1630s

Castlecomer House, Co Kilkenny – demolished

by jenjunebug

Castlecomer House, Co Kilkenny

Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny Irish Tourist Association Photographer 1942 NLI Ref NPA ITA 1214 (Box VI).

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. 64. “(Wandesford, E/DEP; Butler, sub Ormonde, M/PB; Prior-Wandesford/LGI1958) A very large C18 and C19 house, consisting of a square two storey main block with fronts of five bays, and a slightly lower three storey wing of great length, recessed for its first six bays and then stepped forward. Battlemented parapet on main block and wing; rectangular Georgian sash-windows, mostly with astragals; pointed Georgian-Gothic windows on ground floor of entrance front of main block; hood mouldings over windows of main block. John Johnston, who worked at Birr Castle, was also employed here. Enclosed Gothic porch. Largely demolished in recent years.” 

Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, photograph: Gillman Collection, 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.

Listed in 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. 89. A very large 18C house with 19C additions. Battlemented parapet. Burnt in 1965 and now largely demolished.

John Wandesford (1725-1784) 1st Earl of Wandesford and Viscount Castlecomer. Picture after Joshua Reynolds.

https://archiseek.com/2014/1802-castlecomer-house-co-kilkenny

1802 – Castlecomer House, Co. Kilkenny 

Architect: John Johnston 

Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.
Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.
Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.

The original Castlecomer House, the family seat of the Wandesfordes, was built in 1638. It was burned down during the battle of Castlecomer in 1798. A replacement and larger house was constructed on the site in 1802. This house was on a far grander scale than the original, and was testament to the success of the Wandesforde enterprise in Ireland. It was a large 19th century mansion consisting of a square, two-storey main block with fronts of five bays; a slightly lower three-storey wing of great length.There was a battlemented parapet on the main wing and block; rectangular sash windows, mostly astragals. Also an enclosed Gothic porch.  

Lying largely empty during the 1960s and 70s, most of the building was demolished in 1975. Nothing now remains of the house. The entrance and lodge can still be seen today, designed by G.F. Beckett in 1913. 

The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy: Kilkenny. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2004. 

Wandesford of Castlecomer. 

https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/12/castlecomer-house.html

THE WANDESFORDES WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KILKENNY, WITH 22,232 ACRES 

 
This family was of great antiquity in Yorkshire. 
 
JOHN DE WANDESFORDE, of Westwick, near Ripon, married, in 1368, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir Henry de Musters, Knight, of Kirklington, Yorkshire, and widow of Alexander Mowbray. 
 
He died in 1396, and was direct ancestor of 
 
THOMAS WANDESFORDE, of Kirklington, in 1503, who wedded Margaret, daughter of Henry Pudsey. 
 
He died in 1518, having had four sons and two daughters, 

CHRISTOPHER, his heir; 
William; 
Michael; 
John (Rev); 
Ellen; Elizabeth. 

The eldest son, 
 
CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD, of Kirklington, espoused Anne, daughter of John Norton, and died in 1540, having had issue, 

FRANCIS, his heir; 
Christopher. 

The elder son, 
 
FRANCIS WANDESFORD, of Kirklington, married Anne, elder daughter and co-heir of John Fulthorpe, of Hipswell, and had by her (who wedded secondly, Christopher, younger son of Ralph, Earl of Westmorland), 

CHRISTOPHER (Sir); 
John; 
Jane. 

Mr Wandesford died in 1559, and was succeeded by his elder son, 
 
SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD, Knight, of Kirklington, who received the honour of knighthood, 1586, and served as Sheriff of Yorkshire, 1578. 
 
He espoused Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Bowes, of Streatlam, and dying in 1590, was succeeded by his elder son, 
 
SIR GEORGE WANDESFORD, Knight (1573-1612), of Kirklington, knighted by JAMES I, 1607, who wedded firstly, Catherine, daughter and co-heir of Ralph Hansby, of Beverley, and had issue, 

CHRISTOPHER, his successor; 
John; 
Michael (Very Rev); 
Anne. 

Sir George espoused secondly, Mary, daughter of Robert Pamplin, and had a daughter, Margaret, and a son, WILLIAM WANDESFORDE, Citizen of London, to whom, and his heirs, his eldest brother, in 1637, gave £20 per annum, issuing out of the manor of Castlecomer, and payable upon Strongbow’s tomb in Christ Church, Dublin. 
 
Sir George was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
THE RT HON CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1592-1640), being upon close habits of intimacy and friendship with Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, accompanied that eminent and ill-fated nobleman into Ireland when he was constituted Chief Governor of that kingdom, was sworn of the Privy Council, and was appointed Master of the Rolls. 
 
Mr Wandesford was one of the Lords Justices in 1636 and 1639; and was appointed, in 1640, Lord Deputy; but the fate of his friend Lord Strafford had so deep an effect upon him, that he died in that year. 

[Kavanagh, p. 218. He appears to have brought over some of his relatives to Ireland also, as his brother Nicholas was MP for Thomastown and his eldest son, George, was MP for Clogher in 1639. – see Burke’s Landed Gentry. 

Christopher bought the lease of Kildare castle and manor from Sir Charles Coote shortly after his arrival in Ireland and intended livign there. He did in fact live in the castle for a year with his familoy but the Earl of Wentworth took a fancy to the place and two years later it was sold to him. In July 1637 Christopher Wandesford bought Castlecomer Castle and an estate of some 20,000 acres. These lands were formerly owned by the Gaelic Brennan clan from the barony of Odough, of which Castlecomer is the focal point. 

The Brennans, in common with other Gaelic families of Leinster such as the O’Moores of Laois, Kavanaghs of Crlow and the O’Byrnes of Wicklow and Fitzpatricks of Ossory, saw their lands pilfered from them under the governments of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. …An inquisition held in Kilkenny in 1635 found that the Brennans had no title in the area as they were “mere Irish” and held only the territory by force of arms.  In 1636 Christopher W. commenced negotiations to buy the Brennan lands from Ormonde and Ridgeway. The sale included the castle of Castlecomer, which was in the possession of Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret… By 1638 W.had still not succeeded in obtaining possessionso Straford sent a body of soldiers to Castlecomer where they seized the parents of about 100 families of Brennans, took them to Dublin and imprisoned them. They took possession of the castle. 

Christopher’s conscience must have been causing him some trouble, as in his will he made in 1640, he made provision for the payment of some money to some of the Brennan families to the value of a 21 year lease on whatever lands they occupied at the time.  He also secured the release of one of the Brennans who had been sentenced to death for sheep stealing, and installed his half-brother William as his agent. William and his wife took up residence in the castle.  
 
He married, in 1614, Alice, daughter of Sir Hewet Osborne, of Kiveton, Yorkshire, and had issue, 

GEORGE, his heir; 
CHRISTOPHER, successor to his brother; 
John; 
Catherine; Alice. 

Mr Wandesford was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
GEORGE WANDESFORD (1623-51), of Kirklington, who dsp and was succeeded by his brother, 
 
SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1628-87), of Kirklington, who was created a baronet in 1662, denominated of Kirklington, Yorkshire. 
 
He married, in 1651, Eleanor, daughter of Sir John Lowther Bt, of Lowther Hall, Westmorland, and had issue, 

CHRISTOPHER, his heir; 
George; 
Charles; 
Mary; Eleanor; Catherine; Elizabeth; Alice; Frances; Christiana. 

Sir Christopher, MP for Ripon, was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
THE RT HON SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1656-1707), who was sworn of the Privy Council by WILLIAM III, and again, in 1702, by Queen ANNE, who elevated him to the peerage, in 1706, as Baron Wandesforde and VISCOUNT CASTLECOMER. 
 
He wedded, in 1683, Elizabeth, daughter of George Montagu, of Horton, Northamptonshire, and had issue, 

CHRISTOPHER, 2nd Viscount; 
GEORGE, 4th Viscount; 
John; 
Richard; 
Henrietta. 

His lordship died in London, and was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
CHRISTOPHER, 2nd Viscount (1684-1719), MP for Morpeth, 1710, and for Rippon, 1714. 
 
In the latter year he was sworn of the Privy Council to GEORGE I, and the next year appointed Governor of County Kilkenny. 
 
In 1717, he was constituted Secretary-at-War. 
 
His lordship wedded, in 1715, Frances, daughter of Thomas, 1st Lord Pelham, and sister to Thomas, Duke of Newcastle, and had an only child, 
 
CHRISTOPHER, 3rd Viscount (1717-36), who died in London of the smallpox, unmarried, and was succeeded by his uncle, 
 
GEORGE, 4th Viscount (1687-51), 

The 1st EARL OF WANDESFORD died in 1784, and his son having predeceased him, all his honours, including the baronetcy, became extinct, and his estates upon his only daughter, 
 
THE LADY ANNE WANDESFORDE, who espoused, in 1769, John Butler, to whom the EARLDOM OF ORMONDE was restored by the House of Lords, 1791, as 17th Earl of Ormonde and 10th Earl of Ossory. 
 
Her fourth, but second surviving son, 
 
THE HON CHARLES HARWARD BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE(1780-1860), of Castlecomer and Kirklington, inherited his mother’s estates, and assumed, in 1820, the additional surname of CLARKE after Butler; and, in 1830, the additional surnames of SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE after Butler-Clarke. 
 
He espoused, in 1812, the Lady Sarah Butler, daughter of Henry Thomas, 2nd Earl of Carrick, and had issue, 

John, dspvp; 
HENRY BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE, died unmarried; 
Walter, father of CHARLES; 
SARAH, of Castlecomer and Kirklington. 

The Hon Charles Harward Butler C S Wandesforde was succeeded by his grandson, 
 
CHARLES BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE, of Castlecomer and Kirklington, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1879, who died unmarried, 1881, and was succeeded by his aunt, 
 
SARAH PRIOR-WANDESFORDE (1814-92), of Castlecomer, Kirklington, Hipswell, and Hudswell, Yorkshire, who married, in 1836, the Rev John Prior, of Mount Dillon, County Dublin, Rector of Kirklington, Yorkshire, son of the Rev Dr Thomas Prior, Vice-Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and had issue, 

Charles Butler, father of RICHARD HENRY PRIOR-WANDESFORDE; 
Henry Wallis; 
Sarah Butler; Sophia Elizabeth. 

Mrs Prior-Wandesforde succeeded to the Castlecomer and Kirklington estates on the death of her nephew, 1881, and in accordance with the provisions contained in her father’s will, assumed, in 1882, for herself and her issue the additional surname and arms of WANDESFORDE. 
 
She was succeeded by her grandson, 
 
RICHARD HENRY PRIOR-WANDESFORDE JP DL (1870-), of Castlecomer and Kirklington Hall, Hipswell, and Hudswell, Yorkshire, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1894, who wedded, in 1896, Florence Jackson von Schwartz, daughter of the Rev Ferdinand Pryor, Rector of Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and had issue, 

CHRISTOPHER BUTLER, b 1896; 
Ferdinand Charles Richard, b 1897; 
Richard Cambridge, b 1902; 
Vera; Florence Doreen. 

***** 

 
During Lady Ormonde’s time on the estate, the coal mines were mainly run by master miners who leased the land and employed teams of about fifty men to operate them. 
 
Her son, Charles Harward Butler-Clarke-Southwell-Wandesforde, took a great interest in the running of the estate and in the welfare of his tenants and attempted to reduce the role of “middle men” by reducing rents and providing assistance. 
 
He even helped some of his tenants to emigrate. 
 
He was succeeded by his daughter Sarah, who married John Prior. 
 
She outlived all her children and was succeeded by her grandson Richard Henry who inherited the estates and assumed the Wandesforde name in 1892. 
 
When Captain Richard Henry Prior-Wandesforde inherited the estate in the late 19th Century, the family owned thousands of acres of woodland in the area. 
 
In previous years, the mines had been operated by master miners who leased the mines from the Wandesforde family, but ‘the Captain’ took personal control of the mines. 
 
He introduced many improvements in the mine workings including overhead ropeways to transport the coal to the Deerpark railway depot. 
 
He also established the Castlecomer Basket Factory, the Castlecomer Agricultural Bank and the Colliery Co-operative Society and built a number of housing schemes for the mine workers.  
 
Captain Prior-Wandesforde took personal control of the coal mines and invested his own money in upgrading and modernising the mine workings.

CASTLECOMER HOUSE in County Kilkenny, the family seat, was originally built in 1638. 
 
It was burned down during the battle of Castlecomer in 1798. 
 
A larger house was built in its place, in 1802,  during the time of Lady Ormonde. 
 
It was a very large 18th and 19th century mansion consisting of a square, two-storey main block with fronts of five bays; a slightly lower three-storey wing of great length. 
 
There was a battlemented parapet on the main wing and block; rectangular sash windows, mostly astragals; and an enclosed Gothic porch.  
 
Most of the building was demolished in 1975 as it was no longer in use and had fallen into disrepair. 
 
Nothing now remains of the house. 

Castlecomer Discovery Park is situated on grounds that once formed part of the Wandesforde family estate. 
 
The Visitor Centre is located in what was originally the farm yard and kitchen gardens of the estate. 
 
The stables and many of the farm buildings have been restored and now house the craft units and the education facilities. 
 
The original walled garden is now home to a small herd of Fallow and Sika Deer and a flock of Jacob Sheep. 
 
First published in December, 2011. 

See Art Kavanagh, Wandesford of Castlecomer. 

Bishops’ Palace, Raphoe, Co Donegal  – a ruin  

by jenjunebug

Bishops’ Palace, Raphoe, Co Donegal  – a ruin  

Bishop’s Palace Raphoe County Donegal entrance front 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.

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.

p. 238. “The Palace of the (C of I) Bishops of Raphoe. An unusually late example of C17 semi-fortified house with square corner towers; built ca 1661 by Bishop Robert Leslie. Originally of two storeys over a basement; three bay front, with an additional bay in each of the towers. Early C18 pedimented and rusticated doorcase. Third storey, with battlements and bartizans, probably added in late C18. The Palace was still occupied by the Bishops 1830s; it is now a ruin.”  

Bishop’s Palace Raphoe, County Donegal.
Bishop’s Palace Raphoe, County Donegal, front doorcase 1971. 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.

Listed in 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.

Raphoe Bishop’s Palace, County Donegal, courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.

p. 55. “Built in 1661 by Bishop Robert Leslie and restored in mid 18C. Destroyed by fire in late 1830s. Now a ruin.”

Monkstown Castle, Monkstown, Co Cork

by jenjunebug

Monkstown Castle, Monkstown, Co Cork

Monkstown Castle, County Cork, courtesy of National Library of Ireland.
Monkstown Castle, County Cork, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.

 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.   

p. 209. “(Boyle, Blessington, V/DEP; Shaw, Bt/PB; Newman/LGI1958) An early C17 semi-fortified house built 1636 by Anastasia (nee Goold) wife of John Archdekin; according to the story, she intended it as a surprise for her husband, when he returned from serving with the Spanish army; and she was also able to impress him with her economy, since it cost no more than 4d, the rest of the expenses having been covered by the profit she made supplying the workmen with provisions which she bought wholesale. Of three storeys over basement, with a gabled attic; recessed centre between projecting gabled towers with corner-machicolats. Rusticated quoins and bold string-courses between the storeys. Central hall with stone chimneypiece dated 1636 but subsequently altered. Unlike most houses of its kind, Monkstown Castle survived the Civil Wars intact. Having been forfeited by the Archdekins, it was eventually granted 1685 to Michael Boyle, Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, father of 1st Viscount Blesinton of 1st creation. At the end of C18 it was acquired by Bernard Shaw (whose famous namesake was the grandson of his first cousin) and restored by him, though without having its original character altered. In mid-C19, it passed to the Newman family; and in 1908, it was bought by the Monkstown Golf Club, which used it until recently. It is now empty and in poor repair and its future is uncertain.” 

Monkstown Castle, County Cork, photographL William Garner 1986. Listed in 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.

Listed in 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.

https://theirishaesthete.com/2025/01/27/monkstown-castle/

The Four Penny Castle

by theirishaesthete


“Now surrounded by suburban housing, Monkstown Castle, County Cork once stood proud in its own grounds and overlooking the estuary of the river Lee and access to Cork harbour. The building dates back to the 17th century when it was constructed c.1636 by one Anastasia Gould, wife of John Archdeacon, said to have been a naval officer who was overseas supporting the King of Spain. Legend has it that when he returned home and saw this large structure on his land, he immediately assumed it had been erected by his enemies, and accordingly fired on it, one cannon ball hitting the battlements. The other story associated with Monkstown Castle is that Anastasia Gould was determined not to waste money on its construction and so employed the workmen at a fixed rate with the stipulation that they purchase their daily food supplies and so forth from her at a moderate price. When the job was finished, all bills paid and all sums collected, she found that the castle had cost her precisely four pence. 




“Like many similar properties in Ireland, Monkstown Castle has experienced mixed fortunes over the centuries. The Archdeacons do not appear to have enjoyed possession of the building for very long as in the aftermath of the Confederate Wars and the arrival of the Cromwell’s New Model Army, both castle and surrounding estate were granted to Colonel Hercules Huncks, remembered today for having refused to sign Charles I’s execution order (and accordingly being described by Oliver Cromwell as a ‘froward, peevish fellow’). Huncks sold the property to Michael Boyle, Dean of Cloyne (and future Archbishop of Armagh) but in the aftermath of the Restoration the Archdeacons were living there once more, perhaps as tenants of Boyle. In any case, owing to their allegiance to the Stuart cause, they lost the castle again in the aftermath of the Williamite Wars and in due course it was inherited by two of his granddaughters who had married into the Vesey and Pakenham families; thus portions of the estate came to be owned by both the Earl of Longford and the Viscount de Vesci. How well the castle stood is open to question. In 1700 during his Visitation to the diocese Dive Downes, Bishop of Cork and Ross wrote that ‘Mr. O’Callaghan, a Protestant, lives in Monkstown, in a good square castle with flankers. However, at some point in the 18th century it was rented to the government to serve as an army barracks and in his Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Cork first published in 1750, Charles Smith says the castle ‘is large and in ruins, and is flanked by 4 square turrets.’ On the other hand, the Dublin Penny Journal of August 1833, although judging it a ‘large and gloomy pile of building’, comments that the castle is ‘in good repair.’ 




By the early 19th century, Monkstown Castle was owned by the Veseys but leased to one Bernard Shaw, Collector of Cork Port and a member of the same family as the future dramatist George Bernard Shaw. A large chimneypiece inside the building carries the initials B.S. and the date 1804 (as well as 1636) , indicating work was undertaken here at that time, undertaken by local architect William Deane. Bernard Shaw was duly succeeded by his son, Bernard Robert Shaw who lived here until 1869 when he and his wife moved to England where they died. Whether the castle was still occupied is open to question as around 1840 the Shaws had built a large residence close by, called Castle House. In June 1871 the estate of Bernard Robert Shaw running to 905 acres was advertised for sale. At the start of the last century, the castle was used by the local badminton club before being acquired in 1908 by the newly-established Monkstown Golf Club, which then made the building its club house. MGC bought the castle and what was then a nine-hole course from the De Vesci estate in 1959 for £4,000, selling the castle and some 32 acres in 1967 for £22,000. Thereafter, while the surrounding land was divided up into plots for housing, the castle remained empty and falling into disrepair, becoming a roofless shell. Between 2008 and 2010 extensive restoration work was carried out on the property, which had permission to be divided into three apartments. However, while re-roofed and made watertight, the building was then left unfinished and has remained in this state ever since. In recent years, it has been on the market for €800,000. Not a huge sum, but somewhat more than the four pence the castle originally cost Anastasia Gould. 

Lemanagh or Leamaneagh Castle, Co Clare 

by jenjunebug

Lemanagh or Leamaneagh Castle, Co Clare 

Leamaneagh Castle, County Clare, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.

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.

p. 183. “(Inchiquin, B/PB) A tower of ca. 1480 to which a four storey high-gabled house with rows of mullioned and transomed windows was added 1643 by Conor O’Brien and his wife, the formidable Maire Ruadh, who, after her husband had been killed in a skirmish with Ludlow’s men in 1651, saved her son’s lands by offering to marry a Cromwellian officer of Ludlow’s choosing. Her offer was taken up and she duly married an English cornet of horse; according to tradition, he died through receiving a savage kick from her. Her son, Sir Donagh O’Brien, 1st Baronet, abandoned Lemanaeagh in favour of Dromoland towards the end of C17. Lemaneagh is now a ruin. The gateway of the bawn is now at Dromoland; a stone fireplace from one of the rooms is in the Old Ground Hotel, Ennis. 

Lemaneagh Castle, County Clare, photograph courtesy of Mark Bence-Jones, A Guide to Irish Country Houses.
Donough O’Brien, of Leameneagh and Dromoland, younger son of Murrough O’Brien last King of Thomond, died 1582, painted 1577 on panel, courtesy History of the O’Briens from Brian Boroimhe, AD. 1000 to AD. 1945, by Donough O’Brien, page 200.
Máire Rua O’Brien née McMahon (1615/1616 – 1686) daughter of Turlough Roe McMahon Baronet, wearing Felemish bobbin lace with O’Brien coat of arms. She married first Colonel Neylan, then in 1639, Colonel Conor O’Brien of Lemeneagh, ancestor of Barons Inchiquin, but he was slain in battle in 1651. The Markree Castle information board says she married Edward Cooper then, but Irish Portraits 1660-1860 by Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, published by the Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art 1969, say she then married, to keep the family property, Captain John Cooper of Ireton’s army, whom she is said to have murdered! It’s a rare example of a portrait almost certainly painted in Ireland in the first half of the seventeenth century – see Irish Portraits 1660-1860 by Anne Crookshank and the Knight of Glin, published by the Paul Mellon Foundation for British Art 1969.
Slaney O’Brien, wife of Conor O’Brien (d. 1603/4) of Leamaneh, Daughter of Turlough O’Brien of the Dough and Ennistymon courtesy Max Gheeraerts, Historical memoir of the O’Briens, The Origin and History of the O’Brien Clan by John O’Donoghue, Publ.1860, Martin Breen 2002.
Donough O’Brien of Lemeneagh (1595-1637). Scan from Historical Memoir of the O’Briens, The Origin and History of the O’Brien Clan John O’Donoghue published by Martin Breen (Collection of Lord Inchiquin).
Donough O’Brien (1642-1717), 1st Baronet by Mary Beale, 1690. He lived in Dromoland Castle.
Lucia Hamilton, 1674, daughter of George Hamilton. Wife of Donough O’Brien, 1st Baronet, married in 1674. She died two years later, not long after the birth of his son and heir, Lucius.

MacDonnell, Randal. The Lost Houses of Ireland. A chronicle of great houses and the families who lived in them. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London, 2002 

p. 219. Leamaneh Castle in Co Clare is a four storey building with many mullioned windows. It is basically a seventeenth century house built on to a 15th century tower. The house was probably built in 1639 when Conor O’Brien married ‘Red’ Mary, the daughter of Sir Toirdhealbhach Ruadh MacMathghamhna (MacMahon), Lord of Clonderalaw. Conor was her second husband and was killed by Cromwellians at a fight in the pass of Inchicronan, in 1651. The story goes that his widow, a woman of strong character, refused to allow his body to be brought home to Leamaneh, saying ‘We need no dead men here.’ She decided that the best way to secure her son’s inheritance would be to marry one of the enemy officers. Consequently, she took herself off to Limerick the next day and promptly married Cornet John Cooper. As she was no beauty (her portrait still survives to prove the point), it must have been the prospect of the inheritance that tempted the Cornet. In any case, it did him no good for, when he made a disparaging comments about her late husband, she allegedly killed him by throwing him out of a window in the castle. Nonetheless, she must have been married to him for at least seven years, because their son Henry was born eight years later. The poet and author Robert Graves descended from the child of this unlikely union. One possible side-effect of his mother’s marriage to the Cornet was that her son by Col O’Brien as brought up as a Protestant.” 

https://theirishaesthete.com/2024/11/29/dromoland-gate/

A Gateway to the Past

by theirishaesthete



Following Monday’s text about souvenirs of Dromoland Castle’s earlier history, it is worth looking at another feature on the estate. A previous residence of the O’Brien family, Leamaneh Castle, County Clare has featured here before (see The Legacy of Máire Rúa « The Irish Aesthete). That building was constructed around 1480 by Turlogh O’Brien, King of Thomond, and is said to derive its name from the Irish ‘Leim an eich’ (The horse’s Leap). In 1543, Turlogh’s son, Murrough O’Brien, surrendered the castle and pledged loyalty to the English crown; subsequently, he was created first Earl of Thomond and Baron Inchiquin. In 1648, his descendant Conor O’Brien extended the tower with the addition of a four-storey manor house following his marriage to Máire ní Mahon who on account of her flaming red hair, was commonly known as Máire Rúa (Red Mary).  The couple’s son, Sir Donough O’Brien later abandoned Leamaneh, moving to Dromoland. In 1902, Lucius William O’Brien, 15th Baron Inchiquin, organised for the castle’s 17th century stone gatehouse to be removed and re-erected at the entrance of Dromoland’s walled gardens, where it can still be seen. 

Clonfert Bishop’s Palace, County Galway

by jenjunebug

Clonfert Bishop’s Palace, County Galway

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. 86. “Trench/LGI1958; and sub Clancarty, E/PB; Mosley, Bt/PB) The Palace of the C of I Bishops of Clonfert, deep in the country by the little medieval cathedral with its splendid Irish-Romanesque doorway. A long low and narrow house of two storeys with an attic of dormer-gables; basically mid C17, dating from when the original Palace was rebuilt by Bishop Dawson; but partly rebuilt late C18. Venetian windows set in arched openings. The Palace has C17 oak beams and joists and possibly its original C17 roof. Yew avenue. When the diocese was amalgamated with those of Killaloe and Kilfenora, 1833, the Palace was bought by J.E. Trench. In 1952 it became the Irish home of Sir Oswald Mosley, Bt, but it was badly damaged by fire 1954. It is now derelict.” 

Listed in 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.
 
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland II: More Portraits of Forgotten Stately Homes. Collins Press, Cork, 2012. 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/30410101/clonfert-house-clonfert-demesne-co-galway

Detached two-storey former Church of Ireland bishop’s palace with dormer attic, largely built c.1635 and extended in late eighteenth century, but also incorporating late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century house. Front elevation is eight bays, with two-bay return recessed to rear towards west end, and having canted west gable end. Used as private residence from the 1830s to 1954, and ruinous after accidental fire. Remains of single-span pitched slate roof, possibly originally thatched, hipped to west end with diagonally set multiple chimneystacks. Pitched slate roof to surviving dormer. Roughcast rendered walls. Two segmental-headed window openings to second and second last bays of ground floor, with Venetian windows, and square-headed window openings elsewhere, all with tooled limestone sills. Angled brick chimneybreasts and timber raised and fielded shutters visible to interior. Dressed limestone boundary wall extending to west. Set within extensive formerly landscaped grounds with range of single-storey outbuildings to east of access laneway, having pitched slate roofs, rendered walls, and square-headed openings. 

Appraisal 

The former bishop’s palace, unfortunately a ruin since the 1950s, is an important element in the significant group of ecclesiastical buildings at Clonfert, based on the ancient Saint Brendan’s Cathedral. The building incorporates a late sixteenth-century/early seventeenth-century house, extended in the 1630s and again in the late eighteenth century. The present building is of national significance as it has the remains of a rare seventeenth-century roof, dated by dendrochronology to c.1638, and also had exceptionally rare painted posts supporting the floors. Later phases of the building, including the Ventian windows, are also of architectural interest. The house has associated gardens, a yew walk, and outbuildings, all of which are important for the context of the building and the history of the site as a bishop’s residence. 

https://theirishaesthete.com/2024/12/02/clonfert-2/

Seventy Years Ago…

by theirishaesthete


The charming cathedral dedicated to St Brendan in Clonfert, County Galway has featured here before (see The Traveller’s Rest « The Irish Aesthete). And because Clonfert was, until the 1833, a separate diocese in the Church of Ireland (it remains so in the Roman Catholic church), there was also an episcopal palace, now alas a sad ruin. Standing a short distance to the north of the cathedral, the oldest part of this building is thought to date back to the late 16th or early 17th century, possibly constructed during the episcopacy of Stephen Kirwan (bishop of Clonfert 1682-1701) who served as a justice and commissioner for the province of Connaught. There is no doubt that Clonfert, today a sleepy hamlet, was then judged a place of some importance since in 1579, Elizabeth I, in her Orders to be observed by Sir Nicholas Maltby for the better government of the province of Connaught’declared ‘We are desirous that a college should be erected in the nature of an university in some convenient place in Ireland for instructing and education of youth in lerninge. And We conceive the Town of Clonfert within the province of Connaught to be aptlie seated both for helth and comodity of the ryver of Shenen running by it and because it is also neere to the midle of the realme, whereby all men may, with small travel send their children thither.’ The queen may have heard that during a much earlier period, Clonfert had been a great seat of learning, or perhaps it was just that the cathedral and its ancillary buildings were located in a central location and, as she observed, close to the river Shannon, then a major means of travel through Ireland. However, the idea of establishing a college here never happened, and it was only in 1592 that the country’s first university was founded in Dublin.





As mentioned, while parts of the former bishop’s palace in Clonfert may go back to the late 16th century, a more substantial portion of the building dates from c.1635, during the episcopacy of Robert Dawson, who had become Bishop of the newly-united dioceses of Clonfert and Kilmacduagh in 1627 and would hold that position until his death in 1643 (incidentally, he was also the forebear of a family that would go on to become great landowners and developers in Ireland, not least his great-grandson Joshua Dawson who was responsible for laying out Dawson Street in Dublin and building what is now the Mansion House). Oak beams and roof joists in the palace have been dated to around this period, although further changes and additions were made at some time in the 18thcentury, when a Venetian window was inserted.
In his memoirs, published in 1805, the playwright Richard Cumberland wrote about the palace in Clonfert, which he knew well since his father Denison Cumberland had lived there while bishop of the diocese (1763-1772). ‘This humble residence,’ he recalled, ‘was not devoid of comfort and convenience, for it contained some tolerable lodging rooms, and was capacious enough to receive me and mine without straitening the family. A garden of seven acres, well planted and disposed into pleasant walks, kept in the neatest order, was attached to the house, and at the extremity of a broad gravel walk in front stood the cathedral.’ Cumberland also remembered how, while staying with his father on one occasion, he used ‘a little closet at the back of the palace, as it was called, unfurnished and out of use, with no other prospect from my single window but that of a turf-stack’, as a room in which to begin writing what would prove to be his most successful stage work, the comedy The West-Indian (first performed at London’s Drury Lane Theatre in 1771). However, Clonfert was always one of the poorest episcopacies in the country and as a result successive bishops – many of whom managed to have themselves transferred to richer dioceses after only a short period of time – were disinclined to make improvements to their residence. For this reason, it retained much of its 17th century character, being long and low, of eight bays and two storeys with dormer windows. The surrounding demesne also underwent relatively few changes. There survives, for example, a yew walk running south-west of the palace, which may be even older, but certainly has the character of 17th century baroque garden design. Like the building to which it leads, the yew walk is now sadly neglected.




Clonfert Palace remained home to successive Church of Ireland bishops until 1834 when, following the creation of a new united diocese of Killaloe and Clonfert, it became surplus to requirements and was sold to John Eyre Trench. In 1947 his descendants sold the building to the Blake-Kelly family who, four years later, sold it to the next owners who would be the last people to live in the former palace. By then the place was in poor condition and required extensive renovation, along with the installation of electricity, new bathrooms and so forth before it could be occupied; the new chatelaine drove over from her temporary residence in Co Tipperary to oversee this work. Finally, once complete, in February 1952 she and her family arrived, along with a retinue that included housekeeper, cook, maid and chauffeur, as well as a gardener to maintain the grounds. A local newspaper, the Westmeath Independent, reported that ‘‘Sir Oswald and Lady Mosley, who have a large staff, are charmed with Ireland, its people, the tempo of its life and its scenery.’ The same publication also briefly noted that ‘Sir Oswald was the former leader of a political movement in England.’ The ‘political movement’ had, of course, been the British Union of Fascists (later the British Union) and both Sir Oswald and his wife, the former Diana Mitford, had been interned for a number of years during the second World War by the British government, and had found themselves shunned in the aftermath of their release. Ireland had several advantages, not least the fact that two of Diana Mosley’s sisters already owned properties in the country, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire at Lismore Castle, County Waterford and Pamela Jackson at Tullamaine Castle, County Tipperary. Country houses here were going cheap, and there were still sufficient other landed families still about to make life agreeable to the newly-arrived. For the next two years, the Mosleys remained contentedly at Clonfert, attracting little attention although they were discreetly observed by both the Irish and British governments. Such might have remained the case, had not disaster struck exactly 70 years ago, in early December 1954. At the time, Diana Mosley was in London, but her husband and their two children were in County Galway when fire broke out, seemingly caused by an old beam inside the chimney of the maids’ sitting room. The blaze spread quickly, so fast indeed that according to a report in the following day’s Irish Times, a French maid, Mademoiselle Cerrecoundo, who had run upstairs to rescue some clothes, became trapped in the building. Sir Oswald, his son Alexander and the chauffeur, Monsieur Thevenon, held a blanket beneath one of the windows and the maid leapt to her safety, with only minor injuries to her back and hand. Alas, the old palace was not so lucky and while a handful of rooms and their contents were saved, most of the building was lost as it took an hour and a half for fire brigades to reach Clonfert. The following day, hurricane-force winds and torrential rain ripped across the entire country, compounding the damage done to the house and leaving it a sorry wreck. In 1955 the Mosleys moved to Ileclash, a Georgian overlooking the river Blackwater in County Cork where they lived intermittently until 1963 when the couple moved to France. As for Clonfert Palace, despite being described on www.buildingsofireland.com in 2009 as being of national significance, it was left to moulder into its present advanced state of decay. What could have been saved as a rare example of late 16th/early 17th century Irish domestic architecture has been lost.