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. 228. “(Bateman/LGI1912; Sandes and Collis-Sandes/LGI1912) A high Victorian Ruskinian-Gothic house of polychrome brick; built 1857-60 by M.F. Sandes, a younger son of the Sandes family of Sallow Glen, presumably with money which he had made as a layer in India. Designed by William Atkins, of Cork; whose initials are over the door. Large trefoil arched porch, on square piers; windows combining trefoil and ogee arches. Similar arches in the hall, on Gothic columns with polished marble shafts, screening the staircase, which is of wood, its balustrade decorated with brass flowers. The stables of the old Bateman house stand by the drive up to the later house. Oak Park is now the headquarters of the County Committee of Agriculture.”
Detached irregular-plan three-bay two-storey over raised platform Venetian Gothic Revival style house, built 1857-1860, with two-bay recessed bay having limestone ashlar box bay window to left, single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porte cochere to centre with trefoil-headed openings and single-bay two-storey advanced end bay to right with projecting canted bay window. Designed by William Atkins for Maurice Fitzgerald Sandes. Three-bay side elevations having single-bay full-height breakfront to south-east elevation with limestone ashlar flanking box bay windows. Seven-bay two-storey lateral wing to north-west elevation on a cruciform-plan with two-bay two-storey projecting bays to north-east and south-west elevations. Extended to south-east, c. 1925, comprising five-bay double-height red brick single-cell chapel return with lancet arch openings and single-bay full-height limestone ashlar polygonal apse. In use as convent, 1939. Now in use as school. Pitched and hipped intersecting slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, grouped brick chimneystack with limestone bands, and having cast-iron gutters, hoppers and square downpipes. Red brick English garden bond walls with limestone coved plinth, string courses, corner pilasters, projecting limestone cornice on brackets, and having inset crests and roundels. Ogee arch openings with alternating brick and limestone voussoirs. Cusped reveals to facades. Ashlar bay windows at ground floor. Trefoil-headed paired windows and timber one-over-one pane sliding sash windows with profiled limestone sills. Retaining interior features. Stable complex, built c. 1860, to north-west about a courtyard. Comprising detached five-bay two-storey limestone-built house retaining original aspect with door opening to centre having lancet arch relieving arch and segmental-headed openings to first floor. Attached five-bay single-storey limestone-built wing at right angles to south-west. Detached seven-bay single-storey limestone-built range retaining original aspect with segmental-headed door openings having lancet arch relieving arches and corrugated-iron roof. Gateway to stable courtyard comprising pair of red brick piers with iron gates. Terrace to garden front with brick and limestone walls and decorative urns and limestone steps. Garden converted to golf course.
Maurice Sandes was in possession of this property at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, when it was valued at £60. It is labelled as Oakpark on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey Map. In 1837 Lewis recorded Oakpark as the seat of John Bateman. Bary writes that, Killeen, the original house at this site, was a late seventeenth century house. It was followed by Oakpark, built by John Bateman in the 1820s. This is the house mentioned by Wilson in 1786 as the seat of Rowland Bateman. Maurice Sandes purchased the estate in the late 1840s and built the later Oakpark House c.1857. In 1906 this house was owned by Falkiner Sandes and valued at £112. The house was sold in 1922 and is now used as offices.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 231. “A two storey High Victorian house with round-headed windows and a steep crested roof on a heavy bracket cornice. The home of the late Major W.J.Green and Mrs Green.”
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 45. Few significant country houses were built during the latter half of the C19. Most are of small to middling size, often with minimal Tudor or Italian trim. Unpretentious Italianate is found as Lissard (1854-5) near Skibbereen, Farran (1866) and Ballyvolane (1872) near Castlelyons. The finest of these Italianate houses is Montenotte House in Cork, with its double height top-lit cortile in the manner of Barry’s clubs in London. Lewis Villamy designed Lisselane (1851-3) near Clonakilty in a loose French-chateau idiom. Gothic houses are much rarer; exceptions include Dunboy (1866-70) near Castletownbere, a virtuoso Tudor Gothic house wiht mullioned-and-transomed windows mingled with Continental motifs in an assured and robust composition.
p. 46. With its Scots Baronial stepped gables and corbelled tourelles, Blarney Castle House (1871-5) by the Belfast architect John Lanyon, is unique in Cork. The influence of Ruskin in both detailing and materials can be seen in a number of houses designed by William Atkins: Velvetstown, Ardavilling, and Parknamore. Lettercollum (1872) near Timoleague, by William H. Hill, and Thorncliffe (1865) at Monkstown, by Thomas N. Deane, are in a similar vein. After the 1880s major houses are rare, but there are good late C19 Jacobean interiors at Fota and Lota Lodge (Glanmire).
The Edwardian Domestic Revival or Free Style, which favoured picturesque forms in brick and terracotta with gables, tall chimneys, tile-hanging, and mullioned and leaded windows, is generally confined to lodges, as at Castletownsend and Castle Mary (Cloyne), and to suburban houses in Cork city. Ashlin’s Clonmeen House (Banteer) is a rare country-house example. The Pavilion at Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork, is also Free Style and incorporates some Art Nouveau decorative elements. The last great country house to be built in Cork is Hollybrook Hall near Skibbereen, in a Free Style employing classical and rustic elements, with a wonderfully eclectic range of interiors. The garden buildings by Harold Peto at Ilnacullin were designed in a similar spirit.”
p. 226. High Victorian villa of abt 1870 attributed to William Atkins. Three-bay facade with one advanced end bay and a gabled porch. Tall hipped roof with bracketed eaves. Cement-rendered walls with red brick banding and arches. Round-arched windows with carved foliate impost capitals and plate-glass sashes.
Ballyclough, County Cork, Victorian photograph, Irish Architectural Archive, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 20. “(Bury-Barry/LGI1958 and sub Bury/IFR) A two storey house with mildly Gothic C19 front of seven bays…the greater part of the house has been demolished.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
“A large two storey gable-ended house with a Gothic Revival garden front of early 19C appearance. In 1814 the seat of Colonel Bary. Demolished.“
Ballyclough, County Cork, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached three-bay two-storey former country house, dated 1904, now in use as private house, having porch projection to front of middle bay, slightly recessed south bay having lean-to addition to front, tower-like north bay, canted-bay window to north elevation and recent pitched roof extensions to rear and to south. Pitched slate roofs with cast-iron rainwater goods having decorative hopper head with raised date, and rendered chimneystacks. Render copings to porch gable and to north bay, former with ball finial. Limestone pinnacles and crenellations to tower-like north bay. Rendered walls with render plinth course. Square-headed window openings, first floor having replacement uPVC windows and render sills and ground floor having coade stone surrounds and fixed windows. Square-headed mullioned window over entrance doorway with coade stone label-moulding, raised date and surround, with stained glass. Tudor arch entrance doorway with coade stone label-moulding and surround and having half-glazed timber panelled door. Three-bay two-storey outbuilding to west, having pitched slate roof with cast-iron weather vane to east gable, painted lined-and-ruled rendered walls, square-headed door and window openings, and segmental-headed vehicular entrance. Walled garden to north having rubble limestone masonry walls with render coping and entrance to south wall having cast and wrought-iron gate.
Appraisal
This structure is the remains of Ballyclough House, which was partly demolished in the mid-twentieth century. Built as an extension in 1904, this building served as a ballroom for the main house. The Gothic Revival design of the house is reflected in this structure through the use of features such as crenellations and finely carved limestone pinnacles. The entrance bay is enlivened by coade stone label-mouldings and opening surrounds. The date plaque and rainwater goods add context to the site. The site includes the remains of an extensive limestone walled garden with an ornate cast-and wrought-iron gate and provides historical context as an integral part of the maintenance of a country house.
Ballyclough, County Cork, courtesy National Inventory.
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 233. Ballyclogh Castle, 5 storey tower house…Renovated c. 1869 by William Atkins but now derelict.
Ballyclough, County Cork, courtesy National Inventory.
Farmyard to medieval Ballyclogh Castle, built c. 1800, having seven-bay two-storey south range, six-bay two-storey west range and multi-bay lean-to north range. South range having gables, but now roofless, partly rendered coursed stone walls, square-headed window openings having remains of some two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows, one multi-paned metal window, elliptical-arched vehicular entrance and camber-headed doorway having stone voussoirs, and projecting porch to north elevation with double-leaf timber battened door. West range attached to west end, also with gables and now roofless, having pointed arch window opening to first floor with tooled stone surround, pointed arch door opening to south end east elevations with render surrounds and some timber battened fittings, and segmental-arched vehicular entrance and round-arched door opening to east elevation with stone voussoirs. North range attached to north, having lean-to corrugated-iron roof, partially collapsed coursed rubble walls, square-headed window and door openings having red brick block-and-start surrounds. Courtyard divided in two by recent corrugated-iron flat-roofed open-sided structure. Square-plan gate piers having wrought-iron gates. Recent farmyard to north of site.
Appraisal
This farmyard served Ballyclogh Castle in its latest phases. Its various buildings display some good craftsmanship, especially in the vehicular entrance arches and other doorways.
his family claimed kinship to the senior line of the Barry family, who became Barons Barrymore and later Earls of Barrymore (and who will be the subject of a future post), but the connection cannot now be established. They were already in possession of the Rathcormac estate in Co. Cork in the time of Redmond Barry (d. by 1690), with whom the genealogy below begins. The head of the family was distinguished by the honorific title ‘The McAdam Barry”, but again the origin and significance of this has been lost.
Redmond Barry married twice and had one son by each marriage. The elder son, Col. James Barry (1659-1717), inherited the Rathcormac estate, to which the ‘pocket borough’ of Rathcormac was attached, allowing the family to have a seat in the Irish parliament whenever they wished. Col. James sat in the Jacobite parliament in Dublin in 1689 and as a result was outlawed after William III secured control of Ireland, but he subsequently made his peace with the new regime, and the outlawry was reversed so that he was able to return to parliament and to hold local office again. It was probably at this time that the family adopted the Protestant religion, although that is not certain. Col. Barry was succeeded at Rathcormac in turn by his sons James (1689-1743), who probably built or rebuilt Lisnagar House, and Redmond (1696-1750), but since none of his four sons produced any children, his estates passed in 1750 to the descendants of his half-brother, Redmond Barry (d. 1739). This Redmond had inherited his mother’s family estate of Ballyclough at Kilworth (Co. Cork), which was clearly viewed as a lesser property, not least because it did not include a parliamentary seat. Ballyclough passed to Redmond’s son, also Redmond Barry (c.1705-41), who did not long survive his father, and then to Redmond’s son, James Barry (1739-93), who was then an infant and still very young when he also inherited the Rathcormac estate and Lisnagar House in 1750. The combination of the two properties gave the family a brief period of greater prosperity, reflected in the socially advantageous marriage of James’s sister in 1752 to St. Leger Aldworth, later 1st Viscount Doneraile, and in his own marriage to an heiress. For reasons which are unclear, in 1775 the Lisnagar-Rathcormac estate was sold, leaving only the smaller Ballyclough property in the family’s hands. On James’ death, this descended to his elder son, Redmond Barry (c.1766-1812), a lawyer and agricultural improver, who played a leading role in the local militia during the troubled years of the late 1790s. When he died without issue, the estate passed to his younger brother, Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry (1769-1838), who was a career soldier.
At the time of his unexpected inheritance, Henry Green Barry was stationed in the West Indies, but he managed to arrange a transfer home by 1813, although he did not finally leave the army for several years afterwards. It was probably he who rebuilt Ballyclough House to provide accommodation for his large family of six boys and seven girls. When he died in 1838 he must have felt confident that the succession to the estate had been secured. However, none of his six sons produced any legitimate issue, although his third son, Sir Redmond Barry (1813-80) – who made a notable career as a judge, educationalist and librarian in Australia – sired four acknowledged illegitimate children. His son and heir, James Barry (1805-81), married Olivia Drew, who had inherited Mocollop Castle (Co. Waterford) from her brother in 1839, but they had no children. James seems to have struggled financially in the difficult years of the 1840s when the famine made rents difficult to maintain and to collect, and he fought a constant battle against damp at Ballyclough. In the end, he gave up trying to live there, and moved to his wife’s house at Mocollop. When he died in 1881, Ballyclough passed to his younger brother, St. Leger Barry (1816-88), who was also childless. On his death, the estate passed to his great-nephew, James Robert Bury (1875-1963), who was the grandson of Henry Green Barry’s eldest daughter, Letitia. As a condition of the inheritance, he took the additional name Barry by royal licence in 1889. He had been brought up in Kent, and as a young man had travelled widely. On his return to England he arranged for Ballyclough to be modernised, and a ballroom was added in 1904. In 1906 he married an English girl and brought her to live at Ballyclough, but the First World War took him away again and with the climax of the Irish struggle for independence he obviously decided that it was not safe for the family to remain in Ireland. Accordingly, he bought a modest house in Surrey to which the family moved in about 1918 or 1919, and Ballyclough was abandoned. Some sources report that it was burned by the IRA in 1920 but I have not been able to confirm this. At all events, the estate was subsequently sold and most of the house was demolished, leaving only the 1904 ballroom, which was converted into a modest house, reusing some salvaged elements of the remainder of the building. As a coda to this story, in 1934 Mrs Bury-Barry inherited Elvington Hall near York, and the family moved there from Surrey soon afterwards. Elvington was eventually sold in 1957.
Ballyclough House, Kilworth, Co. Cork
Ballyclough House, Kilworth: a Victorian photograph of the main front (Image: Irish Architectural Archive)
A mildly Gothic two-storey early 19th century house of seven bays, with gables, large and unconvincing battlements, casement windows under hoodmoulds, and a pair of buttresses framing the windows at either end, which was probably built (or rather rebuilt) for Sir Henry Green Barry after he retired from the army c.1820. The house is said to have suffered from an acute damp problem, and despite re-roofing and refurbishment in the 1850s or 1860s it is said to have been abandoned on that account in 1877. A further refurbishment took place after James Bury-Barry came of age in 1896, probably at the time when a ballroom was added in 1904. Major Bury-Barry was still resident in 1911 but later, when the Irish independence struggle led to increased violence against the Anglo-Irish community he moved back to England, and the house is said to have been used as a military garrison. One account says it was burnt by the IRA in 1920, but I have not been able to confirm that. Certainly the greater part of the house was pulled down in the mid 20th century, but the ballroom added in 1904 remains and has been converted into a house which includes an impressive neo-Jacobean staircase, no doubt salvaged from the demolished part of the building and much re-arranged.
Descent: Sir Nicholas Purdon, kt.; to grandson, Redmond Barry (d. 1739); to son, Redmond Barry (c.1705-41); to son, James Barry (1739-93); to son, Redmond Barry (c.1766-1812); to brother, Maj-Gen. Henry Green Barry (c.1769-1838); to son, James Barry (1805-81); to brother, St. Leger Barry (1816-88); to great-nephew, Maj. James Robert Bury (later Bury-Barry) (1875-1963)…
Ballyclogh Castle is a tower-house with square bartizans at opposite corners. It is five storeys high. There is an entrance at ground level and a second entrance at first floor level reached by an external stairway. The floors appear to be in place but are badly damaged. The spiral stairway seems to be intact. The building appears to be in use as a store and the interior is not normally accessible. The interior walls are plastered and the castle seems to have been inhabited until modern times. There are good chimneys and some mullioned windows. The ceiling of the ground floor room is vaulted. The castle was built by the Barrys and forfeited by them in 1641. It was then granted to the Purdons.
Ardavilling, Cloyne, Co Cork – burned 2017, rebuilt
Ardavilling, County Cork, courtesy of 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.
“Litton/LGI1912; Beckford, sub Nutting, Bt/PB) A mildly Tudor-Revival C19 house, gabled and with a mullioned bow. The seat of the Litton family; in the present century, of the Stacpoole famly. Owned for some years after WWII by Lt-Col and Mrs F.J. Beckford.”
[The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 36. “Cork-born William Atkins was an early disciple of Pugin, designing in 1845 what is perhaps the earliest Irish church in the Puginian idiom, at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin: ‘Middle Pointe’ with lower aisles and a pronounced chancel, a tall clerestory on arcades of octagonal columns and an open timber roof. In Cork City, Atkins continued to espouse Pugin’s principles with his work at Our Lady’s Asylum and the Convent of St Maries of the Isle, begun in 1847 and 1850 respectively…. During the 1860s William Atkins also adopted C13 French Gothic forms and a wilful Ruskinian palette, in his churches at East Ferry, Leighmoney, and Rooska (Sheep’s Head.). [He also designed Velvetstown (Buttevant) and Ardavillig (Cloyne).]
p. 45. Few significant country houses were built during the latter half of the C19. Most are of small to middling size, often with minimal Tudor or Italian trim. Unpretentious Italianate is found as Lissard (1854-5) near Skibbereen, Farran (1866) and Ballyvolane (1872) near Castlelyons. The finest of these Italianate houses is Montenotte House in Cork, with its double height top-lit cortile in the manner of Barry’s clubs in London. Lewis Villamy designed Lisselane (1851-3) near Clonakilty in a loose French-chateau idiom. Gothic houses are much rarer; exceptions include Dunboy (1866-70) near Castletownbere, a virtuoso Tudor Gothic house wiht mullioned-and-transomed windows mingled with Continental motifs in an assured and robust composition.
p. 46. With its Scots Baronial stepped gables and corbelled tourelles, Blarney Castle House (1871-5) by the Belfast architect John Lanyon, is unique in Cork. The influence of Ruskin in both detailing and materials can be seen in a number of houses designed by William Atkins: Velvetstown, Ardavilling, and Parknamore. Lettercollum (1872) near Timoleague, by William H. Hill, and Thorncliffe (1865) at Monkstown, by Thomas N. Deane, are in a similar vein. After the 1880s major houses are rare, but there are good late C19 Jacobean interiors at Fota and Lota Lodge (Glanmire).
The Edwardian Domestic Revival or Free Style, which favoured picturesque forms in brick and terracotta with gables, tall chimneys, tile-hanging, and mullioned and leaded windows, is generally confined to lodges, as at Castletownsend and Castle Mary (Cloyne), and to suburban houses in Cork city. Ashlin’s Clonmeen House (Banteer) is a rare country-house example. The Pavilion at Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork, is also Free Style and incorporates some Art Nouveau decorative elements. The last great country house to be built in Cork is Hollybrook Hall near Skibbereen, in a Free Style employing classical and rustic elements, with a wonderfully eclectic range of interiors. The garden buildings by Harold Peto at Ilnacullin were designed in a similar spirit.”
P. 338. Built in the 1870s for Judge John Litton, most likely to the design of William Atkins. Irregular one and a half storey house with dormered upper windows, many gables, and a lower service wing to the north. The porch has diagonal limestone buttresses and a doorway wiht a polychromatic outer arch and a trefoil-headed inner arch, its tympanum left uncarved. Windows with limestone mullions and transoms, big bay windows to the principal rooms. Gutted by fire in 2017, the house has recently been restored.
Ardavilling Cloyne. Associated names Litton; Beckford, sub Nutting. 19th century, the seat of the Litton family. The first registered owners were the Littons thought to have come from Littondale in Yorkshire, moving to Dublin in 1660. Thomas Litton (1657-1741) and his wife Gertrude Verdoen. Their son Thomas Litton and his wife Hannah Leland] were the next in line. One of their 12 children was Edward Litton served in the American War of Independence. He was wounded in the battle of Bunkers Hill in 1775. After returning he married Esther Letablere on the 23 June 1783 in St Anne’s cathedral, the Granddaughter and heiress to the rich family history of Rene de la Donesque who was lord of the Manor of Letablere in Lower Poitou an ancient family in France. They were a Huguenot family who left France in 1685 and at the age of 22 Rene served in the military in Holland and was involved in the Battle of Boyne after that he settled in Dublin. His son was Daniel Letablere that was Dean of Tuan. He was directly involved in the silk industry in Ireland. The 4th son, John Litton (1792-1877) inherited Ardavilling. He married Vescina Hamilton of co. Donegal. He gave the first water supply to the village of Cloyne. John died in Ardavilling at the age of 85 and had no male children. He left the property to his nephew - Edward Falconer Litton (1827-1890) who was educated at TCD were he studied law. He was called to the bar in 1847 and made a QC in 1874. He served in Cork and Wicklow circuit. He was also elected Liberal MP of Tyrone in 1880/1 and was Judge of the Supreme Court in 1890. 20th century seat of a branch of the Stacpoole family. Owned for a while by Lt.Col F J Beckford after WW2.
Detached four-bay two-storey country house, built c. 1860, having buttressed gabled breakfront, canted flat-roofed cut limestone bay window and gabled half-dormer windows to front (south) elevation, gabled breakfront, gabled dormer windows and cut limestone bay window to west elevation, gabled breakfront, gable and gabled dormer window to east elevation, gables to rear (north) elevation and lower two-bay two-storey return to east side of north elevation with lean-to extension to west elevation of return, flat-roofed single-bay single-storey extension to east side of rear elevation with water tank to roof, and flat-roofed single-bay single-storey porch extension to rear elevation. Pitched slate roofs with fish scale pattern slates, with paired square-profile red brick chimneystacks with string courses, decorative timber bargeboards and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered walls with cut limestone plinth course, chamfered cut limestone pilaster buttresses to breakfront to front elevation, rubble stone walls to water tank extension. Square-headed window openings throughout, single, paired and in threes, with chamfered cut limestone surrounds and sills to front, east and west elevations, and with timber sliding sash windows having one-over-one pane, paired four-over-four pane to first floor rear elevation and two-over-two panes to rear porch, and with steel casement window to water tank extension. Pointed arch carved limestone door surround with impost course, recessed archivolts, trefoil arched spandrel and square-headed door opening with timber panelled door. Square-headed door opening to interior porch having half-glazed timber panelled door with plain overlight. Square-headed openings to rear elevation with timber battened doors.
Appraisal
Number of porches, gables, and bay windows typical of Victorian architecture, as are steeply pitched roofs and decorative bargeboards. Retention of timber sash windows adding depth and texture to facades. Narrow windows and highly decorative front entrance with recessed archivolts and corner buttresses in cut limestone gives ecclesiastical tone. Demonstrative of highly skilled stonemasonry. Contextualised by, and forms interesting group with outbuildings, gate lodge, and gates. Built for the Litton Family.
Anner Castle (formerly Ballinahy), Clonmel, Co Tipperary
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.
Anner Castle, County Tipperary, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.
p. 5. “[Mandeville/IFR] An impressive C19 castle of random ashlar, built in 1860s by Rev. N.H. Mandeville to the design of a Cork architect, William Atkins; incorporating an old square castle of the Mandeville family which had up to then been known as Ballinahy, but which was renamed Anner Castle after being enlarged and transformed. Impressive entrance front with two octagonal battlemented and machicolated towers. Burnt 1926 and only front part rebuilt.”
Detached irregular-plan multi-period limestone-walled country house. Comprises early nineteenth-century house remodelled c. 1860 in castle style to give overall quadrangle, with original block at south, square-plan three-stage towers to north-west and south-west angles with two-bay recessed blocks between, octagonal three-stage towers to east side flanking and projecting to front of two-storey central entrance block, latter having crenellated arcade added to front. Crenellated battlements with machicolations. Roughly dressed stone walls having ashlar quoins and with carved string courses to eaves. Shouldered Tudor arch recess to first floor of entrance block with ashlar stone voussoirs, with decorative machicolation above having moulded corbels. Square-headed openings throughout with timber casement windows to towers. Timber mullioned and transomed windows to north and south elevations, between towers, with carved label mouldings having decorative stops. Blind arrow slits to towers. Tudor-arch openings to entrance façade consisting of windows flanking doorway with replacement timber panelled door. Arcade has three Tudor-arch openings. Cast-iron piers with double-leaf cast-iron gates to main entrance.
This house was built by Rev. N. H. Mandevile and designed by William Atkins. The castellated walls and symmetrical towers give the building an impressive and grandiose presence, enhanced by the finely carved details such as the heavy machicolations. The triple canted arch provides a decorative, central focus in light contrast to the imposing towers. The outbuildings continue the castle style theme in a more restrained manner.
Anner Castle, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.Anner Castle, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
Marked on the first Ordnance Survey map as Ballina House, this residence of the Reverend Nicholas Manderville was valued at £46+ and held by him in fee in the early 1850s. Bence Jones writes that Anner Castle was built in the 1860s “incorporating the old square castle of the Manderville family which had up till then been known as Ballinahy”. It was destroyed by fire in 1926 and only the front portion was rebuilt. The Mandervilles were still resident in the 20th century. This property was sold in 2013.
CONTACT: Michael Mandeville
ADDRESS: Ballinamore, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, Ireland
US tycoons splash millions on Irish stately homes before dollar tumbles
June 04 2013
By Mark Keenan
Americans spent more than €30m on Irish country mansions in the past 12 months and are likely to account for half of the big estate homes sold here this year, the Irish Independent can reveal.
Estate agents attribute the spree to the urgency among some in the American business community to get their money out of the States over fears that the dollar will fall against the euro.
This has combined with the positive perception of value for money for big Irish properties given that prices have fallen by 70pc since 2007, and strong indications that the country estates market is in recovery mode.
Among the wealthiest to have acquired a property here recently are American billionaire Jim Thompson, the Hong Hong-based global shipping and logistics mogul who runs Crown Worldwide Group.
He came to Ireland last year to research his family roots and ended up buying Woodhouse in Stradbally, Co Waterford, for which Savills was seeking €6.4m.
Mr Thompson’s genealogist found that his people were originally from the area and brought him the brochure details.
Harriet Grant of Savills said Americans dominate the country homes market ahead of all other nationalities, including the Irish themselves.
In a market where native buyers accounted for 80pc of sales in 2007, they now make up closer to only 10pc at the top end.
EXTRAVAGANT
Perhaps the biggest deal in the past six months was the sale of the Victorian Gothic Humewood Castle in Kiltegan, Co Wicklow, to US media and land billionaire John Malone through Sherry FitzGerald.
The extravagant property is believed to have sold for between €7m and €8m.
During the boom, the former home of international socialite Renate Coleman had sold for €25m.
Mr Malone, the chairman of Liberty Global and CEO of the Discovery Holding Company, told one interviewer that he bought the 15-bedroom period property on 427 acres because “it captured my wife’s fancy”.
Connecticut-born Mr Malone’s ancestors left Ireland for America in the early 19th Century. Today, their descendant owns more than two million acres in the US and is the country’s biggest private land owner.
The quest for Irish estates has also become highly competitive.
Charles Noell, the founder of Baltimore-based JMI Equity, was recently pipped to the €5m post at the Ganly Walters auction in January for the deeds of Dowth Hall in Co Meath, which was built in 1760.
Determined to secure an Irish property of note, Mr Noell recovered quickly to acquire the deeds of Ardbraccan, an 18th Century estate house in Co Meath that was sold this year by Savills for a similar amount.
Many wealthy American buyers have managed to remain anonymous in a number of €1m-plus purchases during the past 12 months.
The former home of Gilbert O’Sullivan, Ravenswood, a 6,500 sq ft mansion outside Bunclody, Co Wexford, which was sold last autumn through Colliers for €1.3m, was acquired by a US buyer, believed to be a Texas-based lawyer.
Anner Castle, on 131 acres in Co Tipperary, was also recently sold by Savills, and is believed to have been acquired by a New York-based businessman with links to the area.
Another American buyer with an Irish family connection scooped up Gurtalougha at Ballinderry, just outside Nenagh in Co Tipperary.
The former home of late billionaire John Paul Getty III was recently sold through Ganly Walters.
The property, with 100 acres facing Lough Derg, also changed hands at the end of last year for €1.53m.
David Ashmore of Sherry FitzGerald, who sold Humewood Castle, said: “There are only about 20 big country properties on the market in all of Ireland of the type that these buyers are looking for.”
Michael H Daniels, a specialist in big country homes in the south, said he is looking for a “truly majestic but recoverable ruin for restoration” on behalf of a wealthy US client who he declined to name.
He said there is far more to the Americans’ objectives than dew-eyed sentiment for the “old country or grandiose gestures to keep their wives happy with chocolate-box castles”.
“These people have made their fortunes in the first place because they are smart buyers who get in at the bottom, and that’s what they’re doing,” he said.
“While they might buy on a whim, they never acquire anything that doesn’t have that investment potential.
“They’ve been sitting on the fence for a number of years waiting for rock bottom in Ireland.
“Now that they’ve judged it to have been reached – that prices won’t get any lower – they’re all getting in at the same time.”
Mr Ashmore said: “Ireland’s country home prices are currently equivalent to that of south Kent or Devon in the UK.
“However, Ireland is the only English-speaking country in the eurozone judged to be a good base from which to do business and is ideally placed for easy air access to many other parts of the world.”
RESTORATION
Mr Ashmore has already received American interest for the former home of Charles J Haughey.
The Abbeville estate, on 250 acres in Kinsealy, Co Dublin, has been priced at €5.5m.
“Abbeville will need some restoration, but it’s easy to see why it’s in such demand,” he said.
“It’s got history and it’s an extremely private landed estate on the outskirts of the capital, just minutes away from Dublin airport.”
Irish Historic Houses 