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. 243. (Gallwey/IRF) A pleasant stucco-faced mid-C19 house with a pillared porch on its entrance front and a bow on its garden front overlooking Tramore Bay; built ca 1863 by Abraham Denny. Fine drawing room extending into the garden front bow. Bought 1892 by W.J. Gallwey who added a wing at one side containing an attractive and unusual long room, with a ceiling of Edwardian plasterwork; it was originally a winter garden.”
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. 10. “A two storey early to midC19 house with five bay front and single-storey Doric portico. Built by a member of the Quaker family of Malcolmson, who founded the great cotton mills of Portlaw in early C19. Afterwards owned by the Bromhead family. Now a hospital.”
“In 1947 Waterford County Council acquired Ardkeen house and fifty acres of surrounding land. Ardkeen was an Italianate design, designed by J.S. Mulvany, and constructed between 1864-1866. The house was flanked by quadrant walls with gates and pavilions….”
Aughentaine Castle, Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, demolished and new house built 1954.
Aughentaine Castle, Fivemiletown, County Tyrone photo from Aughentaine Castle website.
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. 15. “(Knox-Browne, sub Browne/IFR; Hamilton Stubber/IFR) A large Victorian mansion, built 1860 by T.R. Browne, consisting of symmetrical two storey main block, and a lower two storey wing, with two very tall Italianate campaniles of equal height, one at each end, to give the building that air of near-symmetry so beloved of many Victorian architects. Open porch; two-light and 3-light windows, some rectangular, others round-headed. Prominent roofs. Sold following the death of Mervyn Knox-Browne 1954, to Major J.H. Hamilton Stubber, who demolished it and built a modern Classical house to the design of Hon. Claud Phillimore.”
THE KNOX-BROWNES OWNED 10,350 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY TYRONE JOHN HAMILTON BROWNE, of Cumber House, near Claudy, County Londonderry, and Aughentaine, County Tyrone, son of THOMAS BROWNE, of County Londonderry, by Elizabeth Hamilton his wife, niece of James Hamilton, Provost of Strabane ca 1720, and grandson of GEORGE BROWNE, also of Derry, by his wife Mary, daughter of Colonel Hogg, married, in 1795, Jane Matilda, daughter of William Lecky, of Castlefin, County Donegal, MP for Londonderry City, 1790-7, by Hannah his wife, daughter of Conolly McCausland, of DRENAGH, and had issue,
Conolly William Lecky, of Cumber House; died unmarried; THOMAS RICHARDSON, his successor; GEORGE, of Cumber House; John Hamilton; Hannah Sidney; Elizabeth.
Mr Browne died in 1848, and was succeeded by his second, but eldest surviving son,
THOMAS RICHARDSON BROWNE JP DL (1810-82), of Aughentaine, High Sheriff of County Tyrone, 1832, who wedded, in 1839, Sarah, fourth daughter of Hervey Pratt de Montmorency, of CASTLE MORRES, County Kilkenny, and had issue,
JOHN HERVEY, his heir; Raymond Saville; Conolly William Lecky Browne-Lecky; Rose Sarah; Caroline Frances; Matilda Theodosia.
Mr Browne was succeeded by his eldest son,
JOHN HERVEY KNOX-BROWNE JP DL (1841-1927), of Aughentaine Castle, High Sheriff of County Tyrone, 1887, who married, in 1867, Louisa Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Arthur Knox-Gore Bt, of BELLEEK MANOR, County Mayo, by Sarah his wife, daughter of Colonel Charles Nesbitt Knox, of Castle Lacken, County Mayo, and had issue,
Charles Arthur Hervey (1870-1934), died unmarried; MERVYN WILLIAM CHARLES NESBITT; Sarah Hannah Madeline; Augusta Caroline; Eileen Hester Louisa.
Colonel Knox-Browne, ADC to His Grace the Duke of Abercorn, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lieutenant-Colonel, 9th Brigade, North Irish Division, Royal Artillery, assumed the additional surname and arms of KNOX in 1874.
He was succeeded by his younger son,
MERVYN WILLIAM CHARLES NESBITT KNOX-BROWNE DL (1880-1954), of Aughentaine Castle, High Sheriff of County Tyrone, 1935, who wedded, in 1911, Mary, daughter of Captain Thomas Barry George, and had issue,
Mervyn Knox-Browne, who moved to Perthshire, sold Aughentaine Castle to Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Hamilton-Stubber.
It was subsequently demolished in 1955.
An ancestor of the Hamilton-Stubbers, Hugh Hamilton, settled at Lisbane in County Down during the reign of JAMES I, died in 1665 and was interred at Bangor, County Down. Hugh’s son was called John Hamilton, of Ballymenoch near Holywood. A second son was Alexander Hamilton, of Killyleagh.
MAJOR ROBERT HAMILTON-STUBBER DSO (1879-1963), of MOYNE HOUSE, married, in 1920, the Lady Mabel Florence Mary Crichton, daughter of John, 4th Earl of Erne, and had issue, an only child,
JOHN HENRY HAMILTON-STUBBER DL (1921-86), Captain, Coldstream Guards, Lieutenant-Colonel, Ulster Defence Regiment, 1972, who wedded, in 1953, Fiona Patricia, daughter of Geoffrey Wyndham Breitmeyer, and had issue,
JAMES ROBERT; Richard J, Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Co Armagh; m Susanna, dau. of 2nd Viscount Brookeborough; Charles Geoffrey, born 1960; David Hugh, born 1962.
The eldest son,
JAMES ROBERT HAMILTON-STUBBER DL (1954-), of Aughentaine, former Lieutenant, Coldstream Guards, married Carola E A Savill, and has issue,
HENRY JAMES HAMILTON-STUBBER, born in 1984.
AUGHENTAINE CASTLE, near Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, was a large Victorian mansion, built in 1860 for Thomas Richardson Browne.
This mansion house was named after the plantation castle mentioned by Mrs Knox-Browne in 1937 for a BBC interview.
It consisted of a two-storey main block and a lower two-storey wing, with two tall Italianate campaniles of equal height, one at each end.
There was an open porch; two-light and three-light windows some round-headed and others rectangular. The roofing was prominent.
The image above is shown by kind permission of McClintock of Seskinore, which contains more pictures of Aughentaine.
The house was demolished ca 1955 by Colonel Hamilton-Stubber, who built a neo-classical house (below) ca 1958 to the design of the Hon Claud Phillimore.
Land was acquired in the 18th century and a demesne was set out but not walled in.
There are many fine mature trees, evidence of the planting that took place for this imposing house.
The landscape designer, Percy Cane, planned an ornamental garden for the house and this is maintained.
Excellent distant views can be seen from the house over Cane’s double terraces and tree-tops on lower ground.
Extensive rhododendron and other shrub planting cascades below the terraces and into the parkland to the south.
Expansion took place post-1958 in the planting beneath mature trees on either side of Ballyness Glen, which runs to the east of the house in an attractive declivity.
There is a lake on high ground to the north of the house, which has an island and is backed by a wood and, further back, extensive forest planting.
It is referred to as a ‘Fish Pond’ in 1858, prior to the erection of the 1860s house.
The 1860s stables are retained and beyond lies the walled garden, which is pre-1858.
It is part-cultivated and the original glasshouses have gone except one, which is in operation.
Several bridges are necessary in the park: one, built in the 1860s, was designed as part of the planned landscape.
Aughentaine estate, near Fivemiletown, is renowned for its garden and forestry.
First published in September, 2010. Knox-Browne arms courtesy of the NLI.
AUGHENTAINE CASTLE, County Tyrone (AP MID ULSTER 10) T/001 REGISTERED GRADE A Mid-Victorian demesne parkland (285 acres/115ha) laid out to accompany house of 1860-63, subsequently demolished to make way for present 1958 house by architect Claude Phillimore. Located 2.4 miles north-east of Fivemiletown and 4.9 miles (7.9km) west of Clogher, it lies in the townland of Ballyness – the real ‘Aughentaine (Aughentain) Castle’ is in fact an early 17th century ruin 2.2 miles (3.6km) to the west (Scheduled TYR 058:012). While there is a tale that Hamilton Browne (d.1848), of Comber House, Co. Londonderry, acquired the land here around 1800 with the intention of creating a house and demesne, the work did not begin until the 1850s when his son Thomas Richardson Browne (1810-82) made the park from 1855-60, prior to the building of the house. In what was clearly a professionally designed landscape, extensive plantations were laid down to best accommodate the land, which slopes down from north to south with the Blackwater River flowing through the eastern part from north to south. Planting was focussed on the valley sides, with good perimeter shelter planting, especially on the east (Beacon Hil). Some of the once important plantations on the north side of the old demesne, notably Pea Hill Wood and Sheppard’s Wood, have been now been submerged into an extensive blanket of modern conifer forestry plantations. A number of roads were diverted in making the demesne, notably a road that ran south-north to the west of the river and the moving southwards of present Aghintain- road. It may be noted that the Cottage Wood and the park clumps south of the walled garden were all laid out in the 1850s in anticipation of these road changes which took place in the 1860s. The walled garden, reached by a steep path, also was built before the house and was present by 1858; it occupies a large trapezoidal area (1.43 acres/0.58ha) enclosed by high brick walls. It formerly was surrounded on all sides by slips (average width 8m/25ft), enclosed by banks and hedges, giving the kitchen garden a former area of 2.14 acres (0.86ha); these slips have now more-or-less disappeared. Inside the garden the ground slopes gradually to the south and was laid out in the standard traditional kitchen garden manner with inside circuit paths and two cross paths, dividing the area into quadrants. The long south facing wall was lined for much of its length (60m) by a series of co-joined lean-to high glasshouses, traces of which remain. One glasshouse survives (50ft/15m) containing datura, grapes, peaches, apricots and camellia. There is a door in the north wall and, against the outside of the north wall, a potting shed. There were formerly Irish yews in the garden centre, now the area is almost entirely under grass save for a few cultivated plots in front of the glasshouses. As we would expect, the walled garden is enclosed by woodland, though that on its south has been felled in recent years. With the creation of the parkland came carefully laid out new drives and inevitably, bridges; the most noteworthy of these lies south-west of the house and carries the rear drive from the Aghintain Road over the River Blackwater (Listed HB 13/01/050). Another bridge, also associated with the late 1850s landscaping is located along a drive to the north of the house (Listed HB 13/01/051). The original house, built between 1860-63 on the site of an old farmhouse, was in an Italianate style with an irregular plan and with walls of local ashlar. Designed by William Robert Farrell of Dublin and his then partner Isaac Farrell (1798- 1877), it was a two storey building but distinguished by four-stage square campaniles at each end. Having been sold in 1954 on the death of Mervyn Knox-Browne (1880-1954), the house was demolished on the grounds that ‘restoration and upkeep would be too costly’ and in its place the present house was built in 1958 to designs by the distinguished architect Claude Phillimore, 4th Baron Phillimore (1911-1994). This new residence is a relatively long, low, two-storey hipped-roof rendered building of asymmetric plan in a Neo-Regency Style, with a lengthy two-storey wing to the south with a large L-shaped projection extending northwards, as well as various – largely curved – bays. To the north front there is a large pedimented breakfront and extending from the
Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020 ground level of this is a Tuscan colonnade. A short distance to the west of the house is the stable yard which contains an L-shaped two-storey hipped-roof block which would appear to have been built to serve the 1860s mansion, but which seems to have been converted to living accommodation in recent years. The north of the house is flanked by a large rectangular forecourt, beyond which lies a large lawn looking onto a large lake on higher ground with a tiny island (2 acres/0.83ha), which was part of the 1850s landscape design (labelled ‘fish pond’ on the 1858 map), but was enlarged in the late 19h century, and given a boat house at the north end; in recent decades gunnera has been planted north of the lake. The area is enclosed with handsome, mature, deciduous trees. West of the house and stable block Major Hamilton Stubber planted an arboretum. This is in grass on sloping ground and a summer house built there East of the house is Ballyness Glen and south of the house are new ornamental gardens for the new house were designed by the English landscape designer Percy Stephen Cane (1881-1976). He created a level flagged area and two parallel terraces running from west to east south of the house. The flags were derived from Albert Square, Belfast. In the 1990s there were beds in the flagged area with herbaceous material, but formerly roses. A set of central steps leads down through them and the ground slopes down below the terraces. Rhododendron and other shrubs cascade below the terraces and into the parkland to the south. The crane sculptures on the terrace are a symbol of longevity. There are shrubs between the terraces and mature trees to west and east with yew trees in the front and taller trees behind. Excellent distant views can be seen from the house over Cane’s double terraces and tree tops on lower ground. Private.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 302. “(Riall/LGI1958; Barton/IFR; Wise;LG1886; and sub McClintock/IFR) A two storey late Georgian house… Originally the property of Col Lawford Miles, inherited by his sister, the wife of Rev Samuel Riall; passed to the Bartons through their daughter, who married Dunbar Barton. The artist Rose Barton, whose sister was the wife of the over-hospitable Sir George Brooke of Summerton was born here 1856. Rochestown was sold a few years later by Christopher Barton to the Wise family, for whom the house was altered 1867 to the design of Thomas Newenham Deane. The house was burnt 1922 and left a ruin, a new house being built on a different site. Inherited by Mrs James McClintock, nee Wise.”
Rochestown House, Cahir, Co Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
Detached irregular-plan multi-period country house, comprising surviving south circuit of medieval bawn with square-plan tower house built c.1450 at south corner and on site of or possibly incorporating fabric from late-twelfth/early-thirteenth-century castle, and having eighteenth- and nineteenth-century additions. Tower house is four-storey with two-bay side elevations and has four-bay three-storey block of c.1750 added to north side, having slightly advanced west bay, with further two-storey block to west presenting one-bay to front elevation and two to rear, and with lower canted single-bay two-storey entrance link between these later blocks, link and west block being built c.1885. Link block echoed in rear elevation by angular one-bay three-storey block. Twelve-bay single-storey flat-roofed block to east side east block, running on north-east to south-west axis. Pitched slate roofs with stepped crenellations to tower house and simpler crenellations elsewhere. Lines of dripstones to south and east elevations of tower house, and moulded course to base of slightly projecting parapets of projecting part of main later block and to west block. Crowstep parapet to east elevation of four-bay block, simple crenellations to west end and stepped battlements to western block. Rubble limestone chimneystack to four-bay block, with brick quoins, brick and rendered elsewhere, with cast-iron rainwater goods. Single-storey block has parapet with sloping coping and stepped crenellations to centre and ends, with moulded string course to base of parapet. Coursed rubble and dressed limestone front elevation to four-bay block, rubble limestone to east elevation of tower house and rendered to other elevations, and snecked dressed limestone to front elevation of west block. Square-headed window openings, having render label-mouldings to south and west elevations of tower house and front and rear elevations of west end of four-bay block and of west block. Pointed single-light and double-light pointed windows to south and east elevations of tower house, with chamfered limestone surrounds, ogee-headed window and pointed window with hood-moulding to west elevation and slit window to east elevation. Chamfered limestone surrounds to east elevation and east end bays of front elevation of four-bay block, with timber sliding sash one-over-one pane windows, some double. Chamfered limestone surrounds to west block. Timber casement windows to east end of front elevations of blocks and metal casements elsewhere. Mullioned timber casement windows to single-storey block. Pointed arch entrance door opening with studded timber battened door and metal strap hinges. Ruined cylindrical keep of late twelfth/early thirteenth-century date, with semi-circular staircase annex to north-east of site. Rendered staircases to stepped gardens. Octagonal-profile rendered piers with decorative wrought-iron gates, and rendered and crenellated rubble limestone walls to site entrance.
Appraisal
Dating to the late Georgian period this country house was remodelled in 1867 by the Wise family to a design by Sir Thomas Newman Deane. It was at this time that the finely-executed porch was added along with an extra storey and the flanking wings. Although in a state of ruin, architectural detailing and design are immediately apparent in the design of the house. Such detailing is exhibited most noticeably in the porch with its sculptured mask keystone and in the finely-fashioned pilasters with differing capitals. The site is further enhanced by the related outbuildings and entrance gates. The house was burned in 1918 by rebel forces and has stood as a ruin ever since.
Rochestown House, Cahir, Co Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.Rochestown House, Cahir, Co Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.Rochestown House, Cahir, Co Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.Rochestown House, Cahir, Co Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.Rochestown House, Cahir, Co Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland. Collins Press, Cork, 2010.
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. 87. “A two storey Victorian house consisting of two ranges at right angles to each other, and forming one corner of a large office courtyard. Rebuilt ca 1858 by Fulke Greville-Nugent, afterwards 1st Lord Greville. Eaved roof, symmetrical entrance front with gable-pediment and three-light centre window, above porch with Ionic columns. Sold 1917 to E.W. Hope-Johnstone; sold 1927 to the Harvey-Kelly family.”
Clonhugh, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Detached five-bay two-storey Italianate country house, built in 1867, with projecting single-bay pedimented breakfront and projecting Ionic entrance porch to centre. Various two-storey extensions to the northwest. Now in use as a private dwelling. Hipped natural slate roof with overhanging bracketed eaves and two cut stone chimneystacks to the centre, aligned behind ridge. Constructed of coursed limestone with cut limestone trim. Square-headed window openings with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows and cut stone sills to ground floor and outer bays to first floor, three round-headed sash windows to projecting bay (centre) on first floor (above porch). Square-headed doorcase to centre with glazed timber double-doors and plain overlightabove. Main doorcase flanked by narrow sidelights to either side. Cast-iron and timber conservatory to south side and extensive collection of single and two-storey outbuildings to the north, arranged around a central courtyard. Gate lodge (15401124) serves original main entrance to the northeast. Located in extensive mature grounds.
An appealing late nineteenth-century country house, which retains its early form, character and fabric. The symmetrical front façade is enlivened by the projecting Ionic porch, and by the triple round-headed windows and shallow pediment over to the centre. This house was (re)built in an Italianate design by William Caldbeck (1824-1872), a noted architect of his day, for a Colonel F.S. Greville, later Lord Greville. Lord Greville’s main seat was at Clonyn Castle (15308017), Delvin. The builder of this impressive structure was a Francis Nulty of Kells. The extensive collection of outbuildings to the northwest adds considerably to this fine composition, which is located in a very attractive location, in extensive mature grounds on the shores of Lough Owel. Some of these outbuildings appear to predate the house and may have been built to serve the earlier Clonhugh House (Ordnance Survey Map 1838), which was demolished to make way for the present structure. This earlier house is recorded by Lewis (1837) as being in the ownership of Lord Forbes. The entrance gates and gate lodge to the northeast (15401124) provide a suitably elegant approach to this grand house. An ice house survives to the south of the main house on the shores of Lough Owel. William’s Trevor’s ‘Fools of Fortune’ (1990) was filmed here.
Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.
Clonhugh Lodge, Multyfarnham, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Goffs Property
Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.
Clonhugh Lodge, Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath N91 K2P3 For Sale by Private Treaty “One of the finest contemporary country houses in Ireland, with extensive lake frontage and an accessible location.”
Description: Clonhugh Lodge is a remarkable, compact country estate conveniently situated in a sought-after and easily accessible location in County Westmeath. This outstanding property is positioned within a ring-fenced boundary, occupying a superb waterfront setting and extending to about 111 acres in total. The estate initially formed part of the expansive Clonhugh Demesne, where Lord Greville resided and held the position of Member of Parliament for Westmeath from 1865 to 1874.
The magnificent modern house has been meticulously planned and designed in a period-style for contemporary living, surrounded by picturesque formal garden grounds and sprawling parkland. The property’s elevated position offers delightful views over the surrounding countryside and onto Lough Owel. The mature grounds encompassing the house are a key feature, providing privacy and a scenic rural backdrop with an abundance of amenity.
The estate is currently run with equestrian activities to the forefront and comprises five stables, a tack room and a sand area. The land is divided into a number of good-sized paddocks enclosed by stud railing. The estate benefits from road frontage and internal roads, ensuring excellent accessibility throughout. Clonhugh Lodge offers the extremely rare opportunity to acquire a unique blend of high-quality modern assets with an unrivalled waterside setting in a central location.
Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath photograph courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.
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.
[Butler, Ormonde)
p. 23. “A shooting lodge of the Marquesses of Ormonde at the foot of Slievenaman on the lands of Kilcash Castle; built 1867 to the design of Sir Thomas Newenham Deane. Of stone, wiht gables, overhanging roofs and bargeboards. Now a residence of Mr and Mrs Kenneth O’Reilly-Hyland.”
Detached L-plan three-bay two-storey country house, built c. 1810, with remains of gabled porch to front, full-height lean-to extension to rear and pitched sheet metal roofed single-storey extension to north-east. Hipped and pitched slate roofs with ridge tiles, overhanging rendered eaves, rendered chimneystacks with decorative clay pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Pebbledashed walls with smooth render plinth and eaves course. Square-headed window openings with timber sliding sash windows. Façade and east gable have three-over-six pane to first floor and six-over-six pane to ground floor and other elevations have two-over-two pane and three-over-six pane to first floor and six-over-six pane to ground floor, all with tooled cut limestone sills. Square headed door opening with timber panelled door and overlight with glazing bars, having timber panelling to surround, latter formerly interior wall of once extant pitched roof porch. Raised area incorporating uppermost cut limestone step and having enclosing wall to entrance. Yard of outbuildings to north having pitched slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks and roughcast rendered walls. Multiple-bay two-storey buildings to east and west, south gable of former having round-headed window and ashlar limestone bellcote with string course and round-arched opening with projecting keystone. Building to west has square-headed timber sliding sash three-over-six pane and three-over-three pane windows. Building to north is single-storey with square-headed and segmental-headed carriage entrances. Walls of former walled garden to north-east of site. Cut limestone piers with cast-iron gates to newly-formed entrance.
Appraisal
This elegant, classically-proportioned house is attractively situated in landscaped surrounds. It retains its timber sliding sash windows and its external form and character have changed little since the early nineteenth century. The associated outbuildings add to the context of the house and the ashlar limestone bellcote is evidence of good quality stonecraft.
Marked on the first Ordnance Survey map as Ballyknockane Cottage, valued at £21 and occupied by Walter Asper at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. He held the property from the Marquess of Ormonde. In 1894 Slater noted it as part of the latter estate. This building no longer exists.
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. 41. “A high Victorian Ruskinian Gothic house with a fantastic carved porch.”
Bessmount Park, County Monaghan, by Peter Murray, 2020, courtesy Irish Georgian Society.
Day 7: Bessmount Park, Co. Monaghan
A nineteenth-century mansion in the heart of the Irish countryside—in this case Co. Monaghan—with its pyramid roof, and patterned surfaces, there is nothing ordinary about Bessmount Park. Somewhere within this Ruskinian riot of pinnacles, gables, polychrome brick and coloured stonework, lies the original Bessmount, a plain and unremarkable country house of the early eighteenth century. Around 1868, the Henderson family decided that it was time to spend money on home improvements. The name of the architect they employed is not known for certain; John McCurdy, responsible for the nearby Monaghan Lunatic Asylum, (now St. Davnet’s Hospital), has been suggested, but it was probably the Belfast architect W. J. Barre who took on Bessmount, with a relish equal to his Albert Memorial in Belfast—another great exercise in Gothic Revival. Barre’s re-imagining of Bessmount is eclectic in outlook and nternational in flavour. A brief description of the exterior, with its proliferating voussoirs, mullions, crockets, diapers and gargoyles, would task a lexicon of architecture. On either side of the Romanesque entrance, stone roundels contain sculpted portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Henderson, whose fortunes sprang from brewing beer and whose cheerful countenances greet visitors as they ascend the steps to the front door. A study in colours, textures and geometries, the windows and brick arcades are serried in ranks of three, five and seven. There is symmetry here, but it is an idiosyncratic, irregular, poetic symmetry. An octagonal oriel window springs from the corner of a three-storey gable, the tip of which is embellished with a polychrome brick pattern. The main tower is adorned with a roof that would look at home on a French chateau. A large music room adjoins the main house. The side of the house is as heavily ornamented as the front. No surface, that could be adorned with boss, roundel, crest or knob, is left plain. While the windows in the oriel turret have straight lintels, others are crowned with trefoils and arches. The patterns on the roof are equally varied, with triangular and rounded slates alternating with plain rectangular slates. The presence of monkeys, bats and owls in the carved capitals of the entrance pilasters is reminiscent of the Shea brothers, whose carvings on the Kildare Street Club and Oxford Museum are similarly spirited, although this work at Bessmount is attributed to the equally talented Fitzpatrick brothers of Belfast.
IGS Grants — 2001: external rendering and brickwork repairs; 2004: rainwater goods repairs; 2020: external repairs to Music Room
Pictures & text by Peter Murray from his exhibition ‘Saving Graces’ (2021)
The work of the Irish Georgian Society is supported through the Heritage Council’s ‘Heritage Capacity Fund 2022’.
Bessmount, County Monaghan, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
Originally a relatively conventional Georgian residence, Bessmount was redesigned by William Barre (architect of the Dawson Monument in the centre of nearby Monaghan town) for William Henderson around 1869. The redesign involved building a separate music room, adding another floor to the building and the addition of the many ornate Victorian features seen in the photograph. These features were designed to distract attention from the low ceilings that the original house had. Apart from the addition of the corner turret, the other main feature added was the tall water-tower and ornate porch. In the porch are lavish carvings of animals including squirrels, owls, monkeys, pelicans, dogs, fish, lizards and many others. Also on the porch are two roundals featuring the owner (the builder) and his wife.
Bessmont House Detached three-bay three-storey irregular-plan house, mainly remodelling of c.1868 of earlier house of c.1722. Originally a relatively conventional Georgian residence, Bessmount was redesigned by William Barre (architect of the Dawson Monument in the centre of nearby Monaghan town) for William Henderson around 1869.
Detached three-bay three-storey irregular-plan house, mainly remodelling of c.1868 of earlier house of c.1722. front elevation having stepped plan, south end bay gabled and having octagonal-plan oriel window to corner at first floor level supported on engaged carved limestone octagonal-plan column. Middle bay topped with tower, latter incorporating water, and fronted by gabled projecting porch. North end bay to front has canted bay window, and half-dormer. Gable-fronted music room to north having three-bay long sides and connected to house by short link. South elevation is four-bay four-storey, with projecting gabled bay fronted by bowed two-storey glazed projection, with lean-to glazed corridors to flanking bays, and gable-fronted projecting bay to south. South elevation is arcaded at lowest level. Three-bay three-storey west elevation has projecting middle bay. Hipped slate roofs, having pyramidal spires to oriel projection and to half-dormer window to north bay of front elevation, with decorative metal finials. Sprocketed truncated pyramidal roof to tower to entrance bay, with decorative cast-iron railings to top, and having decorative gargoyle rainwater spout. Pierced terracotta ridge tiles, polychrome brick chimneystacks with clay pots, cast-iron rainwater goods having decorative edging, and moulded red brick eaves brackets, cut-stone copings, and with sculpted foliate finial to gabled front south bay flanked by doves. M-profile slate roof to music room and connection, with decorative timber bargeboards to front, terracotta ridge cresting and finials. Dormer windows to north elevation of music room, with timber bargeboards, and terracotta ridge cresting and finials. Harl-rendered walls, red brick block-and-start quoins and string courses to front, polychrome brick detailing and polychrome blank arcades to water tower, brick detailing to apex of projecting bays to front, north and south elevations. Rendered panels to corner oriel. Harl-rendered plinth course to front and side elevations, having tooled limestone coping. Cut limestone porch to front has trefoil-arch opening with billeted surround, inset stone medallions to spandrels depicting William Henderson and his wife, carved foliate capitals and frieze to impost course on square-plan piers with corner columns. Three shield devices to apex of porch gable, with carved panel above and blind arcaded balustrade. Tooled limestone canted bay window has five trefoil-headed lights with chamfered surrounds, fixed timber windows, moulded brick cornice and diagonally set hipped slate roof. Paired windows to first floor front and south elevations, set within trefoil-headed recesses, with cut-stone block-and-start surrounds, mullions and transoms, with linked polychrome brick arches above. Pointed-arch window openings to second floor to front, north and south elevations, arranged in groups of three to north and middle bay and five to south bay, with brick voussoirs and tooled limestone block-and-start surrounds, mullions and transoms. Square-headed openings to tooled limestone oriel window and to openings in ground and first floors of north elevation, with triple window to ground floor of north elevation. Pointed-arch window openings to south bay ground floor to front, in group of five, with raised chamfered tooled limestone surrounds, mullions and transoms. Pointed-arch window opening to second floor to south elevation, with yellow brick jambs and red brick voussoirs, and traceried margined timber window. Square-headed window openings to rear, west elevation, and to north elevation of music room, lacking articulation. One-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows throughout (except where already specified), with timber fixed or casement frames above transoms of the more complex windows, with stone sills. Triple lancet window to front gable of music room, with trefoil heads, in tooled limestone surrounds with transoms. trefoil light in oculus to apex of same gable. Tripartite arrangement of shouldered window openings to front of entry porch to music room, with tooled limestone chamfered surround, sill and mullions. Trefoil devices to dormer hoods of north elevation of music room. Variety of single, double and triple window openings to returns to rear. Projecting double-light bay window to rear with hipped slate roof and timber surrounds. First floor level of south elevation has timber posts between groups of four trefoil-headed lights, and glazed roof. Square-headed door opening to house proper, comprising double-leaf timber panelled door with over-lights and sidelights opening onto mosaic tiled platform approached by two steps. Flight of limestone steps to front of porch to garden level, flanked by cut-stone parapets. Square-headed door opening to front of glazed south end of glazing to south elevation, with double-leaf half-glazed timber panelled door with sidelights and over-lights, opening on to nosed render steps. Square-headed door opening to front of music room with raised render surround and half-glazed timber panelled door, opening onto two
render steps. Square-headed door opening to rear at basement level, with timber battened door and tripartite over-light. Gauged-brick three-centred door opening to rear of music room, with timber battened door. Square-headed door opening to rear of music room, with timber panelled door. Random rubble wall enclosing yard to rear of house.
A modestly-proportioned Georgian house was built here about 1722, but was remodelled in a dramatic Ruskinian Gothic style by W.J. Barre in about 1868, incorporating elaborate additions such as projecting gables, gargoyles, a turret-like oriel window, an ecclesiastical-themed ‘music room’, pyramidal spires to the roof, and intricate polychrome brick detailing indicative of the later nineteenth-century date of this remodelling. The building displays naturalistic carvings in stone, probably undertaken by the Fitzpatrick Brothers of Belfast, one of which depicts William Henderson, the owner of Bessmount Park, who was High Sheriff in 1876. Bessmount Park is notable for the intricacy of its design, a rare example of such a high degree of ornamentation in Ireland.
Tour one of Monaghan’s hidden gems – a house with a three hundred year history from Georgian to Gothic revival. The Montgomery family are happy to welcome visitors on this rare opportunity during Heritage Week to enjoy fascinating stories of families, architecture, local and social history. Booking is essential as tour numbers are limited.
As the picture above shows, until the late 1860s Bessmount, County Monaghan was a fairly standard, medium-sized country house, of two storeys over basement and with a five-bay façade onto which the box-like porch had been added. With a Wyatt window on the first floor being the only feature of interest, it looks to be of indeterminate date, both 1722 and 1807 having been proposed as when originally constructed. Either or indeed any time in between are possible, since the building gives the appearance of being solid but unimaginative in its design. In the 18th century the land on which it stands belonged to a branch of the Montgomery family and in 1758 an eldest daughter, Mary Montgomery married Alexander Nixon of the now-demolished Nixon Hall, County Fermanagh. The couple’s second son, Alexander Nixon Montgomery, inherited Bessmount where he lived until his death in 1837.
Although Alexander Nixon Montgomery and his wife Eliza (nee Stanley) had no less than nine children, Bessmount was sold a few years after his death. The purchaser was John Hatchell, a wealthy Monaghan brewer who a few years later married Elizabeth Anne Speer from nearby Glaslough. Their daughter Frances Maria in turn married William Henderson whose own family were associated with the linen industry and it would seem that the couple, having sufficient funds from their forebears’ respective businesses, decided to recast Bessmount, transforming what had been a rather staid residence into something completely different.
Despite its extraordinary appearance, and relatively late date, we do not know who was the architect responsible for Bessmount’s makeover. Two names have been suggested, one being the Newry-born William Barre who worked mostly in the Ulster region and whose Danesfort House in Belfast has a very similar entrance tower. But Barre died in 1867 (that is, before work began at Bessmount) so the other architect proposed is John McCurdy, then working nearby on Monaghan’s District Lunatic Asylum (now St Davnet’s Hospital), the largest such institution in the country. Whether one of these gentlemen or another party, whoever received the commission clearly had a field day with the project, no doubt encouraged by his clients whose carved portraits can be seen in medallions on either side of the entrance porch (Mrs Henderson being tricked out to look like Queen Elizabeth I: perhaps a play on the house’s name?). Bessmount metamorphosed from a dull Georgian block into an extravagance of Ruskinian Gothic, thanks to the use of certain devices such as bands of yellow and red brick especially in the aforementioned tower (which originally served the practical purpose of holding the house’s water tanks). Asymmetry rules across the intentionally stepped façade, so that the eye is constantly moving from one feature to the next, whether the large gable featuring crests of the Hatchell and Henderson families, the trefoil-headed canted bay window that lights the drawing room or the first-floor oriel turret on the opposite side of the house. Meanwhile the south-facing garden front is enlivened by a Gothic conservatory raised on arcades, while to the immediate north a short link leads to the only major extension to the property, a large ‘music room’ that both inside and out resembles a Victorian village hall.
The interiors of Bessmount are not as remarkable as the exterior, perhaps because funds – and imagination – ran low. To a considerable extent they retain their pre-refurbishment appearance, albeit here and there tricked out in gothic finery. The majority of chimney pieces, for example, were in the original house, but their interiors now lined with pretty Minton tiles. Really the fun is on the outside, not least the porch where whoever received the commission to carve the capitals (the late Jeremy Williams proposed the Fitzpatrick brothers of Belfast) didn’t hold back. The ornamentation is lavish in the extreme, a bestiary of animal life ranging from bats and monkeys to frogs and rabbits, many of them peeking out of the undergrowth to pull a face as though determined to ruin a staid animal kingdom portrait. It is all rather droll, conveying the impression that the earnest intentions behind Ruskin’s advocacy of the Gothic mode are here being guyed. Fortunately the opportunity to relish this architectural humour remains since Bessmount still stands intact and in good order. The property changed hands in the last century when it once more became a Montgomery house, as is the case to the present. The owners are well aware of the building’s importance and have undertaken repair work where feasible. A cheering note with which to approach the year’s end.
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. 55. “(Bevan/IFR) A plain two storey house of five bays with porch. External shutters. Small battlemented tower near entrance gate.”
Detached five-bay two-storey with dormer attic house, built c. 1860, with extension to rear (north). House may incorporate fabric from earlier house. Pitched artificial slate roof with rendered chimneystacks, uPVC rainwater goods and recent rooflights. Rendered walls throughout with rendered plat bands and quoins to front (south) elevation. Square-headed window openings with rendered sills and surrounds throughout, having uPVC casement windows. Square-headed door opening with rendered surround and uPVC door to front elevation. Recent concrete outbuilding with pitched corrugated-iron roof to west. Set within own grounds.
Appraisal
Camas House is built on the site of an earlier Camas House and may incorporate fabric from the earlier house. The façade of this pleasantly proportioned house has retained a certain elegance through the restrained use of ornamentation displayed around the window and door openings. The symmetrical front elevation contrasts with the more vernacular tradition displayed to the rear elevation which lacks any window openings. The retention of associated outbuilding indicates the building’s use as a farmhouse and adds to the architectural value of the ensemble.
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.
supplement
p. 304. “[Cassan/LGI1912] A three storey five bay gable-ended C18 house. Quoins rising through bottom storey only, ending at string-course; Gibbsian doorcase.”
Detached seven-bay two-storey coach house, built c.1860. Now in use as outbuilding. Detached two-storey outbuilding, now derelict. Remains of detached house to site, now in ruins. Walled garden to site, now derelict. Double-pitched slate roof with brick chimneystack, ashlar coping; timber laths and rafters. Coursed rubble limestone walls with projecting course to eaves. Elliptical-headed carriageway to ground floor with limestone ashlar voussoirs. Square-headed window openings to first floor with limestone sills and remains of timber windows. Timber floors to lofts in ruinous condition. Former coach house is set back from road in own grounds; landscaped grounds to site (now part-overgrown). Detached single-storey house, c.1950, on site of earlier ranges. Gateway comprising monolithic piers with wrought iron gate.
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. 170. “Moore, sub Thomson-Moore/IFR) A Victorian Jacobean house, with a strong resemblance to Kintullach Castle, Co Antrim and to Tempo Manor, Co Fermanagh, which assumed its present form 1863 and has been attributed to Thomas Turner, of Belfast; clearly, the three houses are by the same hand. Curvilinear gables, rectangular and round headed plate glass windows, some of them having entablatures crowned with strapwork. Open porch with curvilinear gables supposed on coupled piers. Square turret at one end, with open belvedere and ogee spire. Now a school.”
It was a school before it was a hotel. My mother had aunts who were nuns there and who are buried in the grounds.
Irish Historic Houses 