Killadoon, Celbridge, Co Kildare

by jenjunebugMarch 5, 2025

Killadoon, Celbridge, Co Kildare

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. 168. “(Lucas-Clements/IFR; Clements/IFR) A three storey block of ca 1770, joined to a single two storey wing by a curved sweep; if the original intention was to build a balancing wing and sweep, the idea must have been abandoned fairly soon; because there is now a three sided bow on the other side of the house which would have clashed with the sweep and which appears in a C18 view. Built for Rt Hon Nathaniel Clements, MP, the banker, politician and amateur architect, one would naturally assume that it was so his own design, yet apart from having the “patternbook” tripartite doorway with a fanlight, a baseless pediment and engaged columns which he seems to have favoured, it lacks the characteristics of the houses known to be by him or convincingly attributed to him. Apart from the doorway, the five bay entrance front is quite plain, as is the six bay garden front, whch now has some relief in external shutters of the ground floor windows. The wing has a six bay front and there are small oculi in the sweep. All this plainness, however, seems like deliberate understatement; for it is, in fact, a house of great quality. The interior is very well finished; the rooms, though few in number, are of noble proportions. The hall has a Doric frieze and a neo-classical chimneypiece of stone, with fluted Doric columns. The staircase, in a separate hall to one side, is of good joinery. The dining rom has a modillion cornice and doorcases with entablatures carved with acanthus; painted in shades of chocolate, red and oyster. The library, extending into the bow at the side of the house, has a cornice of mutules. The drawing room, which has a gilded modillion cornice, remains almost exactly as it was when redecorated ca 1820s by Nathaniel Clement’s grandson, 2^nd Earl of Leitrim, with a beautiful French wallpaper in faded green and gold, gilt pelmet boards and the original red curtains and flounces.”

Not in national inventory

Killadoon stands in its own well-wooded parkland, Killadoon, Copyright James Fennell/The Interior Archive Ltd, JF_IC6_01

From Country Life.

A grand swagged curtain in the Regency style overhangs the entrance to Killadoon, Killadoon, Copyright James Fennell/The Interior Archive Ltd, JF_IC6_03.

A pair of antique elk, or giant deer, antlers hangs above the classical mantelpiece, Killadoon, Copyright James Fennell/The Interior Archive Ltd, JF_IC6_04

The Georgian drawing room was redecorated in the 1820s with green floral wallpaper, Killadoon, Copyright James Fennell/The Interior Archive Ltd, JF_IC6_31

A hall chair c. 1800, painted with the Clements crest and the 2nd Earl of Leitrim’s coronet, Killadoon, Copyright James Fennell/The Interior Archive Ltd, JF_IC6_08.

A selection of 1820s wallpapers found in the attic is laid out on the desk in the library, Copyright James Fennell/The Interior Archive Ltd, JF_IC6_82

The formal dining room is laid for a dinner party with the family silver, glass, and china, Killadoon, Co Kildare, Copyright James Fennell/The Interior Archive Ltd, JF_IC6_35

When they were purchased in the 1770s, the enormous pier glasses in the drawing room would have been the height of luxury, Killaddon, County Kildare, Copyright James Fennell/The Interior Archive Ltd, JF_IC6_33

http s://theirishaesthete.com/2015/08/03/killadoon/

Nathaniel Clements’ engagement in speculative building, together with his reputation as an arbiter of taste, led to several buildings being attributed to him by the Knight of Glin. These included Brookelawn and Colganstown, County Dublin; Williamstown and Newberry Hall, County Kildare; and Beauparc and Belview, County Meath. All can be dated to c.1750-65, and all share certain stylistic similarities, not least reliance on Palladianism which by that date was fast falling from fashion. While respecting the Knight’s notion of Clements as an architect, and one responsible for the houses listed above, Maurice Craig in Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size (1976) proposes that he was ‘eclectic’ not least because ‘he picked and chose his elements from pattern-books and combined them so that they compose well enough together: but they do not interact on one another.’ However, given his many other professional and financial interests, it must now be accepted that Clements was not an architect as we would understand the term. Rather he was an influence, or as Malcomson proposes, ‘a role model’, someone to turn to for advice. Furthermore, the design of his Ranger’s Lodge provided the prototype for a new generation of villa-farms that were not grand country houses but residences at the centre of working estates. All this is applicable to a house which has long been ascribed to Nathaniel Clements because it was built for his eldest son and heir Robert who in 1795 was created first Earl of Leitrim. Killadoon, County Kildare, shown in the pictures here today, surely ought to have been designed by Nathaniel Clements but even Mark Bence-Jones in his 1978 Guide to Irish Country Houses argued that ‘apart from having the “pattern-book” tripartite doorway with a fanlight, a baseless pediment and engaged columns which he seems to have favoured, it lacks the characteristics of the houses known to be by him or convincingly attributed to him.’ In fact, as Malcomson shows, Nathaniel and Robert Clements had a troubled relationship and he proposes that the older man’s input into the house’s design ‘must have been limited.’ The need for a thorough re-examination of 18^thcentury architectural attribution remains.

A Man of Taste and Influence

The text below originally appeared here in 2015. Tomorrow at Sotheby’s in London many of the items in the accompanying photographs will be offered for sale; thankfully not all, since some key pieces such as the 1770s sofas, the Axminster carpet from c.1820-30 and 19th century beds with their original hangings have been offered on loan to the state for public display. Nevertheless, the contents of another historic Irish house are being broken up because there is little or no official support for owners of such properties struggling to survive and eventually they are left with no option but to sell.
It is worth pointing out – again – that legislation has existed on the Irish statute books for many decades which is supposed to ensure that valuable paintings, furniture and so forth remain in this country. The Documents and Pictures (Regulation of Export) Act dates from 1945 and was, in theory at least, supplemented by the National Cultural Institutions Act of 1997. The idea behind these pieces of legislation is that before any item over a certain fairly low value can leave the country, the parties responsible are required to seek permission from government-appointed authorities (until July 2015 usually one of the main national cultural institutions.*) However, there is no known instance where such an export licence has been refused; auction houses have long understood that this is a mere paper-filling formality. Tomorrow’s sale, for example, also includes a mahogany dining table attributed to Mack, Williams and Gibton and dated c.1815. It was listed in an inventory made of the contents of Carton, County Kildare in 1818 and has remained in the house until now when, after 200 years, it will be offered for sale tomorrow.
Vendors vend, buyers buy, auctioneers auction. Across millennia collections have been assembled and dispersed. There are no villains here, no one deserves to be castigated for acting in an untoward fashion. But there is, as has been the case for too long, evidence of clear neglect on the part of the Irish state towards what becomes of our patrimony, and an obvious want of concern over how this has been steadily whittled down, year by year, house by house. One must ask what is the function of legislation observed in name only? Surely the purpose of enacting the laws mentioned above was to ensure that a reasonable effort would be made to retain valuable works of art and collections in Ireland? That is currently not the case. A general election takes place here in a few weeks’ time: readers might like to ask any candidates they encounter for an opinion on the national heritage and what might be done to retain whatever is still here. Otherwise expect more sales.

Despite the many advances made in Irish architectural history over recent decades, some areas remain in need of further investigation. Among the most obvious of these is the question of attribution. There are significant houses across the country yet to be assigned to any architect, and others which need to have their accreditations reassessed. In the latter category are those properties given accreditations by the late Knight of Glin in the early 1960s when he was engaged on his uncompleted thesis on the subject of Irish Palladianism. At the time there was far less information available on or interest in architectural history than is now the case, and therefore the Knight was to a large extent dependent on instinct when allocating various houses to different architects, about whom little or nothing was known. Often he had to rely on his eye rather than on documentation, and as he admitted towards the end of his life, mistakes were made. To date insufficient effort has been made to correct these and as a result attributions made half a century ago still stand. An obvious opportunity for correction occurred with the appearance of the relevant volume in the Royal Irish Academy’s Art and Architecture of Ireland series published earlier this year, but the editors failed to avail of this opportunity. A reassessment of the Knight’s attributions still awaits requiring someone able to combine scholarship with connoisseurship. Until such time, in particular the output of gentlemen architects like Francis Bindon (whose name has appeared here on more than one occasion) will remain unclear. On the other hand, thanks to another book published in 2015 we are now in a much better position to assess the oeuvre of another talented 18^thcentury amateur, Nathaniel Clements.

In 1754 John Carteret Pilkington published the third and final volume of his late mother Letitia’s celebrated memoirs in which he described Nathaniel Clements as being ‘a certain great man in Ireland, whose place of abode is not remote from Phoenix Park…whose acquirements have justly raised him from obscurity to opulence [and] whose extensive plans in building have excited an universal admiration of his taste in architecture.’ As Clements’ new biographer Anthony Malcomson noted, it was perhaps something of an exaggeration to claim he had raised himself from ‘obscurity’ but as a fifth son he would have been expected to make his own way in the world, especially since his father died when he was only seventeen. That father, Robert Clements had inherited an estate in County Cavan but in 1707 had secured the important, and lucrative, post of Teller to the Irish Exchequer. This job passed to his eldest son Theophilus who badly bungled his own financial affairs as was discovered when he died in 1728. Nevertheless, both the family and Nathaniel Clements were by this time sufficiently well connected for the Tellership of the Exchequer to pass to him, a job he held for the next twenty-seven years during which time, as Pilkington commented, he made himself exceedingly rich. His substantial income was boosted by money received from non-residents in receipt of an Irish pension for whom he acted as agent for decades (Malcolmson estimates that by the mid-1740s his annual income from this job alone was £1,500). He also held numerous other offices, all of which brought in additional funds. Much of this was used to acquire land, the most reliable form of investment in a period when banks failed regularly (as did that established by Clements and a couple of partners in 1759). By the end of his life he had bought up some 85,000 acres spread across three counties and producing an income of around £6,000 each year.

Another area of investment in which Clements engaged was housing, beginning with his participation in the development of Dublin’s Henrietta Street. The man behind this project, and others on the northern banks of the Liffey, was Luke Gardiner to whom Clements was related by marriage. Named after Henrietta, Duchess of Bolton, an old friend of Gardiner, whose husband acted as Ireland’s Lord Lieutenant in 1717-20, the street was from the start intended to be the capital’s premier address, its two sides lined with houses of princely splendor. As so often the case throughout 18^th century Dublin, the exterior of the buildings, mostly standard red-brick and occupying sites of varying proportions, gave – and continue to give – insufficient notice of what lay behind the facades. Clements was responsible for constructing a number of houses on the street, beginning with Number 8 which was finished around 1733 and let to Colonel (later General) Richard St George. Three or four others then followed before he moved to Sackville (now O’Connell) Street, the initial development of which was likewise overseen by Gardiner. Here Clements built several more properties including a family residence that came to be known as Leitrim House. But having become ranger of the Phoenix Park in 1750 (having previously acted as deputy-ranger) he embarked on building himself a smart and substantial new villa. The Ranger’s Lodge was a five-bay, two-storey over full-height basement house on either side of which quadrants connected to L-shaped single-storey wings. Clements and his socially-ambitious wife hosted opulent parties on the premises intended to impress their contemporaries and to cement the couple’s place in Ireland’s hierarchy. In June 1760 for example, it was reported that the Clementses ‘gave an elegant entertainment to several of the nobility and gentry at his lodge in the Phoenix Park, which was illuminated in the most brilliant manner.’ Five years after Nathaniel Clements’ death in 1777, his son Robert sold the lodge to the government which then converted – and subsequently – enlarged the building for use as a Viceregal residence. Today the same property is known as Áras an Uachtaráin and occupied by the President of Ireland.

*In July 2015 An Taisce took a successful case in the High Court against the state delegating responsibility for the granting of export licenses to cultural institutions such as the National Gallery of Ireland. However, this does not appear to have made any difference to such licenses being granted.

Nathaniel Clements, 1705-77: Politics, Fashion and Architecture in mid-Eighteenth-Century Ireland by Anthony Malcomson is published by Four Courts Press

In Miniature

http://www.turtlebunbury.com/history/history_family/hist_family_clements.html

Clements of Killadoon, Co. Kildare

In the mid 17th century, a Leicestershire family emigrated to Massachusetts and so escaped the ravages of the English Civil War. Only one son, Daniel Clements, remained behind, serving a commission in the army of Oliver Cromwell. For his military services in Ireland he was rewarded with an estate in Cavan. His descendents rapidly scaled the heights of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy gaining the Earldom of Leitrim in 1795. Meanwhile, in America, Daniel’s sister Mary was arrested for witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials.

Daniel’s grandson Nat Clements was one of the great amateur architects of Georgian Ireland. Perhaps his best-known legacy is the Irish President’s residence, Arás an Uachtaráin, in Phoenix Park. In 1767 Nat’s eldest son Robert took the first lease on a property at Killadoon, Co. Kildare. A series of prudent marriages and the will of the assassinated 3rd Earl of Leitrim boosted the fortune of the Killadoon branch, but the subsequent land acts considerably reduced the size of the estate in the 20th century. Killadoon is presently home to Charlie Clements, representing the tenth generation of the Clements family since Daniel’s arrival in Ireland.

FROM LEICESTERSHIRE TO AMERICA

The Clements of Killadoon descend from Robert Clements (1595–1658), a prosperous English wine merchant living at Croft, six miles south of Leicester City, in the reign of James I. By his first wife Lydia, Robert was father of eight children – Job, John, Robert, Sarah, Lydia, Daniel, Abraham and Mary.

During the 1620s, the Clements had a fleet of three ships that plied the Atlantic Ocean between England and North America. By the late 1630s, it seemed inevitable that the escalating division between Royalists and Republicans in England would result in Civil War. The Clements appear to have been opponents of Charles I at this time.

Lydia Clements died in March 1641 causing much distress in the family. Her son Job appears to have journeyed to America at this time with some freinds and, having scouted around New England, deduced that it was a suitable place to live. He subsequently convinced his distraught father to sell their estate in England and voyage to America with him. Robert Clements was subsequently hailed as a co-founder of the frontier settlement of Haverhill, Massachusetts.

MARY OSGOOD & THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

In due course, several of Job’s brothers and sisters also crossed the ocean, except for two brothers Abraham and Daniel (see below) and his youngest sister Mary Clements who, born in 1637, may have been considered too young to travel in 1642. Mary was left in Coventry with a Mrs. Biddle. She finally sailed for New England in 1652.

On November 15th 1653, Mary was married by arrangement to another early Haverhill settler, Captain John Osgood. Mary’s father, Robert Clements, now a New England magistrate, personally conducted the marriage ceremony. Over the next twenty years, Captain Osgood became a man of prominence in the state, having his own cavalry troop and acquiring considerable lands around Andover.

In the summer of 1692 the towns of Massachusetts were immersed in a hysteric frenzy that became known as the Salem Witch Trials. The origin of this horrific affair probably stems from an African slave called Tituba who entertained the young white children with his stories of voodoo. This initially amounted to little more than floating an egg white in a glass of water and predicting future husbands. However, for unknown reasons, certain girls started having fits, making strange noises and contorting their bodies in an alarming manner. Doctors were summoned and the town elders, Puritans to a man, began to speak in increasingly high voices of witchcraft. The girls were apprehended and asked to provide the names of any witches living locally. Over the next three months, 141 people were arrested. 19 of these were hanged, including Tituba, while seven died in prison and one was crushed to death. In September 1692 Mary Osgood, hitherto regarded as “a remarkably pious and good woman”, was suddenly accused of witchcraft. Her accuser appears to have been Dudley Bradstreet, a friend of her husband. As one of the leading women in Andover at the time, her arrest caused much astonishment to the local community but the frenzy of what became known as the Salem Witch Trials was at full steam with nearly twenty people already executed. Her own son Peter Osgood, then Constable of Salem, oversaw her transportation to trail in Salem where she was asked to confess that she had indeed been had been “dipt” by Satan. The confession came on her husband’s advice, it being considered the only feasible way she might escape execution by burning. However, in the end, the awfulness of a confession that one had given body and soul to Satan, outweighed in Mrs. Osgood’s mind the desire for life and she recanted, and with others signed the following petition:–

“Our nearest and dearest relations seeing us in that dreadful condition, and knowing our great danger, apprehended there was no other way to save our lives…. Indeed, that confession that it is said we made was no other than what was suggested to us by some gentlemen, they telling us that we were witches, and they knew it and we knew it, which made us think that it was so, and our understanding, our reason, our faculties almost gone we were not capable of judging our condition. As also the hard measures they used with us rendered us incapable of making our defence, but said any thing and everything which they desired and with most of us, what we said was but in effect a consenting to what they said. Sometime after, when we were better composed, they telling us what we had confessed, we did profess that we were innocent and ignorant of such things. Mary Osgood, Deliverance Dane, Sarah Wilson, Mary Tyler, Abigail Barker, Hannah Tyler.” [1]

Mary was discharged in January 1693. Captain Osgood died the following August, apparently through sheer stress of the trials. His widow lived on until October 1710. The story of the “Salem Witch Trials” formed the basis of Arthur Miller’s play, “The Crucible”.

DANIEL & ABRAHAM CLEMENTS

While the majority of Robert and Lydia Clements children emigrated to North America, two sons stayed behind, Abraham and Daniel. It is thought they had both been conscripted into King Charles I’s army but later joined Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth (or Republican) army. It is not clear when or why they made this decision. Perhaps it was in response to the destruction of nearby Leicester City, a Republican stronghold, by Prince Rupert’s Royalist forces in May 1645. In 1646, the brothers both went to Ireland with Cromwell’s army, arriving into the port of Waterford in the south of Ireland.

Daniel Clements was a Cornet, or junior officer, in Colonel Chidley Coote’s cavalry regiment.[2] He later transferred to the regiment of Chidley’s brother, Colonel Thomas Coote, with whom he was stationed in Belfast. Unconfirmed sources suggest he was present at the siege of Drogheda in September 1649. In 1657, by way of a reward for his military service, Daniel received a grant of about a thousand acres at Rathkenny, County Cavan.

Abraham Clements also settled in Cavan and married Jane _____. His only child was a daughter, Lydia, who married Joseph Pratt. He left no sons so the name did not carry on through his blood-line.

ROBERT CLEMENTS, TELLER OF THE IRISH EXCHEQUER

Daniel died in June 1680 and was succeeded by his son Robert who, like so many Cromwellian settler families, was attainted by the Irish Parliament of James II in 1689. However, with the accession of William III and Mary, he was restored to his estates and appointed Deputy Treasurer of Ireland. Robert, who lived at Abbotstown near Castleknock, served as High Sheriff for County Cavan (1694), MP for Carrickfergus (1692) and as Teller of the Irish Exchequer in the reign of Queen Anne. He married Elizabeth Sandford, daughter of Colonel Theophilus Stanford and had four sons and a daughter.[3]

The eldest son Theophilus Clements, a bachelor, succeeded to Rathkenny and 1722 and served as MP for Cavan from 1713 through to his death, aged 41, in 1728. In 1724 he presented the Borough of Cavan with its Silver Mace.

The second son Robert became MP for Newry in 1715 and was forebear to the Lucas Clements family of Rathkenny, Co. Cavan.

The third and youngest brother Nathaniel (“Nat”) Clements (1705 – 1777), a Dublin banker, architect and politician, was a close friend of the property developer Luke Gardiner. When Gardiner retired from public office in 1755, Nathaniel succeeded him as both Deputy Vice-Treasurer and Deputy Paymaster-General of Ireland. The two men worked together on the development of Dublin’s north side and Nat designed an imposing house for himself in Henrietta Street. He also worked in conjunction with Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, the most distinguished architect in Ireland, and his successor, Richard Castle. In April 1751, Nat was appointed Chief Ranger of the Phoenix Park, to which purpose he built a house in the Park known today as Arás an Uachtaráin, home to the Irish President. Nathaniel Clements is credited with the design of many other buildings of note such as Newbery Hall and Williamstown in Carbury, Lodge Park in Straffan and Colganstown outside Newcastle, Co. Dublin.

In 1729 Nat married Hannah Gore, daughter of the Rev. William Gore, Dean of Down. Her uncle Sir Ralph Gore of Belle Isle, Co. Fermanagh, was a close friend of Speaker William Conolly and succeeded him as Speaker of the House of Commons in 1729. He was subsequently appointed Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer. Hannah was also a cousin to the “Nine Gore” brothers who sat in the Commons during the 1740s. Nat and Hannah had two sons – Robert and Henry.

ROBERT CLEMENTS, CONTROLLER OF CUSTOMS

Nat and Hannah’s elder son Robert seems to have inherited the Gores bent for politics and devoted considerable time and expense to ensuring his position in the government of the day. He also expended considerable effort petitioning for an Earldom, which title he was eventually granted through a combination of skilled political manoeuvring, social positioning and sheer persistence. Over the years, he held a succession of offices: Controller of the Great and Small Customs of the Port of Dublin for 46 years from 1760 until his death; Ranger of Phoenix Park 1777-87 and Searcher, Packer & Gauger at the Port of Dublin in 1787. In each role, he created connections and established relationships with the prime movers in both government and society. In 1765 he married Elizabeth Sandford of Maynooth which brought him further estates in County Kildare.

*Robert Clements (1732-1804) 1st Earl of Leitrim by Gilbert Stuart courtesy of Christie’s Irish Sale 2001.*

In 1767, Robert leased 140 acres at Killadoon outside Celbridge from Tom Conolly of Castletown. Tom’s great uncle, Speaker Conolly had purchased the property from the Plunkett family in 1724. In 1769 Robert leased a further 112 acres at Killadoon and commenced building a new house. His architect father does not seem to have had a say in the design, attributable perhaps to an unexplained rift that had evolved between the two men. The agricultural observer Arthur Young visited Robert in June 1776, shortly after Killadoon’s completion. He described it as “an excellent house, and planted much about it with the satisfaction of finding that all his trees thrive well. I remarked the beech and larch seemed to get beyond the rest.” Young felt Robert was “a good farmer, growing cabbages to feed the sheep and potatoes to feed the pigs”. In 1795, as a reward for his assistance in securing a parliamentary seat for the Lord Lieutenant’s private secretary, Robert was finally given the Earldom he had sought since his youth. The 1st Earl of Leitrim died in 1804, having been one of the most prominent supporters of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

*Robert Clements, later First Earl of Leitrim, by Pompeo Batoni, about 1753–1754, Hood Museum of Art.*

His butler John McMahon/MacMahon was born in about 1735. It may have been Robert Clements influence that secured McMahon’s appointment as Comptroller of the Port of Limerick. McMahon later made an expedient second marriage into the wealthy Stackpoole family. The Gentleman’s Magazine of 10 April 1860 (p. 533) has an obituary to General Thomas MacMahon, who died at Great Cumberland Street, Hyde Park, and refers to ‘the gallant General’ as ‘a son of the late John McMahon, esq, sometime Comptroller of the port of Limerick; his mother was one of the Stackpooles of the county of Cork. He was born in December 1779 and entered the army towards the close of the last century.’ The Cumberland link is his is confusing because I assume he was also connected to this lady: ‘In North Cumberland street, Dublin. Catherine, wife of John MacMahon, Esq. aged 66 years’ Limerick and Clare Examiner, 4 February 1852 … it may help to follow the Clare-Limerick connection via the landedestates.ie database plus links like this and this. I took an interest in this when researching the Victorian canal engineer John MacMahon.

HAL CLEMENTS & THE SEVEN YEARS WAR

On May 15th 1756, Great Britain, in alliance with the German states of Prussia and Hanover, declared war on France. Within weeks, the French had managed to secure the support of Austria, Russia, Sweden and Saxony. The war quickly spilled across the Atlantic Ocean to North America where French and British troops were attempting to wrestle control of one another’s’ territory. Amongst those troops sent to assist the British in America was 23 year-old Henry Theophilus Clements, the younger son of Nat Clements the architect. Henry – known as Hal – was a junior officer in Lord Blakeney’s Inniskilling Regiment, the 27th Foot.

In August 1757, a sizeable French army under the Marquis de Montcalm laid siege to the British stronghold of Fort William Henry on the southern banks of New York States’ Lake George. A short distance away, lay a significant British force commanded by Hal Clements future father-in-law, General Daniel Webb. General Webb is a somewhat controversial figure in 18th century military history, contributing to one of the more memorable scenes in “The Last of the Mohicans”. Faced with a French assault, Fort William Henry’s commander, Colonel Monro, sent urgent messages to Webb for assistance. Webb declined the request, despite strong words from his second-in-command, Sir William Johnson. “General Webb, just what in the hell are you doing sitting here when Fort William Henry is under attack? We’ve got men fighting and dying up at the lake. They have got to have help. Now!” Webb remained unmoved and Monro was obliged to surrender. The following day Monro’s retreating garrison was attacked by Panaouska, war chief of the Abnakis. Nearly a hundred British soldiers were killed and scalped within minutes.

The assault on Fort William Henry had been orchestrated from Fort Carillion, a French fortress on the Ticonderoga peninsula. In July 1758, Hal Clements was one of 16,000 British Redcoats who attempted to oust the 3200-strong French garrison from Fort Carillion. Under the command of General Abercromby, the assault was an unmitigated disaster. The British lost over 1900 men, a third of whom were members of the Highland “Black Watch” Regiment. Despite being outnumbered 4 to 1, the French prevailed.

The Seven Years War came to an end with the treaty of Paris in February 1763. Having obtained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Hal duly returned to Ireland. Seven years later, he greatly enhanced his personal fortune when he married Mary Webb, daughter and heiress of the afore-mentioned General Daniel Webb. He was appointed High Sheriff of Co. Cavan in 1766 and Leitrim in 1773. He sat in Parliament from 1769 until his death in 1795, variously representing the borough of Cavan and county of Leitrim. In 1777, he succeeded his father as Deputy Vice-Treasurer of Ireland, an office that greatly increased his personal wealth but which was abolished in 1793. He principally resided at Woodville near the Lucan spas outside Dublin where he often entertained the Lord Lieutenant. Woodville previously belonged to John Hawkins, the Ulster King of Arms.

Mary Clements provided Hal with three daughters before dying young in the winter of 1777. Hal married his second wife Catherine Beresford in August 1778. His timing couldn’t have been better. Catherine’s father John Beresford, a brother of the 1st Marquess of Waterford, had lately been appointed to the lucrative post of Taster of the Wines in the Port of Dublin. Over the course of the 1780s and 1790s Beresford became the central figure in a powerful trio of Irish ministers (the others being John Foster and John Fitzgibbon) who governed Ireland on behalf of successive lord lieutenants in the lead up to the Act of Union. Beresford’s position as Chief Commissioner of the Irish Revenue from 1780 gave him control of extensive patronage, of which his son-in-law was content to take advantage.

Colonel Hal Clements died on 26th October 1795 and was succeeded by his 14-year-old son Henry John Clements.

HENRY JOHN CLEMENTS (1781-1843)

Henry John Clements was 17 years old when rebels struck at Killadoon during the 1798 Rebellion but the house survived the looting. A committed Tory, Henry represented Counties Leitrim (1804 – 1818) and Cavan (1840 –1843) in the House of Commons. He was also a Colonel in the Leitrim Militia. In December 1811 he married Louisa Stewart (d. 27 April 1850) and settled at Ashfield Lodge, Cootehill, Co. Cavan.

*James Stewart (1741-1821) of Killymoon, County Tyrone, by Pompeo Batoni, Ulster Museum, National Museum of Northern Ireland.*

Louisa’s father was James Stewart, MP, of Killymoon, Co. Tyrone. Stewart was a leading advocate for the abolition of penal laws against the northern Presbyterians. In 1772 he married Lady Elizabeth Molesworth, one of the heiresses of the substantial Molesworth estates. In 1763, Lady Elizabeth was badly injured in a fire at the family’s London townhouse that killed her widowed mother, two sisters and six servants, and sent her only surviving brother insane. By 1840, however, the Stewart family were in such terrible financial difficulty that Louisa’s siblings were obliged to seek refuge from their creditors in Boulogne. Following the death without issue of her only brother, Colonel William Stewart, in 1850, the Molesworth rents passed to her.

Louisa’s husband, Colonel HJ Clements had died seven years earlier at the age of 62 and thus, on her death in the winter of 1850, the Molesworth estate passed directly to her eldest son, Henry Theophilus Clements.

HENRY THEOPHILUS CLEMENTS (1820-1904)

Henry Theophilus Clements was a man on whom destiny kept bestowing great fortunes. He was born at Ashfield Lodge, Co. Cavan, in 1820. After an education in England and on the Continent, he followed family tradition and became a gentleman and magistrate in his home county. Following the death of his father in 1843, he inherited Ashfield and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant, JP and High Sheriff for Cavan (1849). He later became a Colonel in the Leitrim Rifles and High Sheriff for Leitrim (1870). When he was 30-years old, his mother died and left him the Molesworth estates.

Colonel Henry John Clements (1781-1843) of Ashfield, Co. Cavan by Martin Cregan, courtesy of Christie’s Irish Sale 2001. He was the son of Henry Theophilus Clements (1750-1795), a brother of the 1st Earl of Leitrim, and Catherine Beresford (1761-1836). He married Louisa Stewart (1778-1850) of Killymoon, Country Tyrone, daughter of James Stewart (1741-1821).

On 3rd December 1868, the 48-year-old Colonel was married at St Gabriel’s, Pimlico to Gertrude Markham, youngest daughter of David Markham, Canon of Windsor and Rector of Great Horkesley in Essex. Her brother was Sir Clements Robert Markham, the celebrated explorer and President of the Royal Geographical Society.

On April 2nd 1878, Henry’s second cousin, the 3rd Earl of Leitrim, was assassinated near Milford in co. Donegal. The murder was in part a reaction to Lord Leitrim’s callous policy of evicting tenants and in part because the disreputable landlord had allegedly “debauched” a servant girl whose father was among the assassins.[4] As it happened, the Earl had fallen out with his own immediate family and so he bequeathed his vast property, consisting of nearly 96,000 acres in Leitrim, Donegal, Galway and Kildare, to a rather surprised Colonel HT Clements. On hearing this news, the Colonel promptly volunteered the Donegal estates to Robert Clements, the new Earl.[5] The Colonel subsequently employed Sir Thomas Drew, RHA, to add a substantial new wing to Lord Leitrim’s magnificent lakeside house at Lough Rhynn, completed in 1889. His inheritance also included the Clements estate at Killadoon, granted in fee to the 2nd Earl of Leitrim in 1853.

Colonel HT Clements died on 7th January 1904 leaving two sons and two daughters, Gertrude (1873–1949) and Selina (1885–1961).

HENRY JOHN BERESFORD CLEMENTS (1869–1940)

Born in 1869, the Colonel’s eldest son Henry John Beresford Clements was educated at Eton and earned the unusual epitaph of being the world’s most acknowledged expert in the field of “armorial book-binding”. This was a 14th century practice, greatly developed in subsequent centuries, whereby the family arms of private individuals were placed on book covers. Henry’s collection, bequeathed to the Victoria & Albert Museum after his death, is the largest of its kind in the world. As a young man, he served in the Great War, in India and on the Western Front. He was sent home twice – once with frostbite, once with a wounded leg – and finished the war, like so many of his forbears, with the rank of Colonel. He was also involved in the judicial and administrative running of counties Leitrim and Cavan, serving variously as High Sheriff, DL and JP, as well as JP for Co. Kildare.

“According to one of his employees, Thomas Boyle, Henry was a `very good employer’. Although he spent most of his time at his Killadoon estate, near Celbridge, Co. Kildare, Clements with his family and their servants spent about a month at Rynn each year. Boyle recalls that there were 46 workers on the payroll at the time, including Mr Steward the estate manager, Revd JG Digges the chaplain, Mr Hardy the steward and a housekeeper. In addition to a weekly wage of ten shillings (about €0.65), all the married workers received a partly furnished house, grass for a cow or donkey, ground for sowing potatoes a good sized garden and turbary rights – and seven tons of good farm manure. Thomas recalls the workers’ concern over Lloyd George’s Agricultural Wages Act of 1917: they were sure that Clements would dismiss a lot of the men rather than pay the newly mandated rate of 27/6 a week. Apparently not one man was dismissed – and while there were new contributions to be made for house rent, grazing, etc, the deductions amounted to less than 5 shillings a week”. [6]

Henry married Eleonore Wickham (d. 1955) of Binstead Wyck, Yorkshire. Her father William Wickham, MP, was a keen biologist and Fellow of the Linnean Society while her great-grandfather, also William Wickham, was a master spy for the British during the French Revolution and, like the Scarlet Pimpernel, helped numerous aristocrats escape the guillotine.

They had three sons (Henry, Charles and Robert) and three daughters (Eleonore, Cecily and Violet). The youngest son Bob Clements, or Riobard Mac Laghmainn, is of particular interest as became a prominent supporter of the Irish Republican Army during the 1930s. Born in 1900, he became a Nationalist while studying at Trinity College Dublin during the Anglo-Irish War of 1919. He was interred at the Curragh during the Second World War, during which time he learned how to speak fluent Irish. In later years, he lived at Killadoon. He was still speaking soft, fireside recollections when Charlie and Sally Clements moved into the house in 1991.[7]

Henry’s younger brother Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Clements, DL, JP, was born on 29th September 1879 and educated at Harrow and Trinity College Oxford. He served with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in the Great War, was wounded and retired from the army in 1924 to live at Ashfield Lodge in Cavan. On 14th April 1932 he married Wilhelmina, only daughter of Lt Col William Lennox-Conyngham, OBE, of Springhill, Moneymore, Co. Derry, by whom he had a son Marcus and daughter Kate.

Henry’s eldest son Lieutenant Colonel Henry Theophilus Clements was born in November 1898 and educated at Eton. After a short spell at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, he saw action in France during the Great War. He served again in World War Two, commanding the 144th Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery in the Allied assault on Italian occupied Sudan in 1941. He was later Chairman of the Irish branch of SSAFA (the Soldiers’, Sailors’, Airmen and Families Association). He lived at Lough Rynn while his younger brother Robert, a solicitor, and sister Cecily, lived at Killadoon. He died unmarried on 6th August 1974, having made over Lough Rynn to his cousin Marcus (see below) in 1963. In his will, he bequeathed Killadoon to his sister Cecily, known as Kitty, for life with remainder to Charlie, eldest son of his cousin Marcus.

Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Clements died on 17th February 1952 and was succeeded by his 17-year-old son, also Marcus, then a student at Eton. Ashfield Lodge was sold shortly afterwards and sadly demolished. His widow remarried Colonel Bob McClintock, DSO, youngest son of the Arctic explorer Admiral Sir Francis McClintock. Nearly all of the original Lough Rynn Estate had by now been sold off by the Land Commission – mostly to descendants of the tenants of the previous century. The Clements’ continued to live at Lough Rynn up to the 1970s, but on a much reduced estate. In 1990, the remainder of the estate was bought by Mike Flaherty, an Irish-American businessman.[8]

Marcus went on to study agriculture at Cirencester and, in May 1959, married Joanne Fenwick. Her father, Commander Charles Edward Fenwick, RN, was head of India’s naval fleet after Indian independence was granted in 1948 and later served as an attaché with NATO in Brussels and Greece. They have three sons – Charles (1960) who is married to Sally and now runs Killadoon; Nat (1964), a decorative art specialist and Hal (1965), a wallpaper specialist – and two daughters – Fiona (1961) and Selina (1967). In 1961 Marcus’s sister Kate married Frank Mashahiro Okuno of Yokohama, Tokyo, with whom she had Richard (1962), Marcus (1963) and the late Mary Okuno.

With thanks to Fiona Clements.

NB: Those interested in the Clements story might like to seek a CD of a book written by an American relative (and Republican politician) Percival Wood-Clement (1846-1927) of Rutland Vermont, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percival_W._Clement According to Fiona Clements, ‘Percival was passionately empirical about his research, and photo-copied as many original documents as he could find, including the deed of sale between the founders of Haverhill and the Passaaquo and Saggahew Indians.’

FOOTNOTES

[1] Charles W. Upham, Salem Witchcraft, With an Account of Salem Village and a History of Opinions on Witchcraft and Kindred Spirits (1867).

[2] Chidley was the second son of Sir Charles Coote, a bloody-minded “New English” planter, killed leading a cavalry charge against Confederate forces at Trim in 1642. Chidley’s descendents were the Eyre-Cootes of Kilmallock, Co. Limerick. In 1808 Sir Eyre Coote was appointed Governor of Jamaica. In “In His Own Words: Colin Powell”, published in 1995, General Powell, US Secretary of State under the Bush administration, claimed kinship with the House of Coote by way of a secretive liaison between the Governor and a slave girl called Sally.

[3] I am indebted to Anthony Malcolmson’s expert insight into the “Killadoon Papers” and “Ancestors & Descendants of Robert Clements of Leicestershire & Warwickshire, Eng., first settler of Haverhill, Mass”, P. W. Clement. 2 vols,. 1927.

[4] The murder was to prove the inspiration for Shane Leslie’s story, “Lord Mulroy’s Ghost”.

[5] This arrangement was later confirmed when Parliament passed the Leitrim Estate Act 1879. the 4th Earl rapidly set about regaining the trust of the Leitrim people. His son Charles Clements (1879 – 1952) was the 5th and last Earl of Leitrim. He was second only to Colonel Fred Crawford in organizing gun-running for the Ulster Volunteer Force between 1912 and 1914. In 1915 his wife, the Countess of Leitrim, caused quite a stir when she argued for compulsory recruitment of the Irish for the Great War. She stated that in “so many ways they [the Irish] are like children & they don’t understand an invitation where they would quietly obey an order”. Anglo-Saxons & Celts: Study of Anti-Irish Prejudice in Victorian England, L.P. Curtis (New York, 1969).

[6] Fiona Slevin, Lough Rynn: Lives & Times.

[7] The IRA in the Twilight Years, 1923 – 1948, Uinseann MacEoin (Argenta, 1997).

[8] Flaherty developed the gardens and opened them to the public. The current owners are developing a hotel and golf resort on the site.

In Living in Ireland by Barbara and Rene Stoeltie

Kilboy  House, Nenagh, County Tipperary

by jenjunebugFebruary 21, 2025February 10, 2026

Kilboy  House, Nenagh, County Tipperary

*The newly constructed Kilboy, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of* Country Life.

Kilboy, County Tipperary, courtesy of Archiseek.

p. 164. “(Prittie, Dunally, B/PB) A middle to late 18th century house built for Henry Prittie MP, afterwards 1st Lord Dunalley, to the design of William Leeson.

*Henry Prittie, 1st Baron Dunalley (1743-1801), Irish school, courtesy of Christie’s.*

It had three storeys over a basement; a five-bay entrance front with a central feature of a pediment and four giant engaged Doric columns; Doric entablature running the full length of the front, supported at the sides by giant Doric pilasters; top storey was treated as an attic above the cornice. Ground floor windows with rusticated surrounds and alternat triangular and segmental pediments; rusticated basement; broad flight of steps up to entrance door. Side elevation almost plain, with no entablature or cornice, of five-bays with central Venetian window; keystones over windows and some simple blocking in the window surrounds. Large square hall, with heavy frieze of rather unusual plasterwork, combining putti and foliage with husk ornament and neo-Classical motifs; niche with entablature on console brackets; marble chimneypiece with swags of drapery, plasterwork panel over. Bifurcating staircase in back hall.

*Henry Prittie, 3rd Baron Dunalley (1807-1885) by Stephen Catterson Smith courtesy of Christie’s 2013.*

House was burnt 1922 and afterwards rebuilt without the top storey. The principal rooms, as rebuilt, had oak panelling in early C18 style; the bifurcating staircase was replaced by a simple oak stairs. Ca 1955 the house was demolished and a single storey house in a vaguely Georgian style was built on the original basement.”

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. 134. “The most important house designed by William Leeson c. 1780 for Henry Prittie M.P. 1st Lord Dunally. Superb entrance front with engaged Doric portico. Very fine interior with good plasterwork and imperial main staircase. The house was burnt in 1922 and well restored but without the attic storey. In the mid 1950s it was demolished and a single storey house was built on top of the basement storey; reached by the original steps.”

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22402605/kilboy-house-kilboy-kilmore-pr-n-r-tipperary-north

Detached five-bay single-storey house over basement, built c. 1775, destroyed in 1922 and rebuilt c. 1955 with portico to entrance. Three-bay two-storey side elevations, with large two-storey extension to south-west. Hipped slate roofs with recent cut limestone chimneystacks. Rendered walls with decorative render pilasters. Replacement windows to front. Mainly timber sash elsewhere, with raised cut limestone surrounds with keystones and sills. Segmental- and round-headed openings to extension, with one-over-one pane timber sash windows to south elevation, and doorway with spoked fanlight. Timber panelled double doors under portico, flanked by windows. Two flights of limestone steps to front elevation. Sandstone walls to site boundary with thatched gate lodge and ornate gateway to main, south, entrance and gate lodge with ornate gateway to north-east.

Appraisal

The original house to this site was designed by William Leeson, but only the steps and base of the original building remain. The grounds, demesne walls, entrances and gate lodges are perhaps more interesting than the house, forming an interesting group of demesne structures. The imposing triple-arched entrances set in high demesne walls with their ashlar dressings and gate lodges on both the south and east boundaries create a sense of heightened anticipation before seeing the house.

*Kilboy House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.*

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22402606/kilboy-house-kilboy-kilmore-pr-n-r-tipperary-north

Detached L-plan four-bay single-storey gate lodge with dormer storey, built c. 1850. Hipped reed thatched roof with blocked ridges and recent rendered chimneystack. Sandstone rubble walls. Square-headed double one-over-one pane timber sash windows with sandstone voussoirs to ground floor, segmental-headed spoked lunette windows to roof, and segmental-headed door openings with sandstone voussoirs, having glazed timber doors and sidelights.

*Gate Lodge, Kilboy House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.*

Appraisal

Apparently informed by the cottage ornée type of demesne building, this gate lodge has a number of appealing features such as its lunette dormer windows set in thick curved thatched roofs, its timber sash windows, and its L-plan which allows for a number of complementary views. It is one of a group of demesne structures including the elaborate entrance gates, high demesne walls and single-arch bridge under the avenue nearby.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22402609/kilboy-house-kilboy-kilmore-pr-n-r-tipperary-north

Entrance gateway, built c.1775, comprising advanced central round-arched carriage opening with portico, flanked by round-arched pedestrian entrances, in turn flanked by pilasters and roughly-coursed rubble limestone boundary walls. Snecked rubble limestone walling, with cut limestone portico with scrolls, archivolts and imposts and dressed quoins and surrounds to pedestrian openings.

Appraisal

This finely-built stone gateway is of apparent architectural design and executed by skilled craftsmen. It presents an impressive entrance to the rebuilt Kilboy House and is a conspicuous landmark on the Dolla to Silvermines road.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22402610/kilboy-house-kilboy-kilmore-pr-n-r-tipperary-north

Entrance gateway, built c.1775, comprising central round-arched carriage opening, flanked by similar round-arched pedestrian entrances, separated by wrought-iron railings and in turn flanked low rubble limestone walls. Ashlar sandstone masonry with imposts, carved modillions to central archway and with wrought-iron railings to and separating openings.

Appraisal

A finely-executed ashlar composition of apparent architectural design and quality, forming subsidiary entrance to rebuilt Kilboy House.

The Tipperary Gentry. Volume 1. By William Hayes and Art Kavanagh. Published by Irish Family Names, c/o Eneclann, Unit 1, The Trinity Enterprise Centre, Pearse St, Dublin 2, 11 Emerald Cottages, Grand Canal St, Dublin 4 and Market Square, Bunclody, Co Wexford, Ireland. 2003.

Prittie of Kilboy

p. 195. The Prittie dynasty in Kilboy began with Colonel Henry Prittie, one of Cromwell’s more trusted commanders. He was a Captin in Cromwell’s New Regiment of Horse. Druing the war in Ireland he was made Sheriff of Carlow (1650) and later Governor of Carlow. After the successful campaign Prittie was given about 1000 acres in the area in lieu of pay. Like many of his brother officers he immediately began buying up lands that had been awarded to his fellow soldiers who had no wish to remain in Ireland. This, combined with his descendants fortuitious marriages to heiresses, meant that the estate grew over the next 200 years, so that by the middle of 19C the Pritties owned about 16,000 acres of land in Co Tipperary most of which was centred around Kilboy.

p. 196. Henry was marrid to Honor Foley of Stourbridge and he had one son, also called Henry.

Henry was besieged for 21 days in his castle of Dunally by the Jacobites after the Battle of the Boyne. They eventually gained entrance and seized Henry and threw him from the battlements. Henry, quite extraordinarily, survived the fall unhurt and managed to escape. Henry was married to an Allcock and they had two sons and five daughters. The second son, Richard, married an heiress, Barbara Bourchier from Wexford in 1714. One of the daughters married Captain John Bayley of Ballynaclogh, another Cromwellian grantee.

p. 197. It was through marriages to heiresses that estates were extended. The outstanding example of this at the outset of the century is the marriage in 1702 of Henry Prittie (the Colonel’s grandson) to Elizabeth daughter and heiress to James Harrison of Cloghjordan. This alliance added to the sizeable Prittie estate of 3,600 acres a further 900 acres centring on Cloghjordan which had the advantage of being in the same region as the home estate.

p. 197. IN the next two generations each of the heirs to the Prittie estate married heiresses: Deborah Bayley in 1736 and Catherine Sadleir in 1766, thereby further consolidating the family’s interest, landed and political.

p. 197. On the death of Colonel Harrison the estates of Cloughjordan came into the possession of the Pritties of Kilboy. Henry and Elizabeth had one son, Henry…

p. 198. The son, Henry (b. 1708) was active politically and was an MP for Tipperary from 1761-8. A magistrate, he was firmly in the forefront of promoting law and order. He was married to an heiress, the daughter of Venerable Benjamin Neale of Leighlin and widow of John Bayly of Debsborough. This Henry was the man who successfully launched the family into mainstream politics.

…He also made attempts to use the natural resources on his lands. In the 1720s and 30s the Pritties revived interest in mining in the Silvermines. Lead was the mineral being mined at the time. After 1730 the mining was left in abeyance until 1802 when the Dunally Mining Company was formed with the intention of exploiting the ore there and also at a number of other locations.

p. 199. 1^st Baron Dunally [as MP] was not in favour of granting any relief to Catholics and like his father he was ardent supporter of the rule of law.

p. 200. In contrast with his public stand, Prittie got on well with his Catholic neighbours and a great friendship existed between the Catholic Carrol family of Lissenhall in North Tipperary and the Pritties.

p. 201. There was a general electin held in 1806. Due to clerical manipulation the Catholic vote secured the election of Montague Mathew and Francis A. Prittie, the brother of 1^stLord Dunally, who had moved into the House of Lords. From this period on the Pritties, allied with the Mathew interest continued to be pro Catholic and more liberal in outlook.

p. 202. The Pritties’ liberal views may have been influenced by a tutor who was engaged to teach Francis Aldborough Prittie at Kilboy. He was Rev Henry Fulton, the C of I curate to their parish, who was transported as a convicted United Irishman in 1798.

2^nd Lord Dunally was very active in politics and worked with O’Connell to achieve Catholic emancipation.

http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-list.jsp?letter=K

In 1786, Kilboy was described by Wilson as the fine seat of Henry Prittie. Lord Dunalley is recording as resident at Dunally Castle, Nenagh, in 1814. In 1837 Lewis writes that Kilboy, the seat of Lord Dunalley, “was erected about 60 years since”. In the mid 19th century it was valued at £76+ and held in fee. This house, which the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes as a “detached five-bay single-storey house over basement, built c. 1775” and designed by William Leeson, was destroyed in 1922. A similar house was erected on the site but was demolished in 1955. A smaller house is now located on the site.  

https://www.archiseek.com/1770-kilboy-house-nenagh-co-tipperary/

see https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2014/02/kilboy-house.html

THE BARONS DUNALLEY WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY TIPPERARY, WITH 21,081 ACRES

The founder of this noble family in Ireland was

COLONEL HENRY PRITTIE who, for his loyalty and eminent services to the crown during the civil wars, had a grant or confirmation, from CHARLES II, of Dunalley Castle and other estates in County Tipperary, by patent, in 1678.

The grandson of this gentleman,

HENRY PRITTIE, sustained a siege of twenty-one days, in his castle of Dunalley, against the disbanded soldiers of of the royal army of JAMES II after the battle of the Boyne.

The besiegers, however, at length entering, Mr Prittie was flung headlong from the top of the castle, though miraculously escaped unhurt.

He married Elizabeth, sister of Charles Alcock, and had issue,

HENRY, his successor;
Richard;
Priscilla; Elizabeth; Honora; Catherine; Judith.

The elder son,

HENRY PRITTIE, of Dunalley Castle, MP for County Tipperary, wedded, in 1736, Deborah, daughter of the Ven Benjamin O’Neale, Archdeacon of Leighlin, and had issue,

HENRY, his successor;
Deborah; Elizabeth; Catherine; Martha; Margaret; Hannah.

Mr Prittie was succeeded by his son,

HENRY PRITTIE, of Dunalley, who espoused, in 1766, Catherine, second daughter and co-heir of Francis Sadleir, of Sopwell Hall, County Tipperary, widow of John Bury, and mother, by him, of Charles William, Earl of Charleville, and had issue,

HENRY, his successor;
Francis Aldborough, MP;
Catherine; Deborah; Mary; Martha; Elizabeth.

Mr Prittie was returned to parliament for County Tipperary in 1768; and elevated to the peerage, in 1800, by the title of  BARON DUNALLEY, of Kilboy, County Tipperary.

Henry Prittie, 1st Baron (1743–1801);

Henry Sadlier Prittie, 2nd Baron (1775–1854);

Henry Prittie, 3rd Baron (1807–85);

Henry O’Callaghan Prittie, 4th Baron (1851–1927);

Henry Cornelius O’Callaghan Prittie, 5th Baron (1877–1948);

Henry Desmond Graham Prittie, 6th Baron (1912–92);

Henry Francis Cornelius Prittie, 7th Baron (b 1948).

The heir apparent is the present holder’s son, the Hon Joel Henry Prittie.

The 4th Baron was the last Lord-Lieutenant of County Tipperary, from 1905 until 1922.

Henry Francis Cornelius Prittie, 7th and present Lord Dunalley, lives in Oxfordshire. 

A note in the Dunalley Papers records the sale of the Kerry estate of this family to the Crosbies in 1742 for £1,500.

KILBOY HOUSE, near Nenagh, County Tipperary, was a middle to late 18th century house built for Henry Prittie MP, afterwards 1st Lord Dunalley, to the design of William Leeson.

It had three storeys over a basement; a five-bay entrance front with a central pediment; and four large, engaged Doric columns.

The top storey was treated as an attic above the cornice.

There was a five-bay side elevation.

The mansion was burnt in 1922 and afterwards rebuilt minus the top storey. 

About 1955, the house was demolished and a single-storey house in the Georgian style was built over the original basement.

More recently permission was granted for the reconstruction of a new Kilboy House, by the prominent businessman and philanthropist, Tony Ryan.

The project followed a fire that destroyed a large part of the property in 2005.

The local council granted planning permission for the partial demolition of the existing fire-damaged, listed, single-storey dwelling.

The former three-storey period residence over basement, based on the Georgian mansion house, has been built.

The application, in the name of Tony Ryan’s son, Shane, and his wife, stated that the aim was to rebuild the house as it was originally constructed in 1780.

Before reconstruction began, the Ryans paid €60,964 to the council as a contribution to providing public infrastructure such as roads and water.

Dartrey House (formerly Dawson’s Grove), Co Monaghan – demolished

by jenjunebugFebruary 20, 2025February 3, 2026

Dartrey House (formerly Dawson’s Grove), Co Monaghan

*Dartrey, County Monaghan, garden front,* 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.*

*Portrait of Thomas Dawson (1725-1813), Lord Dartrey, 1st Viscount Cremorne, miniature, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.*

p. 100. “(Dawson, Dartrey, E/PB1933) A large Elizabethan-Revival mansion by William Burn, built in 1846 to replace an earlier house of about 1770. This earlier house, described 1778 by Rev Daniel Beaufort…was of three storeys over basement, the entrance front was of seven bays…..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.

“The quoins were partly curved.

.”.. The house overlooked Lough Dromore, where, on a wooded island, Thomas Dawson, 1^st Lord Dartrey and afterwards Viscount Cremorne, built a domed mausoleum ca 1770 in memory of his first wife, Lady Anne, to the design of James Wyatt, containing a dramatic lifesized sculptural group, including an angel with outstretched wings, by Joseph Wilton. The Elizabethan-Revival mansion, after standing empty for some years, was demolished ca 1950; the mausoleum, which had become roofless, so that the monument was suffering from teh weather as well as from vandalism, was repaired by the Irish Georgian Society 1961.”

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://archiseek.com/2009/1846-dartry-rockcorry-co-monaghan

1846 – Dartrey, Rockcorry, Co. Monaghan

Architect: William Burn

Also known as Dawson Grove, Dartrey was built in 1846 and designed by William Burn as a large Elizabethan Revivial mansion to replace an earlier house on the site. Built for Richard Dawson, 3rd Lord Cremorne and later 1st Earl Dartry, it had very long façades with legions of mullioned windows, oriel windows, tudor chimneys and curvilinear gables relieved by square turrets with cupolas.

On the garden front (pictured) was a two level terrace facing onto Lough Dromore. On an island in the lake there was also a fine Mausoleum to the design of James Wyatt from around 1770 which was recently restored.

The house was demolished in the 1950s – after remaining empty for many years, the house was lent by the last owner to the RSPCA for a ball after which the County Council demanded rates for the house. All that remains of the estate are various gatehouses, the ruined Mausoleum and a fine stable block built around five sides of an octagon – built around 1850 to the design of William Burn.

https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/09/dartrey-house.html

THE EARLS OF DARTREY WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY MONAGHAN, WITH 17,732 ACRES

The family of DAWSON was originally from Spaldington, Yorkshire; whence, towards the close 0f ELIZABETH I’s reign, it removed to Ulster.

THOMAS DAWSON, who became, in the following reign, a burgess of Armagh, was grandfather of

JOHN DAWSON, who married into the family of Henry Ussher, Lord Archbishop of Armagh.

Archbishop Ussher was twice married: first about 1573, to Margaret, daughter of Thomas Eliot of Balrisk, County Meath; secondly, to Mary Smith, who survived him. His widow married John Jeeves, of Drogheda, Alderman, by whom she had issue, Anne Jeeves, who married (as his second wife), Walter Dawson in 1660, from which a considerable property in counties Armagh and Tyrone came to the Dawson family.

John Dawson was father of

WALTER DAWSON, of Armagh, who married firstly, Mary, daughter of Edward Dixie, and had issue,

WALTER, his heir;
Thomas, ancestor of Catherine, Countess of Charleville;
Edward;
Margaret; Mary; Elizabeth.

He espoused secondly, in 1680, Anne, daughter of John Jeeves.

Mr Dawson died in 1704, and was succeeded by his elder son,

WALTER DAWSON, who wedded, in 1672, Frances, daughter of Richard Dawson (by which marriage the estate of Dawson Grove, County Monaghan, was conveyed to this family), and had issue,

RICHARD, his heir;
Walter;
John;
Mary; Elizabeth.

Mr Dawson, an officer in Cromwell’s army, died in 1718, and was succeeded by his only surviving son,

RICHARD DAWSON (c1693-1766), of Dawson Grove, an eminent banker, alderman of the city of Dublin, MP for St Canice, 1727-60, Monaghan Borough, 1761-6 (great-grandson of John Dawson, of Armagh, who died intestate).

Alderman Dawson wedded, in 1723, Elizabeth, daughter of the Most Rev Dr John Vesey, Lord Archbishop of Tuam, and sister of Sir Thomas Vesey Bt, Lord Bishop of Ossory, and had issue,

John, died in 1742;
THOMAS, his successor;
Richard, of Ardee;
Frances.

He was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

THOMAS DAWSON (1725-1813), of Dawson Grove, who was elevated to the peerage, in 1770, in the dignity of Baron Dartrey, of Dawson’s Grove, County Monaghan; and advanced to a viscountcy, in 1778, as Viscount Cremorne, of Castle Dawson, County Monaghan.

His lordship married firstly, in 1754, the Lady Anne Fermor, youngest daughter of Thomas, 1st Earl of Pomfret, by whom he had a son and a daughter, both of whom died in adolescence.

He wedded secondly, in 1770, Philadelphia Hannah, daughter of Thomas Freame, of Philadelphia, by Margaretta, daughter of William Penn, the celebrated founder of that city, by whom he had another son and a daughter, who also died young.

His lordship, thus deprived of direct descendants, was created, in 1797, Baron Cremorne, with remainder to his nephew, Richard Dawson, and the heirs male of that gentleman.

Dying without an heir in 1813, the viscountcy expired, and the barony of Cremorne devolved upon his great-nephew,

RICHARD THOMAS DAWSON (1788-1827) as 2nd Baron (only son of Richard Dawson, MP for Monaghan), who espoused, in 1815, Anne Elizabeth Emily, third daughter of John Whaley, of Whaley Abbey, County Wicklow, and had issue,

RICHARD, his successor;
Thomas Vesey.

His lordship was succeeded by his elder son,
RICHARD, 3rd Baron (1817-97), who wedded, in 1841, Augusta, second daughter of Edward Stanley, of Cross Hall, Lancashire, by his wife, the Lady Mary Maitland, second daughter of James, 8th Earl of Lauderdale.

His lordship was installed a Knight of St Patrick, 1855; a Lord-in-Waiting, 1857-66; Lord Lieutenant of County Monaghan, 1871-97.

He was advanced to an earldom, in 1866, in the dignity of EARL OF DARTREY.

By his wife he had issue,

VESEY, his successor;
Edward Stanley (1843-1919);
Richard Westland Westenra (1845-1914);
ANTHONY LUCIUS, 3rd Earl;
Mary Eleanor Anne.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

VESEY, 2nd Earl (1842-1920), MP for County Monaghan, 1865-68, High Sheriff of County Monaghan, 1878, who married, in 1882, Julia Georgiana Sarah, daughter of Sir George Ormby Wombwell Bt, and had issue,

Richard George, 1890-94;
EDITH ANNE (1883-1974), of Dartrey House;
Mary Augusta, 1887-1961.

His lordship died without surviving male issue, when the titles devolved upon his brother,

ANTHONY LUCIUS, 3rd Earl (1855-1933), who wedded, in 1878, Mary Frances, suo jure Baroness de Ros, only child of the 23rd Baron de Ros, and had issue,

Una Mary, Baroness de Ros;Maude Elizabeth; Eleanor Charlotte Augusta.

On the decease of the 3rd Earl, in 1933, the titles became extinct.

The Lady Edith Windham was the last member of the family to live at Dartrey.

The Dartrey Papers contain extensive historical information about the family.

The Earl of Dartrey possessed the following land during the Victorian era:-

I visited Cootehill several years ago.

DARTREY HOUSE, near Rockcorry, County Monaghan, was a large Elizabethan-Revival mansion by William Burn, built in 1846 to replace an earlier house, known as Dawson Grove, of ca 1770.

It was built for Richard Dawson, 3rd Baron Cremorne and later 1st Earl of Dartrey.

This noble and magnificent demesne is situated on the gorgeous chain of the Cootehill lakes, a few miles east-north-east of Cootehill.

It is separated from the neighbouring demesne of Bellamont forest, County Cavan, only by a narrow belt of one of the main lakes, Dromore Lough.

The mansion had long, 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 ballustrading.

The quoins were partly curved.

Dartrey House overlooked Lough Dromore where, on a wooded island (Black Island), the 1st Viscount Cremorne built a domed temple about 1770 in memory of his first wife, Lady Anne Dawson.

The sheer size of Dartrey House proved too much for the 20th-century financial resources of the family.

Most of its contents were sold by auction in 1937 and the entire building was demolished in 1946 by the Hammond Lane Foundry, Dublin, who paid £3,000 for the salvage – a dreadful return on the £30,000 it cost to build the great mansion.

Lady Edith, elder daughter of the 2nd Earl, was the last Dawson to live in Dartrey House, and it was she who was forced to make the decision to demolish it in 1946.

Now, only the magnificent site overlooking Lough Dromore is visible.

The red-brick stable block contemporary with the 1846 house survives, and was renovated by the Irish Georgian Society (presumably at about the same time as Lady Anne’s temple).

There is also a surviving farmyard, in ruinous condition, which seems to be contemporary with (or even earlier than) the early 1770s house.

The following description of the Dartrey Estate near Cootehill, County Monaghan, Ireland, was written in 1773 by the Reverend J Burrows, visiting tutor to the Dawson family:

A thousand acres of lake, three hundred of which flows within a few yards of the house, with hills on each side covered with the most beautiful delicious woods, bring all fairyland to one’s imagination. On the other side of the lake is a large island, wonderfully shaded on all its sides but with a bald pate of open ground on the top, giving a very pleasing and uncommon effect.

Beyond that are woods that lose themselves in the clouds. People who are not used to lakes cannot conceive into what delightful forms they throw themselves, and how much the little islands, here and there interspersed, which contain one or two trees, add to their beauty.

The Dartrey estate, originally known as Dawson Grove, was established by the Dawson family in the 17th century alongside Bellamont Forest, a demesne of similar size – over a thousand acres.

Richard Dawson, a banker and Dublin alderman, built the present (Church of Ireland) church on the Dartrey estate in 1729.

It was established in its own separate parish of Ematris soon after.

The Dawsons added a north gallery to the church in 1769, and much later the Corry family (from Rockcorry) added a south gallery, raised on arches to avoid desecrating the burial ground beneath it.

A fire caused serious damaged in 1811 leaving the church for a period without a roof.

The fine west tower was built in 1840, and the sanctuary apse in 1870.

With the demolition of the Dawson mansion in 1950, and their once thriving estate turned over to forestry, St John’s appears isolated.

However it shares services with St James’ church, Rockcorry some 2½ miles away, which the Dawsons built in 1855, and both churches continue well supported by the local farming community.

But the view from St John’s cemetery across Inner Lough, once described as “one of the best in Ireland”, is currently obscured by conifers.

The Northern Standard, Saturday, 8th March, 1856:-

FIRE AT DARTREY HOUSE

We regret to announce the breaking out of a destructive fire, on Saturday evening last, at Dartrey House, the magnificent residence of Lord Cremorne, in this county.

The fire is supposed to have originated in the flue of one of the rooms in the basement storeys, which broke out near the roof, and before effective aid could be procured, had enveloped the entire of the upper storey of the north-eastern wing of the building.

The existence of the fire was first observed about six o’clock, by Mr. Little, Lord Cremorne’s steward, who hastened with a number of his labourers to render all the assistance within their power.

Mr. Little’s exertions up to the final subduing of the fire were unremitting.

Captain Boyle, of Tanagh, and the Rev. T. A. Robinson, were immediately on the ground, and aided materially in checking the fire, which, however, raged with a great fury until the arrival of the fire engines from Monaghan.

Previous to the arrival of the engines, the exertions of those present were directed to cutting off the communication between what is termed the Old and New House, a strong wall dividing the two portions of the house.

At a few minutes past seven in the evening, a messenger from Dartrey arrived at Mr. McCoy’s, of Monaghan, in whose care the town engine is; fortunately, all Mr McCoy’s staff were about his concern, it being pay night, and were consequently available for immediate work.

Four horses from Campbell’s posting establishment were immediately harnessed to the engine, and it started for Dartrey, where it arrived at nine o’clock.

In the meantime, Mr. McCoy sent a requisition for the Ordnance engine, to the officer commanding the detachment of Militia stationed here.

This engine was placed on a float, and, with a pair of horses from the Canal Stores, proceeded to Dartrey, where it arrived in time to do efficient service, under the directions of Sergeant Crooks, of the Monaghan Regiment, whose exertions elicited the commendation of every person present.

Nothing could exceed his intrepidity and cool daring ; indeed, at one moment it was supposed he had fallen a victim, a large beam having fallen just where he had been standing a second before. A. A. Murray Ker, Esq., Lord Cremorne’s agent, was in Monaghan when intelligence of the fire arrived; he immediately started for Dartrey, where he remained until a late hour on Sunday evening; by his presence and individual exertions he animated the energies of the very many who aided in extinguishing the fire.

Amongst those present who worked with hearty good will were – and certainly first on the list – the Rev. T. A. Robinson, Captain Boyle, Wm. Murray, Esq., Richard Mayne, Esq., (this gentleman, we regret to say, was severely hurt by an accident), Rev. John Wolfe, Subinspectors Kirwan and Fortesque; a number of young gentlemen from Cootehill and Monaghan were also most effectual aids.

We do not know the names of the Cootehill gentlemen or we would gladly give them. Amongst those from Monaghan we noticed Messrs. Watkins, Lewers, and Campbell.

The Constabulary from the surrounding stations to a man exerted themselves in a most praiseworthy manner, both by individual exertion and protection of property.

Amongst the most exertive and daring of them was one named Kinsella, from Cootehill station.

The costly furniture, pictures, and mirrors were all saved, with the exception of such injuries as their removal caused.

On learning the existence of the fire, our own chief anxiety was as to the safety of an exquisite group of statuary, “Cupid and Psyche”, which stood in the vestibule of the Grand Staircase; – this beautiful piece of art, though in extreme danger, escaped with but the fracture of one of the arms of the descending figure; the injury is not material, and can be remedied.

The portion of the building entirely destroyed consists of Lord and Lady Cremorne’s private apartments, Drawing-room, and her ladyship’s Boudoir, both of which were magnificent apartments; the cut stone walls seem safe; all the apartments over the east point are destroyed; the Grand Hall, Billiard-room, and Drawing-room are safe, as is also the entire of the basement storey.

The fire continued smouldering and occasionally to blaze out up to five or six o’clock on Sunday evening.

The assurance on the house was heavy, and will more than cover the estimated damages; but much depends on the decision architects arrive at as to the state of the outer walls.

It is, on the whole, surprising that the damage done is not of much greater extent, when the means of overcoming it were so distant.

The tenantry in the neighbourhood all assembled on Tuesday with carts and horses, and cleared away all the debris of the fire, before the arrival of Lord and Lady Cremorne.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN STANDARD

Sir, Allow me, through your paper, to render Lord Cremorne’s grateful thanks to all those who used such strenuous exertions in checking the conflagration at his Lordship’s beautiful mansion on last Saturday night.

The Assurance Companies concerned have every reason to be thankful, (and indeed have already expressed themselves to that effect), to the assembled multitude who lent their best exertions towards arresting the progress of the flames, and saving such a large amount of property.

It would be impossible to personally thank each and all of those I saw distinguishing themselves, for their name was “Legion”.

The constabulary were early on the ground from Rockcorry, and very shortly after from Cootehill, Drum, and Newbliss, and were most efficient and steady.

The fire engines from Monaghan arrived in quite the brigade style, and certainly deserve especial consideration.

The Corporation engine, under the direction of Mr. McCoy and his very active and intelligent workmen, and the Barrack engine, managed by Sergeant Crooks, who most creditably kept up the character of his regiment by his cool and daring conduct.

The tenantry to a man worked with a will. I could name hundreds who were towards morning nearly – and often quite – exhausted and faint.

Nothing could exceed the care taken of the furniture, pictures, and mirrors, in their removal, and wonderfully little damage has been done.

I am happy to say that the Assurances cover the loss and damage to both building and furniture – and again thanking most sincerely those who so kindly gave their valuable aid in time of need.

I remain, your obedient servant, A A Murray Ker, Newbliss.

Henry Skeath has sent me interesting information with regard to Dartrey:

I have attached an article (above) from The Northern Standard about a serious fire at Dartrey House in 1856 just ten years after the place was built.

Two good articles on Dartrey appeared in recent editions of the Clogher Record.

In 2004 June Brown detailed the rise and fall of the estate. June was friendly with Lady Edith, the last of the family at Dartrey, and keeps in touch with her descendants.

The 2009 edition contains a well-researched article by June’s granddaughter, Victoria Baird, about Lady Augusta wife of the 1st Earl of Dartrey.

Lady Augusta endowed St. James’s in Rockcorry where a photograph of her still hangs.

St. John’s Church is affectionately known as St. John’s in the Wood.

The Dawson gallery contains a fireplace for the comfort of the family.

In 1996 St. John’s celebrated 275 years of worship and the Rev. J. T. Merry, rector, produced a short history of the parish.

The Dartrey Heritage Group is undertaking wonderful refurbishment work on the mausoleum which was designed by James Wyatt.

The building has been stabilised and a new domed roof erected.

The Rev. Daniel Beaufort visited in 1780 and noted that the sculptural group within, by Joseph Wilton, had cost £1,000.

The quarterly bulletin of the Irish Georgian Society for Jan-Mar 1961includes an article on it.

Wilton’s work suffered at the hands of vandals but there are ambitious plans for restoration.

In 2008 the Heritage Group completed the restoration of a 60-foot column, also designed by James Wyatt, erected in 1807 to the memory of Richard Dawson who was elected to five successive Parliaments.

It stands prominently along the main road.

The 1846 stable block, five sides of an octagon, restored by the Irish Georgian Society in 1961, has been allowed to fall into disrepair again in recent years.

Of Dartrey House, hardly a vestige remains.

Parts of the basement can be seen and the once-graceful terraces on the garden front can still be traced.

It was once one of the finest estates in Ireland.

London residence ~ 30 Curzon Street.

First published in September, 2011. Dartrey arms courtesy of European Heraldry.

https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2020/08/cootehill-iii.html

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland tells us that County Monaghan is an inland county, in the centre of the south of the historic province of Ulster.

It is bounded, on the north, by Tyrone; on the east, by Armagh; and on the west, by Cavan and Fermanagh.

Dawson Grove, now Dartrey, County Monaghan,

“A noble and magnificent demesne, the property of the Viscount Cremorne [later Earl of Dartrey], on the southern margin of the barony of Dartrey, is situated on the gorgeous chain of the Cootehill lakes, 1½ miles from Cootehill; and is separated from the rival demesne of Bellamont Forest in County Cavan, only by the narrow belt of one of the main lakes called Dromore.”

“From the contiguity of Dawson Grove and Bellamont Forest, and the beautiful natural lakes which in many places form their line of demarcation, they may be said in various instances to reflect each other.”

“Separately they are splendid residences; conjointly they form a rich combination of many of the elements of landscape.”

On Saturday afternoon four of us met Noel Carney, of Dartrey Heritage Association, who took us to see Dartrey demesne, former seat of the extinct Earls of Dartrey.

This was my first visit to Dartrey, once a very large estate comprising almost 18,000 acres, with extensive boundary walls and picturesque gate lodges (there were eight in total) carrying on interminably.

We stopped off en route at the main entrance lodge of ca1847, fully restored, extended, and inhabited, once incorporating the estate post office.

This lodge is made of ashlar stone, with a Tudor-style entrance surmounted by a blank shield.

Several hundred yards further along the main public road we turned into another driveway, which eventually led us to the “new” stable block, a large, impressive, grand affair comprising five sides in red brick.

This derelict stable block was constructed in the 1840s to replace an older block.

The standard of craftsmanship by masons was remarkable, as Noel pointed out to us.

The bricks were made in situ, and even straw marks could be seen on the ones that had dried on the ground.

The New Stable Block is not in a good state, although it’s not beyond redemption for another purpose, such as apartments or business premises, or units.

It was practically ruinous several decades ago, and today at least it’s in better condition than that.

There used to be a large clock encased in a circular stone feature in the middle of the block, though it has disappeared.

A short distance further on we stopped off at the original, or “Old” stable block of, it is thought, the 1770s.

It, like its younger sibling, is privately owned and closed off.

THEREAFTER we drove through overgrown estate tracks to the Island Bridge, also known as the Iron Bridge, which connects the estate to Black Island.

This is a single-arch bridge, erected in the 1840s, which leads to the glorious mausoleum or temple dedicated to the Lady Anne Dawson.

The skill of the blacksmiths and stonemasons can be admired on this little bridge, with its superbly carved stone abutments and wrought-iron handrails.

When we crossed the bridge we caught a glimpse of the remains of the great mansion house of Dartrey. All that’s left of it today is the basement and rubble.

Dartrey House (or Castle) was demolished in 1946, because the last member of the Dawsons to live there, Lady Edith, simply couldn’t afford to maintain it, and couldn’t find a buyer.

First published in August, 2020.

https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2020/08/cootehill-iv.html

From the edge of the lake, not far from the Iron Bridge, we could see the site of Dartrey House (or Castle), a very large mansion which was built in 1846.

The Dartrey Estate lies in County Monaghan, though straddles the neighbouring county of Cavan.

Dartey: Basement Cellar (Image: Henry Skeath, 2002)

All that remains of the house are the ruins of the basement and cellars, so it’s almost invisible at ground level from a distance.

Dartrey: Basement Cellar (Image: Henry Skeath, 2002)

The Land Acts deprived great estates like Dartrey and Lough Fea of their income and, when the 2nd Earl of Dartrey died in 1920, without a male heir, the estate was inherited by his eldest daughter, Lady Edith.

Dartrey: Ruins (Image: Henry Skeath, 2002)

Crippled by the immense cost of maintaining Dartrey, its outbuildings, gate lodges, stable block, and everything else, Lady Edith decided initially to sell the contents of the house.

A four-day auction of the contents, including thousands of books from the library, and valuable old-master paintings, was held in 1937.

Lady Edith Windham (1883-1974) couldn’t afford the exorbitant rates bills, and found it impossible to find a buyer for the house, so made the decision to salvage what she could of it, including the slates, staircases, and doors, wooden casings etc, before Dartrey House was finally demolished in 1946.

By this stage Lady Edith was living in the former land steward’s house, not far from the big house itself.

First published in August, 2020. https://theirishaesthete.com/2014/09/15/a-shining-distinction-on-earth/

A Shining Distinction on Earth

Sep15by theirishaesthete

The Dawson family of County Monaghan came from Yorkshire to Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I, Thomas Dawson becoming a Burgess of Armagh. Subsequently Richard Dawson, a Cromwellian cornet of horse, assembled the nucleus of the family’s estate in the 1650s and 1660s through the acquisition of thirty-one townlands, based around a property called Dawson’s Grove on the banks of a chain of lakes separating counties Cavan and Monaghan. Richard Dawson’s only child, a daughter named Frances, married her cousin Walter Dawson. Their son Richard was an Alderman of Dublin, an MP for County Kilkenny and the owner of a family bank. He further expanded the estates both in County Monaghan and elsewhere. With his wife Elizabeth, daughter of John Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam, he had four children, their third son being Thomas Dawson born in 1725. After coming into his inheritance the latter built a new house at Dawson’s Grove in the early 1770s and also bought and redeveloped a residence in London, Cremorne House, Chelsea where the garden designer Nathaniel Richmond was commissioned to lay out the grounds (although the house is long gone, this is now the site of Cremorne Gardens, just down river from Battersea Bridge). In May 1770 Thomas Dawson was created Baron Dartrey of Dawson’s Grove, and in June 1785 Viscount Cremorne.

In August 1754 Thomas Dawson married Lady Anne Fermor, youngest daughter of the first Earl of Pomfret, with whom he had two children before she died in March 1769. Her husband’s grief was considerable, but not so great as to prevent his marrying just over a year later Philadelphia Hannah Freame. She was the granddaughter of William Penn, whose family owned land in County Cork but who is better known as the founder of Pennsylvania. By his second marriage to Hannah Callowhill William Penn had eight children one of whom, Thomas Penn, married Lady Juliana Fermor, eldest daughter of Lord Pomfret. This explains how Thomas Dawson should have met his second wife Philadelphia, whose mother Margaret Freame, was another of William Penn’s children. In other words, he married his first wife’s niece. And, as her name indicates, she was born in the city of Philadelphia in 1740.

Broken_remains_of_Joseph_Wiltons_sculture_of_Thomas_Dawson__Baron_Dartrey_800_600

Philadelphia Freame’s marriage to Thomas Dawson was marked by the building of a house for the Dartrey estate’s agent, Charles Mayne, which was then given the name Freame Mount. Lady Anne Fermor, however, was commemorated in a more original fashion with the construction of a mausoleum which stands in the middle of Black Island on raised ground facing the former site of Dawson’s Grove. Based on a surviving elevation for the west front which shows the inspiration of the Pantheon in Rome, the design of the Dartrey Mausoleum has been attributed to James Wyatt, making it the English architect’s first commission in Ireland and contemporaneous with Wyatt’s Pantheon, the famous assembly rooms on London’s Oxford Street.
The building in Monaghan is a tall, square block built of locally-fired red brick raised on a limestone plinth. The exterior, featuring a sequence of blind windows and oculi, is relieved on the western front (which would have been visible from Dawson’s Grove) by a shallow tetrastyle portico with four pilasters (note their unusual fluted capitals) beneath a pedimented entablature. Above this cube rises a dome, its open centre providing the only light for the interior which would have been even more dramatic when viewed on nights with a full moon.

In August 1774 the Dublin Hibernian Journal reported, ‘A few days ago was landed in Dublin a beautiful Marble Monument done by Joseph Wilton, Esq., of Portland Street, London, which Lord Dartrey is to erect in a Temple at his seat in Co. Monaghan, to the memory of his late wife, Lady Anne Dawson, daughter of the late Earl of Pomfret.’ The London-born Wilton, a founder-member of the Royal Academy, had in 1764 been appointed ‘Sculptor to his Majesty’ by George III. His funerary monument in the Dartrey Mausoleum, for which he was paid 1,000 guineas, is the only commission he received in Ireland; during the same period he also sculpted a bust of Thomas Dawson, now in the Yale Center for British Art.
Like that piece, Wilton’s work inside the mausoleum is carved in Carrara marble and was installed against the eastern wall above a plain altar. A plaque recalls both Lady Anne, described as possessing ‘all the external Advantages which contribute to form a shining Distinction on Earth’, and the couple’s prematurely deceased daughter Henrietta Anne ‘who lived long enough to justify all the fairest Hopes of a Mother.’ To one side of a large funerary urn are the lifesize figures of Lady Anne’s grieving husband and their young son clinging to his father in both terror and sorrow; the pair of them gaze up at the hovering form of an interceding angel. It is a remarkably theatrical piece of work, and must have been especially effective when seen by moonlight.

The subsequent fortunes of the Dartrey Mausoleum have been mixed. At some date in the 19th century, the dome was taken, or fell, down and replaced with a shallow slated pyramidal roof, and the brick walls plastered. The last member of the Dawson family to live at Dartrey, Lady Edith Windham, eldest child of the second Earl of Dartrey, sold the estate in 1946 to the Irish Forestry Commission (now Coillte) which continues to own the land on which the mausoleum stands. Dawson’s Grove, rebuilt in the 1840s as Dartrey Castle, was demolished and the view across to Black Island obscured by dense planting of evergreen woodland. Meanwhile the mausoleum was left to languish and although the Irish Georgian Society undertook some repairs in the 1960s, the building succumbed to decay, its roof was lost and the sculptural group – as can be seen in photographs above – seriously vandalised.
Such might have remained the case, had it not been for the energy, imagination and commitment of a local group, the Dartrey Heritage Association which over the past decade has steadily worked to ensure the restoration of this outstanding monument. Securing funding from a variety of sources, including the local County Council, the Heritage Council and once more the Irish Georgian Society, together with monies raised by other means, the DHA has now almost completed this project. The building is once more intact and with a domed roof, and inside the sculptural group has been repaired with missing sections scrupulously replaced. The entire project is a wonderful testament to what can be achievied by a local voluntary body with sufficient determination and persistence, and ought to serve as an example for others throughout the country. Above all the restoration of the Dartrey Mausoleum shows that nothing is beyond salvation, provided the will is there.

https://theirishaesthete.com/2014/09/23/their-faithful-representative/

Their Faithful Representative

Sep23by theirishaesthete

In the late 18th century, Thomas Dawson, Viscount Cremorne, passed responsibility for his Irish estate Dawson’s Grove, County Monaghan to his heir and nephew, Richard Dawson. To the dismay of his uncle, Richard – who served as a local MP in the Irish parliament – proved to be something of a radical and in 1799 consistently voted against the Act of Union. In the event, he died eight years later (predeceasing Lord Cremorne) after which he was remembered as being ‘the most active in promoting improvements, the most useful and the most popular man this country ever knew.’
As evidence, in the aftermath of his death, a fifty-eight foot high limestone Doric column surmounted by a funerary urn was erected on the edge of the Dawson’s Grove demesne. The arms of the Dawson family appear on two sides of the monument’s square base plinth and the following inscription on the other two sides: ‘This column was erected by the free and independent electors of the county of Monaghan to perpetuate the memory of Richard Dawson Esq., who was unanimously returned by them to five successive parliaments. He died their faithful representative on 3 September 1807, aged 44 years.’ The column, its design attributed to James Wyatt, has been restored in recent years. Dawson’s Grove was eventually inherited by Richard Dawson’s son, another Richard, who in 1813 became Baron Cremorne.

Tervoe, Clarina, Co Limerick – demolished

by jenjunebugFebruary 18, 2025March 28, 2025

Tervoe, Clarina, Co Limerick

*Tervoe, County Limerick entrance front c. 1945 photograph: Standish Stewart,* 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. 272. “(De la Poer Monsell/IFR) A three storey block of 1776, built by Col W.T. Monsell, MP, on the site of a house dating from ca 1690; to which single-storey wings, running from the front of the house to the back, were added ca 1830. A single-storey Ionic portico was added on the entrance front probably at the same time. The entrance front was of seven bays, with a three bay breakfront centre; the centre window on the first floor had a pediment over it. The ends of the wings on the entrance front were pedimented, and each had a single Wyatt window, surmounted by a blind panel. Parapeted roof. In the garden front, facing the Shannon, the wings were bow ended. Square hall with plasterwork frieze; plain and elegant stone staircase in room to left of hall. Oval music room in one of the wings, with classical figures painted on walls. The family ceased to live here 1951, and the house was demolished 1953..”

*Tervoe, County Limerick, courtesy Mark Bence-Jones.*

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. 104. “Large three storey seven bay house built in 1776 for Col. W.T. Monsell MP to which a single storey was added in the early 19C. The interior contained good plasterwork and very fine mahogany doors to the principal room. There was an oval music room in one of the wings which had a coved ceiling. Dismantled c. 1953. Some of the fittings are now at Glin Castle. Portico now at Mungret College, County Limerick. Ruin demolished.”

*Tervoe, County Limerick, Drawing room c. 1945. photograph: Standish Stewart.* 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://archiseek.com/2013/177 6-terv oe-house-kilkeedy-co-limerick

1776 – Tervoe House, Kilkeedy, Co. Limerick

*Tervoe, County Limerick, Photograph from the Irish Tourist Association Survey 1943-44.*

Built in 1776 by Colonel W.T. Monsell MP on the site of an earlier house. Demolished in the 1950s. Photograph from the Irish Tourist Association Survey 1943-44.

Ballynoe, Ballingarry, Co Limerick

by jenjunebugFebruary 17, 2025February 10, 2026

Ballynoe, Ballingarry, Co Limerick

p. 27. “(Cox/LGI1899) A three storey four bay Georgian block, probably a ca 1770 rebuilding by Hugh Cox of an early C18 house, itself a rebuilding of a C17 house. C19 eaved roof and pillared porch. Curved staircase. 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.

*Frances Cox (1702-1768), daughter of Samson Cox* [d. 1734] *of Ballinoe* [or Ballynoe]*, Ballingarry, Co. Limerick, was wife of Robert Fennell of Curraghbane, Co. Cork, courtesy Fonsie Mealy July 2018*.

https://www.buildingsof ireland.ie/buildin gs-search/building/21903802/ballynoe-house-ballynoe-co-limerick

*Ballynoe, County Limerick, courtesy of National Inventory.*

Freestanding four-bay three-storey over basement country house ruin, built c. 1770, having projecting end bays to side (west). Originally having portico to front (north). Lined-and-ruled rendered rubble stone walls with moulded render eaves courses. Square-headed window openings having tooled stone sills with fragments of internal timber shutters. Wrought-iron window guards to first floor of side (west) elevation. Round-headed stairwell window opening with limestone sill to rear (south) elevation having dressed limestone voussoirs and formally having remains of four-over-eight-pane timber sliding sash window with fanlight. Square-headed door openings to rear elevation having dressed limestone voussoirs, giving access to internal spiral staircase to northern end of side (west) elevation. Disused enclosed farmyard to west having concrete paved courtyard surrounded by nine-bay two-storey stable blocks with integral carriage ways and port-cocheres forming north, south and western ranges. Now disused. Breakfront entrance bay to side (north) elevation of northern range. Enclosing wall with tooled limestone buttresses and lean-to out buildings forming western range with central port-cochere surmounted by crow-stepped bellcote having flanking carved stone eagles and weathervane finial. Hipped slate roofs with rubble stone eaves course. Rubble stone walls throughout. Elliptical-headed port-cochere and integral carriage arches having tooled limestone voussoirs, and double-leaf wrought-iron and timber battened gates. Square-headed window openings with tooled limestone sills, voussoirs and surrounds throughout, having timber louvers to first floor openings. Square-headed door openings having tooled limestone voussoirs and surrounds. Former fish pond to south of house, converted to horse swimming pool with timber decking, now disused. Rubble stone enclosing walls with splayed entrance comprising of tooled limestone piers with plinths, tooled limestone octagonal plaques and coping supporting double-leaf wrought-iron gates.

Appraisal

An interesting ruin of a late eighteenth-century house, which is a recreation by Hugh Cox of an earlier eighteenth-century house, itself a rebuilding of a seventeenth-century house. Situated on an elevated area, the building had extensive views of the surrounding area and over a substantial enclosed courtyard which survives in good repair. Well executed porte-cocheres and carriages arches highlight the skill of eighteenth-century workmen and masons. A central bellcote above the main entrance, with flanking carved stone eagles, adds further elegance to this significant complex.

Ballynaguarde, Ballyneety, Co Limerick – ruin

by jenjunebugFebruary 17, 2025March 20, 2025

Ballynaguarde, Ballyneety, Co Limerick

*Ballynaguarde, County Limerick, c.1949. The main facade with statue of Hercules, photograph: Standish Stewart.* 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. 25. “(Croker/IFR) A house of two storeys over a high basement built 1774. Five bay front with three bay pedimented breakfront; wing with an Ionic porch. The seat of the Crokers, of whom the notorious “Boss” Croker of Tammany Hall was the grandson of a younger son (see Glencairn, County Dublin). The house fell into ruin earlier this century; according to the writer Frank O’Connor, there was a proposal to take a fine statue of Hercules, which stood by the front of the house, to Limerick; “but a committee of inspection, having studied him carefully fore and aft, decided that he would never do for the confraternities.”

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.

Ardo (also known as Ardogena), Ardmore, Co Waterford – ruin

by jenjunebugFebruary 17, 2025March 23, 2026

Ardo (also known as Ardogena), Ardmore, Co Waterford – lost

p. 10. “(McKenna/LGI1912) A gingerbread Carcassonne on a bare clifftop overlooking the Atlantic, consisting of a plain two storey house to which a tall battlemented square tower and numerous round turrets, with pointed windows, hood mouldings and quatrefoil openings, were added in the late-Georgain period; the turrets continuing far beyond the house itself, joined by straight and curving castellated walls, to form a line of brittle fortifications….In the latter part of C18 and early C19, the home of Jeremiah Coghlan, a gentleman of slender means whose wife, known as “Madam”, maintained a recklessly grandiose and extravagant way of life here which she supported by helping the smugglers who frequented the coast. Two fo her four children were idiots, but she also had two beautiful daughters, one of whom she married off to “Cripplegate,” 8^th and last Earl of Barrymore and the other to 9^th Duc de Castries. The Coghlans, like the Barrymores – ended with a financial crash, but the Duc de Castries was rich and Ardo, though leased, remained in his family. It eventually passed to his grandson by his first marriage, the great Mashall Macmahon, victor ofMagenta and President of France in the early years of the Third Republic, who sold it 1874 to Sir Joseph McKenna of the National Bank, uncle of the politician Reginald McKenna. Ardo was abandoned ca 1918, it eventually became roofless and is now a crazy ruin.”

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. 140. A late 18C house to which castellated towers were added in the early 19C. Good classical plasterwork in the stair hall. Built by Jeremiah Coghlan. Now a ruin.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/22904012/ardoginna-house-ardo-castle-ardoginna-co-waterford

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Remains of detached three-bay two-storey house, c.1775, with single-bay three-stage corner turrets on circular plans. Abandoned, 1918. Now in ruins. Roof now gone (original profile not discerned) with roofs to turrets not visible behind parapets. Unpainted rendered walls over random rubble stone construction. Square-headed window openings with no sills, red brick dressings, and fittings now gone. Elliptical-headed door opening with fittings now gone. Pointed-arch window openings to turrets with stone sills, red brick dressings, and fittings now gone. Set back from road in own grounds on elevated site overlooking Atlantic Ocean. (ii) Freestanding single-bay four-stage tower, built 1847, to south-east on a square plan originally attached. Roof not visible behind parapet. Random rubble stone walls (extending to first stage as remains of random rubble stone screen wall having battlemented parapet) with remains of unpainted render over having red brick quoins to corners, stringcourse to top stage, and battlemented parapet (stepped to one corner) having cut-stone coping. Pointed-arch window openings with cut-stone shallow sills, red brick dressings, and fittings now gone. (iii) Detached four-bay two-storey rubble stone coach house, c.1775, to south-east with series of elliptical-headed carriageways. Now in ruins. Pitched roof now gone with no remains of rainwater goods on squared rubble stone eaves. Random rubble stone walls. Square-headed window openings with no sills, stone lintels, and no fittings. Round-headed door opening with cut-stone voussoirs, and no fittings. Series of three elliptical-headed carriageways with cut-stone voussoirs, and no fittings. (iv) Detached three-bay two-storey rubble stone outbuilding, c.1775, to south-east. Now in ruins. Pitched roof now gone with no remains of rainwater goods on squared rubbles tone eaves. Random rubble stone walls. Camber-headed window openings to ground floor (square-headed window opening to centre first floor) with no sills, squared rubble stone voussoirs, and no fittings. Square-headed door opening with squared rubble stone voussoirs, and no fittings.

Appraisal

A late eighteenth-century Georgian Gothic house, now in ruins, the lofty towers of which contribute to a dramatic silhouette on an elevated site overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The house is of additional importance for its associations with the Coghlan, and McKenna families.

http://www.abandonedireland.com/Ardoginna.html

Ardoginna house was first mentioned in the Civil Survey 1654-1656, the proprietor’s name was James Fzt Gerald gent, Irish papist. The property consisted of 280 acres and was valued at £23.15.0.

The family name Costen was associated with the house in the 17th Century with several subsequent owners eventually leaving the house acquired by Sir France Prendergast. A story tells of the young heir of the house being falsely accused of stealing some valuable silver. The young man was pursued and fled across the cliff tops where he met his death at Croch an Oidhre (The Heir’s Gibbet) where his horse failed to make a jump and he ended up being hung in the reins of the horse.

Ardoginna house passed into the hands of the Coghlans – one of the principle families of Co. Waterford at the time, however the Coughlans must have fallen on evil days. There are several accounts of the Widow Coughlan and her smuggling activities, of her two handicapped children and her two beautiful daughters. One daughter became Lady Barrymore and her sister Eliza went to live with her in London, where she met the widowed Duc de Castries and married him and returned with him to France after the Revolution. The Ardo estate came into the de Castries family through the marriage and was later acquired by Marshal McMahon (President and Marshal of France in 1873) on his marriage to Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of the Duc de Castries.

It was Marshal McMahon who put the Ardoginna property up for sale in 1865 with Sir Joseph McKenna buying the property. Sir Joseph was a nationalist M.P. for Youghal 1865 to 1868 and from 1874 to 1885. He had been born in Dublin in 1819, was educated at Trinity College and called to the Bar in 1848. The McKennas brought about a period of refurbishment and prosperity at Ardoginna house. In 1895 the house was recorded “of scrupulously white washed walls, gleaming brilliantly in the sun”. Those years from the 1860s to the 1920s appear to have been the heyday for Ardoginna house.

Sir Joseph McKenna had ten children six girls and four boys from his first marriage. He died on 15th August 1906. He had re-married and the second Lady McKenna died in July 1907. Both were buried in a vault in an adjoining field with a large stone angel on guard, however the statue wasn’t enough to stop the grave-robbers who long ago desecrated the place.

Members of the McKenna family lived at Ardoginna for some years before moving to England.

During the period 1920-21 the house was let during the summer and after this time there was no caretaker and the place was looted, eventually sold and deprived of its roof and the final period of its desolation into ruin began.

Knapton, Abbeyleix, Co Laois – demolished

by jenjunebugFebruary 17, 2025

Knapton, Abbeyleix, Co Laois – demolished

p. 178. “(Pigott, Bt/PB 1970; Vesey, de Vesci, V/PB) A small house of ca 1773 with good neo-Classical interior decoration built onto an older structure. Now demolished.”

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 1814 the seat of Mrs. Morton. Demolished.

See family tree Major General Thomas Pigott, b. 1734

Riverstown House, Monasterevin, Co Kildare

by jenjunebugFebruary 17, 2025March 7, 2025

Riverstown House, Monasterevin, Co Kildare

p. 242. “(De Ryther/LG1863) A C18 house of which all that now remains is what appears to have been a service block, with triple niches on its ends.”

https://w ww.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/11902602/riverstown-house-riverstown-co-kildare

Detached nine-bay two-storey building, c.1775, on a T-shaped plan possibly originally part of larger building retaining early aspect with series of round-headed openings to ground floor, single-bay two-storey advanced bays to side elevations having full-height round-headed recessed niches with single-storey round-headed flanking niches, and three-bay two-storey return to rear having single-bay two-storey projecting bay with full-height round-headed recessed niche to side elevation. Hipped roofs with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Rendered chimney stacks. Square rooflights. Moulded eaves band. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast walls over rubble stone construction (exposed rubble stone construction to side elevations and to part of return). Stringcourse to spring of round-headed openings and to first floor. Round-headed recessed niches (single-storey and full-height) to various elevations. Square-headed window openings. Stone sills. Continuous sill course to first floor. 1/1, 2/2, 3/3 and 6/6 timber sash windows. Series of round-headed openings to ground floor (including door opening). Timber panelled double doors. Spoked fanlights to all round-headed openings. Set back from road in own part-overgrown grounds. Gravel verge to front. Detached five-bay single-storey rubble stone outbuilding with half attic, c.1775, to site. Now disused and part derelict. Gable-ended roof with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Eaves band. Rainwater goods now gone. Rubble stone walls. Red brick dressings. Shallow segmental-headed window openings. Stone sills. Red brick to heads. Fittings now gone. Remains of shallow segmental-headed integral carriageways. Red brick dressings. One now blocked-up (rubble stone) with one remodelled, c.1900, having lintel added forming square-headed opening. Fittings now gone.

Appraisal

Riverstown House is a fine and unusual Classical-style block that may originally have been but a portion of a larger house on the site. Although now disused the house remains in good condition and retains much of its original features, materials and character. Despite being attributed as a service wing the building is much ornamented, with each elevation thoughtfully designed with much incident. The primary elevation is a rhythmic composition of graceful proportions with openings evenly distributed – the round-headed openings to ground floor are an attractive feature, especially when furnished with a series of spoked fanlights. A quasi-Triumphal Arch motif is a recurring theme and is used to grace the side elevations, and in a more pared-down version the side elevation of the projecting bay to the return. Most of the original materials are retained throughout the piece, if in varying states of repair, and include a variety of timber sash fenestration, the spoked fanlights, and slate roofs. The retention of an early external aspect serves to suggest that an interior of note may also survive intact. The building is set in its own grounds and is accompanied by a fine, if neglected, outbuilding, which is itself of some architectural merit.

See Daniel Browne father of Tempe Browne who marries Charles Bagot.

New Abbey, Kilcullen, Co Kildare

by jenjunebugFebruary 17, 2025November 28, 2025

New Abbey, Kilcullen, Co Kildare

*New Abbey House, County Kildare, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.*

p. 222. (Brereton/IFR; Dixon, Glentoran, B/PB; Urquhart/LGI1958) A house built of two storeys over basement, built ca 1755 near the site of a Franciscan abbey founded 1486 and afterwards leased to Edmund Spenser, who probably wrote most of the six books of the Faerie Queen here. Entrance front with one by on either side of a central three sided doorway; three bay side elevation. Urns on roof parapet. Acquired 1779 by George Brereton, who was killed in a dual in Dublin two years later. The astragals of the windows removed during C19, and post 1864, a partly-glazed Doric porch surmounted by a little glazed kiosk added on the entrance front by Major Robert Brereton, who also added a low wing to the right of the entrance front 1901. Sold 1909, almost immediately resold to Capt Herbert Dixon, afterwards 1^st Lord Glentoran, who added a two storey two bay wing to the left of the entrance front and set back from it, obscuring one bay of the original block and in a similar Georgian style, with urns on parapet and astragals in the windows. Surprisingly, at the same time he did not put back the astragals in the original block. Subsequenty sold again, and now the home of Mrs Kenneth Urquhart.”

Not in national inventory

https://a rchiseek.com/2012/newabbey-house-kilcullen-co-kildare

1753 – Newabbey House, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare

Small country house, rebuilt in the 1750s.

Irish Historic Houses

Properties open to the public, on Irish Revenue Section 482

1770s

Killadoon, Celbridge, Co Kildare

Kilboy  House, Nenagh, County Tipperary

Dartrey House (formerly Dawson’s Grove), Co Monaghan – demolished

A Shining Distinction on Earth

Their Faithful Representative

Tervoe, Clarina, Co Limerick – demolished

Ballynoe, Ballingarry, Co Limerick

Ballynaguarde, Ballyneety, Co Limerick – ruin

Ardo (also known as Ardogena), Ardmore, Co Waterford – ruin

Appraisal

Knapton, Abbeyleix, Co Laois – demolished

Riverstown House, Monasterevin, Co Kildare

Appraisal

New Abbey, Kilcullen, Co Kildare

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A Shining Distinction on Earth

Their Faithful Representative

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Appraisal

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