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.
[Rockfleet, but see Rossyvera entry] p. 243. “A two storey late-Georgian house on an inlet of Clew Bay close to an old castle of the celebrated C16 chieftain, Graunuaile or Grace O’Malley; enlarged and remodelled from 1939 onwards by the British diplomat, Sir Owen O’Malley, and Lady O’Malley (better known as the writer and traveller, Ann Bridge). An extra storey, with a flat roof, was added to the house; and a new two bay block built to the right of the original three bay front and projecting forwards from it. The new additions are of random ashlar with the joints raked out and well pointed to resist the weather; the windows are small Georgian sashes. The whole effect is that an old castle enlarged and modernised in C18. The principal rooms are arranged round an oval staircase hall, which is original to the house but was raised and surmounted by a lantern when the extra storey was added. One of the rooms is an octagon. The library bookcases and some of the chimneypieces are of macacauba, a Portuguese colonial timber, which Sir Owen, who was Ambassador in Lisbon, sent to Ireland in the form of containers for his furniture.”
Rossyvera, County Mayo, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached five-bay (two-bay deep) three-storey country house, under construction 1838, on an F-shaped plan originally five-bay two-storey over basement on a cruciform plan centred on three-bay full-height projecting breakfront abutting two-bay full-height projecting end bay; three-bay two-storey rear (west) elevation centred on single-bay full-height breakfront on an engaged half-octagonal plan. Sold, 1853. Vacant, 1901. Occupied, 1911. Extended, 1939, producing present composition. Roof not visible behind parapet with paired rendered central chimney stacks having stringcourses below capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta tapered pots, and concealed rainwater goods retaining cast-iron hoppers and downpipes. Part creeper- or ivy-covered walls with lead-covered coping to parapet. Elliptical-headed central open internal porch with cut-limestone surround centred on cut-limestone keystone. Square-headed door opening into country house with concealed dressings framing timber panelled double doors. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and drag edged tooled cut-limestone lintels framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings to rear (west) elevation with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and cut-limestone voussoirs (ground floor) or hammered limestone lintels (first floor) framing two-over-two (ground floor) or four-over-four (first floor) timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central hall retaining timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors; and timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors. Set in landscaped grounds with piers to perimeter having stepped capping supporting cast-iron double gates.
Appraisal
A country house representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the deliberate alignment maximising on panoramic vistas overlooking Rockfleet Bay; the cruciform plan form centred on a restrained doorcase; the construction in a local fieldstone offset by “sparrow pecked” limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings on each floor with the principal “apartments” defined by a polygonal bow: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued development or “improvement” of the country house in the twentieth century with ‘the whole effect [being] of an old castle enlarged and modernised in the eighteenth century’ (Bence-Jones 1978, 243). Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, an adjoining walled garden (extant 1897); and lengthy outbuildings (extant 1897), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained estate having historic connections with Captain Alexander Wadham Wyndham (1799-1869) of West Lodge, Dorset (NUIG); James Butler Stoney JP (1814-97); William Frederick Ormsby (1858-1941; NA 1911); the O’Malley family including Sir Owen St. Clair O’Malley KCMG (1887-1974) and Mary Dolling Sanders O’Malley (1889-1974), alias Ann Bridge, author of “Frontier Passage” (published 1942) and “The Dark Moment” (published 1952); and Walter Joseph Patrick Curley II (b. 1922), one-time American Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ireland (fl. 1975-7).
Rossyvera, County Mayo, courtesy National Inventory.Rossyvera, County Mayo, courtesy National Inventory.
entry in MacDonnell, Randal. The Lost Houses of Ireland. A chronicle of great houses and the families who lived in them. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London, 2002
Rossyvera House, or Rockfleet [see Rossyvera entry], is near to the tower house of Carrigahowley. It has been suggested that it was originally a dower-house for the O’Donel family, who lived at Newport House (Newport is a small village, ten miles west of Castlebar in the northeast corner of Clew Bay). [p. 181] However, there is an account that it was built ‘as a nice neat house’ by a family by the name of Arbuthnot.
“In the 19th century the house came into the possession of the Stoney family. They had come from England in the 17th century and in the 19th century James Stoney (1814-1897), a Justice of the Peace, is known to have lived at Rossy-Vera (as it was spelt). His family cannot have owned the house after his time because James’s elder son, Thomas, resided at Oakfield Park, near Raphoe in County Donegal.
“The next name that is associated with Rossyvera is that of Sir Owen St. Clair O’Malley. Sir Owen described himself as ‘an autochthonous Irishman’ and was one fo the O’Malleys of Belclare. This branch of the family lived at Hawthorn Lodge (or Tallyho as it was originally named), near Castlebar in Co Mayo. One of this family was created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire and another, Loughlin O’Malley, conformed to the Established Church in 1718. His great-grandson, Peter O’Malley, QC, moved to England in the mid 19th century and became the Recorder of Norwich. His son, Sir Edward, was variously Attorney General of Jamaica and Hong Kong and eventually Chief Judge of H.M. Supreme Consular Court for the Ottoman Empire. Sir Owen O’Malley was Sir Edward’s son. He entered the diplomatic service in 1911 and the next year married Mary Saunders. …
On Sir Owen’s retirement, he and Lady O’Malley began remodelling and enlarging Rossyvera – it is recorded that Sir Owen built the additions with his own hands. They added a two-bay wing to the original three bay house, an extra storey with a flat roof, as well as a cupola on the top of the staircase hall. There is an elliptical hall and a spiral staircase, the three original reception rooms are now four – one of which is an octagon shape – and there are nine bedrooms. The library bookcases and the dining room chimneypiece are made out of macacauba wood, an exotic oriental timber used by Sir Owen to make cases for his possessions when he moved from Portugal to Ireland. [182] with view to reusing the timber, he instructed his packers to employ screws rather than nails when fastening the timber.
In the 1950s Sir Owen O’Malley and the O’Malley clan Association restored Carrigahowley Cstle (which had been used, at one period, by a family called Flynn for storing hay) and it is now a National Monument. He wrote a history of the O’Malley lordship in the 16th century in The Galway Archaological and Historical Journal (1950).
Sir Owen sold Rockfleet (the name is a contraction of the anglicization of Carrigahowley) in 1955, and moved to Oxford, where he died in 1974, a month after his wife. The new owner of the house was Carmel Snow, the editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, and the doyenne of fashion writers during the 1930s and 40s… she restored its original name of Rossyvera.
In 1957, Rossyvera was bought by Walter P. Curley and his wife, Mary. After a successful career in venture capital, Walter Curley served as Ambassador of the US to Ireladn from 1975-1977 and later, from 1989-1993 as Ambassador to France. .. He and hisw wife now live at Rossyvera for several months a year.”
Cranmore, County Mayo, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
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. 294. “(Knox, of Creagh/LGI1912) A symmetrical Italianate house built 1832 by Col Charles Knox; two storey five bay, 1 bay pedimented breakfront, triple window over balustraded Doric portico. Eaved roof on bracket cornice. Bought early C20 by a branch of the Dalys of Daly’s Grove, who later owned Renville Hall and Roseville. Demolished ca 1945.”
Built in 1838 by Alexander Glendenning Lambert, who was an agent for the Knox family, and had connections with the Glendenning Banking Family. The roof was removed in the 1950s to avoid taxes since when it has fallen into disrepair. It is now a ruin.
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland II: More Portraits of Forgotten Stately Homes. Collins Press, Cork, 2012.
On the gates of Cranmore House in Ballinrobe, County Mayo hangs a planning application notice which proposes the construction here of a three-storey retail and residential block, a second three-storey block to be used as an old persons’ home, seven houses, a terrace featuring that strange new form of accommodation, the ‘townhouse’ and, adjacent to the existing structure, a new 46-bedroom hotel with the inevitable function rooms, bars, gym and swimming pool. Cranmore House was built in 1838 by Alexander Clendenning Lambert, agent for the Knox family to whom the property subsequently reverted. They remained in occupation until the 1920s after which the house passed through a couple of hands before being unroofed in the 1950s, in which condition it remains to the present. The predominantly greenfield nature of site makes it attractive to developers, although the proposal seems both unfortunate and unnecessary when so much of Ballinrobe immediately outside the gates could do with refurbishment, including many existing ‘townhouses.’
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s D04DA02
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .
AMV: €2,500,000
5 Bed
5 Bath
470 m²
For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .
3 Seaview Terrace is a distinguished three-storey-over-basement period residence, designed by the renowned architect John Semple in the 1830s. This elegant home, set on approximately 0.30 acres of secluded southwest-facing gardens, offers an impressive 470 m² (5,060 ft²) of accommodation. The property has been well maintained to preserve its original Georgian features, including high ceilings, intricate cornicing, marble fireplaces, and tall sash windows with shutters, but would now benefit from some modernisation and refurbishment.
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .
The southwest-facing gardens are a standout feature of the property, designed to capture all-day sunshine. Lovingly cultivated and planted, they boast a variety of mature trees, shrubs, and plants that provide a spectrum of colour throughout the year. Generous, secure off-street parking is available to the front of the house.
Seaview Terrace is superbly located just off Ailesbury Road on this prestigious and sought-after stretch of six period homes leading to Nutley Road. The property is within comfortable walking distance of an extensive choice of amenities in Ballsbridge and Donnybrook, including excellent coffee shops, restaurants, and specialty shops.
Many of the city’s principal schools are close by, including St. Michael’s, The Teresian School, Blackrock College, and St. Andrew’s College. Recreational amenities are well provided for, with Elm Park Golf & Tennis Club.
Hall Floor Entrance Hall with a high ceiling, intricate ceiling cornice, stained glass window, Carrera marble floor, and display niche. Guest WC fully tiled with a stained glass window, WC, and wash hand basin. Inner Hall with an intricate ceiling cornice, Carrera marble floor, dado rail, and access to the garden. Drawing Room with a marble fireplace, ceiling cornice, centre rose, two sash windows with shutters, picture rail, and folding doors to the dining room.
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .
Dining Room with a marble fireplace, ceiling cornice, centre rose, sash windows overlooking the garden with shutters, and picture rail. Family/Breakfast Room with an oak floor, ceiling cornice, recessed lights, and a large bay window with built-in seating overlooking the garden. Kitchen with wall and floor units, granite work surfaces, tiled splashback, Zanussi cooker, Bosch dishwasher, under-counter lights, ceiling cornice, recessed lights, and oak floor.
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .
Basement Hall with tiled floor, recessed lights, and door to the front garden. Living Room with a brick fireplace, open fire, timber floor, and door to the garden. Study with timber floor.
Kitchenette with a range of units, tiled floor, tiled splashback, integrated dishwasher, hob, oven, extractor fan, integrated microwave, and door to under-stairs storage.
Utility Room with tiled floor, hotpress, gas boiler, and plumbing for washing machine and dryer.
Bathroom with fully tiled with bath, overhead electric shower, WC, and wash hand basin.
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .
Bedroom 6 with tiled fireplace, timber floor, and fitted wardrobe. Bedroom 7 with timber floor. First Floor Return Bedroom 1 with two sash windows, original shutters, stunning marble fireplace, intricate ceiling cornice, centre rose, extensive built-in wardrobes, and folding doors to the library. Library with sash window overlooking the rear garden, original shutters, marble fireplace, and ceiling cornice. Dressing Room accessed from the landing and from a hidden door in the main bedroom with arched sash window, ceiling cornice, and built-in wardrobe. Bedroom 2/Study with marble fireplace, polished timber floor, and access to a sunny terrace overlooking the garden. Bathroom fully tiled with bath, overhead shower, WC, and wash hand basin.
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .
Second Floor Return Laundry Room large hotpress with shelved storage, gas boiler, and wash hand basin. Second Floor Bedroom 3 with polished timber floor, original fireplace, and sash window to the front. Shower Room fully tiled with shower, WC, heated towel rail, and wash hand basin. Bedroom 4 with two sash windows, original shutters, ceiling cornice, original fireplace (currently blocked), and polished timber floor. Ensuite fully tiled with shower, rainwater shower head, contemporary basin, WC, recessed lights, and underfloor heating. Bedroom 5 overlooking the rear garden with sash window, original shutters, original fireplace, and polished timber floor. Ensuite fully tiled with shower, rainwater shower head, wash hand basin with storage beneath, WC, and underfloor heating. Top Floor Return Staircase leading to the roof/fire escape. Bathroom with bath, WC, wash hand basin, and tiled floor.
3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .3 Seaview Terrace Donnybrook Dublin 4, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 For sale April 2025 courtesy Lisney Sotheby’s .
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. 226. “(McClintock/IFR; Smyth/IFR) A Victorian house in a mixture of Italianate and late-Georgian styles. Two storey; three bay front with three light Romanesque window in centre above Ionic portico with latticed balustrade. Adjoining front of seven bays, with pediment above central Wyatt window and pilastered enclosed porch with latticed balustrade. High-pitched eaved roof on bracket cornice. Hall divided by screen of Ionic columns; rooms with modillion cornices and friezes of plasterwork. Now owned by the Irish Countrywomen’s Association.
Newtown House, County Louth, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached seven-bay two-storey house, built c. 1830. Rectangular-plan to main three-bay house, two-storey canted bays to east and west sides of central entrance doorway, two-bay east and west wings, two-storey pitched roof return to north-east, single-storey gabled porch to east gable, single-storey canted sunroom to west gable, single-storey lean-to sunroom between north elevation and west elevation return, kitchen yard to east, stableyard north of kitchen yard, farmyard north of stableyard, walled garden to west. Pitched slate roofs, clay ridge tiles, painted smooth rendered chimneystacks with moulded string at cap and plain clay pots, parapet to south elevation, half-round steel gutters to north elevation and return. Painted roughcast rendered walling, painted ruled-and-lined smooth render to bays, painted chamfered plinth, projecting first floor string to bays, moulded coping to parapet south elevation. Square-headed window openings, painted stone sills, painted timber one-over-one sliding sash windows, one three-over-three sliding sash window to north elevation, round-headed staircase window to north elevation, painted timber casement windows to return. Elliptical-headed entrance door opening, painted timber double doors each with three bolection moulded panels set in recess flanked by Doric columns carrying flat entablature, petal fanlight over, approached by flight of three stone steps. Kitchen yard with single-storey lean-to slate-roofed brick walled shed to south, single-storey lean-to painted roughcast range to east with diminishing course slating, two-storey uncoursed rubble stone pitched roof range to north, brick dressings to openings, painted timber small-pane sliding sash windows, painted timber vertically-sheeted doors, elliptical-arched carriage entrances to east end, bellcote on east gable, elliptical-headed archway entrance to north-east corner, cobbled surface to yard; stableyard with single-storey lean-to stable building with pitched slate roof, rubble stone walling, five elliptical-headed archways, two-storey and single-storey ranges to north, rubble stone walling, pitched slate roofs, external stone staircase leading to upper floor of west building, lean-to red brick shed to north-east corner, archway to west leading to walled garden, squared rubble limestone piers to entrance from east end; farmyard with two-storey stableyard buildings to south, rubble stone boundary wall to walled garden to west, rubble stone boundary wall to north, two-storey range with rubble stone walling, dressed limestone quoins and red brick dressings to openings, pitched slate roof, and shallow pitched roof single-storey outbuilding to south with two elliptical-headed openings in south gable, corrugated-iron bow-roofed shed carried on painted steel columns set at north end of yard. Gravelled forecourt to front (south) of main house, lawns falling to small stream further south, approached by driveway to north of walled garden and north farmyard.
Appraisal
This house, which was altered during the Victorian era, retains many interesting details. The fine outbuildings contribute to site context. The landscaped setting with mature trees and stream is particularly attractive.
Newtown House, County Louth, courtesy National Inventory.Newtown House, County Louth, courtesy National Inventory.Newtown House, County Louth, courtesy National Inventory.
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. 89. “(Stanley, sub Tyndall/LG1952supp; Wingfield, sub Powerscourt, V/PB) A house of ca. 1820, by John Hargrave, of Cork; built for Major Blackall. Two storey, eaved roof; angle piers; front with bowed projection in centre and porch with slender pillars on one side. Attractive curved rooms. Subsequently the home of the Stanleys and eventually of Brig. A.D.R. Wingfield and Mrs Wingfield (nee Stanley). Sold ca 1960; now a rehabilitation centre.”
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached three-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c. 1830, having full-height three-bay segmental bowed projection to the centre of five-bay east elevation. Multiple-bay three-storey extensions to the southwest, added c. 1880. Later used as rehabilitation clinic, now in disuse. Later single-, two- and three-storey extensions to rear (south). Later single-bay open porch to the centre of the main elevation (north). Hipped natural slate roof , hidden behind raised parapet with eaves cornice and blocking course, having rendered chimneystacks with terracotta chimney pots. Painted lined-and-ruled rendered walls to front (north) and east elevations over moulded plinth course; snecked limestone masonry walls to rear and west elevations. Giant order pilasters to front façade, between bays and to the corners, and to east elevation, to corners and flanking bowed projection. Square-headed window openings with six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows with painted limestone sills. Sill course to first floor openings (excluding bowed projection). Round-headed window opening to west elevation, lighting stair hall, having tripartite multi-pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed window openings to rear blocks having stone sills and timber sash or replacement windows. Square-headed door opening, behind recent porch, having overlight, timber panelled door, timber pilasters, and with flanking six-over-six timber sliding sash windows. Open porch comprises a pair of round-profile Doric-like columns supporting flat roof over having moulded cornice. Flight of limestone steps to entrance with cast-and-wrought-iron railings. Set back from road, on an elevated site, to the northeast of Edgeworthstown. Complex of outbuildings (13401521), walled garden (13401525) and ancillary structures to the northwest. Main entrance gateway to the southeast, at start of long approach avenue to house, comprising a pair of lined-and-ruled rendered gate piers (on square-plan) having garland devices on raised square panels to front faces (southeast), and with carved pineapple finals over. Gates now missing. Gateway flanked to either side by sweeping sections of rendered plinth boundary wall having cast-and wrought-iron railings and terminated in a second pair of piers.
Appraisal
This impressive country house is the finest of its date and type in County Longford. It is built in a late-Georgian/Regency classical idiom, and retains its early form, character and the majority of its early fabric despite the construction of a number of modern extensions to the rear. The Giant order pilasters between the bays of the two main facades, along with the very prominent eaves cornice and blocking course, lend this building a distinctive appearance that is reminiscent of a contemporary seaside villa that could be found in Dun Laoghaire, Monkstown etc. These giant pilasters add interest to the main façade, created a stepped profile that gives this facade a robust but surprising delicate architectural character. The full-height three-bay bow to the east elevation is another interesting architectural element that helps to add further visual impact when approaching the building along the main avenue, and creates an imposing and handsome silhouette in the landscape. The plan of this house is quite unusual with the stair hall to one side of the building (west), which is lit by an enormous round-headed window opening with tripartite timber sash windows. The house also retains many notable features and materials that enhance the building, including timber sash windows and cut limestone steps with ornate cast-iron railings to the entrance. This house was built to designs by the eminent architect John Hargrave (c. 1788 – 1833). Hargrave worked extensively in County Longford during the 1820s and was responsible for the designs for the governor’s house at Longford Town Jail in 1824 (13001036); works at Ardagh House in 1826 (13312039); the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Church of Ireland church at Newtown-Forbes (13303021); the remodelling of Castle Forbes (13303001), nearby Farragh/Farraghroe House (demolished); Doory Hall (13314005) now ruinous; St. Paul’s Church of Ireland church, Ballinalee (13304009); and possibly for the designs of St. Catherine’s Church of Ireland church (13400914) at nearby Killoe. This house was built for Major Samuel Wesley Blackhall (1809 – 1871), and may have replaced an earlier house associated with the Blackall family at Coolamber (a Robert Blackall (1764 – 1855), father of the above, lived in Longford in the late-eighteenth century). Major S. W. Blackall had a distinguished career, serving as High Sheriff of Longford in 1833 and later as MP for Longford between 1847 – 51. He served abroad after 1851, acting as Lieutenant-Governor of Dominca between 1851 – 57, Governor of Sierra Leone between 1862 – 65, and as Governor of Queensland, Australia, from 1868 until his death in 1871. Coolamber Manor was the home of a Major Robert Blackall in 1846 (Slater’s Directory), High Sheriff of Longford in 1859 – 61. It was later the home of the Stanley family (Burroughs Stanley in 1894) and then the Wingfield family. It was sold c. 1960 and was in use as a rehabilitation centre until recently. Coolamber Manor is an important element of the built heritage of County Longford and forms the centrepiece of a group of related structures along with the complex of outbuildings (13401521) and the walled garden and ancillary structures to the west.
Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached single-storey curvilinear green house associated with Coolamber Manor (13401520), built c. 1850. Constructed of small glass panes set in wrought-iron superstructure. Rendered brick plinth wall to front (southeast) having wrought-iron window openings over. Render walls on quadrant profile to either end (southwest and northeast). Coursed squared rubble limestone wall to rear (formerly part of walled garden) having red brick section over with segmental-headed window openings having remains of timber fittings; number of openings now blocked. Square-headed door opening to the rendered wall to the southwest end of green house having replacement glazed timber door. Cut stone coping over rear wall. Set in walled garden (on irregular-plan) associated with Coolamber Manor, laid out c. 1830, having coursed rubble stone walls, brick lined to the interior faces, having cut stone coping over a number of sections. Located to the west of Coolamber Manor (13401520) and to the south/southwest of complex of outbuildings (13401521).
Appraisal
This graceful curvilinear green/glass house associated with Coolamber Manor (13401520) retains its early form and character. Its construction in wrought-iron is of technical merit, and it survives in good condition despite being out of use. This green house probably dates to mid-to-late nineteenth century, and was built against the boundary wall of an existing walled garden, built c. 1830. This walled garden is solidly constructed using squared rubble stone masonry and has brick-lined walls to the interior to retain heat and promote growth of produce (orchard) for use in the main house to the east. This green house and the walled garden complex provide an interesting historical and social insight into the extensive resources needed to run and maintain a large country estate in Ireland during the nineteenth century. They form part of a wider collection of structures associated with Coolamber Manor, and are important elements of the built heritage of County Longford.
Complex of single- and two-storey stables and outbuildings associated with Coolamber Manor (13401520), built c. 1830 and extended c. 1880, comprising two adjoining courtyards of outbuildings/stable blocks, forming rectangle, with central carriages. Later in use as a rehabilitation clinic, with modern alterations. Now out of use. Complex to the east comprises two-bay single-storey range to east with hipped and pitched natural slate roof, pediment with cut stone detailing to west face. Coursed roughly dressed limestone masonry walls with roughly dressed flush quoins to the corners; painted plinth course. Square-headed window opening with limestone sill and replacement fittings. Square-headed door opening with replacement timber battened door having concrete ramp to entrance (west face). Section of roughly dressed limestone wall to the north end of outbuilding, having cut stone coping and an integral segmental-headed pedestrian entrance with dressed limestone voussoirs. Four-bay two-storey range to north having central pedimented bay with adjoining section of dressed limestone walling having integral segmental-headed carriage arch with double leaf spear headed cast-iron gates. Hipped natural slate roof. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Brick blank roundel to pediment having dressed limestone surrounds. Square-headed openings with replacement windows having limestone sills. Segmental-headed carriage arch to pedimented bay with dressed limestone voussoirs and timber battened double doors. Five-bay two-storey range to south having hipped roof and central pedimented bay. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Brick blank roundel to pediment having round-headed dressed limestone open work bellcote to rear. Square-headed window openings with replacement fittings having limestone sills. Round-headed door opening with replacement timber door. Segmental-headed carriage arches with dressed limestone voussoirs, now blocked up with window openings. Five-bay two-storey range to west with central pedimented bay having blank roundel with dressed limestone surround and hipped natural slate roof. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Square-headed window openings with timber fittings and limestone sills. Square-headed door opening with timber battened door. Segmental-headed carriage arch with dressed limestone voussoirs leading to west complex of outbuildings. South range to west stables having five-bay two-storey elevation. Pitched natural slate roof with brick chimneystack, rubble limestone chimneystack and rendered chimneystack. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Roundel openings with dressed limestone surrounds to first floor. Square-headed window opening with timber fittings and limestone sills. Square-headed opening with timber replacement door to first floor having flight of concrete steps to entrance. Triple arcade of segmental-headed carriage arches having dressed limestone voussoirs and timber replacement doors. Carriage arches to end bays now blocked up with inserted door and window openings. Square-headed entrance with cut limestone lintel having carved keystone and with timber battened door. Seven-bay two-storey range to north with pitched natural slate roof. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Square-headed openings with replacement windows and having limestone sills. Roundel openings with dressed limestone surrounds to first floor. Square-headed openings with timber glazed replacement doorways having dressed limestone surrounds with carved keystones. Segmental-headed carriage arch with dressed limestone voussoirs having timber battened doors. Five-bay two-storey end range with dovecote to pedimented central bay. Hipped slate roof. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Square-headed openings with replacement windows having cut limestone surrounds and sills. Square-headed opening to first floor with timber battened door having a flight of concrete steps with rendered parapet walls to entrance. Roundel opening to central pedimented bay with dressed limestone surround over segmental-headed carriage arch with dressed limestone voussoirs. Various ancillary buildings to site. Extensions to rear of end range. Located to the west of Coolamber Manor (13401520), in extensive mature grounds, to located to the northeast of Edgeworthstown.
Appraisal
This substantial complex of outbuilding, stables and ancillary structures forms an important element of the Coolamber Manor (13401520) demesne, and represent one of the finest examples of planned outbuildings buildings. These buildings largely retain their early form and character, despite some alterations to accommodate new uses during the late-twentieth century. The stables comprise an elegantly proportioned walled rectangle divided into two courtyards. The scale of this complex provides an interesting historical insight into the extensive resources required to run and maintain a large country estate in Ireland during the nineteenth century. High quality materials have been used in the construction of these outbuildings including fines dressed limestone detailing to the pediments, the bellcote and to many of the openings, and ornate cast-iron gates. The east complex is distinguished from the west outbuildings by the pedimented central bays decorated having dressed limestone roundel openings. These pedimented bays lends the west complex a muted classical architectural character that compliments the style of the main house to the east. The pediment to the north range, west complex, is particularly notable as it doubles as a dovecote and makes for an interesting and unusual feature. This complex was originally commissioned by Major S. W. Blackall and may have been originally built to designs by the architect of Coolamber Manor itself, John Hargrave (c. 1788 – 1833). It appears to have been extended something during the late-nineteenth century (Ordnance Survey map information).
Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Coolamber Hall House is fortified buildings similar to tower houses. They usually have a rectangular plan and are often two stories in height; their entrance is usually at first floor level and accessed by an external wooden or stone staircase.
The Coolamber hall house is situated in north-east Longford, approximately 12KM from Edgeworthstown. The main building is two stories in height and has a long, rectangular plan.
The building also has a four storey service tower to the south-east corner. The structure is located on a semi-circular platform which was once enclosed by a stone wall. Interestingly, a late-medieval church is situated to the north-west of the hall house, indicating the power and prestige the owners derived from their association with the church during the Middle Ages.
The hall-house has the remains of a barrel-vault at its northern end at ground floor level. The south end is grass-covered and may conceal two other barrel-vaults.
A doorway in the north-east corner gives access to the tower. A relieving arch located directly above the barrel-vault in the hall suggests that the service tower may be a later addition. Some architectural features remain which date it to the 16th century, including fireplaces and ogee-arched windows.
Coolamber hall house was likely to have been the residence of Thomas Nugent, one of the commissioners for Plantation of Longford in 1620 under King James I. Historically, the site of the house was strategically important as it was at the boundary of the English Pale – the area under full control of the English Crown – in the 17th century and was actually besieged by Oliver Cromwell during his invasion of Ireland after 1649.
The monument is on private property, and is in ruinous condition and therefore should not be entered. However, it is located next to the roadway and is highly visible from there
THE BLACKALLS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LONGFORD, WITH 4,643 ACRES
MAJOR ROBERT BLACKALL (d 1840), of the East India Company, was father of
SAMUEL WENSLEY BLACKALL (1809-71), High Sheriff of County Longford, 1833, Colonel, Royal Longford Militia, MP for Longford, 1847-5, Governor of Queensland, 1868-71, who married firstly, in 1833, Catherine Bowles; and secondly, in 1848, Catherine Bond, by whom he had issue,
ADELAIDE BLACKALL, who wedded, in 1864, Captain the Hon Ernest Grey Lambton Cochrane, son of the 10th Earl of Dundonald, though she died several weeks later.
COOLAMBER MANOR, near Lisryan, County Longford, is said to be the finest country house of its era and type in County Longford.
It is built in a late-Georgian/Regency classical idiom, and retains its early form, character and the majority of its early fabric despite the construction of a number of modern extensions to the rear.
The giant order pilasters between the bays of the two main façades, along with the very prominent eaves cornice and blocking course, lend this building a distinctive appearance that is reminiscent of a contemporary seaside villa.
The giant pilasters add interest to the main façade, creating a stepped profile that gives this façade a robust but surprising delicate architectural character.
The full-height three-bay bow to the east elevation is another interesting architectural element that helps to add further visual impact when approaching the building along the main avenue, and creates an imposing and handsome silhouette in the landscape.
The plan of the house is quite unusual, with the stair hall to one side of the building (west), which is lit by an enormous round-headed window opening with tripartite timber sash windows.
The house also retains many notable features and materials that enhance the building, including timber sash windows and cut limestone steps with ornate cast-iron railings to the entrance.
Coolamber Manor was built to designs by the eminent architect John Hargrave, who worked extensively in County Longford during the 1820s.
The house was built for Colonel Samuel Wesley Blackall (1809-71), though may have replaced an earlier house associated with the Blackalls (Major Robert Blackall, 1764-1855, father of the above, lived in Longford in the late-18th century).
Cooamber subsequently became the home of the Stanley family (Burroughs Stanley in 1894); and thereafter the Wingfields.
It was sold ca 1960 and was in use as a rehabilitation centre until recently.
Extending to 15,255 square feet, the manor house is a three-bay, two-storey over basement residence, built in the late Georgian/Regency period.
Adding to its distinctive appearance, the house retains many of its original features that include timber sash windows, cut limestone steps, and ornate cast-iron railings.
Accommodation comprises four reception rooms, a large commercial kitchen and bakery, two gyms, billiards-room, two shower rooms and fourteen bedrooms.
Accessed through an arch, the two cut stone courtyards have been well maintained over the years and are in excellent condition.
These have been fully converted to include four training rooms, a number of two-bedroom apartments, laundry room, stables, tack room, and some lofted stores.
Adjoining these is the farmyard which features a number of slatted and loose-bedded sheds, silage slabs, a disused dairy, and hay sheds.
There are also two other bungalow residences on the property, both of which have their own access.
The present estate includes good stables and 157 acres.
It stands on its original splendour, to the front of Coolamber Wood, adorned by landscaped lawns and gardens, and a well kept farmyard.
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. 67. “(Forbes, Granard, E/PB) A 19th century castle of random ashlar, built about 1830 partly to the design of John Hargrave, of Cork; replacing an earlier house destroyed by fire.
It has two storeys over a high basement, with two adjoining fronts dominated by a lofty, round corner tower. Entrance front with door in a square tower, prolonged by a low service wing and a gateway to the yard in the French style, with a high roof and conical-roofed turret and bartizan added about 1870 to the design of J.J. McCarthy. Adjoining front with four bay block prolonged by lower gabled wing. Heavy battlements and machicolations; lancet windows separated by stone mullions and some Early English tracery windows. Corbelled stone balconies with pierced balustrades. The interior of the castle was done up in great splendour following the marriage of 8th Earl of Granard to Beatrice, daughter of Ogden Mills, of Staatsburg, Dutchess County, USA, 1909.”
Main entrance gates to Castle Forbes (13303001), erected, c. 1820, comprising a pair of cut limestone gate piers (on square-plan) having cut limestone capstones and replacement gates. Main carriage entrance flanked to either side (north and south) by sections of rubble limestone walling having integral square-headed pedestrian entrances with cut stone surrounds and wrought-iron gates, and terminated by cut stone gate piers with cut stone capstones. Flanking rubble limestone walls on quadrant-plan to either side, terminated by cut stone piers on square-plan with cut stone capstones. Located to the centre of Newtown-Forbes, to the west side of the main street, and to the east of Castle Forbes (13303001). Altered single-storey gate lodge to the south.
Appraisal
This imposing and well-crafted gateway serves as the main entrance to Castle Forbes (13303001) and forms part of an extensive collection of related structures/sites associated with this important demesne. Good quality craftsmanship is apparent in the cut limestone gate piers and the surrounds to the pedestrian entrance. The simple but imposing flanking walls add to the setting and help create a suitably impressive main entrance to the castle/house. It creates an appealing feature in the centre of Newtown-Forbes, which is indicative of the central role Castle Forbes has played in the development of Newtown-Forbes.
Detached Gothic style six-bay two-storey over raised basement castellated country house/castle on irregular plan, built c. 1830, extensively remodeled/rebuilt c. 1860, and incorporating the fabric of earlier seventeenth century structure(s). Remodeled c. 1925, following fire damage. Comprises central block with advanced single-bay four-storey breakfront on square-plan (having a chapel to the top storey), five-stage tower on circular-plan (with battered base) attached to the south corner and recessed two-bay block attached to the north end. Lower two-storey service wing attached to north (set back from principal block), four-bay elevation to south with lower connecting corridor joining three-bay wing block, and incorporating seventeenth century structure built c. 1660 and remodeled c. 1830. Internal and external remodelling undertaken c. 1925. Hipped natural slate roofs with cut limestone chimneystacks, chamfered crenellations, machicolations (with stepped moulded corbels) and corner turrets. Snecked limestone and granite walls with cut limestone and granite trim, now largely ivy-clad. Cross pommée motifs to top stage of tower. Paired and tripartite cusped, pointed and round-headed window openings with cut stone surrounds, tracery and hood mouldings to main body of building with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash and replacement windows. Quadripartite pointed arch window opening above main entrance (at first floor level) with limestone tracery and mullions under hood moulding. Paired pointed arch window openings to tower with plate limestone tracery under hoodmoulding; paired cusped lancet openings with quatrefoil detail over at first floor level. Round-headed door opening to advanced central block with carved limestone surround and double-leaf glazed doors with wrought and cast-iron detailing. Doorway reached by flight of cut stone steps. Set within its own grounds with adjoining entrance tower to north (13303002) and stable block (13303003) to rear. Located in extensive mature landscaped grounds/demesne to the northwest of Newtown-Forbes. Lough Forbes and River Shannon form western boundary of Demesne.
Appraisal
This imposing country house is important not only for its imposing architectural style but also for the personalities associated with it. It largely dates to the nineteenth century (c. 1830 and c. 1860), but it contains fabric dating from the seventeenth, and probably the eighteenth century, creating a complex and confusing chronology. The style of this building is typical of a number of large castellated Gothic houses built and/or extended in Ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century, including the Knockdrin Castle, Tullynally Castle and Killua Castle, all in neighbouring County Westmeath. Castle Forbes has been the home of a branch of the Forbes family (later Earls of Granard from 1684), originally from Scotland, since the early-seventeenth century. The design of Castle Forbes is similar to that of its namesake in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, built in 1815 (by a branch of the Forbes family), in that it has a central breakfront containing the main entrance and a massive tower on circular plan attached to one end of the principal elevation. Arthur Forbes (later baronet of Nova Scotia) was originally granted extensive lands in County Longford c. 1620 and built a residence (on L-shaped plan and possibly incorporating the fabric of an existing castle) soon after. This house/castle was later heavily damaged by a siege during the rebellion of 1641. This house was described by Dowdall (1682) as a ‘fair aid spacious house with lovely gardens of pleasure’. Eighteenth century fabric survives to the interior of Castle Forbes, suggesting that it was altered during this century. A devastating fire in 1825 destroyed much of the original seventeenth century house, and the 6th Earl of Granard’s family was accommodated in the surviving wings, which were remodeled by John Hargrave (c. 1788 – 1833) of Cork in the late 1820s. It would appear that the rebuilding of the main house/castle was undertaken by the 7th Earl, George Forbes and his Roman Catholic wife, Jane Colclough, c. 1860. They chose the rising architect J. J. McCarthy (1817 – 1882) to execute the building in the Gothic Revival style, a style with which he was familiar due to his church commissions from the Roman Catholic Church. A number of the window openings, particularly the paired lancets to the main body of the building and the paired cusped lancets with quatrefoil detailing to the tower, are distinctly ecclesiastical in character and were probably inspired by McCarthy’s numerous church commissions. Further remodelling was undertaken following a fire in 1923 by F.W. Foster of London, under the directions of the then Countess, Beatrice Mills. The execution of the interior and exterior features is testament to the skill of the craftsmen involved and to the architect’s design. Set within private grounds Castle Forbes forms the centrepiece of a complex group of buildings, which still serve a working demesne. Castle Forbes has the largest demesne in County Longford and is one of the most important elements of the architectural heritage of the county. The Forbes family is important in the history of Longford and indeed the wider history of Ireland. In 1661, the Manor of Mullingar was granted to Sir Arthur Forbes, whose family would own/control the town for 200 years. The 1st Earl of Granard (title created 1684), Sir Arthur Forbes (1623 – 1695), served as a lieutenant general in the British Army and was later Lord Justice of Ireland (in office 1671 and 1673). The 3rd Earl of Granard, George Forbes (1685 – 1765), was an admiral in the Royal Navy. The sixth Earl, George Forbes (1760 – 1837), was made Baron Granard in 1806, a title that gave the Earls an automatic seat in the House of Lords. The 8th Earl, Bernard Arthur William Patrick Hastings Forbes, held junior office in the Liberal administrations of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H. Asquith and was later a member of the Irish Senate from 1922 to 1934.
Featured in Mark Bence Jones, Life in an Irish Country House. Constable, London. 1996.
A 19th century castle of random ashlar, built about 1830, replacing an earlier house destroyed by fire. It has two storeys over a high basement, with two adjoining fronts dominated by a lofty, round corner tower. The house has heavy battlements and machiolations; lancet windows separated by stone mullions; and a few Early English tracery windows. There is a service wing and a gateway to the yard in the French style, with a high roof and conical-roofed turret and bartizan added about 1870 to designs by J.J. McCarthy. Illustrati0n published in The Irish Builder, November 15 1880.
Castleforbes or Castle Forbes, Restored Castle. Seat of the Earls of Granard, Castleforbes is situated about three miles from Longford town, standing between the river Shannon and Newtownforbes; a 19th century cut limestone structure. Designed by John Hargrave from Cork. Castleforbes was built in 1624 by Lady Jane Lauder, wife of Sir Arthur Forbes, 1st Baronet of Longford. In 1825, the castle was partly burned but restored soon afterwards. The complete decoration of the castle was completed in 1909, following the marriage of Beatrice, daughter of Ogden Mills of Strasburg to the Bernard Forbes, Earl of Granard
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
p. 189. “Both its scale and its well-built character were contributed by its architect, for theh ouse, unusualy, is a grand domestic design by the leading Catholic church architect of the day, James Joseph McCarthy. The window openings are McCarthy’s familiar paired lancets. Above the front door is a four-light mullioned window, typical of many a church clerestory, while pointed windows on the principal tower are paired cusped lancets with a quatrefoil above, identical to those that appear in the side aisles of the architect’s churches throughout Ireland. Even the label mouldings above the windows rest on square blocks of stone that have been left uncarved, as happened with many of McCarthy’s churches. So the details of Castle Forbes come out of the office ecclesiasticl drawer and are made to serve the purposes of domestic architecture.
The Victorian house is set at the corner of a complex series of offices and yards, running as a range of low, two-storey buildings, north to a turreted gateway and a separate round turret, and west, past a battlemented tower with flanking walls, to a small battlemented block and then a long garden wall, also with crenellations, which extends for over 90 m. The house is thus part of a larger setting and was intended to compose picturesquely as the culmination of two long views. At their apex McCarthy set an ample round tower, rather too dominant in the composition, with a battered base, five storeys and, at the top, a machicolated parapet, fully corbelled out, so that a visitor can look up at the curving surface of the tower to squares of sky appearing between the corbels and the battlements. A second, square tower in the middle of the entrance front is four storeys high (with a chapel on the top floor), and the rest of the building is of two storeys set on a high basement.
Round towers at the corners of a Gothic mansion were very much part of the standard repertoire of motifs in English and Irish picturesque buildings in the early C19. McCarthy uses the motif late in its history and to off effect, as the tower has no answering element at hte other end of either the east or the south front. It makes the principal elevations lop-sided, and the soft, circular form is at variance with the somewhat institutional square style of the rest of the house. Indeed it looks like something stuck on; but it is just possible that there was an influence from the client in the choice of this feature. Castle Forbes is the seat of the Irish branch of the Forbes family, which originally came from Scotland. There is a second Castle Forbes at Whitehouse in Aberdeenshire, and that house, which was designed by Archibald Simpson in 1815, at the hieght of the picturesque movement, has a similar though slightly larger round tower set at one corner. In Ireland the family may have wanted to include an allusion to its Scottish origins and could [p. 190] have asked McCarthy to incorporate a single corner tower in the new house.
Arthur Forbes, the sixth son of William Forbes of Corss, settled in Ireland in 1620. In 1628 he became a baronet of Nova Scotia when he obtained a grant of lands in Co Longford, including a large late medieval Irish castle, whose barrel vaulted basement and first-floor wall – clearly identified by the use of rubble and boulder stone – still forms part of the entrance fron tof the present Castle Forbes. On the south side of this castle and a little in front of it Sir Arthur built a new L-shaped house: two storeys on a basement, with high hipped roofs, and a big stepped-chimney lum, on the south side, supporting a range of tall diagonal shaped chimneystacks, typical of early C17 houses in Ireland. All the windows were paired mullioned lights. Sir ARthur’s house must have been finished by 1632, the year in which he was killed in a duel in Hamburg. It was defended successfully by his widow, Jane Lauder, in 1641 and remained the family home until 1825, when most of the building was destroyed by a fire. Its appearance in the late C18 is accurately recorded by two views: a sketch of the south side by Thomas Auchtermuchty and an anonymous view of the main front dated July 1799. All that survives today is a coat of arms coupling three muzzled bear heads for Sir Arthur Forbes and a rampant griffon for Jane Lauder, with the initials AF and IL. These are above the battlemented gateway west of the house, and McCarthy’s new mansion has replaced everything else.
§om 1684 Sir Arthur’s eldest son, who had succeeded to the estates, was raised to the peerage as Earl of Granard. When the C17 house caught fire in 1825 it belonged to George Forbes, the sixth Earl; the hero on that occasion was a springer spaniel called Pilot which according to the inscription on his portrait “pulled the Viscount Forbes out of his bed when the Castle Forbes was on fire.” By this date the C17 house had gained extensive additions in two long, two-storey wings running back from the main house; and it seems that these, which still exist, were extended and adapted for family use following the fire. The west end of the long extension to the house dates from this period, with pretty Gothic castle details, such as dummy arrow slits, stepped battlements and a mullioned window copied from Pugin’s Specimens of Gothic Architecture with carved label stops of a male and female head. This work was apparently carried out to designs of John Hargrave, who possibly made part of the ruins of the C17 house habitable at the same period.
The first notice of McCarthy being employed at Castle Forbes comes from The Dublin Builder for Sept 1859, which reported that ‘a new range of stabling of a very superior character’ was to be built to his designs. The builder was to be a Mr R. Farrell. Exactly one year before, the seventh Earl, who had succeeded his grandfather in 1837 as a child of not quite four, was married, now aged twenty-five, to a wealthy Catholic heiress, Jane Colclough from Johnstown Castle, Co Wicklow.
p. 191. The new Countess of Granard had both the funds and the taste to commission a new castle from a rising Catholic architect; as Johnstown Castle, a design by Daniel Robertson, was a Gothic house with many towers, bay windows and a romantic silhouette, the style she would expect to build in must have been something similar, only bolder and more modern. No doubt when Castle Forbes was completed its hard firm details and bold pitch-pine interiors must have seemed radically different from the more delicate plaster Gothic of the late Georgian period or the tame manorial style popular for early Victorian houses.
p. 191. In 1923, not long after the eight Earl had been elected a member of the Senate of the Irish Free State, Castle Forbes was set on fire. The south half of McCarthy’s main block was burnt nd, htough the extent of the damage is not clear, perhaps it was not very great – the fire provided an opportunity for another remodelling of the house, now of McCarthy’s interior, to suit the taste of the eight Lord Granard and his American wife, Beatrice Mills. This work was largely the cocern of the Countess, who, with the assistance of the London architect F.W. Foster, extended sections of the castle to change the proportions of McCarthy’s rooms, making space for a series of historicist interiors to replace the Victorian rooms. In these alterations the dining room wall was brought forward almost to the level of the entrance tower and lost, in the process, a large bay window which McCarthy had provided to light the ‘high-table’ end of the room. On the south front two balconies, with Ruskinian pierced stone fronts, were removed as inappropriate, and two windows were blanked out when the rooms inside were combined to create one long drawing room. Behind the main house, the west extension, a gabled manorial range which probably predated McCarthy’s work, was rebuilt as a heavy, rectangular two-storey block to contain a large library.
All that remains of the Victorian interior is the Gallery connecting the hall to the library – a long, high corridor with assertive, single-chamfer ribbed vaulting, springing from sharp prismatic corbels, as in authentic late Gothic work in Ireland, and surrounding three hexagonal roof-lights, authentically C19, and filled with orange and brown staired glass and Forbes bears. The windows in the gallery are long Y-traceried lights. Niches opposite flank a large and plain neo-Norman fireplace, whose arch is decorated with studs. The Main Tower Room is also unaltered since McCarthy’s day. It has exposed pine shutters and a doorway framed by timber colonnettes with leaf-carved lintel and a crenellated cornice. [p. 192] Old photographs show that this was the standard door for the main rooms of the house. The dining room had the same and also a Caen stone chimneypiece with paired marble colonnettes supporting an armorial achievement. The Crypt, or lower hall, is much as McCarthy left it, with shoulder arches to the windows and Romanesque brass door furniture inspired by the designs of Pugin or Burges. The main staircase was of white stone with coloured marble bosses.
In her refurbishment of the house Lady Granard was assisted by two teams of decorators: Fernand Allard from Paris and Lenygon and Morant of 31 Old Burlington St, London. Allard designed the Hall and Staircase, lining the walls with elegant pale grey ashlar blocks with broad white pointing, round-headed arches and divided mirrored doors. The ceiling cornice is a reticent pattern of shallow modillions and the stair rails are light wrought-iron scrolls in the manner of Francois Blondel. The English decorators, who also fitted out the Cunard liners of this period, provided three contrasting rooms. The Dining Room is a formal square, lined in oak, with bolection-moulded panelling, adn given a trompe l-oeil ceiling of a late baroque open dome. Fluted Corinthian columns supporting large segmental pediments frame the principal doors, giving the impression of a Wren-school room of C. 1700. The Drawing Room is an English Palladian interior in the manner of William Kent, with paired chimneypieces with pedimented overmantels, fish-scaled console brackets and continuously carved mouldings. The ceiling has an C18 allegorical canvas showing the Genius of Architecture. The Library, a large rectangular room, is lined with bookcases of exposed timber boiserie with an ambitious ceiling canvas, possibly late C17 and Dutch, depicting Faith, HOpe and Charity, in a moulded central oval, with figures of the four seasons set in each corner. The Chapel contains a gilt and timber late baroque retable, c. 1730 and probably French.
McCarthy’s stableyard is approached by a detached gatehouse, a small two-storey building with hipped roof and angle bartizans with conical slate roofs at each corner. It carried an achievement of arms of the seventh Earl, carved in high relief, over the entrance arch. The wall to the north of this may be part of the bawn wall of the original castle. Within the courtyard McCarthy built a long west range of stable offices; two storeys of coursed snecked rubble with a central carriage arch surmounted by a clocktower and flanked by battlemented gables. The facade is rather flat. At its north end a small square turret carries a royal coat of arms, C16 and apparently of Queen Elizabeth.
A small tower and dovecote, SE, may have been a flanker for the C17 house.
South of the house are several mature Lebanon cedars, Spanish chestnut trees and an enclosed Italian garden, laid out on one long axis with a central fountain, urns, and yew hedges focusing on the statue of Perseus after Canova. AT the entrance to the rose garden the large Armorial eagles, carved in stone and flanking the gateway, were once the supporters of the arms of the Early of Tylney (Viscount Castlemaine and Baron Newtown in the Irish Peerage) which were brought to Castle Forbes when Lord Tylney’s home, Wanstead House in Essex, the earliest Palladian country house, designed by Colen Campbell, was demolished ca. 1812. The gates also carry an inscribed stone of 1567 recording the capture by Sir Henry Sidney of “the great rebel Shane O’Nele” brought “in Subjectino to the Crown of Engladn to the Great Joyie of the REalm” In the park the ruin of a rectangular later medieval church, rubble built with gables, has been adapted at the chancel end to serve as the family mausoleum.”
THE EARLS OF GRANARD WERE THE SECOND LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LONGFORD, WITH 14,978 ACRES
The surname of Forbes is said to be a corruption of Forebeast, which was originally assumed by the founder of the family in Scotland, to commemorate the achievement of having destroyed a ferocious bear which had infested the country.
SIR ARTHUR FORBES (c1590-1632), Knight, directly descended from the Hon Patrick Forbes, of Corse, third son of James, 2nd Lord Forbes, by Egidia, his wife, daughter of William Keith, Earl Marischal of Scotland, settled in Ireland, 1620, and was made, by patent dated at Dublin, 1622, a free denizen of that kingdom.
In 1628, Sir Arthur was created a baronet; and having, by petition to the King, made discovery that several royal fishings in the province of Ulster belonged to the Crown, an inquiry was thereupon instituted, and Sir Arthur was eventually rewarded by a grant of such proportion of the said fisheries as he thought proper to demand, besides the sum of £300 from the first profits of the remainder.
He had previously obtained extensive territorial possessions from the Crown, particularly a grant of sundry lands in County Longford, in all 1,266 acres, which were erected into the manor of Castle Forbes, with the usual manorial privileges.
Sir Arthur wedded Jane Lowther, and falling in a duel at Hamburg, 1632, where he had accompanied his regiment (he was lieutenant-colonel in the army) to assist Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was succeeded by his eldest son,
THE RT HON SIR ARTHUR FORBES, 2nd Baronet (1623-95), who zealously espoused the royal cause in Scotland, and was rewarded, after the Restoration, by being sworn of the Privy Council in Ireland, and appointed marshal of the army in that kingdom.
In 1671, Sir Arthur was constituted one of the Lords Justices of Ireland, and again in 1675, when he was elevated to the peerage, in the dignities of Baron Clanehugh and Viscount Granard.
In 1684, his lordship was appointed Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Foot in Ireland, and Lieutenant-General in the army; and in the same year was advanced to the dignity of an earldom, as EARL OF GRANARD.
He married Catherine, daughter of Sir Robert Newcomen Bt, by whom he had five sons and a daughter, Catherine, wedded to Arthur, 3rd Earl of Donegall.
His lordship died in 1695, he was succeeded by his eldest son,
ARTHUR, 2nd Earl (c1656-1734), who wedded, in 1678, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir George Rawdon Bt, of Moira, County Down, and had three sons and two daughters.
His lordship was succeeded by his only surviving son,
GEORGE, 3rd Earl (1685-1765), who had been called to the House of Lords in the lifetime of his father, as Lord Forbes.
His lordship was a naval officer of great eminence and rank, and at the time of his decease, was senior admiral of the Royal Navy.
In 1733, he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Muscovy; and upon his recall, in 1734, was highly complimented by the Empress.
He espoused, in 1709, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy, of that family (now extinct), and widow of Phineas Preston, of Ardsallagh, County Meath, and had issue,
GEORGE, 4th Earl (1710-69), Lieutenant-General in the Army, Colonel, 29th Regiment of Foot, who wedded, in 1736, Letitia, daughter of Arthur Davys, and was succeeded at his decease, in 1769, by his only son,
GEORGE, 5th Earl (1740-80), who married firstly, in 1759, Dorothea, second daughter of Sir Nicholas Bayley Bt, and sister of Henry, 1st Earl of Uxbridge, by whom he had one surviving son, GEORGE, his successor.
His lordship espoused secondly, in 1766, Georgiana Augusta, eldest daughter of Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley, and had issue,
The heir apparent is the present holder’s son, Jonathan Peter Hastings Forbes, styled Viscount Forbes (b 1981).
The ancestral family seat of the Earls of Granard is Castle Forbes, near Newtown Forbes, County Longford.
It remains in the ownership of the family (as of 2008).
The 8th Earl was the last Lord-Lieutenant of County Longford, from 1916 until 1922.
CASTLE FORBES, near Newtownforbes, County Longford, is a 19th century castle of random ashlar, built about 1830.
It replaced an earlier house destroyed by fire.
It has two storeys over a high basement, with two adjoining fronts dominated by a lofty, round corner tower.
The house is prolonged by a low service wing and a gateway to the yard in the French style, with a high roof and conical-roofed turret and bartizan added about 1870.
Castle Forbes has heavy battlements and machiolations; lancet windows separated by stone mullions; and a few Early English tracery windows.
There are also corbelled stone balconies with pierced balustrades.
The Castle remains the private home of the Forbes family, Earls of Granard.
The village of Newtownforbes takes its name from the Forbes family, having resided in the region since 1691.
The village church, built in the late 17th century, is one of the few Regency buildings of its type in the county.
Castle Forbes has its entrance in the centre of the village.
The Forbes family changed the name of the village from Lisbrack to Newtownforbes ca 1750.
There is no public access to the Castle or grounds, which are strictly private.
Although Newtownforbes geographically has always been in the shadow of Castle Forbes, it cannot be regarded as an estate village.
There are only a few houses in the centre of the village, near the main entrance to the estate, which were built by the estate owners for the workers on the estate.
They were some of the first houses in the county to have flush toilets.
The present occupant is the Lady Georgina Forbes, although she lives in France (as of 1990) and uses the castle occasionally during the year.
Lady Georgina is an accomplished horse breeder and owner.
Carriglas Manor, County Longford, photograph by Robert French, [between ca. 1865-1914], Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
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. 58. “[Newcomen; Lefroy] Originally a manor of the (C of I) Bishops of Ardagh; left to Trinity College, Dublin in C17, and leased by Trinity in C18 to the Newcomen family. Magnificent stables were built here ca. 1790, to the design of James Gandon, extending round two courtyards, with pedimented and rusticated archways; as well as an entrance gateway to the park, also by Gandon. After the failure of the Newcomen bank – which caused the suicide of one member of the family – Carrigglas was leased to Chief Justice Lefroy, who later bought the freehold of the estate, and who rebuilt the house in Tudor-Gothic to the design of Daniel Robertson of Kilkenny, 1837/40. Symmetrical entrance front, with central gable and oriel over porch, flanked by two slender polygonal battlemented turrets. Gables and oriels with Gothic tracery on side elevation; orangery on garden front. Lower service wing. Square entrance hall opening into staircase hall lit by stained glass window; stairs with cast iron handrail. Drawing room, library and dining room en suite along garden front. Drawing room ceiling with plaster Gothic ribs and cornice of foliage, coloured pale blue and gold. Gothic panels to doors. Library with Gothic bookcases of oak. Dining room with Tudor-style ceiling, and cornice of foliage.”
Carriglas Manor, County Longford, photograph by Robert French, [between ca. 1865-1914], Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
This building has been vacant for a number of years and does not appear to be maintained. Most of the external fabric remains, but there are obvious signs of deterioration, particularly water penetration, slipped slates and vegetation growth. There is no immediate danger of collapse but the condition is such that unless urgent remedial works are carried out the building will sharply deteriorate.
Carriglass is an early 19th century Tudor revival house designed by Daniel Robertson and formerly the residence of the Lefroy Family. The late 18th century stable yard and main entrance gates are designed by James Gandon. There have been major residential developments proposed on the site in the past decade, however, it has largely stalled with only the first phase of housing having been constructed on the grounds. The use of main house and stables remains unresolved. According to a local newspaper the estate was sold to the Glennon Brothers in June 2014. This building urgently requires new uses to be identified to prevent further deterioration of its character.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached double-pile five-bay two-storey former country house on complex irregular plan, built between c. 1837 and c. 1845, having two-storey and single-storey wings and projections adjoining to the southwest. Comprises mainly symmetrical main five-bay block to northeast end with central gabled breakfront having castellated canted oriel window over projecting doorcase (on square-plan), flanked to either side at first floor by gabled half dormer bays (bay to the northeast is in the form of an oriel window), and terminated by three-stage towers (on octagonal-plan) having castellated parapets. Castellated three-bay canted projection to the centre of rear elevation (southwest), having two gabled half dormer window openings to either side at first floor level, castellated four-light single-storey box bay window to the southwest side of canted projection at ground floor level. Triple-light box bay window to northeast side elevation of main block having moulded cut stone tracery/mullions with cinquefoil heads and stained glass windows. Single-storey castellated canted bay adjacent to the northeast. Multiple-bay two-storey recessed wing to southwest of main entrance front (northwest) having gabled half dormer window flanked to the southwest by two-storey castellated canted projection, and then with a single-bay two-storey gable-fronted bay and terminated by castellated two-bay single-storey block. Three-bay two-storey block to the southwest end of rear elevation (southeast) of main block having central projecting gable-fronted bay flanked to either side by gabled half dormer openings at first floor level; single-bay two-storey advanced gable-fronted bay adjacent to the southwest. Rear elevation (southeast) terminated to southwest by canted five-bay single-storey conservatory/orangery having curvilinear wrought- and cast-iron roof, glass now missing. Castellated parapet to conservatory, screening roof. Single-storey block to southwest end is partially over basement surrounded and by limestone wall with cut limestone coping over. Pitched natural slate roofs with moulded limestone coping, cut stone kneeler stones and carved limestone finials to gable apexes of gabled bays. Single, double and clustered moulded limestone Tudor style chimneystacks having moulded string courses and cast-iron rainwater goods. Moulded cut limestone console brackets to roofline, between gabled bays and dormers. Ashlar limestone masonry walls over moulded chamfered plinth with moulded string courses between floors to main body of building and separating each stage of towers; carved limestone coats of arms to a number of gables. Engaged moulded limestone buttresses to number of canted bays and to corners of box bay windows, rising to finials over. Square-headed window openings to main block having chamfered limestone surrounds and sills, and having single, paired and multi-pane segmental-headed timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed window openings to service wing (southwest) having single, paired and multipane square-headed timber sliding sash windows. Replacement windows to some openings. Chamfered cut limestone mullions to paired and multi-pane window openings. Cut stone label mouldings over a number of window openings, particularly at ground floor level to main block. Square-headed window openings to towers (northwest elevation) having chamfered surrounds and sills, carved limestone label mouldings over, and segmental-headed tow-over-two-pane timber sliding sash windows. Tudor-arched door opening, set in square-headed limestone surround, to centre of entrance front (northwest) having quatrefoil motifs to head and carved, flanking shafts with label moulding having heraldic label stops, and with timber panelled double doors. Flight of limestone steps to entrance. Square-headed French door opening to central canted projection to rear of main block (southeast) having glazed timber doors. Doorway reached by flight of cut limestone steps flanked to either side by ashlar limestone plinth walls having moulded limestone coping over. Five-bay single-storey conservatory to rear (southeast) at the southwest end having remains of curvilinear cast-and wrought-iron roof with ornate console brackets. Castellated parapets with buttresses between bays rising to gabled finials over. Ashlar limestone masonry with moulded eaves course to castellated parapet. Wide Tudor-arched window openings, some with remains of multi-light timber window fittings. Located in an elevated site within extensive mature parkland grounds, and located to the northeast of Longford Town. Gateway to the southwest of house comprising a pair of outer ashlar limestone gate piers (on octagonal plan) having moulded limestone caps, inner tapered ashlar limestone screen walls having spear-headed cast-iron railings over, and terminating in pair of wrought- and cast-iron openwork piers with double leaf wrought-iron gates. Low ashlar limestone wall to the rear (southeast) of house having gateway comprising a pair of ashlar limestone gate piers (on octagonal-plan) having moulded limestone caps and wrought-iron double gates.
This rambling Tudor Revival or Elizabethan house, with its dramatic roofline of Tudoresque chimneystacks, turrets and gabled projections, is one of the finest houses of its type and date in the country. It is well-built using ashlar limestone masonry and is extensively detailed with carved and cut limestone of the highest quality (the main masonry contractor involved was William Dennin, while Andrew Coffey was responsible for the carved coats-of-arms and much of the detailing). The principal entrance front of the main elevation (northwest) is almost symmetrical, with its central gabled bay flanked to either side by three-stage towers on octagonal-plan, but the other elevations of the main block and to the ancillary wings are irregular, which creates an interesting plan with contrasting elevations and perspectives. Unusually for a country house of its size and date, the service wings are treated with the same architectural flair as the main house, and not hidden within a courtyard to the rear or in the basement as is more commonly encountered. The plan of the building is deceptively simple, the main block is essentially a plain rectangle, which through the addition of soaring towers and lofty Tudor style chimneystacks, acquires an almost theatrical façade. The Tudor Gothic theme culminates in the frivolous and playful conservatory/orangery to the rear. This conservatory, with its arcade of pointed arches, is reminiscent of the later French Gothic style with its towering gabled buttresses, tall wide window openings and thin walls. Carrigglas Manor is a fine example of the nineteenth century penchant for dramatic, sixteenth-century architecture given a romantic interpretation. Carrigglas Manor was built to designs by Daniel Robertson (died 1849), for Thomas Langlois Lefroy (1776 – 1869), Baron of the Court of Exchequer in 1841 and later the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland (from 1852). Reputedly, the character Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was based on the Thomas Lefroy (they met in England when Lefroy was attending college there). The architect of Carrigglas, Daniel Robertson, came to Ireland in 1829 after working on a number of Oxford colleges, buildings that are frequently built in the Tudor or Elizabethan style, which must have influenced Robertson’s Tudor-Revival designs of which he is a noted exponent. Robertson received many commissions following his arrival in Ireland, mainly for country house work (mostly in a Tudor style) in the south eastern counties, particularly in Counties Wexford and Carlow. Carrigglas is his only known commission in the north midlands. The present Carrigglas Manor is built on the site (or close to the site) of an earlier house (LF014-116—-). The estate (and house?) was originally a manor of the Church of Ireland Bishops of Ardagh. The estate was left to Trinity College, Dublin, in the seventeenth-century and was later leased by Trinity, c. 1695 (deed), to the Newcomen family (later the Gleadowe-Newcomen family). It appears to have been bought by the Newcomen family in 1772. The owner/resident at the turn of the nineteenth-century, Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, commissioned James Gandon (1742 – 1823), the architect responsible for a number of structures at Carrigglas (including the stables (13401415), to design a neoclassical villa for him at Carrigglas. However, he later went bankrupt, following the collapse of the Newcomen Bank, before work could start on this house/villa. The Newcomen family had lived in Longford, (at Mosstown, Keenagh, amongst other places) , from the early-seventeenth century. Carrigglas Manor was leased to, and later bought, by the above Thomas Lefroy, c. 1833 (newspaper). This fine house forms the centrepiece of an extensive collection of related structures at Carrigglas, which represents one of the most important demesnes in north Leinster. The estate remained in the possession of the Lefroy family until c. 2005.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Farmyard complex and stable block associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414), built c. 1792 and c. 1800, comprising two courtyard enclosures, arranged along the same axis, with arched carriage arches. Complex of two-storey ranges to the northeast formerly in use as stableyard, complex of single-and two-storey outbuildings to the southwest formerly in use as agricultural yard. Two-storey workers houses to site. Currently out of use. Complex to the northeast comprises two-storey entrance range with central pedimented breakfront having round-headed carriage arch, hipped natural slate roof with rendered chimneystack. Coursed rubble limestone masonry walls to exterior, dressed ashlar limestone to interior. Pedimented breakfront consisting of ashlar limestone over chamfered impost course with rusticated limestone masonry to plinth. Chamfered pediment with carved dentils over sculpted limestone plaque (rectangular) having guttae to base. Round-headed groin-vaulted arch (brick) with timber panelled doors. Square-headed window openings to northeast side (exterior) having two-over-two timber sliding sash windows with limestone sills. Segmental-headed openings to interior of courtyard (southwest), ground floor having replacement timber windows with limestone sills and timber battened doors. Square-headed openings to first floor, some with two-over-two timber sliding sash windows and all retaining limestone sills. Multiple-bay two-storey ranges to the southeast and northwest sides of yard (northeast courtyard) having hipped natural slate roofs with brick chimneystacks to south-east range. Ashlar limestone masonry walls. Segmental-headed window openings to ground floors having six-over-six timber sliding sash windows, some with fixed glazed windows. Square-headed windows openings to first floor some with three-over-three timber sliding sash windows, all with limestone sills. Serliana/Venetian-type window openings to northeast side elevations of southeast and northwest ranges. Segmental-headed door openings to ground floors (main axis of southeast and northwest ranges, inner faces) with timber battened half doors having cut limestone thresholds. Round-headed openings to end-bays leading to flight of steps to first floor of southeast and northwest ranges. Two-storey range to southwest side of northeast courtyard (range dividing the two courtyards) comprising three-bay two-storey central block with pedimented breakfront flanked by single-storey recessed sections with round-headed openings and terminated to either side by two-bay two-storey end blocks. Hipped natural slate roofs with brick chimneystacks to outer blocks. Ashlar limestone masonry with string course and blank roundel to pediment. Square-headed window openings to breakfront at first floor level with six-over-three timber sliding sash windows having limestone sills. Three elliptical-headed carriage arches to central breakfront with ashlar voussoirs and projecting keystones, and having timber battened double doors. Middle range (range dividing two courtyards) rendered to southwest elevation with central pedimented half dormer opening above central carriage arch. Central block flanked to either side by three-bay two-storey blocks with hipped slate roofs, cut limestone eaves course and brick chimneystacks. Segmental-headed window and door openings at ground floor level to both blocks, square-headed window openings over, outer openings blocked. Single-storey ranges to northwest and southeast sides of courtyard (southwest courtyard) having three-bay pedimented breakfront s with lunette windows to pediments to centre of each range. Hipped corrugated-metal and natural slate roofs. Painted render over coursed rubble limestone masonry walls with ashlar quoins to corners and flush ashlar plinth. Lunette windows with rusticated limestone surrounds to west end-bay of southeast range over square-headed openings with ashlar block-and-start limestone surrounds having timber battened half doors, and with round-headed openings over with rusticated ashlar surrounds. Square-headed window openings to west end-bay of northwest range having replacement glazed windows with limestone sills. Square-headed door openings with ashlar block-and-start limestone surrounds, some retaining timber battened half doors. Central pedimented three-bay blocks having central round-headed openings with recessed ashlar limestone round-headed insets to ground floors with heavy limestone block-and-start surrounds. Flanked by round-headed openings having limestone block-and-start surrounds and continuous carved limestone impost course and ashlar quoins. Arcades to southwest end-bays of southeast and northwest ranges having round or elliptical-headed arches with ashlar limestone surrounds. Five-bay single-storey section to the northeast end of northwest range having square-headed door and window openings with ashlar surrounds and timber fittings. Five-bay single-storey section to the northeast end of southwest range having square-headed door and window openings with ashlar surrounds and timber fittings. Round-headed lunette openings over door openings having ashlar surrounds. Round-headed openings over with ashlar surrounds Southwest range comprising central three-bay two-storey breakfront with stepped ashlar limestone bellcote, flanked to either side by slightly recessed single-storey ranges with arcades of four elliptical-headed carriage arches with ashlar limestone surrounds. Hipped corrugated-metal roof to two-storey section, hipped natural slate roofs to single-storey sections to either side. Ashlar limestone round-headed openwork stepped bellcote with bell to centre of breakfront, above elliptical-headed entrance arch with ashlar limestone surrounds. Ashlar limestone masonry walls to ground floor with carved impost course and painted render over coursed rubble limestone masonry walls to first floor having limestone quoins to corners. Square-headed window openings at first floor level with limestone block-and-start surrounds having six-over-six timber sliding sash windows and limestone sills. Southwest range, southwest (outer) elevation comprises central single-bay block with projecting rusticated limestone masonry walls with carved impost course and recessed central elliptical-headed carriage arch with metal sheeted double doors. Single-storey rubble stone walls to either side. Located with the grounds of Carrigglas Manor, to the west of the main house, and to the northwest of Longford Town centre.
Appraisal
These two courtyards of outbuildings associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414) represent one of the best examples of their type in Ireland. They were designed by James Gandon (1742 – 1823) and were constructed between c. 1792 and c. 1804. This complex comprises an elegantly proportioned walled rectangle divided into two courtyards with a stable block to the northeast and a more architecturally plain and rustic, but nevertheless, impressive, agricultural/farmyard complex to the southwest. The differing architectural treatment of the yards has been interpreted as a metaphor for the superior status of the horse over agricultural/farmyard activity (Craig 1982, 240). Casey and Rowan (1993, 180) suggest that the stableyard was constructed first, c. 1792 and that the farmyard was added later. Entrance to the yards is through arched gateways that act as a central focus to the complexes. The arched entrance to the central range dividing the two courtyards, formerly had a cupola over, now no longer extant. The highest quality materials have been used throughout the fabric of these structures and they survive in good condition despite being out of use for a considerable period, which is testament to the quality of the original construction. The classical language of Gandon’s architecture is given free reign in these functional yet highly refined structures. The entrance ranges are distinguished from the side ranges, which housed the stables, animal houses and possibly also accommodation for farm workers, by the austere pedimented breakfronts with limited ornamentation. The relative scarcity of decoration lends a force and gravity to Gandon’s architecture that is immediately apparent when compared to the picturesque and frivolous Carrigglas Manor, an Elizabethan or Tudor-Gothic revival house, designed by a leading proponent of the style, Daniel Robertson (died c. 1849) c. 1837. This complex was commissioned by Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, the owner of Carrigglas Demesne at the time of construction. Gleadowe-Newcomen also commissioned Gandon to design a neoclassical villa for him at Carrigglas. However, Gleadowe-Newcomen later went bankrupt, following the collapse of the Newcomen Bank, before work could start on this house/villa. This impressive complex forms an integral element of a group of related structures associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414), which represents one of the most important demesnes in north Leinster.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
“Typical of Gandon’s manner are the shallow mutules below the pediment cornice and the blank tablet with guttae set above the arch.” (Buildings of Ireland p. 180)
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
p. 179
“Two highly distinctive periods of Irish architecture and two of its most distinguished personalities are represented by the buidings at Carriglass. The stables, farmyard and triumphal arch entrance were designed by James Gandon between 1792 and 1804; and the house was built to the designs of Daniel Robertson from 1838-1845. Gandon is Ireland’s greatest classicist, and Robertson the undisputed master of the picturesque manor house. ..The estate, which appears as both Carrickglass and Kerryglass, belonged to the Gleadowe-Newcomen family. Gandon’s client in 1792 was Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, a banker whose buisiness kept him principally in Dublin and who, with characteristic practicality, developed the stabels, gardens and farm buildings of the estate before tackling the house. Gandon drew up plans for an unusal neoclassical villa,.. But the design was never built. His stables and farmyard capture something of the severe excellence promised in his villa scheme. They are laid out axially as two large interconnecting courtyards, with arched gateways set acress the longer central axis. The stable yard, at the north end, is of ashlar limestone, while the farmyard, to the south, uses a more rustic effect, with rendered, lime-washed walls, set off with dark limestone trim. This yard is surrounded by long low buildings, while the stableyard is of uniform two-storey blocks. The contrast probably means that the stables were built [p. 180] on their own around 1792, and that the farmyard was added later, certainly by 1804. The stylistic difference has also bee interpreted (by Maurice Craig and the Knight of Glin) as a metaphor for the superior status accorded to the horse over mere agricultural activity, a distinction which is carried through to the archways that give entrance to the yards. Teh stable arch is heroic, a cubic mass of stone pierced by a wide round-headed opening with a shallow pediment above. Typical of Gandon’s manner are the shallow mutules below the pediment cornice and the blank tablet with guttae set above the arch.”
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Gateway serving Carrigglas Manor (13401414), built c. 1795, comprising central round-headed triumphal arch flanked to either side (east and west) by screen walls with integral pedestrian entrances and terminated by single-storey gate lodges. Now out of use. Triumphal arch constructed of ashlar limestone with carved limestone entablature having dentils and roundel motifs with sculpted swags. Projecting impost course over carved plaques and having round-headed niches to lower parts of piers. Double-leaf wrought- and cast-iron gates to archway. Gateway flanked to either side by ashlar limestone walls having cut limestone coping over and with square-headed pedestrian openings having single leaf wrought- and cast-iron gates. Three-bay single-storey gate lodges to east and west, aligned north to south with single-bay end elevation to front (south) having hipped natural slate roofs with brick chimneystacks. Ashlar limestone walls (dressed walls below string course, smooth finish over) over projecting ashlar limestone plinth with flush ashlar quoins to corners, cut limestone string course over window openings, and with cut limestone eaves course. Segmental-headed window openings having carved limestone sills, some openings with remains of six-over-six timber sash sliding windows. Segmental-headed door openings having remains of timber doors. Set back from the road to the northeast of Longford. Located to the southeast of Carrigglas Manor, at the start of long approach avenue to the house through wooded parkland.
Appraisal
This elaborate and impressive gateway, incorporating two gate lodges, constitutes the main entrance to Carrigglas Manor (13401414), and acts as a fitting prelude to this important demesne. The gateway is attributed to the renowned classical architect James Gandon (1742 – 1823), the architect responsible for the designs of a number of structures at Carrigglas (including the stables (13401415) built between 1792 and 1804, and designer of both the Custom House and the Four Courts in Dublin. Indeed the form of this gateway is quite similar in style to those found along the screens to the front of the Four Courts (Casey and Rowan 1993) and at the Custom House. The gateway makes a strong, formal architectural statement with its central triumphal arch surmounted by a heavy entablature having symmetrical, flanking walls. The decoration is secondary to the architecture of the structure, but is nonetheless refined and skillfully executed. The gateway retains its ornate double leaf wrought- and cast-iron gates and flanking single leaf gates, which are a fine examples of the quality of metal work being produced at the time. This gateway was built at the expense of Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, the owner of the Carrigglas Manor at the time of construction. He later went bankrupt, following the collapse of the Newcomen Bank, and before work could start on a neoclassical villa that Gleadowe-Newcomen commissioned Gandon to design. Carrigglas Manor was leased to, and later bought, by Thomas Lefroy, a distinguished lawyer, in the early-nineteenth century, and it was Lefroy who built the present Carrigglas Manor (13401414) from c. 1837. This gateway and the gate lodges forms part of an extensive collection of structures associated with Carrigglas Manor, which is one of the most important demesnes in north Leinster.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached three-bay two-storey former gardener’s house associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414), built c. 1800, having lean-to single-bay single-storey extensions to either gable end (southwest and northeast), set flush with front elevation (southeast). Single-storey lean-to outbuilding attached to the rear (northwest). Now ruinous and out of use. Pitched natural slate roofs with raised tooled cut limestone verges and red brick chimneystacks to gable ends, cast-iron rainwater goods and having a tooled cut limestone eaves course. Constructed of red brick (Flemish bond). Square-headed window openings to first floor with semi-circular/lunette window opening to centre-bay, all having tooled limestone sills. Round-headed window openings to the ground floor set in round-headed recessed arches having tooled limestone sills. Remains of three-over-three pane timber sash windows at first floor level and round-headed timber sliding sash windows at ground floor level. Remains of three-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows to the rear elevation (northwest) at first floor level; ground floor openings to rear now blocked. Remains of panelled timber shutters to interior. Round-headed doorway to the centre of main elevation (southeast) set in round-headed recess having battened timber door with cast-iron fittings and the remains of timber fanlight over. Located within walled garden (13400913) formerly associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414). Gateway to the east comprising a pair of dressed limestone gate piers (on square-plan) having moulded capstones and wrought-iron double gates.
Appraisal
This interesting, well-proportioned and sophisticated structure was probably originally built as a gardener’s house associated with the oval-shaped walled garden (13400913) in which it still forms the visual focus. Although ruinous and out of use, it retains its early form and character. The proportions and architectural language is classical, and it is unusually grand for a building of its type. The attention to detailing in its design is exhibited through features such as the shallow recessed window and door surrounds to the ground floor and the semi-circular/lunette window to the centre-bay at first floor level. The red brick front façade blends in with the surrounding brick-lined walled garden, which almost acts like quadrant walls/wings. This building originally served the Carrigglas Demesne and it forms part of an extensive collection of related structures associated with this country house. The accomplished classical architecture of this building suggests that it may have been built to designs by James Gandon (1742 – 1823), the foremost architect working in Ireland at the time, and the architect who designed the very fine complex of outbuildings and stable block (13401415) and the triumphal arch (13401409) at Carrigglas Manor for the Glendowe-Newcomen family (built between c. 1792 and 1804). This building, although now sadly ruinous, is an important element of the built heritage of Longford. The well-crafted gateway to the east adds to the setting.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached two-bay single-storey with attic storey former gate lodge serving Carrigglas Manor (13401414), built c. 1840, having castellated open porch with Tudor-arch to end-bay, front elevation (south), castellated bay window with mullions to west elevation (road) and flat roofed extension to rear elevation (north). Pitched natural slate roof with central rendered chimneystack (modern) and ornate timber bargeboards. Timber brackets under eaves. Ashlar limestone masonry walls over chamfered plinth course. Square-headed window openings having segmental-headed multi-pane timber sliding sash windows; chamfered limestone mullions, surrounds and sills, and with cut stone label mouldings over. Tudor-arched opening to open porch with chamfered ashlar limestone surround, and having chamfered string course to castellations. Square-headed entrance to west side of open porch with timber battened door. Gable end faces the road. Located adjacent to entrance gates (13401411) serving southwest entrance to Carrigglas Manor, and to the northeast of Longford Town.
Appraisal
This castellated gate lodge is situated at the southwest entrance to Carrigglas Manor (13401414), and is designed in the Tudor Revival or Elizabethan style, mirroring the architecture of the main house itself. This is a sophisticated interpretation of an essentially sixteenth-century style of architecture, constructed with fine ashlar limestone masonry and with good quality cut stone detailing throughout. The windows are in the Tudor style with limestone mullions complete with carved limestone label stops. The bay window with castellations, is another Tudor or Elizabethan motif which adds further interest to the gable end facing the road. This gate lodge is attributed to Daniel Robertson (died c. 1849), a Scottish architect who designed Carrigglas House in the Tudor Revival or Elizabethan style for The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Thomas Langlois Lefroy, between 1837 and 1845. This appealing building forms part of a group of structures related to Carrigglas Manor, and forms part of a pair with the attendant gateway (13401411) to the south.
Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.
Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
p. 181. “The new house occupies an elevated site and is designed to group effectively from a variety of angles. In contrast to the late Georgian ideal, which sought to minimize the impact of the servants’ quarters, these rooms are now on a level with the rest of the house, not hidden underneath it, and are employed to add picturesque effects and incident to the design. The composition is clever, for though the principal facades are both intrinsically symmetrical, the silhouette of teh house is constantly changing, with a variety of intriguing patterns.
The key to the entrance front is the pair of tall octagonal turrets, 3 metres in diamter, at the corners of the facade.These would be common enough in many early C19 Tudor designs, but Robertson gives them dramatic impact by placing them, not at either end of a battlemented facade of much the same height, but as twin towers which rise a full storey above the slates of a low two-storey block. A gable containing the front door surmounted by an oriel window projects from the centre of the facade, with simple mullioned windows on either side and half-dormers above. One of these projects and the other is flush with the wall. The garden front uses dormers again, two on either side of a broad bay window, with large three-light mullioned windows below. Here absolute symmetry is avoided by projection the mullioned window, which lights the dining room on the west, while its pair, whigh lights the drawing room on teh east, is flush with the wall. The east, or end, elevation of the house is quite asymmetrical: two gables side by side, one projected and narrower than the other, with a square bay-window squashed against it and containing a large cupsed Perp window to light the landing of the stairs. The kitchen wing and offices extend as low gabled additions at the far end of the house. A four-bay Tudor-arched conservatory screens the service yard on the garden front.
p. 182. “the interiors have much of the charm of Regency Gothic continuing in the early Victorian age. Wide four-centred archways in the inner hall or gallery spring from cluster shafts with C16 profiles. The doors have Perp panelling and are set stilted square arches. The ceilings are flat, with plaster ribs, miniature bosses and cavetto cornices, filled appropriately with roses and lilac in teh drawing room, oakleaf and holly in the library, and grapes and vineleaves in the dining room. Stained glass fills the smaller panels in the windows. The chimneypieces are Perp-panelled, shallow late Gothic designs in marble. [note, p. 548:Perp (Perpendicular): historical division of English Gothic architecture covering the period from c. 1335-50 to c. 1530.]
in Irish Castles and Historic Houses by Brendan O’Neill
Irish Historic Houses, by Kevin O’Connor
Ownership, Mr. and Mrs J.G. Lefroy
The Irish seat of the Huguenot Lefroy family, Carriglas Manor was designed by Daniel Robertson [of Scotland] and built in 1837 for Thomas Lefroy, Lord Chief justice of Ireland, a youthful inamorato of Jane Austen. Indeed it is claimed by some of her biographers that she based Darcy on the dashing young Thomas Lefroy.
The exterior of the house is Tudor Gothic Revival in style, with gables, oriels and polygonal battlemented turrets in delighful profusion [oriel is a projecting window on an upper floor, carried on corbels, which are stone projections acting as support].
Inside, the three main reception rooms interconnect and all have ceilings adorned with plaster ribs and elaborate cornices of flowers and foliage. The drawing-room, which was the main target of recent burglary, has been refurnished with some fine, recently designed ‘Irish’ pieces replacing the magnificent collection of early 18th century continental furniture which was stolen in 1995.
The house is surrounded by 18th century parkland and a charming woodland water garden. The grand Georgian stable and farm yards were designed by James Gandon [in 1790 (architect of the Custom House and Four Courts) is the only surviving example of his agricultural work, and now houses a fascinating costume and lace museum – Brendan O’Neill]… The buildings extend around two courtyards with pedimented and rusticated archways.
[Irish Castles and Historic Houses. ed. by Brendan O’Neill, intro. by James Stevens Curl. Caxton Editions, London. 2002: The beautifully restored interiors of the house have some charming plasterwork ceilings with appropriate symbolism: grapes and vines – the symbol of a good table – in the dining-room; oak leaves for wisdom in the library; and roses and lillies in the drawing-room.
Carrigglas Manor House - Tudor Revival style manor house built with blue-grey limestone in 1837 by Thomas Langlois Lefroy of Huguenot descent and is still owned by the Lefroy family. The house is a private residence.
The main entrance gates to Carrigglas Manor, County Longford. These were designed c.1795 for the estate’s then-owner Sir William Newcomen whose family owned one of Ireland’s most successful private banks. The gateway was part of a large scheme for Carriglas commissioned from James Gandon, of which only this and the interlinked stable and farmyards were actually built. Sir William’s son, Sir Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen lacked his father’s acumen and when the bank collapsed in 1825 he shot himself. Carrigglas then passed into the ownership of a clever lawyer, Thomas Lefroy, today best-remembered as the possible object of Jane Austen’s amorous intentions. His descendants remained at Carrigglas until 2005 when the estate was sold to a property company called Thomas Kearns Developments which proceded to wreak havoc on the place, cutting down large swathes of ancient woodland and throwing up cheap housing before – like Sir Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen – going bust. Three years ago Carrigglas was bought by a local company, Glennon Brothers, but since then little seems to have happened other than that the existing buildings around the estate have deteriorated further. Such is the case with the entrance, a triumphal arch flanked by low walls that conclude in a pair of lodges: stylistically it has many similarities with the entrances to the Four Courts in Dublin, also designed by Gandon. Unfortunately neglect in recent years means the ashlar blocks are beginning to shift, thereby putting the entire ensemble at risk. The structure is, of course, listed for protection.
Almost big enough to serve as a punchbowl, this exquisitely simple piece of Irish silver dates from 1778 and was made in Dublin by Matthew West, a member of the family which continued operating as the country’s oldest jewellers until its Grafton Street premises closed two years ago. Due to be auctioned by Adam’s on Tuesday, the bowl is one of a number of lots coming from Carrigglas Manor, County Longford. Like a great many Irish houses, the Carrigglas estate has had what can best be described as a chequered history. Originally part of the estates of the Bishop of Ardagh, the lands were acquired by Trinity College, Dublin before passing into the hands of the Newcomen family who operated one of 18th century Ireland’s most successful banks; designed in 1781 by Thomas Ivory, its former premises still stands on Lord Edward Street, Dublin, albeit enlarged in size. Clearly the Newcomens appreciated fine architecture since they commissioned a range of new buildings on their Carrigglas estate from the greatest architect of the period, James Gandon, responsible for both the Custom House and the Four Courts in Dublin. Unfortunately, of Gandon’s designs only the main entrance gates and the double stable yard were completed before the Newcomen Bank went into decline; on its ignominious collapse in 1825, the institution’s head, Sir Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen, 2nd Viscount Newcomen, shot himself in his office.
Following this catastrophe, Carrigglas was acquired by a successful Irish barrister called Thomas Lefroy. Today Lefroy is best remembered as the possible object of Jane Austen’s amorous attentions and, arising from this, as inspiration for the character of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice; in the rather fanciful 2007 film Becoming Jane, Lefroy was played by James McAvoy. He certainly knew and saw a great deal of Austen in 1796, being mentioned several times in her letters and on one occasion was described by her as ‘a very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man’ with whom she admitted to having flirted. However, the following year he became engaged to Mary Paul, sister of a college friend, marrying her on completion of his legal studies in 1799. Ultimately becoming Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1852, some fifteen years earlier Lefroy had requested architect Daniel Robertson to design a new house for him at Carrigglas in the Tudoresque idiom. This remained in the hands of successive generations of the family, finally being inherited in the mid-1970s by Jeffry and Tessa Lefroy. Like many other people in their position, they struggled with managing the place and trying to make it generate sufficient income. To this end, they opened the house to day visitors and paying guests. But by the start of the present millennium it was clear the battle for survival was never going to be won and in 2005 the Lefroys sold Carrigglas to a property company which trumpeted its intentions to preserve the estate. Writing in The Times in March that year, Tessa noted that many old Irish houses had been lost over the previous decades but ‘thankfully, Carrigglas’ future is secure: it is going to be turned into a country house hotel development with new homes in the grounds. The planning laws are now so strict that the house and yards must be restored to their former glory.’ Would that this had been the case. Far from taking care of the main house, stable yards and so forth, the only thing Carrigglas’ new owners, Thomas Kearns Developments, did was to strip large stretches of the parkland of trees and start throwing up rows of houses notable for their lack of sympathy with the surroundings. And before this work could be completed, the company ran into financial trouble; by autumn 2007 sub-contractors on the site had withdrawn their labour. The following spring the Bank of Ireland, which had advanced €35 million, called in accountants to assess the project’s viability. It was glaringly obvious this scheme had no future, especially after Thomas Kearns Developments went into liquidation and Carrigglas went into a limbo from which it may never emerge. Over the intervening four years, as these photographs make plain, the place has been allowed to suffer neglect, almost the only attention it receives coming from vandals.
The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage classifies the complex of inter-related structures at Carrigglas as representing ‘one of the most important demesnes in north Leinster.’ This designation did not stop the authorities of Longford County Council from granting permission for the estate’s irrevocable despoilment with that addition of over 300 residential units, a hotel, spa and inevitable golf course. Nor, it would appear, have the same authorities shown much concern for the preservation of what remains, not least the important group of Gandon buildings which are without peer anywhere else in the country. The silver bowl being auctioned on Tuesday will no doubt find a new owner and be much cherished. Regrettably the same good fortune cannot be hoped for Carrigglas. To paraphrase Jane Austen, It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an estate in the possession of a receiver, must be in want of a saviour.
With thanks to Brendan Harte and Mary Morrissey for their photographs.
THE LEFROYS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LONGFORD, WITH 4,229 ACRES
The LEFROYS are of Flemish extraction, and emigrated from Cambrai to England in the time of the Duke of Alva’s persecutions, settling at Canterbury, Kent.
The first settler, about 1559, was
ANTOINE LEFROY, a native of Cambrai, who settled in Canterbury ca 1587, where his descendants followed the business of silk dying.
His descendent in the fourth generation,
THOMAS LEFROY (1680-1723), of Canterbury, married Phœbe, daughter of Thomas Thomson, of Kenfield, by Phœbe his wife, daughter of William Hammond, of St Alban’s Court, Kent, and granddaughter of the Rt Hon Sir Dudley Digges, of Chilham Castle, Kent, Master of the Rolls, and had a son,
ANTHONY LEFROY (1703-79), of Leghorn and Canterbury, who married, in 1738, Elizabeth, sister of Benjamin Langlois MP, many years Under Secretary of State, and had (with one daughter, Phoebe, married to an Italian nobleman), two sons,
ANTHONY PETER;
Isaac Peter George.
The elder son,
ANTHONY PETER LEFROY (1742-1819), Lieutenant-Colonel, 9th Dragoons, married, in 1765, Anne, daughter of Colonel Gardiner, and had issue,
THOMAS LANGLOIS, of whom hereafter; Anthony, an army captain; Benjamin, ancestor of Jeremy John Elton Lefroy MP; Christopher; Henry (Rev), Vicar of Santry.
The eldest son,
THE RT HON THOMAS LANGLOIS LEFROY (1776-1869), of Carrigglas Manor, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF IRELAND, espoused, in 1799, Mary, only daughter and heir of Jeffry Paul, of Silver Spring, County Wexford, member of the younger branch of the family of Sir Robert Paul Bt, and had issue,
ANTHONY, his heir; THOMAS PAUL, succeeded his brother; Jeffry (Very Rev), Dean of Dromore; George Thomson; Jane Christmas; Anne; Mary Elizabeth.
Lord Chief Justice Lefroy, one of the most distinguished lawyers of his time, was called to the Bar in 1797, and appointed a Bencher of the King’s Inn, 1819.
He was MP for Trinity College, Dublin, from 1830 until his elevation to the Bench, which took place in 1841, when he was appointed a Baron of the Exchequer.
He was appointed Lord Chief Justice in 1852.
The eldest son,
ANTHONY LEFROY JP DL (1800-90), of Carrigglas Manor, MP for Trinity College, Dublin, 1858-70, County Longford, 1830-47, High Sheriff of County Longford, 1849, married, in 1824, Jane, eldest daughter of Robert Edward, 1st Viscount Lorton, and granddaughter of Robert, 2nd Earl of Kingston, and had issue,
Thomas, died an infant; Frances Jane; Mary Louisa.
Mr Lefroy was succeeded by his brother,
THOMAS PAUL LEFROY QC (1806-91), of Carrigglas Manor, County Court Judge of Down, Chancellor of the Diocesan Court of Down, Connor and Dromore, Bencher of the King’s Inns, who wedded, in 1835, the Hon Elizabeth Massy, daughter of Hugh, 3rd Baron Massy, and had issue,
THOMAS LANGLOIS HUGH, his heir; AUGUSTINE HUGH, successor to his brother; Anthony William Hamon (Rev); Charles Edward; George Henry; Alfred Henry; Margaret Everina; Mary Georgina; Millicent Elizabeth; Grace Elizabeth; Frances Anna.
Judge Lefroy was succeeded by his eldest son,
THOMAS LANGLOIS HUGH LEFROY JP DL (1836-1902), of Carrigglas Manor, High Sheriff of County Longford, 1892, Barrister, who espoused, in 1894, Dorothy Winifred, daughter of Robert Carreg DL, of Carreg, Carnarvonshire.
He dsp 1902, and was succeeded by his brother,
AUGUSTINE HUGH LEFROY JP DL (1839-1915), of Carrigglas Manor and The Lodge, Boxted, Colchester, Essex, High Sheriff of County Longford, 1909, who wedded, in 1878, Isabel Mary, eldest daughter of John Hebblethwaite, of St Clair, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and had issue,
HUGH PERCIVAL THOMSON, his heir; Augustine George Victor; Mary Elizabeth; Kathleen Grace.
The eldest son,
HUGH PERCIVAL THOMSON LEFROY DSO MC (1880-1954).
It is believed that Jeffry and Tessa Lefroy were the last of the family to live at Carrigglas.
They had moved in to the house in 1976 and opened to visitors in 1985.
Sadly, the cost of maintaining the mansion house was unsustainable and, after twenty-nine years, they sold the estate in 2005.
CARRIGGLAS MANOR, near Longford, County Longford, is one of the larger and more impressive country estates still extant in that county.
It features buildings from two distinct periods and in two different architectural styles.
The present manor house is built on, or close to, the site of an earlier house.
The estate was originally a manor of the Anglican Bishops of Ardagh.
It was left to Trinity College, Dublin, in the 17th century and was later leased by Trinity College, ca 1695, to the Newcomen family (later the Gleadowe-Newcomen family).
The estate appears to have been later bought by the Newcomens in 1772.
The owner or resident at the turn of the 19th-century, Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, commissioned the eminent neoclassical architect James Gandon (1742-1823) to design for him an unusual house/villa.
Gleadowe-Newcomen later went bankrupt, following financial troubles that led to the eventual collapse of the Newcomen Bank, before work could start on this house/villa.
However, a magnificent stable block and farmyard with central pedimented archways, and an elegant triumphal arch gateway incorporating gate lodges to either side, designed by Gandon were built at Carrigglas.
An unusual walled garden on oval-plan and a gardener’s house may also have been built to designs by Gandon.
Carrigglas was leased to, and later bought by, Thomas Lefroy (1776-1869) ca 1833.
Reputedly the character Mr Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was based on Judge Lefroy (they met in England when Lefroy was attending college there during the late-18th century).
Lefroy engaged the architect Daniel Robertson (d 1849) to design a new house for him at Carrigglas, ca 1837, demolishing the earlier country house to site.
Robertson designed the new house in an Elizabethan/Tudor architectural idiom, creating a highly picturesque building with a dramatic roof-line of tall Tudoresque chimney-stacks, crenellated turrets and gabled projections that ranks as one of the finest buildings of its type in Ireland.
Robertson was also an accomplished landscape architect, well-known for his work on the Italian gardens at Powerscourt, and he also carried out extensive landscaping at Carrigglas.
The Lefroy family remained at Carriglass Manor until about 2005, when they sold the estate and grounds.
Yesterday when I seen that Carriglass Manor was for sale it reminded of when I met the original owners of this house at my book signing in Slane Castle a few weeks ago.. The developer that purchased this estate a number of years ago has left the main house in a terrible condition with half built houses and a hotel in the grounds. This house is an architectural jewel and has connections with Jane Austin.
Back in 2004 it was unveiled as the site for a new €100m tourism project which would have been the largest of its kind in Longford. Now the 605-acre Carrigglas Demesne is being put up for sale in the hope that a leisure operator might come up with a new vision or a farmer might return it to its former glory.
About two-thirds of the land is in farmland, parkland or mature woodland with the remainder containing buildings or various stages of the development with its Retief Goosen designed golf course. Agents Lisney have not declared a guide price.
In May this year another large Longford estate, the 214-acre Ardagh Demesne, sold at auction for €1.36m or about €6,355 per acre.
That average price was below the average of €7,500 per acre which smaller tracts of good land made in the county last year.
However, it is higher than the €4,000 to €5,000 per acre quoted for marginal land in the county.
At an average round price of €5,100 for farmland, Carrigglas could generate bids of around €3m, but about a third of the land is in various stages of development which means the value really depends on the ambitions of possible buyers.
Carrigglas is located only 4km from Longford town and it benefits from an attractive 11-bedroom manor house.
Two of the other five houses are in reasonable condition, while three of them, gate lodges, need refurbishment.
A 96-bedroom wing for a proposed hotel has been partly-built, as have 37 courtyard houses beside the R194 route, 59 village houses and a 21-hole championship golf course.
Foundations have been laid for a golf clubhouse. It also benefits from stables designed by the famous architect Gandon.
Lisney has set December 7 as the closing date for expressions of interest.
Originally the Kearns family company, Kearns Developments, had envisaged the leisure attraction including a four-star hotel, a romantic woodland walkway and a selection of exclusive homes.
In 2006, the then Finance Minister Brian Cowen performed the sod-turning ceremony for what its developers hailed as “one of the most important developments ever to take place in Longford”.
Please click on the above link to see the current state of Carrigglass Manor in Co. Longford. The ancestral home of the Lefroy family. This weekend I was signing books at the Adams Country House Sale at Slane Castle and I had the pleasure of meeting its former owner Jeffery Lefroy who sold the estate in 2005. A number of items in the auction were some of the original contents of his former home in Longford which he was now reluctant to sell, however needs must. Jeffery was saddened by the current state of his former home which is now in the hands of Nama who are doing very little to protect the structure. The developer who purchased the property had the intention of developing a hotel in the house and building houses in the grounds of the estate. Neither of these enterprises succeeded and now the whole estate is a desolate place.
The once beautiful dining room that contains lots for sale in the Adams Auction
The Drawing Room
Located five kilometers north of Longford Town on the T15 stands stately Carrigglas Manor. A once beautiful Gothic Revival style Manor house built by Thomas Lefroy in 1837 and was the Lefroy family seat until 2005. Chief Justice Thomas Lefroy who built the house was a one time love of the novelist Jane Austen, it being frequently suggested that the character Darcy in Pride and Prejudice was modelled on him. Carrigglas Manor was built to designs by Daniel Robertson (died 1849). The stableblock situated near the house was designed by the famous architect James Gandon. However these structures are not protected by the state and are now falling into dereliction, how can this be allowed to happen. Have we not learned from the mistakes from previous generations, do we have to wait for Carriglass to be be a roofless ruin before we lament its loss? Action needs to be taken now.
Dannanstown House, Shanballymore, Co Cork for sale March 2025 courtesy Michael H. Daniels estate agent.
€985,000P51 V022 5 beds2 baths430 m2
A delightful Georgian house dated c. 1835 set in wonderful grounds and commanding a superb position overlooking the river Awbeg. Mitchelstown 18 km | Fermoy 18 km | Mallow 19 km | Cork 44 km | M8 Motorway 18 km Cork Airport 50 minutes | Shannon Airport 80 minutes | Dublin Airport 160 minutes (All distances and times approximate) Entrance Hall | Double Drawing Room | Dining Room | Kitchen | Cloaks First Floor with Landing | Five Bedrooms | Two Bathrooms Lower Ground floor with Staff Apartment | Laundry Entrance with Stone Piers & Iron Gates | Lime Avenue Secondary Drive with Double Coach House | Three Stables | Feed/Tack Room Landscaped Grounds with Mature Trees | Woods | River Walks Weir and Mill Race | Lawn with Ha-Ha | Railed Paddock | Vegetable Garden & Orchard Former Cannery Building | Trout Fishing Circa 400 m River Frontage Wonderful Views over river Awbeg and surrounding Countryside FOR SALE FREEHOLD BY PRIVATE TREATY IN ALL ABOUT 8.46 HECTARES (20.90 ACRES)
DANNANSTOWN HOUSE Dannanstown House is a fine example of a mid C19th Georgian house, retaining much of its original form and structure, and enjoying a delightful position overlooking the river Awbeg. The three-bay house was built c.1835 by Edward Furlong, manager of the adjacent large former flour mill dated c.1820. The most attractive house has a wide-eaved hipped roof and two tall chimney stacks and is arranged over a two-storey over basement plan. The well-proportioned accommodation is bright and sunny with the principle rooms double-aspect and includes three reception rooms, five bedrooms and two bathrooms with a staff apartment to the lower ground floor. The property has been well maintained with the impressive accommodation extending to some 431 sq metres (4640 sq ft.) which is presented in excellent order throughout.
There are many original features including large sash windows with shutters, marble fireplaces together with ceiling cornicing, door architraves and polished pine floors.
Dannanstown House enjoys a superb position with fine open aspects from its elevated site and south-west facing orientation and with the river and mill race directly below. The wonderful gardens and wooded grounds offer much seclusion and privacy with shrub borders and lawns surrounding the house. A lime avenue leads to a large gravel forecourt with a secondary drive to the rear accessing the coach house and stables. There are woods to the eastern boundary along the road and to the south along the slope down to the river. A railed paddock is located to the south along with vegetable garden, orchard and the former cannery building. There are walks along the river and through the woods and fields together with a delightful weir with trout fishing and swimming in summer. The total acreage extends to circa 8.46 hectares (20.90 acres) with circa 400 metres of river frontage. COUNTY CORK Dannanstown House is situated close to the village of Shanballymore, a small village set equidistant between the market towns of Fermoy, Mitchelstown and Mallow. The area is known for its tranquil rich farmland and wooded river valleys, with tributaries flowing south to the renowned river Blackwater, which runs over 100 miles west to east across Munster. There are varied and extensive leisure activities with walking locally to the Ballyhoura Hills and Doneraile Court close by and with excellent fishing to the river Blackwater and Awbeg. Golf is well catered for with courses locally at Fermoy and Mitchelstown and Mallow with championship courses at Fota Island and Cork Golf Club. The property is well placed for access to Cork city and International Airport in under one hour with Shannon International Airport offering flights to the US some 80 minutes distant
ACCOMMODATION Ground Floor Approached via a gravel forecourt, a solid timber door with fanlight over, gives access to the full length entrance hall, with a turned staircase lit by a feature arched window and polished pine floor. Situated off the hall are the bright and impressive double drawing room with original recessed sliding timber doors and the dining room, both double aspect rooms. The drawing room offers wonderful aspects to the south and west, overlooking the river, weir and open farmland beyond. The reception rooms have marble fireplaces together with ceiling cornicing and polished pine floors. The kitchen/breakfast room is also located on this floor together with cloakroom/WC.
First Floor The first floor landing is lined with book-shelving and there are five bedrooms, all with lovely views over the grounds or the river, together with three bathrooms.
Lower Ground Floor The lower ground floor is accessed by a staircase from the entrance hall together with its own external access to the rear of the house. The accommodation comprises of staff apartment with thee bedrooms, two bathrooms and laundry.
OUTSIDE To the rear of the house a secondary drive with lawn verges runs north to the public road passing a range of traditional whitewashed stone outbuildings comprising a lofted coach house/garage/ workshop, together with three stables and feed/tack room and covered open stores. The former cannery building is located off the front drive.
GARDENS & GROUNDS The gardens and grounds are a particular feature of the property with the house surrounded by landscaped grounds with mature trees interspersed and ringing the property. There is intensive planting directly around the house and on the walk down to the river and mill ruin together with along the drives. To the south are vegetable and fruit garden with soft fruit cages together with plum and apple orchard.
SERVICES Mains electricity and water. Private drainage. Oil fired central heating. BER CERTIFICATION INFORMATION BER Number 116460304 BER Rating D1 (246.48 kWh/m2/yr) BER Expiry Date 20/05/2033 IMPORTANT NOTICE These particulars are for guidance only and are prepared in good faith to give a fair description of the property but do not constitute part of an offer or contract. Any description or information given should not be relied on as a statement of fact. Some images of the property may have been taken from outside the curtillage. Neither Michael H. Daniels & Co, nor any employee has any authority to give or make any representation or warranty whatsoever in relation to the property. Any areas, measurements or distances are approximate only.
BER Details
BER: D1 BER No.116460304 Energy Performance Indicator:246.48 kWh/m²/yr
Detached three-bay two-storey over basement former mill manager’s house, built c. 1835, now in use as private house. Hipped slate roof with overhanging eaves and painted rendered chimneystacks. Painted roughcast rendered walls. Square-headed window openings having six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows with painted stone sills. Round-headed window opening to rear having spoked fanlight to nine-over-nine pane timber sliding sash window. Round-headed entrance doorway with decorative spoked fanlight and timber panelled door with flanking timber Doric-style engaged columns with plinth blocks. Five-bay two-storey outbuilding to north, having pitched slate roof, painted roughcast rendered walls, square-headed window openings with timber fittings and segmental-arched vehicular entrances with timber battened double-leaf doors. Pair of square-profile rendered piers to road entrance, with decorative double-leaf cast-iron gates set into rendered walls terminating in pair of piers. Remains of flour mill to north.
Appraisal
Dannanstown House, built by Edward Furlong, manager of the adjacent flour mill, retains much of its original form and structure. Set in a mature landscape the house is enlivened by features such as its fenestration rhythm, and materials including sash windows and slate roof. The elegant doorcase is especially interesting and is a finely executed original feature of the building. The house forms part of a group of related structures including the flour mill and solidly built outbuilding.
Detached double-pile four-bay six-storey flour mill, built c. 1820, now in disuse and roofless. Concrete-walled single-bay single-storey extension to west elevation. Chimneystack to south gable of west elevation. Coursed rubble limestone masonry walls with camber-arched window and door openings having roughly dressed voussoirs and some openings having brick voussoirs. Mill race and wheel pit to site, with remains of cast-iron machinery and metal sluice.
Appraisal
This mill, built by Richard Welstead and Quayle, and subsequently leased by Edward Furlong, though now ruinous, is an important physical reminder of the industrial and social history of the area. The mill forms part of a small industrial complex with associated structures such as the mill manager’s house and outbuildings. The survival of the mill race and wheel pit is important as they provided the power sources used to drive the mill. The double gabled roofline presents a strong and attractive silhouette in the landscape.
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. 203. “(McCalmont/IFR) A modern house in the Classical style, built ca 1972 for Mrs Dermot McCarlmont to the design of Mrs Baker-Baker; executed by Mr Christopher Jacob. Two storey seven bay main block with pedimented doorcase; single-storey wings. Generous roofs, on cornices, bold chimneystacks.”
and supplement: ” The house was in fact designed by C. Harvey Jacob and Associates incollaboration with Mrs Baker-Baker.
Martinstown was the residence of M. Walsh in 1837. At the time of Griffith’s Valuation this was a house on the Trench/Gascoigne estate valued at £10+ and inhabited by William O’Grady. Bence Jones refers to a modern house built in circa 1972 at Martinstown, Kilmalloc
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. 70. “(Ievers/IFR) A two storey four bay early C19 house with a single-storey Doric portico.”
Castle Ievers, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached four-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c. 1830, with central breakfront, portico to front (west) elevation, five-bay side elevation and adjoining late medieval castle to rear (east) elevation. Hipped slate roof with overhanging eaves, rendered chimneystacks and timber eaves brackets. Roughcast rendered walls with smooth render plinth. Square-headed openings having four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows to first floor with moulded render surrounds and continuous limestone sill course. Six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows to ground floor with moulded surround and limestone sills. Portico comprising fluted Doric style pilasters to corners, flanking engaged fluted Ionic columns supporting entablature, central double-leaf timber glazed door having flanking round-headed sidelights and spoked fanlight above. Approached by limestone steps. Castle to rear having rubble limestone walls with cut limestone crenellations having stringcourse beneath. Single-storey modernised and extended gate lodge to front (west) of site. Cast-iron gates and railings to front of site flanked by square-profile cut limestone piers and sweep walls.
Appraisal
This pleasing middle sized country house is of balanced proportions and retains its original form and many of its original features. It was designed by and construction supervised by Charles Frederick Anderson for Robert Ievers. The proportions of the house with widely spaced central chimneystacks, overhanging eaves, symmetrical windows and an over basement construction creates a sense of grandeur with these elements derived from Georgian architecture. The elaborate porch further enlivens the façade with underlying classical design displayed though the use of mixed Doric and Ionic columns. The abutting medieval castle to the rear is a most notable feature which shows an earlier use of the site with connections to the late medieval period.
Castle Ievers, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Castle Ievers, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.
Irish Historic Houses 