snecked dressed limestone to front elevation of west block. Square-headed window openings, having render label-mouldings to south and west elevations of tower house and front and rear elevations of west end of four-bay block and of west block. Pointed single-light and double-light pointed windows to south and east elevations of tower house, with chamfered limestone surrounds, ogee-headed window and pointed window with hood-moulding to west elevation and slit window to east elevation. Chamfered limestone surrounds to east elevation and east end bays of front elevation of four-bay block, with timber sliding sash one-over-one pane windows, some double. Chamfered limestone surrounds to west block. Timber casement windows to east end of front elevations of blocks and metal casements elsewhere. Mullioned timber casement windows to single-storey block. Pointed arch entrance door opening with studded timber battened door and metal strap hinges. Ruined cylindrical keep of late twelfth/early thirteenth-century date, with semi-circular staircase annex to north-east of site. Rendered staircases to stepped gardens. Octagonal-profile rendered piers with decorative wrought-iron gates, and rendered and crenellated rubble limestone walls to site entrance.
Appraisal
Dating to the late Georgian period this country house was remodelled in 1867 by the Wise family to a design by Sir Thomas Newman Deane. It was at this time that the finely-executed porch was added along with an extra storey and the flanking wings. Although in a state of ruin, architectural detailing and design are immediately apparent in the design of the house. Such detailing is exhibited most noticeably in the porch with its sculptured mask keystone and in the finely-fashioned pilasters with differing capitals. The site is further enhanced by the related outbuildings and entrance gates. The house was burned in 1918 by rebel forces and has stood as a ruin ever since.
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland. Collins Press, Cork, 2010.
Irish Historic Houses 