Stackallan House, Navan, County Meath – previously 482
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.
“(Hamilton-Russell, Boyne, V/PB; Burke/LG1965) One of the few surviving grand Irish country houses of the beginning of C18; built ca 1716 for Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Viscount Boyne, one of William III’s generals. Of three storeys, with two adjoining pedimented fronts, one of nine bays and one of seven bays. Good quoins and window surrounds; continuous entablatures over windows’ bold string-courses; high-pitched and wide-eaved sprocketed roof on modillion cornice. The home of Mrs Anthony Burke, whose late husband was the grandson of Sir Henry Farnham Burke, Garter Principal King of Arms, and the great-grandson of Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms; two generations of the dynasty that edited Burke’s series of genealogical publications.”
Gustavus Hamilton (1642-1723) 1st Viscount Boyne, c. 1680 unknown artist.Gustavus Hamilton 2nd Viscount Boyne by Rosalba Carriera around 1730.Gustavus Hamilton, 2nd Viscount Boyne, (1710-1746) courtesy of National Trust Castle Ward.Gustavus Hamilton, 2nd Viscount Boyne, (1710-1746) Engraver Andrew Miller, English, fl.1737-1763 After William Hogarth, English, 1697-1764, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
Stackallan House, County Meath, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached three-story over basement country house built c.1715. Built largely on a square plan. Principal façades to the west and south with nine and seven bays respectively. Central three-bay of both these facades marked by the presence of a slightly projecting breakfront with pediment. Projecting cornice with dentils to both principal facades. Built of rendered limestone with quoins to corners and to breakfronts. Steeply pitched natural slate roof of late seventeenth-century French fashion with two rendered chimneystacks. Flat-headed window openings with moulded stone surrounds and moulded stone sills. Replacement timber sash windows of fifteen panes on all floors of the principal facades, with the top floor being reduced to nine panes. Stone string courses between floors. A range of outbuildings, built around an open courtyard, located to the north of the house. Gate lodge and gateway to south of main house.
Appraisal
Stackallan House is one of the very few surviving classical Irish country houses from the early eighteenth century. The architectural design and detailing of this house are immediately apparent, particularly on the two principal facades. The architectural form of the house is enhanced by many original features and materials, such as the slate roof, moulded window surrounds and string courses. The house forms an interesting group with the surviving related outbuildings and entrance gates. The house has important historical connections with Gustavus Hamilton a noted Protestant politician in Irish affairs during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Hamilton commanded a regiment of Williamite soldiers at the Battle of the Boyne (1690) and later rose to become a Major General in the English Army and fought against Louis XIV of France.
Stackallan House is one of the very few surviving classical Irish country houses from the early eighteenth century. The principal façades to the west and south have nine and seven bays, with the central three-bays of both projecting with a pediment.
Built in 1715 by Gustavus Hamilton (b. 1639), first Viscount Boyne, the estate consisted of forfeited lands beside the River Boyne which were granted to then General Hamilton for heroism at the Battle of the Boyne, the Siege of Derry, and the capture of Athlone. Another Williamite soldier, Thomas Burgh is sometimes credited with the design.
Described by Lewis: “Stackallen House is the handsome residence of Viscount Boyne, whose ancestor, Gustavus, first Viscount, commanded a regiment in King William’s army in the battle of the Boyne: he was interred in the church of Stackallen in 1723, as have also been many other branches of the family. The mansion is a spacious structure, and stands in a fine, well-planted demesne”.
The classical garden front of Stackallen House dates from the early 18th century and was completely restored in the 1990s, Stackallan, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI25_06
The Staircase Hall is decorated with Ionic columns at the foot of the stairs and an impressive plasterwork ceiling, Stackallan, County Meath, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI25_09
featured in Great Irish Houses. Forewards by Desmond FitgGerald, Desmond Guinness. IMAGE Publications, 2008.
p. 258. “Stackallan, a magnificent three-storey house that stands as one of the very finest examples of Queen Anne residences to be found in Ireland, has been lovingly restored by the present owners. To gain an insight into this grand and fascinating house, you need look no further than the historic river Boyne, which once meandered alongside the estate in its heyday. Indeed, Stackallan was initially called Boyne House by Gustavus Hamilton, the first Viscount Boyne, who built it in 1716 after fighting alongside William of Orange.
The river, which would also provide the energy to drive the mill at Stackallan and an income from customs on good that passed through the port of the river at Drogheda, is one of the few constants in the history of a house that has experienced many changes of ownership. Lord Boyne purchased a castle and a 17th century manor house built in the 15th century by the Anglo-Norman Barnewall family. By 1712 it had been transformed into a substantial new dwelling.
There is some dispute as to the architect behind the present day façade. While it undoubtedly pays its respects to the classical tradition, there is also a discernible northern European influence that is more akin to Beaulieu, further to the east. John Curle and Thomas Burgh have both been linked to the property; Curle, given his involvement at Beaulieu, is a likely candidate.
The entrance that faces east has a seven-bay façade with pedimented centrepieces and moulded windowsills, while the garden front entrance is a more elaborate nine-bay affair. This may originally have been the entrance, and the sculpted arms of the Hamilton and Brooke families appear on the pediment, dated 1712. Stackallan was almost certainly built in stages rather than during one focused period. As author and UCD academic, Dr Christine Casey, has observed: “The growth of country houses from tower houses to manor houses to Georgian mansion is a familiar feature of the Irish countryside. AT Stackallan, the several building phases have been so well integrated as to defy distinction.”
Undisputedly though, STackallan began a new lease of life in 1992 when Martin and Carmel Naughton, the current owners, purchased the property from Elizabeth Bourke. The pair launched an extensive renovation of the hosue and grounds and hired David Sheehan of Sheehan and Barry architects to lead the project. They set out their stall by returning the entrance to its 18th century origins, replacing the modest forecourt with a tree-lined avenue and an enlarged entrance. The new entrance and forecourt work well, allowing the visitor more time to take in the imposing house upon entering.
The restoration of the property was approached with care and a real appreciation of its lineage. This is especially evident in the entrance hall, with its original scagliola pillars, wonderful furnishings and a period Irish harp. The 18th century fireplace is new, and came, like many of the light fittings, from trawls through auction rooms in the south of England. Under the stairs, a former owner had blocked out the natural light by installing an bar and this process has been reversed. Now a family piano sits under the stairs. A large Irish table, possibly from Castletown, stands on the new tile flooring which is simple and elegant. One of the owner’s children was given the task of bidding for the table when it came up for auction in Southampton. He was late but was so eager not to miss the auction that he parked on double yellow lines and was clamped. “Every time he comes into the house now,” recalls his mother, with a smile, “he says the table cost him £100!”
[p. 263] The stair hall is dominated by a long central flight of stairs which rise to join a timber gallery decorated by paired banisters and carved ornaments all offset by Georgian yellow on the walls. The 18th century ceiling, which is one of the most important surviving early relics in the house, required extensive renovation and care. David Sheehan noticed it was lagging in the middle, where the coat of arms of Hamilton and Brooke offset various weapons and musical instruments, and so they commenced a restoration process that saved the feature. A sky blue colour on the ceiling has been replaced by a subtle shade of beige. It is thought the entrance and stairs may have been changed at an earlier time as some of the banister uprights are uneven; had they been designed in situ there would perhaps have been a greater consistency.
To the left of the hall is the drawing room, which eschews the Georgian yellow in favour of an emerald green that would benefit the extensive collection of 18th century art. The new rococo ceiling in the drawing room is the work of a young craftsman called Seamas O hEacha, from County Galway, and resembles a design found at 86 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. The white chimneypiece, which was brought in and matches one in the dining room, is the work of Benjamin Carter, who made the pieces in 1761 for the 8th Earl of Thanet’s house in Grosvenor Square, London. They were later the property of Sir Thomas and Lady Beecham, who, on moving out, had them packed up. When war broke out, they were stored and forgotten about until bought by the current owners. Legend has it that Mozart played in front of one of the fireplaces. Robert Adam designed an overmantel for the Earl of Thanet’s chimneypiece in the dining room at Stackallan.
The saloon, which lies between the drawing and dining room, contains a wonderful Pietro Bossi chimneypiece which came from 6 Merrion Square, Dublin. In the restoration several uses were contemplated for this room – it had previously been a library, containing rows of leather bound copies of Burke’s Peerage – and at one time the owners thought of turning it into a music or print room. Once it had been redecorated under the careful eye of Michael Dillon and two Russian artists, however, they found it acted as a fine overspill room when they entertain. The superb oak tree and acorn pattern, fantastical birds and figures of industry and commerce all greatly enhance the room. A 17th century chair, which came from Castletown, and [p. 265] three copies provide the central furnishings of the room.
Two large double doors lead to the garden where Jim Reyolds of Butterstream Gardens, Trim, has led the restored canal and added a formal parterre. A stream garden has been created to the south west and this includes an herbaceous border created by head gardener Lorraine Lightholder. Careful planting has begun to overturn the losses of the early 20th century.
In the neighbouring dining room, impressive silk hanging decorate the walls. The large formal dining table came from Gordon Nichol and the chairs, 23 in all, came from the Friendly Brothers Club, which once operated near St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Curtains came from GC Faulkner and Sons in Dublin and the ceiling, which is Victorian, was preserved. A silverware collection, dated from the early 1800s, bears the Stackallan crest. Clearly commissioned for the property, the owners bought the collection in New York after they purchased the house. Indeed, much of the original furniture lost over the years came up in a sale attended by the Naughtons. They had not intended to buy the house at that time and came away with just a wellhead and a stool. Two weeks later they purchased the house.
The owners spend most of their time in the family living room and the kitchen/breakfast room to the right of the entrance hall, where modern conveniences such as the television are well hidden. In 1992, a new family dining and moring room was added that basks in sunlight and this is where they also gather when they have small and informal get-togethers.
[p. 267] A library on the first floor displays a wonderful craftsmanship, working with Dutch pine brought in from the UK for the shelving. In the blue room, where guests stay, the grey and white chimneypiece, originally from the hallway, has found a new home. The top floor of the house, which was once broken up into dormitories, now contains newly decorated bedrooms with all modern conveniences. Boardroom and conference facilities show how the house has changed to meet modern demands while the cellars host a cinema and Irish bar. Oak beams have been left exposed to preserve the fabric of the house, but the manner in which the basement has adapted offers a lesson in 21st century country house living.
While the use of Stackallan has changed widely over the centuries, from stud and farm to soldiers’ barracks and one-time boarding school to family home, it has been wonderfully restored. That it has lost none of what makes it aesthetically appealing in the process, is a testament to the vision and thoroughness of the current owners. They have undoubtedly preserved, for the next generation, a rich and historic architectural legacy.”
Stackallan House is located between Navan and Slane. Erected by Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Viscount Boyne, Stackallan has two formal fronts and is three storeys high with wide eaves. The house was originally known as Boyne House and is generally dated to 1716 making it one of the first of the grand mansions of the eighteenth century. Stackallan is of an older design and so is possibly older again. The house may have been erected in the 1690s. It is a rare example of a pre-Palladian style house. Built largely on a square plan, the house is said to have been designed by Thomas Burgh and John Curle. The interior of Stackallan is dominated by one of the largest staircases in Ireland – one broad long flight of stairs. The staircase ceiling depicts the Hamilton coat of arms surrounded by military trophies. In the 1830s there were two fish ponds and a pigeon house in the grounds. In recent years the house and gardens have been restored and a classical folly and canal have been constructed in the gardens.
Stackallan belonged to the Barnewalls in medieval times and they erected a castle. The lands became the property of John Osborne of London in 1666. John Osborne of Stackallan was M.P. for Meath in 1692. In 1704 the widow of John Osborne sold much of the estate to Gustavus Hamilton and the remainder to Henry Osborne of Dardistown.
The Hamilton family gave their name to the town of Manorhamilton in Co. Leitrim. The Christian name, Gustavus, entered the family in honour of the Swedish king, Gustavus Adolphus whom Sir Frederick Hamilton served during the Thirty Years War. Born about 1642, Gustavus Hamilton, was the youngest son of Sir Frederick Hamilton and grandson of 1st Lord Paisley. Gustavus, was the privy councillor to king James II but changed sides to William. He defended Enniskillen and Coleraine against the forces of James in 1689 and also defended Derry. He commanded a regiment at the Boyne where his horse was shot out from under him. He waded across the river Shannon to attack Athlone and became governor of the town. He fought at the Battle of Aughrim. He rose to the rank of Privy Chancellor and Major General. From 1692 to 1713 Hamilton served as M.P. for County Donegal. In 1715 Gustavus was created Baron Hamilton of Stackallan and in 1717 raised to the title Viscount of Boyne. He served as a privy counsellor to Queen Anne and then to George I. He died aged 84 in 1723 and was buried at Stackallan. He was succeeded by his grandson, Gustavus, son of Frederick Hamilton who had died before his father.
Gustavus Hamilton, was the oldest son of Frederick Hamilton, eldest son of Gustavus Hamilton, 1st Viscount Boyne. He was a Privy Councillor for Ireland, M.P. for Newport (Isle of Wight) and commissioner of the Irish Revenue. He died unmarried and was succeeded by his cousin, Frederick Hamilton. When Frederick died he was succeeded by his brother, Richard, 4th Viscount, who married Georgina, heiress to Charles Moore, Earl of Charleville and Baron Tullamore. Richard served as M.P. for Navan from 1755 to 1761. He was High Sheriff of County Meath in 1766. Richard and Georgina had seventeen children and their son, Gustavus, became the 5th Viscount. In 1773 Gustavus married Martha-Matilda, only daughter of Sir Quaile Somerville of Somerville. Their son, Gustavus, succeeded at Stackallan in 1789.
In the 1830s the house was uninhabited but was described as a spacious mansion in a fine well planted demesne. The demesne was described as being in bad order. One surveyor said that the house was badly situated on low ground. A countryman remarked “I wonder, sir, they should build a house there; it looks quite drowned.”
St. Columba’s College was founded in 1843 by the Rev. William Sewell, the Lord Primate of Ireland, the Earl of Dunraven and others. They took a seven year lease of Stackallan House. Six years later the school moved to south county Dublin where it continues to this day.
In 1850 the seventh Viscount assumed the additional surname of Russell, from his father-in-law. In 1866 he was created Baron Brancepeth, of Brancepeth in the County of Durham. The family resided at Brancepeth Castle, Durham and also held lands in Shropshire. In 1883 Lord Boyne held 2,739 acres in Meath with his overall estates in England and Ireland amounted to 30,205 acres.
The house remained in the Hamilton family until 1920 when it was sold to Daniel O’Mahoney Leahy. During the Second World War the Irish army was based at Stackallen House.
Stackallen was purchased by Major Anthony and Mrs. Elizabeth Burke in 1953. Major Burke’s family edited the series of genealogical books. In 1964 Major Burke was killed when a horse collapsed on top of him while hunting with the Ward Union. Mrs. Burke opened a stud farm at Stackallen in 1960. The house was sold in 1992 by Mrs. Burke who moved to a former rectory in Beauparc. .
In June 1992 Margaret Heffernan of Dunnes Stores agreed to purchase Stackallen House for £1.65 million but decided not to move to the house later that year and so the house was put back on the market. She decided that the house was too much for her and she calculated that the restoration and running costs of the house were too expensive for her.
In November 1992 Stackallen House was purchased by Martin Naughton. He is the owner of Glen Dimplex which is the world’s leading manufacturer of electrical heating products and also produces a wide range of other appliances.
Also in Great Houses of Ireland. Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes. Laurence King Publishing, London, 1999.
p. 101. “If the formal gardens at Killruddery are the oldest surviving in Ireland, the one installed in 1998 at Stackallen for its owners, Mr and Mrs Martin Naughton, must be the newest – and no less striking for that. The story is simply told: the Naughtons took the splendidly bold move of buying ‘lock, stock and barrel’ a gold-medal winning Chelsea Flower Show garden called Bosquet de Chanel.
This elaborate cabinet de verdure encompassed by high beech hedges designed by Tom Stuart-Smith for the couturiers Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel, was duly dismantled after the show and shipped to Meath, where it was recast and substantially enlarged by Stuart-Smith in collaboration with Todd Longstaffe-Gowan of the Landscape Agency, a new company specialising in all aspects of landscape restoration, conservation and design. It was refashioned to fit into a former paddock north of the house. The garden took a mere six weeks to assemble and hey presto, there is was – an adornment that, quite understandably, gave immediate gratification to the Naughtons.
The ‘instant garden’ is only one of a highly impressive range of improvements made by the Naughtons at Stackallen during a thorough and sympathetic restoration of the house and its demesne. The leading Irish garden designer Jim Reynolds has also been busy here; and there is an exotic new Painted Room by the muralist Michael Dillon [the youngest son of the 20th Viscount Dillon. He did murals in the Painted Room]. The exterior of the house has been handsomely repointed and the interior immaculately renovated under the direction of David Sheehan of the Dublin practice Sheehan & Barry. It forms a fine setting for the important collection of Irish 20th century art imaginatively assembled by the Naughtons in recent years. Carmel Naughton is a connoisseur of paintings and chairman of the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, where her husband, Martin, the founder in 1973 of Glen Dimplex group in Newry, is also actively involved in the creation of the stylish new Georgian townhouse hotel the Merrion, in Merrion Square.
[p. 102] All this enthusiastic rejuvenation is tremendously encouraging for everyone who cares about Ireland’s heritage beign a living, breathing entity. It is particularly exciting that it should have happened to such an important building as Stackallen, an exceptionally early great house, indeed one of the very few surviving grand Classical Irish country houses of the 18th century.
Until recently it was usually assumed that Stackallen was built circa 1716, the year after its builder, General Gustavus Hamilton, who had distinguished himself at the Battle of the Boyne nearby (where his horse was shot under him) and at the storming of Athlone, was created a peer as Baron Hamilton of Stackallen. But this, as Christine Casey and Alistair Rowan have pointed out in their authoritative North Leinster volume in The Buildings if Ireland series, is to miss several points.
[picture credit: The Staircase Hall, dominated by one of the largest and grandest staircases in Ireland, which rises in one broad, long flight under an elaborate plaster ceiling.
[the ceiling of the Staircase Hall, with its swaggering armorial achievement in the central panel displaying the coat of arms of General Gustavus Hamilton impaling those of his wife, Elizabeth Brooke of Brookeborough [Co Fermanagh]. The Ionic columns at the foot of the stairs were installed in the early 19th century, when the new entrance was created.]
p. 104. “First, the General would have been approaching his mid-seventies by this time (rather late in the day to be building a triumphal pile). Secondly, the style of the building also suggests an earlier date. And thirdly, it is surely significant that neither the coat of arms in the oculus of the pediment on the south façade (now the garden front but originally the entrance front) nor the amazingly elaborate one on the ceiling of the staircase hall incorporates a nobleman’s coronet, whether that of a baronet or Viscount (Hamilton was advanced to the Viscountcy of Boyne in 1717). Casey and Rowan conclude that these armorial adornments would seem to have been put in place and the house completed before Hamilton’s elevation to the peerage – ‘and since a dated gutter head of 1712 has been found, the years 1710-1712 seem the most likely date.’
Certainly, on stylistic evidence, Stackallen belongs to the culmination of that delectable type of 17th century country house which flourished from the Restoration of King Charles II right up to the Age of Queen Anne and which we joyfully encountered at Beaulieu, just twenty miles away. As Casey and Rowan observe, the arrangement of the windows in such houses differ significantly from buildings of the Georgian period and is marked by the fact tha the gournd floor and first-floor windows are of equal height. At STackallen they are all sash windows with 15 panes of glass, and only the top floor reduces in size to sashes of nine panes. There are nine bays on the present garden front, seven on the present entrance front; this and the fact that the window surrounds are more elaborate on the former confirm that the south façade was the ‘show’ side.
Hamilton, who had received a substantial grant of forfeited lands beside the River Boyne in the 1690s, would doubtless have wanted to make a splash with his new house. A scion of the illustrious Ulster House of Hamilton, Earls (and later Dukes) of Abercorn, he derived his exotic Christian name from his father Sir Frederick Hamilton’s military service with King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Before joining the army himself, young Gustavus matriculated at Trinity College Dublin, where, in 1712, was laid the foundation stone of the library designed by the military engineer and architect Thomas Burgh of Oldtown, Co Kildare, to whom Desmond Guineess, in his Great Irish Houses and Castles, attributes the architecture of Stackallen.
Burgh, like Hamilton, had been a Williamite soldier. Hamilton, who had estates in Co Fermanagh and married into another prominent Ulster dynasy, the Brookes of Brookeborough, first came to prominence in 1688 as the Protestant Governor of Enniskillen. [p. 106] The next year, as Colonel of the 20th Foot, he was to the fore in the defence of Coleraine and Derry against Jacobite attack. The story goes that at the successful storming of Athlone he waded through the Shannon at the head of his troops.”
“Garlanded with honours, he rose to be a Privy Councillor under Queen Anne before finally retiring to enjoy his new estates in Co Meath. The interior of his elegant new house at Stackallen was to be dominated by one of the largest staircases in the whole of Ireland, a broad, long flight under a spectacular plasterwork ceiling of oak-leaf borders, military trophies, flowers and musical instruments. And there, swaggering in the centre, is General Hamilto’ns coat of arms impaled with those of his wife.
The proud old couple were not, though, to enjoy the splendours of Stackallen for long. Elizabeth died there at Christmas 1721, the General two years later, in his 84th year. It is probable that their full plans for Stackallen were never finished for as Casey and Rowan expertly note, the house ‘reads’ as a great cube and, as built, lacks a full range of rooms on its east side.
p. 107. The general was succeeded in the Viscountcy of Boyne by his bachelor grandson who, in turn, was followed by a cousin embroiled in marital difficulties. It was never clear whether his first marriage, to a blacksmith’s daughter from Tullamore, had been valid or not; in any event, his children by his second wife, the eldest of whom assumed the title of Viscount Boyne, were regarded as illegitimate. So it may have been his brother, the 4th Viscount Boyne, who was responsible for making various improvements to Stackallen later in the 18th century, including the stables (similar, when built, to those by Capability Brown nearby at Slane, seat of the Conynghams) and the reworking of the staircase.
Further, more radical, alterations occurred in the early 19th century. A painting by Henry Brocas, senior, of circa 1820 shows the house and the stables before the entrance was moved from the south front, so the switch-round must have happened shortly after that date. At the same time a pair of Ionic columns were introduced by way of a screen to open up the new hall directly into the Staircase Hall.
This would have been in the time of the 6th Viscount Boyne, who married Harriet Baugh, the heiress of Burwarton House in Shropshire (which, rebuilt by Anthony Salvin in the 1870s as a sprawling Italianate pile, was eventually to become the Boynes’s principal residence). The 7th Viscount married an even more prosperous heiress in the form of Emma Maria Russell of Brancepeth Castle, Co Durham, which also passed into the Hamilton family, causing them to assume the additional surname of Russell. Miss Russell’s mother was a Tennyson of Bayons Manor, Lincolnshire, and thus an aunt of the poet Alfred, and of her paternal grandfather, William Russell, we read that he was a merchant who acquired immense wealth.
So wrote John Burke in his Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland (1833/5). And by a nice coincidence it was Burke’s descendant, Major Anthony Burke, MFH, who eventually came to live at Stackallen in the second half of the 20th century. This was after various vicissitudes, including a spell when the Boynes let the house out in the 19th century as a school, which subsequently developed into ST Columba’s College, near Dublin.
The Burkes are celebrated as a dynasty of heralds and genealogists: Tony Burke’s grandfather Sir Henry Farnham Burke was Garter King of Arms, and his great-grandfather Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King at Arms, was a leading populariser of pedigrees through such work as Burke’s Peerage and Baronetage, and Burke’s Landed Gentry. Tony and his second wife, Elizabeth, formerly Lady Milborne-Swinnerton-Pilkington, were more concerned with equine pedigrees; they ran Stackallen as a successful stud farm and the house became legendary in the world of horse-racing for its hospitality.
After Tony was killed in the hunting field in 1964, as his first wife had been before him, Elizabeth Burke lived on at Stackallen into the 1990s, when the Naughtons arrived to give the old house an invigorating new life.”
THE VISCOUNTS BOYNE OWNED 2,739 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY MEATH
This is a branch of the ducal house of ABERCORN; CLAUD HAMILTON, created 1st Baron Paisley, 1587, being the common ancestor of both.
The grandson of that nobleman,
GUSTAVUS HAMILTON (1642-1723), son of the Hon Sir Frederick Hamilton, by Sidney, daughter and heir of Sir John Vaughan, having abandoned the fortunes of JAMES II, to whom he was a privy counsellor, and distinguished himself as a military officer in the service of WILLIAM III, particularly at the battle of the Boyne, and the siege of Londonderry, was sworn of the Privy Council of the latter monarch, appointed Brigadier-General of his armies, and further rewarded with a grant of forfeited lands.
General Hamilton was MP for County Donegal, 1692-1713, and MP for Strabane, 1713-15.
In the reign of QUEEN ANNE he was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant-General; and by Her Majesty’s successor, GEORGE I, elevated to the peerage, 1715, as Baron Hamilton of Stackallan, County Meath.
His lordship was advanced to a viscountcy, in 1717, as VISCOUNT BOYNE.
He married Elizabeth, second daughter of Sir Henry Brooke Bt, of Brookeborough, County Fermanagh, and had issue,
FREDERICK (c1663-1715), father of GUSTAVUS, 2nd Viscount; Gustavus, father of 3rd and 4th Viscounts; Henry, MP for Donegal, 1725-43; Elizabeth.
His lordship was succeeded by his grandson,
GUSTAVUS, 2nd Viscount (1710-46); at whose decease, unmarried, the honours devolved upon his cousin,
FREDERICK, 3rd Viscount (1718-72), who wedded, in 1737, Elizabeth, daughter of Benjamin Hodley; but dying without issue, was succeeded by his brother,
RICHARD, 4th Viscount (1724-89), who espoused Georgiana, second daughter of William Bury, by whom he had issue, seventeen children, including,
GUSTAVUS, his successor; Charles; Richard; Catherine; Mary; Barbara; Sophia; Anne.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
GUSTAVUS, 5th Viscount (1749-1816), who married, in 1773, Martha Matilda, only daughter of Sir Quaile Somerville Bt, of Somerville, County Meath, and had issue,
GUSTAVUS, his successor; Richard Somerville, Royal Navy; Sarah; Georgiana.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
GUSTAVUS, 6th Viscount (1777-1855), who wedded, in 1796, Harriet, only daughter of Benjamin Baugh, of Burwarton House, Shropshire, and had issue,
Gustavus Frederick Hamilton-Russell, 7th Viscount (1798–1872);
Gustavus Russell Hamilton-Russell, 8th Viscount (1830–1907);
Gustavus William Hamilton-Russell, 9th Viscount (1864–1942);
In 2015 Mr Naughton, CBE, was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) for services to the Northern Ireland economy, art and philanthropic causes.
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. 229. “(De Burgh/IFR) One of Ireland’s first Palladian windged houses, built ca 1709 by Thomas Burgh, MP, Engineer and Surveyor-General for Ireland, to his own design. Two storey centre block with two storey wings; centre block adorned with pairs of Ionic pilasters, rising to just below the first floor windows; each pair carrying its own short section of entablature; wings also adorned with pairs of Ionic pilasters carrying massive entablatures. The centre block was burned 1950s. a house has now been made out of one of the wings.”
p. 52. With a lineage stretching back to the great Emperor Charlemagne, the de Burgh’s role in Irish affairs has made an immense impact on the shape of the island’s past. From the first Norman knights who cantered across the seas in the 12th century to the courtrooms of Georgian Dublin, the de Burghs have been intrinsically involved with some of the most pivotal events in Irish history. The Oldtown branch was established in Kildare just over 300 years ago by Thomas Burgh, one of the first great Irish military engineers. His descendents include the Georgian orators Walter Hussey Burgh and John Foster, General Sir Eric de Burgh, the singer Chris de Burgh and the 2003 Miss World, Rosanna Davison.
A Call to Arms
The de Burghs claim descent from Charlemagne through Jean, Comte de Konign and Baron de Tonsburgh in the late 10th century. Amongst their more prestigious forbears were Baldwin de Burgh, King of Jerusalem (1118 – 1131) and Ode, Bishop of Bayeux, for whom the Bayeux Tapestry was made. The first of the family to settle in Ireland was William de Burgh, a Steward of Henry II, who personally received the submission of the Kings of Connaught and Meath at Athlone in 1172. In return he was made Governor of Wexford and “Dominus” or Lord of Connaught by Prince John, Lord of Ireland. Tradition states the de Burgh arms were granted when one of the family killed a leading Saracen while fighting alongside Richard the Lionheart. The crusading monarch is said to have dipped his sword in the dead man’s blood and made the shape of a cross over his fallen shield, saying “these, Knight, be thine arms forever”. As William de Burgh was married to Richard’s daughter Isabel, widow of Prince Llewelyn of Wales, it seems plausible that he was the man to whom the arms were first granted.
[p. 53. ]
Protector of the Realm
In 1192, William allied with Donal O’Brien, King of Thomond, against the MacCarthys. He subsequently married O’Brien’s daughter Anne by whom he had a son, Richard, in 1201. When John ascended the English throne in 1199, William’s younger brother Hubert de Burgh (1165 – 1243) was appointed King’s chamberlain. Hubert was to become one of the most influential men in England during the reign of King John. His successful defence of Dover Castle against a French invasion in 1216 gave him the necessary power to stand as sole Regent of the minor Henry III on the death of John, a position he retained until Henry came of age in 1227. (1)
[p. 54] Richard de Burgh, Justiciar of Ireland
William’s premature death in 1204 left his estates with Richard de Burgh, now a four-year-old orphan. It may be presumed that Richard’s wealthy uncle subsequently raised him at one of his many castles in England. Although Hubert had sons of his own, he was an assiduous promoter of his nephew whose conquest of Ulster was launched during Hubert’s regency. By the age of 14, Richard was already one of the principal barons in Ireland. His father had been granted lands in Connaught by O’Brien in 1195 but, despite vigorous campaigning, had been unable to realize it. Backed by his uncle, then Justiciar of England, Richard launched a prolonged war of conquest on Connaught in 1226. Within a year he had taken control of 25 cantreds in Connaught, the remaining five near Athlone being reserved to Henry III and leased to King Felim O’Connor. On his return to Dublin in 1228, Richard was appointed Justiciar of Ireland, a position he retained until Hubert’s fall from power in 1232. Richard died campaigning with Henry III in Gascony in 1243.
Clanwilliam Burke
Richard was succeeded as Lord of Connaught by his eldest son Walter, later Earl of Ulster. Walter’s brother William Óg de Burgh, ancestor of the Clanwilliam Burkes, lords of Mayo, was a celebrated warrior in the 13th century, fighting in France, Scotland and the Middle East. However, in 1270, his attempt to secure his fathers’ lands in Connaught resulted in colossal defeat by the King of Connaught at the battle of Athankip. William Óg was captured and executed. Nearly fifty years later his only son William Liath de Burgh avenged his death at Athenry (1316), one of the bloodiest battles in Irish history which effectively ended the power of the O’Connor chieftains.
The Red Earl
Arguably the most influential member of the de Burgh family in the medieval age was Richard, the “Red Earl” of Ulster, only son of the above-named Walter. An enormously ambitious man, he spent most of his formative years campaigning against both the native Irish septs in Ulster and Connaught and the Geraldines of Desmond and Kildare. In 1302 his daughter Elizabeth married Robert the Bruce of Scotland. The Red Earl opposed the invasion of Edward the Bruce in 1315 but his kinship with the Scotsman led the citizens of Dublin to doubt his loyalty and he was imprisoned for several months. In later life he retired to the priory at Athassel, county Tipperary, where he died in June 1326. His grandson, William the “Brown Earl” of Ulster, was assassinated in 1333, leaving a baby daughter, Elizabeth as heiress. She later married Prince Lionel of Clarence, son of Edward III, and through their daughter Philippa the legal ownership of the Earldom of Ulster and lordship of Connaught was transmitted to the Mortimer family and ultimately to the English Crown.
p. 55. En Route to Dromkeen
The de Burghs of Oldtown descend from Éamon Albanach (Edmund the Scot), son of William Liath de Burgh, the victor of Athenry. This era is a particularly complex one in terms of the growing feud between the Clanwilliam Burkes of Mayo and their cousins, the Clanricarde Burkes of Galway … and anyone else passing through the neighbourhood. I do not intend to go into all this in this essay but if anyone is able to sum it all up for me in a couple of paragraphs, I would gladly insert them here. In the meantime, have a read of ‘William Fitz-Adelm de Burgh & The Bourkes of Clanwilliam’ by James Grene Barry, J.P. (originally published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1889.) Another option is ‘The New History of Ireland, V9, Maps, Genealogies, Lists‘, edited by Moody, Martin & Byrne (Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1984) in which Table 39 gives lineage chart for the Lower Mac William: Burkes of Mayo, descendants of Edmund Albanach. At any rate, upon his death in 1375, Éamon Albanach was succeeded by his son, Sir Thomas Bourke who married a daughter of the O’Conor Don. In 1420 Sir Thomas’s grandson John de Burgh of Shruel defeated the O’Brien chieftain and acquired by exchange O’Brien’s sister as a wife and a substantial land grant at Dromkeen, near Pallas Green, in County Limerick. Dromkeen remained in the de Burgh family for the next 420 years.
Ulysses Burgh, Bishop of Ardagh
The Reverend Ulysses Burgh was eighth in descent from John de Burgh of Dromkeen. Little is known of the generations between save that Ulysses’ father, Richard, was also in Holy Orders. He also had a sister, Eleanor who married a Thomas Apjohn an officer in the army and a tax commissioner for Co. Limerick. Ulysses became Rector of Grean and Kilteely in 1672, rising to become Dean of Emly in 1685. Prior to the outbreak of the Jacobite War in Ireland in 1689, Ulysses fled to London with his family. He returned to Ireland with his sons Richard, William and Thomas in 1690 and all four men appear to have served in William of Orange’s army at the siege of Limerick. His loyalty led to the burning of Dromkeen by the retreating Catholics. However, after William was proclaimed king, Ulysses was generously compensated for his loss and consecratedBishop of Ardagh on September 11th 1692. (2) Bishop Burgh of Ardragh fathered eight sons and three daughters by his wife Mary, daughter of William Kingsmill of Ballibeg, Co. Cork. The eldest son Rickard Burgh succeeded to Dromkeen and also joined the Church. The second son, William, a friend of Jonathan Swift, became Comptroller and Accountant General of the British Army in Ireland, married a daughter of Thomas Parnell and lived at Bert, Co. Kildare; their daughter Elizabeth was mother to John Foster, the great Georgian orator and last Speaker in the Irish House of Commons. It is for Elizabeth that Burgh Quay in Dublin is named. William Burgh’s great-grandson General Sir Ulysses de Burgh succeeded as 2nd Baron Downes and was a brother-in-law to the ill-fated Nathaniel Sneyd of Chesterfield House, Blakcrock, Co. Dublin. Bishop Burgh’s youngest daughter Dorothea married the Rev. Thomas Smyth, Bishop of Limerick, and was thus ancestress of the Viscounts Gort. However, it is Bishop Burgh’s third son, Thomas, who most concerns us here for he was the first of the family to settle at Oldtown.
[p. 56] Thomas ‘The Surveyor’ Burgh of Oldtown (1670 – 1730)
Thomas Burgh of Oldtown (1670 – 1730) is regarded as one of the first great Irish military engineers and rose to become Surveyor General for the country. He was born in 1670 and educated at Delany’s School in Dublin. He entered Trinity College Dublin on November 22nd 1685 but probably fled Ireland with his father in the run up to the Williamite wars. On March 8th 1689 a Thomas Bourk [sic] was commissioned as Lieutenant in Lord Lovelace‘s Regiment of Foot, which served with the Duke of Schomberg’s army in Ireland. He may have been appointed to the Irish Engineers as early as February 1691 but, following the Williamite victory, he appears to have joined the Royal Regiment of Foot commanded by the Earl of Orkney and left for the continent. On 1st August 1692, he received a commission as Captain and he subsequently saw action at the battles of Steinkirk (1692) and Landen (1693). At the Siege of Namur in 1695, he was employed as an engineer, probably under the command of the Dutch artillery expert, John Wynant Goor. Two years later, he was ranked as one of the top twenty five engineers in the British Army and the third most senior in the Irish Establishment. (3) Between 1697 and 1700, Thomas worked under Surveyor-General William Robinson whom he replaced on 10th July 1700, at a salary of £300 per annum, having displaced the second engineer of Ireland, Richard Corneille. On February 12th 1701, he was given charge of overseeing the construction and renovation of all military buildings in Ireland, a commission repeatedly renewed over the next twenty seven years. During this time, he expanded barracks throughout Ireland, completed the rebuilding of Dublin Castle and constructed numerous fortifications and lighthouses along the Irish coastline. (4) His proposal to dredge Dublin Harbour and build a fortified basin to hold ships was ultimately rejected but he continued to be a forceful advocate that Ireland’s inland waterways be made navigable.
p. 57. Perhaps it was in reaction to the destruction of his family home in 1691 that Thomas Burgh became such a vigorous builder. He did not merely restrict himself to military architecture. The City of Dublin made him a Freeman in 1704 in recognition of his ongoing efforts to beautify the rapidly evolving capital. His first known building is the Royal Barracks (now Collins Barracks) on Dublin’s north side. Among his other civic legacies were the original Custom House on Essex Quay, Dublin Castle, the Trinity College Library (1712 – 1732), the Linen Hall, the Kilmainham Infirmary (1711), St. Werburgh’s Church (1715), the Royal Barracks and Dr. Steeven’s Hospital (1721 – 1733).
Oldtown
In 1696 he acquired a property outside Naas called Oldtown. The site lay near a holy well where St Patrick reputedly baptised Oillill and Illann, the sons of King Dunlang of Leinster. In 1709, he designed and oversaw the construction of a new house at Oldtown, one of Ireland’s first Palladian winged houses. The building comprised of a two storey central block flanked by two storey wings. The centre block was adorned with pairs of Ionic pilasters, rising to just beneath the windows of the first floor. The wings were likewise adorned with Ionic pilasters, all of which carried substantial entablatures. Thomas’s masterpiece was to remain the pride of his descendants until the centre block was destroyed by fire in the 1950s and the family moved into one of the wings.
Private Commissions
By 1721, Thomas Burgh was a very wealthy man. From 1706 to 1714 he had held the office of Lieutenant of the Ordnance of Ireland which, together with the Surveyor-Generalship, made him far the most influential officer in the Irish Ordnance. In 1713 he was elected Tory MP for Naas, which seat he held until his death in 1730. He became a governor of the Royal Hospital of Kilmainham in 1707 and, from 1717, a trustee of Dr. Steeven’s Hospital. Aside from the wealth he had accumulated from his many and ongoing engineering commissions, he and his partner Richard Stewart were operating a very lucrative colliery at Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, which brought him in £2000 in 1721 alone. He was also benefiting from the growing affluence and pretensions of his fellow squires. As early as 1702, he was advising the Quartermaster-General Richard Gorges on how to build garden walls at Kilbrew, Co. Meath. That same year he was recruited as a consultant in the building of Archbishop King‘s Dublin residence; he helped design Marsh’s Library seven years later. The O’Brien family called on him for the construction of the original Dromoland Castle at Newmarket-on-Fergus in Co. Clare. He may also have had a hand in the 1724 design of Oakly Park outside Celbridge for Arthur Price, later Bishop of Meath and Archbishop of Cashel. (5)
p. 58. Death of Thomas
On 10th July 1700, Thomas married Mary Smyth, second daughter of the Rev. William Smyth, Bishop of Raphoe, Kilmore and Ardagh. Her mother Mary was a daughter of Sir John Povey,Chief Justice of Ireland in the reign of Charles II. By her he had five sons and four daughters. The family lived between the country estate at Oldtown and their Dublin townhouse at 37 Dawson Street (now rebuilt). Thomas died at Oldtown on December 18th 1730 at the age of sixty. Burgh was evidently an affable employer. For much of his working career, he employed the same team of smiths, joiners, bricklayers, plasterers, painters, carpenters, slaters and glaziers.
Thomas Burgh, MP
Colonel Thomas Burgh was succeeded by his 23-year-old son Thomas II, MP for Naas from 1731 until his death in 1759. He was educated at Dr. Sheridan’s in Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, advancing to the Middle Temple in 1728. His first wife, an English heiress, Margaret Sprigg of Clonvoe, left him a daughter Alice who married into the Fox family. In June 1752 he married secondly Catherine, daughter of the politician, Sir Richard Wolseley of Mount Wolseley, Co. Carlow.
Walter Hussey Burgh, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer
Thomas’s sister Elizabeth married Ignatius Hussey of Donore, Co. Kildare, and was mother of the Right Hon. Walter Hussey Burgh, one of the most eloquent and charismatic lawyers in Ireland during the late 18th century. In June 1783 he was appointed to the lucrative judicial position of Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, one of the Four Courts in Dublin. However, less than six months later, the 40-year-old contracted an illness while inspecting a gaol in Armagh and died. When not in Dublin for the Parliament he lived at Dromkeen, Co. Limerick. He was probably buried at St Peter’s Church, North Circular Rd, Dublin. According to Ken Finlay’s website, ‘a public funeral was accorded to him, and his remains were followed to the grave by the members of the Legislature and the authorities and students of the University”. Another upcoming barrister and Burgh kinsman John Foster, Baron Oriel, immediately succeeded him at the Exchequer.
p. 59. Thomas Burgh, MP for Harristown & Athy
Thomas and Margaret Burgh had two sons, Thomas III and Richard, and two daughters, Mary and Catherine. Born on 23rd January 1754, Thomas was only five years old when his father died and he succeeded to Oldtown. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, he was called to the Irish Bar in 1779. As part of the Duke of Leinster‘s party, the soft-spoken Kildare man was elected MP for Harristown and Athy in the Irish House of Commons. A close ally of his cousin John Foster, Thomas increased the family wealth by becoming one of the chief undertakers of the Grand Canal. In the summer of 1784 he married Florinda Gardiner, a granddaughter of Luke Gardiner, the property tycoon who developed what became central Dublin in the 1740s and 1750s. Her sister was married to Lord Clancarty and her brother Luke Gardiner had been elected MP for Co. Dublin the previous year. It was in that capacity that Luke introduced the first Catholic Relief Acts of 1778 and 1782, partially dismantling the penal laws. Luke was created Viscount Mountjoy in 1795. In June 1798 he was killed by rebel pikemen while trying to negotiate a surrender at New Ross.
Thomas & Florinda de Burgh’s Children
Thomas III and Florinda had eight sons of whom two drowned and a third was killed in action while serving with the Royal Navy. The third son Walter Burgh was Vicar of Naas and married Elizabeth Langrishe. The seventh son John was a major with the 93rd Highlanders and married Emma Hunt. The youngest, William, Rector of Ardboe, Co. Tyrone, and St. John’s of Sandymount, Dublin, fathered an impressive eighteen children of whom Maurice was Archdeacon of Kildare and Hubert took Holy Orders and lived in the Vatican.
Thomas Monck Mason & the Paget Connection
One of Thomas and Florinda’s daughters, Dorothea Burgh, married Captain Thomas Monck Mason, Royal Navy. He was a son of Henry Monck Mason, lieutenant-colonel of the Engineers, by his second wife, Jane Mosse (daughter of Bartholomew Mosse, founder of the Rotunda hospital). Thomas’s early years were at a French speaking school; he may have had Hugenot blood. Thomas had a reputation within the family as a ‘foolhardy’ young man, heading to sea aged 12 and, by his own words, spent his naval years indulging in the many vices prevalent in the Royal Navy at that time. Shortly before his marriage to Dorothea Burgh, his life was turned around and he was from then on ‘led by divine grace’. Alas, Dorothea died in 1820 shortly afer the birth of Frances Florinda. Some 2-3 years later, Thomas married Mary Grey (daughter of the Commissioner of Portsmouth dockyard Sir George Grey, and niece of the future prime minister, Charles Grey) . Mary’s mother (Lady Grey, nee Whitbread) was much involved with the Evangelical movement at that time, so this fitted with Thomas’ new found discipline. Thomas Monck Mason died in 1838 and was buried in Powerscourt. His daughter Florinda Frances Mason married Captain Catesby Paget (1809-1878), son of Hon Berkeley Paget and first cousin of Captain Charles Paget of HMS Samarang.
The Rev. Thomas Burgh
Thomas and Florinda’s eldest son, the Rev. Thomas Burgh was for many years Dean of Cloyne. On 4th May 1811 he married Lady Anna Hely-Hutchinson, daughter of Francis Hely-Hutchinson and sister of the 3rd Earl of Donoughmore (see “Woulfe of Forenaghts”). Like the Gardiners, the Hely-Hutchinsons made a name for themselves in the late 18th century by their sympathy for the Catholic cause and support of Free Trade.
In his history of the Kildare Hunt (p. 232), Lord Mayo tells a story about how Dean de Burgh of Old Town would never allow a tree to be felled in his demesne. When his son Thomas succeeded him he ‘very properly began to thin out the plantations’. However, while in Naas one day Thomas was ‘pestered for money by an old wrecker clad in an old scarlet hunting coat, well known as old Joe. After repeated importunities all up the long street, he was at last told to go to a warm climate. “Ah!” said old Joe,”if I go there, Master Tom, I’ll be shure to see the ould Dane, and I’ll tell him ye’re cutting down all the timber.”
The Dean and Mrs de Burgh had nine sons and three daughters of whom Francis was a lieutenant colonel with the Dublin City Artillery, Henry married Elizabeth Hendrick of Kerdiffstown House, Florinda married Thomas Tristam, Chancellor of the Diocese of London and Charlotte married Colonel James Tighe of Rossanagh. The Rev. Burgh succeeded to Oldtown in 1832. He died on 4th September 1845; Lady Anna passed away on 27th December 1857.
p. 60. The Return of the De
The Rev. and Lady Anna Burgh’s eldest son was another Thomas. On 6th March 1848 Dublin Castle presented this Thomas with a patent by which his heirs and descendents were granted the right “to resume their ancient name of de Burgh“. Thomas de Burgh lived at Oldtown and married Jane, daughter of a Major Campbell-Graham, 1st Royal Scots, of Scarva House, Clones, Co. Monaghan. Three sons, Thomas, Ulick and Hugo, and a daughter followed.
Thomas and Emily de Robeck
The eldest son Thomas John de Burgh was born on 1st November 1851. As a young man, he served as a lieutenant in the 57th (Middlesex) Regiment (aka the “Die-Hards“), taking part in the 1879 campaign against the Zulus. A fellow officer of the 57th, Lord Gifford, VC, was personally responsible for the capture of Ceshwayo, the Zulu king. He was sometime Deputy Lieutenant, Justice of the Peace and High Sheriff (1884) for County Kildare. On 23rd April 1878 he married Emily Anne de Robeck, eldest daughter of the 4th Baron de Robeck (qv). He later secured a commission in the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards, under Lord Baden Powell, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. During the Boer War, he commanded the 17th Battalion of the Imperial Yeomanry. On 23rd December 1900 he was wounded at Houtkraal. Thomas died in 1931 having had five sons, Hubert, (Sir) Eric, Maurice, Charles and Tom, and three daughters, Helen, Zoe and Una.
Ulick & Hugo de Burgh. When Thomas de Burgh went to war in South Africa, he was joined by his younger brothers Ulick and Hugo. Ulick de Burgh had previously served in the Egyptian campaign of 1892 and later as Inspector General of Remounts at British Army headquarters. In January 1916 he offered for sale Scarva House, his mother’s family home in Clones, with 94 acres. By his wife Anna Paget he had a son Desmond de Burgh who served with the RAF in both World Wars but was killed on active service in January 1943.
Hugo de Burgh lived at of Ballinapierce, County Wexford, and married Mabel Beaumont of Tarnely Lodge in St. Alban’s. Hugo was killed in April 1900 during the siege of Wepener in the Orange Free State. It seems that Thomas and Ulick subsequently spent some time in California. Hugo was survived by two sons – Lieutenant Colonel Hugh de Burgh, OBE, MC and Ulric de Burgh, an officer in the Royal Navy – and a daughter Madge Anstruther.
Ulric de Burgh, RN, RAF
Hugo’s younger son Ulric served with the Royal Navy during the Great War, primarily in the North Atlantic, but left voluntarily in 1922. He immediately joined the RAF as a Flight Lieutenant. He stayed with the RAF for 16 years, during which time he was married for the first time. He was recalled to the RN to help set up the Fleet Air Arm and spent most of the Second World War setting up Naval Air stations in New Zealand, India and Ceylon – where he met and married his second wife, mother of Campbell de Burgh. Ulric left the Royal Navy in 1947, joined the merchant marine and retired in 1966. He died in 1977.
Commander Dashwood Tandy
Thomas de Burgh’s only sister Anna (Louisa Margaret) was born on 29th November 1850. On October 22rd 1874, Thomas de Burgh’s only sister Anna (Louisa Margaret) married Commodore Dashwood Goldie Tandy, RN. The service took place at St. Donlough’s Church and was conducted by the Rev. Charles Edward Tisdall, D.D., Incumbent of the Parish, assisted by the Rev. William Machonchy, A.M., Rector of Coolock. Born in 1841, Dashwood had made a name for himself when he captured a number of slave-carrying dhows on the east coast of Africa during the 1860s. The Commander was only 42 years old when he died suddenly at Oldtown in October 1883. His obituary was published in The Kildare Observer:
NAAS, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1883 – SUDDEN DEATH OF COMMANDER TANDY, R.N.
On Wednesday afternoon, Dr. R. S. Hayes, J.P., district coroner, held an inquest at Naas, on the body of Commander Tandy, Royal Navy, who died suddenly. The deceased gentleman was on a visit to his brother-in-law, T.J.de Burgh, Esq., High Sheriff of the County, and was driving in company with Mrs. de Burgh and Captain Slaney to Baron de Robeck’s residence at Gowran Grange, when he suddenly took ill on the way and expired in the course of a few minutes. The principal evidence taken at the inquest was that of Captain Slaney, who deposed – ‘I was in company with the deceased this day (Wednesday) driving from Oldtown to Gowran Grange. When we started the deceased was in perfect health as far as I could see. On the way we got out of the trap to walk up the hill. On the top of the hill we again got into the trap, and after we had gone a short distance I noticed deceased’s head fall down on his chest, as I thought in a fainting fit. I took him into my arms, and, with the assistance of a man, carried him into a neighbouring house. He never spoke. I believe he died in my arms before I took him out the trap’. Just before he got ill he complained of being unwell, and said that since he was in the East Indies the exertion of walking up a hill always told upon him. Dr. Joseph Alfred Gormly, in medical charge of the troops at Naas, said he made a post-,mortem examination on the body of the deceased, and that his opinion death resulted from heart disease. The jury returned a verdict accordingly.
In her latter years Anne Tandy lived at St. Anne’s in Naas. She passed away at Oldtown on 25th April 1912. Their eldest son, Hugo Shapland Dashwood Tandy, was born on 11th April 1876 but died young on the 28th September 1880. Their younger son, Major Reginald (Reggie) Dashwood Tandy, was born on 23rd May 1883 and went on to become High Sheriff Co. Meath (1912), Magistrate for Co. Meath, Lieutenant of the Lancashire Fusiliers and Major in the Denbighshire Hussars Yeomanry. On 9th May 1906, Reggie married Valerie (Olivia) Wellesley, only daughter of Arthur George Henry Wellesley and Sarah Humprey. (6) He was granted his late mothers’ estate on 30th May 1912.
Anyone with further information on the Tandy family is advised to contact David & Diana Hope (tandy42@btinternet.com)
p. 61. Death in the Great War
The Great War of 1914 – 1918 brought tragedy to innumerable households throughout Ireland. In the autumn of 1914 the dreaded letter arrived in the post at Oldtown informing Thomas and Emily of the death in France of their youngest son Tom de Burgh, a lieutenant with the 31st Lancers. Prior to his death Tom is mentioned in despatches for distinguished conduct under enemy fire. Three of Tom’s elder brothers received the DSO. (7) The eldest, Captain Hubert de Burgh, was awarded both the DSO and Legion of Honour in 1917 for his services in the Royal Navy. On 28th November 1917 he married Mary Buchan, daughter of John Adye Buchan of Whitehall, Kingsbridge in South Devon. They had a son John and two daughters Deirdre and Rosaleen.
General Sir Eric de Burgh – Old Friend
Thomas and Emily’s second son General Sir Eric de Burgh, KCB, OBE, was born at Oldtown in 1881. Nearly a century later, his grandson Chris de Burgh penned a ballad to his memory called “Old Friend“. Eric served in the Boer War as a teenager, joined the Indian Army in 1904, won a DSO in 1916 and rose steadily through the ranks to become General of the British Army in India in 1939. In October 1923 he married Mary Fanshawe, only daughter of General Sir Edward Fanshawe, KCB, of Rathmore, Naas. She died in the summer of 1934, leaving two small daughters, Maeve and Rosemary. General de Burgh retired from the army in 1941 and lived for a while at Ard Cairn outside Naas. In 1960 he purchased the rundown Bargy Castle in Wexford where he lived until his death in 1973.
Chris de Burgh & Rosanna Davison
In April 1946, the General’s eldest daughter Maeve married Colonel Charles Davison, MBE. Colonel Davison was born in the Channel Islands and raised on his family’s ranch at Estancia in Argentina. On the outbreak of World War Two, he volunteered for the Special Operations Executive, a newly-formed unit specialising in covert operations and sabotage. As a member of SOE, he twice parachuted behind Japanese lines in Burma, where he spent some years organising Burmese guerrillas in operations against the Japanese occupation army. After the war, he and his wife returned to Argentina where their two sons Richard and Chris were born. The family returned to Ireland in 1960 and the young Davison boys went to live with their grandfather, General de Burgh, at Bargy.
After the General’s death, the Davisons renovated Bargy and ran it as a hotel; young Chris soon found himself entertaining guests with his guitar. While his brother Richard became a lawyer, Chris adopted his mothers’ maiden name and began releasing singles, commencing with the excellent “Spanish Train” in 1975. Known to the world as Chris de Burgh, he has now sold more than 40 million albums and performed at over 2,500 concerts worldwide. His anthemic “High on Emotion” was No. 1 in 10 European countries. His signature song, “Lady in Red“, reached No. 1 in 25 countries and sold eight million copies around the world. “Lady in Red” is also acknowledged as one of the Top 20 most played songs in America. In December 2003 his 19-year-old daughter Rosanna Davison was crowned Miss World in Sanya, China, becoming the first Irish woman to scoop the beauty pageant.
Captain Charles & Lydia de Burgh
Thomas and Emily’s fourth son Captain Charles de Burgh, DSO, was born in 1886. In 1908 he joined the Mobilization Department of the Admiralty under his first cousin Admiral de Robeck. He orchestrated submarine movements during the Great War, won a DSO in 1917 and subsequently commanded HMS Cyclops (1926 – 27) and the 6th Submarine Flotilla (1928 – 29). He married Isabel Campbell and they lived for many years in the former agents house at Seaforde, County Down.Their daughter Lydia de Burgh became well known for her portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Anne. A terrific source of gossip to many subsequent generations, Lydia passed away in December 2007.
Hubert and Joan de Burgh’s only son, Major John de Burgh, was born on 17th February 1921 and educated at Stowe. He served with the 16th/5th Lancers in World War Two, was mentioned in dispatches, won an MC in North Africa in 1943 and retired with the rank of Major in 1950. On 29th September 1952 he married Clare Shennan, daughter of Major Kenneth and Lilah Shennan of Shipton Oliffe in Gloucestershire. Lilah’s brother Major Bowes Daly, MC, was sometime ADC to the Viceroy of India and Master of the Galway Blazers. Together John and Clare established Oldtown as one of Ireland’s foremost studs. This produced a Group One winner in 1964, a double Oaks winner (Fair Salinia) in 1978 and, in 1984, achieved a record price for a yearling at the Newmarket sales. Major de Burgh regularly served as a steward at National Hunt meetings throughout the country and was elected to the Turf Club in 1961. He served on the Irish Racing board for 15 years.
On Major de Burgh’s 33rd birthday, his wife presented him with a son, Hubert. A daughter Caroline arrived the following year and a son, William, three years later.
In 1999 Major John de Burgh put Oldtown demesne on the market. His eldest son Hubie de Burgh, formerly bloodstock manager for Shadwell Stud, Newmarket, and of the bloodstock interests for Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, at Derrinstown Stud. He now owns Huma Park Stud near Maynooth and runs a bloodstock agency, De Burgh Equine Ltd. His brother William de Burgh runs a successful business in California and his sister Caroline is married and lives in Wales.
Major John de Burgh Clare died aged 89 on 4th December 2010 while Clare passed on 4th November 2016, aged 86. They now lie together at St David’s Church, Naas.
With thanks to Hubie de Burgh, William de Burgh, the late Lydia de Burgh, John de Robeck, Gwyneth Brindley, Campbell de Burgh, Michael J Hewett, Colm Smyth, Gwyneth Brindley, Edmond O’Dea, Nickie Johnson, David Winpenny, Ralph Buerk, Matthew Forde, Nick Coveney, Ursula Ormond, Paul Simon, Jo Minns, Vicki Pattinson, David & Dian Hope, Michael Brennan, Sean Slowey, Vicki Pattinson, Peter Chomley, Hugo de Burgh and George Bates (Illinois).
FOOTNOTES
1. Hubert de Burgh was greatly enriched by royal favour during the early years of John’s reign, receiving numerous townships and castles throughout England, Wales and north west France. It is said that when John captured his rebellious nephew Arthur of Brittany in 1202, Hubert was appointed his jailor and ordered to blind the young Prince, a task he refused to perform. He continued to serve John during the French wars, being held prisoner in the great castle of Chinon in the Loire Valley for two years. He remained loyal to the king during the Baron’s War and is listed as one of the twenty five Barons who guaranteed Magna Carta. In 1217 he married the King’s widow, Isabella, and in 1221 he married Margaret, daughter of King William I of Scotland. Michael Weiss, “The Castellan: The Early Career of Hubert de Burgh“, Viator, vol. 5 (1974) 2. Burke’s Irish Family Records, 1976, page 338 3. For much of this I am indebted to Rolf Loeber’s invaluable “A Biographical Dictionary of Architects in Ireland 1600 – 1720” (John Murray, 1981). 4. An English act of 1699 fixed the Irish peacetime military establishment at 12,000 men, as compared to 7000 in England. In practice a section of this army was always deployed outside the kingdom but Ireland was now a major base for Britain’s strategic reserves and consequently bore a considerable share of the overall cost of imperial defence. 5. While Vicar of Celbridge, Price proposed to Swift’s “Vanessa”. In the late 18th century, Oakly Park was the home of Lady Sarah Napier, one of the famous Lennox sisters. Her sisters Lady Louisa Conolly and the Duchess of Leinster resided at nearby Castletown and Carton respectively. 6. Arthur was the eldest son of Col. William Henry Charles Wellesley, son of the Rev. the Hon. Gerald Valerian Wellesley D.D., Chaplain to the Queen and Prebendary of Durham, brother of Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington, and fourth son of Garnet 1st Earl of Mornington. 7. 8,981 DSOs were awarded during the First World War. Each award was announced in the London Gazette together with its accompanying citation.
Oakley Park, Celbridge, Co Kildare (now St. Raphael’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. 227. “(Napier, sub Napier and Ettrick, B/PB; Maunsell/IFR) A fine three storey ashlar-faced house of 1724, built for Arthur Price, Vicar of Celbridge – who proposed to Swift’s “Vanessa” and who later became Bishop of Meath and Archbishop of Cashel – possibly to the design of Thomas Burgh, MP, Engineer and Surveyor-General for Ireland. Seven bay front, three bay central breakfront; doorway with segmental pediment, solid roof parapet, bold string courses. Various subsequent alterations. Later in C18, it was the home of Lady Sarah Napier, sister of Lady Louisa Conolly, of Castletown, and of Emily, Duchess of Leinster, mother of the United Irish leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Lady Sarah, born Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of 2nd Duke of Richmod, was the love of the young George III, who, according to a legend, wrote the song The Lass of Richmond Hill, about her. Oakley afterwards became the seat of a branch of the Maunsell family; it now belongs to a religious order.”
Detached seven-bay three-storey over basement Classical-style house, built 1724, retaining early aspect with three-bay three-storey breakfront, three-bay three-storey side elevation to south-west, single-bay three-storey recessed end bay to north-east and seven-bay three-storey rear elevation to north-west having single-bay single-storey bowed projecting bay to north. Refenestrated, c.1950. Now in use as hospital. Hipped roof behind parapet with slate. Rolled lead ridge tiles. Cut-stone chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Coursed limestone walls. Cut-stone dressings including stringcourses to each floor and moulded cornice having cut-stone parapet walls with cut-stone coping. Square-headed openings (segmental-headed window openings to basement). Stone sills. Cut-stone surrounds. Replacement 9/9, 9/6 and 6/6 timber sash windows, c.1950. Original 6/6 timber sash windows to basement. 1/1 timber sash windows to bowed projecting bay. Cut-stone doorcase to front (south-east) elevation approached by flight of steps with segmental pediment over on consoles. Cut-stone surround to door opening to rear (north-west) elevation. Replacement timber panelled and glazed timber panelled doors, c.1950. Overlights. Interior with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set back from road in own grounds. Landscaped grounds to site.
Appraisal
Oakley Park, now known as Saint Raphael’s, is a fine and imposing Classical-style mansion that was built contemporaneously with Castletown House as the residence of Sarah Napier, sister of Lady Louisa Connolly. Of social and historical interest, the house represents the origins of Celbridge as an estate town with sophisticated private buildings flanking both ends of what would become the Main Street. The house retains much of its original character and is a valuable component of the architectural heritage of Celbridge. Composed of graceful Classical proportions on a symmetrical plan centred about a breakfront to both primary elevations (to south-east and to north-west), the house is finely detailed, without unnecessary ornamentation, to include features such as decorative doorcases and a heavy cornice to the roof – the presence of a bowed projecting bay also adds incident to the regular design. The construction of the house in coursed cut-limestone is a good example of the high quality of stone masonry practiced in the locality. Replacement fenestration was inserted in the mid twentieth century, but this has been carried out in keeping with the original integrity of the house – original fenestration remains in situ to the basement, having wide glazing bars, while the interior retains features such as timber panelled shutters to the window openings. Set back from the line of the road in its own grounds, the house retains attractive landscaped lawns to the front (south-east).
Oakley Park, formerly Celbridge House, was built in 1724 by Arthur Price when he was vicar of Celbridge, later Bishop of Meath, and Archbishop of Cashel. Dr. Price’s steward at Oakley Park was one Richard Guinness, known for his brewing talents. His son, Arthur went on to establish the Guinness Brewery in Dublin.
In the early 20th century, the house changed ownership many times and fell into disrepair. In the 1930s, Oakley Park was sold to the Christian Brothers, who planned to open a school there. They never managed to get the school up and running and it was sold again. The house was purchased in 1952 by its present owners, the Brothers of St. John of God. Today Oakley Park forms part of the St. Raphael complex training centre for mentally handicapped children and young adults.
Formerly the entrance but now the garden front of Oakley Park in Celbridge, County Kildare. The house is believed to have been built c.1724 for the Rev. Arthur Price*, who was then the local rector (he later rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Archbishop of Cashel). Tall and somewhat austere, Oakley Park’s design is attributed to Thomas Burgh, also responsible for the Old Library at Trinity College, of which it is somewhat reminiscent. In the late 18th century, the house was acquired by Lady Sarah Napier, sister of Lady Louisa Conolly who lived nearby at Castletown, and Emily, Duchess of Leinster who lived at Carton. It appears thereafter to have changed hands regularly and at some date in the 19th century, the entrance was moved to the other side of the building (see below). Since 1953 the house and surrounding grounds have been used by the St John of God religious order who run a training centre here for disabled children and young adults.
*Arthur Price’s land steward in Celbridge was one Richard Guinness. On his death in 1752 he left £100 to Guinness and his son, Arthur – Price’s godson – who a few years later established a certain well-known and still flourishing brewery.
The following story is an updated version of that contained in Turtle Bunbury’s 2004 book, ‘The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Co. Kildare‘. If you should spot any errors or ommissions, or have further information or photographs of relevance, please let us know.
A heroic defense of a Waterford Castle against Cromwell’s army earned the Maunsell family considerable respect from their Irish peers when they first settled in Ireland in the mid 17th century. During the Georgian Age, they rose to prominence in Limerick, as bankers, politicians and Mayors. When not in Limerick, they were invariably leading an army from one international battlefield to the next. In the early 18th century, they moved to Oakley Park, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, formerly home to the Napier family, scions of three mighty Generals. In the early 20th century they married into the Orpen family. The connection to Ireland dwindled after the sale of Oakley Park in 1924. Today the house is run by the St John of Gods.
OrIgin of the Maunsell Family
p. 153. The name Maunsel is said to be derived either from the Norman French word mancel (an inhabitant of Le Mans) or from le mansel (a feudal tenant occupying a manse farm). The Maunsell family claim descent from Philip de Mancel, Cup Bearer to William the Conqueror. He came to England in 1066, settled in Buckinghamshire, acquired a substantial estate in Leicestershire and built a fine mansion house at Oswick in Glamorgan. His descendents prospered greatly under the Plantagenet kings. In 1163, Sir Robert Maunsell served with the Knights Templar while his eldest son Walter was Napkin Bearer to the King. William’s son Sir John was raised in the Royal Court of Edward Longshanks, received numerous lands and manors in southern England and rose to become one of the most prominent statesmen of his age. During the War of the Roses, Sir Philip Maunsell was captured by the Yorkists at the battle of Tewkesbury and beheaded along with his two elder sons.
Rhys Maunsell & the Irish Rebellions
p. 154 In 1535, Sir Philip’s grandson and eventual heir, Sir Rhys Maunsell of Oxwich Castle, Glamorgan was dispatched with a body of troops to assist Lord Deputy Grey in suppressing the rebellion of Silken Thomas FitzGerald. (2) For his efforts, he was given a grant for life for the site of the Cistercian abbey of Margam in Glamorgan, as well as the Office of Chamberlain of the County Palatine of Chester, and the royalty of Avon Waters to him and his heirs. After the dissolution of the monasteries, he got a lease of Margam and in 1540 purchased the entire Margam property where he built a mansion house partly on the site of the abbey. (3) One of his grandsons, Captain Rhys Maunsell served for the English against the O’Neills in the Nine Years War. He was captured along with Sir John Chichester at the Battle of Carrickfergus in 1596 and beheaded. Their heads were sent to Tyrone and their bodies buried at Carrickfergus. (4)
Thomas & APHRA Maunsell (1577 – 1661)
The principal branch of the family continued to live at Chicheley in Buckinghamshire, marrying into some of the greatest dynasties of Tudor and Stuart England. In the early 17th century, the head of the family was Thomas Maunsell (1577 – 1661), a prominent London solicitor and land speculator. In the 1630s he purchased an estate in Waterford from the Earl of Cork where he relocated with his wife Aphra Crayford who bore him a commendable 23 children. Following her death in 1666, Aphra Maunsell was interred in Caherconlish, Co Limerick. A stone tablet in Basso relievo is still within the precincts of the graveyard, though displaced by an overgrowth of trees on the wall of the church.
Thomas and Alphra’s eldest son Colonel Thomas Maunsell, one of the ’49 Officers’, distinguished himself during the Confederate Wars by his defence of Mocollop Castle, Co. Waterford, against Cromwellian forces in 1649. After the siege he converted the ruined castle into his own mansion, which was inherited by his son Thomas. (5)
p. 155. Following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Thomas the Younger was awarded land in Galway, Waterford and the Liberties of Limerick. His sons became merchants and magistrates in Limerick and Cork over the ensuing decades but, upon his death in 1692, the inheritance devolved upon his grandson, Richard.
NB: Edward Mansell was chaplain to King Charles I during the civil war. His father, Robert Mansell was born circa 1580 and operated as a miller in Great Bourton, Oxon.
The bankers of limerick
Richard Maunsell (d. 1773) unexpectedly inherited the Maunsell family estates when his three elder brothers predeceased him. He served as Mayor of Limerick in 1734 and was MP for Limerick City in the Irish Parliament from 1740 to 1761, during which time the city developed as a centre of Atlantic trade, particularly in upmarket fashion and woollen manufacture. By his first marriage to Margaret, younger daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Twigg of Donnybrook Castle, Co. Dublin, he had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Anne. (6)
Although contemporaries recalled him as ‘an honest but a very dull man’, Thomas Maunsell proved himself a very capable lawyer and married one of the Waller girls from Castle Waller. His oldest son Richard Maunsell emigrated to the USA after he graduated from Trinity and no more if known of him. In 1789, his sons Robert and Thomas co-founded Maunsell’s Bank in Limerick City. Maunsell’s Bank later became the Bank of Limerick, which was one of Irelands’ leading private banks before its collapse in the economic depression that overtook Europe at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. (7) The younger Thomas became MP for Johnstown while Robert later settled in India where he was elected to the Supreme Council of Madras. Another son became Dean of Leighlin while another became Rector of Oranmore, respectively marrying daughters from Macroom Castle and Bunratty Castle.
Thomas Snr’s eldest three daughters all married well – barristers and landowners from Tipperary and Limerick – but his youngest daughter Dorothea Maunsell caused a tremendous scandal when, aged 15, she eloped with the famous Italian castrato opera singer Giusto Ferdinando Tenducciduring the 1760s. (Burke’s Irish Family Records claimed Dorothea was married in 1762 to William Long Kingsman, barrister-at-law. He did indeed become her second husband but not until late in the decade). For more on their extraordinary affair, click here.
Thomas Mausell Snr. later became King’s Counsellor in the Court of Exchequer and and MP for Kilmallock. He finished up as Counsel to the Revenue by Lord Harcourt, an office worth £800 a year. When he died in 1783, his legacy was secured through the survival of his aforementioned namesake son and heir, Thomas Maunsell, MP for Johnstown.
The Norbury Connection
Richard’s second wife Jane was the eldest daughter of William Waller of Castle Waller, Co. Tipperary. By this marriage he had a further five sons. Among these were General John Maunsell who commanded the 56th regiment at the Siege of Havana in 1762, Eaton Maunsell who served as Mayor of Limerick in 1779 and, the eldest, Richard Maunsell who settled at Ballywilliam in County Limerick and married Helena Toler, a half-sister of the 1st Earl of Norbury. As Chief Justice of Ireland during the early 19th century, Lord Norbury was infamous for the number of men he condemned to the gallows. An anecdote survives of how the judge was addressing the jury in one such case when his voice was drowned out by the sound of an irate ass. “What noise is that?” he inquired angrily. “Merely an echo of the Court, my lord“, was the defending barristers risqué reply. But Norbury could be quick too. At dinner one day, his host told him he had shot 31 hares that morning. “I don’t doubt it“, replied his lordship, “but you must have fired at a wig.” (8)
The Maori Bible
p. 156. Richard and Helena had four sons. The eldest, Daniel, succeeded to Ballywilliam on Richard’s death in 1790. He was grandfather to General Sir Thomas Maunsell, KCB (1906), a prominent soldier in the Punjabi Campaign, the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. (*) The second son Richard Maunsell lived at Queensboro in Limerick. The fourth son George Maunsell also lived in Limerick and was sometime Collector of the Irish Customs, a post he secured when he married the daughter of the previous Collector, James Smyth. George’s youngest son Robert emigrated to New Zealand in 1834 and became the first person to translate the Bible and Prayer Book into Maori. Richard and Helena’s third son John Maunsell was born in 1752 and became a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1774. Six years later, he married Anne Webster, only daughter and heiress of Edward Webster of Whitehall, Dublin. Anne died in August 1788, giving birth to her only child, Richard. Her widowed husband remained at Carrickoreely, Co. Limerick.
* In March 2008, I was contacted by Lois Adam’s, granddaughter of Daniel Toler Thomas Maunsell’s eldest son George Edward Maunsell. George was born in Dublin around 1858 and emigrated to Jamaica in 1882 where he died in 1911. Lois would very much like to find some trace of descendants of his family in Ireland or elsewhere. She has been to Dublin and found the graves of Helen, Daniel and and some of his siblings in Mount Jerome cemetery but so far have been unable to locate any living descendants. Please contact me if you have further information.
The Napiers of Oakley Park
p. 156 In 1787, Oakley Park became the home of Colonel George Napier and his wife, the formerLady Sarah Bunbury. Located between the Conolly estate at Castletown and Lord Cloncurry’s estate at Lyons, the Georgian house was originally built in 1724, most likely by Thomas de Burgh (qv). Its first owner was Dr. Arthur Price, the Vicar of Celbridge who proposed to Jonathan Swift’s “Vanessa“. Price later became Bishop of Meath and Archbishop of Cashel.
p. 157. Dr. Price’s steward at Oakley Park was Richard Guinness, whose son, Arthur went on to establish the Guinness Brewery. Lady Sarah was one of the beautiful Lennox girls, popularised in the book and TV series “Aristocrats” by Stella Tillyard. Her sisters included Lady Louisa Conolly of Castletown and Emily, Duchess of Leinster. (10)
The Napiers raised eight children in this home. They clearly did something right because the sons grew to be remarkable men. Indeed, for many years afterwards, the house was known by country people as “The Eagle’s Nest,” on account of the high spirit of the Napier boys. During the 1798 Rebellion, for instance, Colonel Napier armed his five sons and instructed them all in the strategy of defence. The boys were educated at the grammar school in Celbridge. Here the eldest boy Charles organised his fellow pupils into a volunteer force and made them parade. However, his younger brother William showed such little respect for these military drills that he was tried by “a drum-head court martial” and sentenced to some sadly unknown punishment. William refused to accept the penalty and so Charles reluctantly gave the go-ahead for the other volunteers to teach the young rebel a lesson. However, “William, his fiery nature revolting against the insult, whirling a large bag of marbles like a sling discharged them amid the crowd, and then, charging, broke the obnoxious drum, and forced his most prominent assailant, greatly his superior in age and size, to single combat. Although getting far the worst of it, and badly hurt in the fight, William, still refusing to give in, was restored to the ranks by his brother for the pluck he had shown.” (11) The long term impact of these schoolyard scraps becomes somewhat more formidable when one considers that Charles, William and a third brother George went on to become three of the greatest British heroes of the Peninsula War. Indeed all three were knighted and promoted to the rank of General. After the death of Colonel George Napier the house and lands were sold to Theobold Donnelly. He changed the name from Celbridge House to Oakley Park.
On 1st June 1807, the younger Richard married Maria Woods, only daughter of John Woods of Winter Lodge, co. Dublin, and sister of George Woods, JP, of Milverton Hall, Skerries, Co. Dublin. (9) In 1813 the estate was purchased by John Maunsell for his son Richard Mark Synnot Maunsell, whose son Richard John Caswell Maunsell sold the estate in 1924 and moved to London. So only 3 generations of the family lived there for altogether 111 years.
9. From 1831, George Woods maintained a pack of hounds to hunt both hares and foxes. In 1849, he was granted the right to hunt foxes in the area by the Louth Foxhounds.
Six Maunsells Brothers
In 1840, the Lord Chancellor was “pleased to appoint” Richard Maunsell a magistrate for County Dublin. He served as High Sheriff for Kildare in 1841 and died on 25th November 1866, leaving six sons. (12)
John Maunsell, the 46-year-old firstborn, succeeded to Oakley Park. He also inherited an estate of some 1200 acres at Carrickoreely in Co. Limerick from his grandfather. Little is recorded of John save that he studied at Trinity College Dublin, became a barrister at Gray’s Inn in 1834, served as High Sheriff for Co. Kildare in 1868 and never married.
p. 158 Upon his death in 1882, the property passed to his brother, George Woods Maunsell (1815-1887), previously resident of Ashford, Co. Limerick. George owned several thousand acres in Counties Dublin and Westmeath and was a barrister of prominence in Dublin, with offices at 10 Merrion Square South. He served as JP and Deputy Lieutenant for Kildare and as High Sheriff for Dublin City in 1876 and County Kildare in 1885. On 4th August 1842, he married Maria Synott (d. 1883), eldest surviving daughter and co-heiress of Mark Synnot of Monasterois House, Edenderry, Co. Offaly. (13) Two boys – Mark and George – and two girls Anne and Maria – followed. (14)
p. 159. The third of Richard and Maria’s six sons, the Rev. Richard Dixie Maunsell, succeeded to his maternal grandmothers’ home at Whitehall in Co. Dublin and was Rector of Innistonnagh, Co Tipperary. On 10th February 1859 he married Alicia Laing, daughter of Malcolm Laing, a Scotsman from the Orkney Islands who settled in Jamaica’s Spanish Town at about this time. They had nine childrenincluding Richard Maunsell, BA, MA, (1862-1929), a well-known land agent and secretary of the Irish Landowner’s Convention during a time of much anxiety to Irish landowners. Educated at St Columba’s College and Trinity College Dublin, Richard joined the Dublin firm, Stewart & Kincaird. He subsequently became agent for a number of leading Irish estates and lived at Shielmartin, Portmarnock, which was later home to William ‘The Boss’ McMullan, co-founder of Maxol. On 20 March 1929, Richard and his wife Lucie Eleanor (nee Waters) were on their way to London to meet their only son who had just returned from Egypt where he had been serving for several years with the Sudan Government Railways. Richard had a heart attack and died on the way.
p. 160. The fourth son Edward Maunsell was killed in the muddy trenches at Sebastopol on 10th July 1855 while serving as a captain with the 30th Regiment.
The fifth son Warren Maunsell lived at Hodgestown, Co. Kildare, and was Rector of Thomastown, Co. Kildare.
The sixth son Frances Maunsell was also a clergyman, lived at Shrule in the Queen’s County, was Rector of Symondsbury in Dorset and married Emily, another daughter of Malcolm Laing of Jamaica.
Captain Mark Maunsell
George Woods Maunsell passed away on 26th April 1887 and was succeeded by his only surviving son,Mark Maunsell. Mark was born on 22nd October 1843. At the age of 20, he married Lucy Copeland, eldest daughter of Alexander Copeland of Wingfield, Berkshire. He subsequently served as a captain with the 1st Royal Dragoons. Lucy died without issue in the winter of 1875. Two years later, Captain Maunsell married again. His new bride was Mary Caswell, only daughter and heiress of a wealthy Limerick businessman Samuel Caswell, JP, of Blackwater, co. Clare, who had died a few years previously. The Caswell and Maunsell families had been acquainted for years; Mark may have attended Samuel’s funeral. The marriage took place at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on 26th February 1877. “Two processional marches signalled the arrival of the bridal party. Before the ceremony the hymn “The Voice that Breathed o’er Eden” was sung. After the ceremony came Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. The newly married pair, after having received congratulations without number, and ‘wishes for happiness’ of equal extent, left for Dublin by the four o’clock train, whence they proceed on an extended Continental tour.”
p. 161. Mary seems to have been rather a frightening woman, preferring the hunting field to life as a mother. For the next ten years, she and Mark lived at Strand House in Limerick, with occasional visits to see Mary’s mother at Blackwater. Mark retired from the army and was a JP for County Clare. In 1887 they relocated to Oakley Park. Mark was quickly appointed JP for Kildare and, from 1890 to 1892, served as High Sheriff for the county. After Mary’s death in August 1893, he was married a third time to Georgina Middleton.
Dick Maunsell & the Orpen Connection
Captain Mark Maunsell left a daughter Norah and a son, Richard (‘Dick’) John Caswell Maunsell. The latter was born at 80 George Street, Limerick, on 2nd May 1878 and educated at Hailebury College in England and Trinity College Dublin.
In 1905, he left Trinity and entered at the King’s Inn as a barrister. He was subsequently JP for Co. Kildare. On 24th September 1913 he married Mary Winifred (‘Molly’) Orpen, fifth daughter of Richard Orpen of Ardtully, Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry. The Orpens were a family of rising influence. Molly’s first cousin Sir William Orpen (1878 – 1931) was regarded as the most influential Irish artist of his generation.
p. 162. His experiences of the Great War inspired him to paint to some of the most powerful images of that horrific conflict. He was knighted in 1918 and the following year was resident artist at the Paris Peace Conference. (16) Sir William’s brother Richard Orpen (1863 – 1939) was Cathedral architect for both St Patrick’s Cahedral in Dublin and St Canice’s in Kilkenny. He also served as President of the Incorporated Law Society from 1915 – 1916. Molly’s brother Dr. Raymond Orpen (1875 – 1952) spent much of his life advancing knowledge of public health in Sierra Leone, Gambia and Nigeria. Her elder sister Amy married Major John Henry Kennedy, TD, eldest son of Robert Kennedy, JP, of Baronrath, Co. Kildare.
In January 1915, Dick secured a commission as a lieutenant in Kitchener’s army and set off for France with the Inniskilling Fusiliers. He remained with the regiment until 1919, witnessing some of the bloodiest battles of the war. In 1917 he was awarded the OBE, after which he became part of the General Staff.
The Ireland to which Dick returned after the war was a rapidly changing society. In 1919 Irish Republicans initiated a guerrilla war against the occupying British army that culminated in the birth of the Irish Free State. Mollly Maunsell’s family home at Ardtully in Kerry was one of perhaps two hundred country homes in Ireland burned down during the Troubles. In 1924 Dick sold Oakley Park and moved with his wife and two sons to England. He died on 27th September 1955. Molly survived him until 2nd May 1974.They left two sons, Richard and John, and a daughter Aphra Maunsell who rose to a position of some prominence in the Bank of England. Aphra retired in 1974 and passed away on 21st May 2002 aged 85.
Richard Maunsell & the Phosphoric Revolution
The eldest son, Richard Mark Orpen Maunsell, was born on 15th September 1914 and, like his father, went to school at Haileybury. He later graduated from London University and went to Australia for 13 years where he worked with the chemical firm Albright & Wilson. He was subsequently transferred to Toronto, became a Canadian citizen and was sometime Director of Research for the Electric Reduction Company of Canada. In partnership with Richard Courtney Edquist, another Albright & Wilson scientist, he developed a process for the burning of phosphorus in the manufacture of phosphoric acid that has since been the basis of the manufacture of thermal phosphoric acid worldwide. He died on 2 January 2007. He married Gwendolin Minchin of Australia and had three daughters, Catherine, Elizabeth and Helena Claire Maunsell. The eldest daughter Catherine lives in Toronto, Ontario, and was formerly married to Alex Himelfarb, Clerk of the Privy Council, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Public Service. Returning to Ontario in 1980, Catherine began working with the Ministry of Correctional Services and for the last 7 years has served as Manager of Female Offender Programs. She lives in Toronto with her life partner Helen McIlroy. She is grandmother to twin girls – Jesse Grace and Sam Alison Heichert. The second daughter Elizabeth lives in Quebec City where she is a professor of epidemiology at Universite Laval and a researcher in the area of psychosocial aspects of breast cancer. She is married to Guy Dumas, now retired but formerly the deputy minister responsible for language policy in the Quebec government. The younger daughter Claire had a very successful career as a glass blower as ‘H. Claire Maunsell’. married Paul Ostic and has two children, Rachel Sarah Maunsell Ostic, born 1997, and Maxwell Richard Maunsell Ostic, born 1999.
p. 163. Richard’s younger brother John Maunsell was born on 30 April 1920 and educated at Haileybury and London University. He served as a Bomber Commander with the Royal Air Force during World War Two and later worked with Unilever. His memoirs of the war were entitled ‘No Such Thing as an Easy Ride‘ and a precy of them is online here. By his marriage to Eileen Conolly he had a daughter Susan born in 1961. In 2009, he was living in Reading.
Nonie Maunsell
Dick Maunsell’s sister Norah – known as “Nonie”- was the last of the family to live in Ireland. Her niece Aphra Maunsell recalled her as ‘a Dublin character’ such as you will find nowhere else. She was extremely handsome with a beautiful complexion and (as I remember her best) with pretty, softly waving grey hair. She had the wit of the Irish and was a great conversationalist. She dressed in an entirely individual style which had absolutely no reference to any prevailing fashions–usually wearing large picture hats. She was invariably draped in long strings of pearls, and wore diamond rings and a cloak. She lived in Dublin at 8 Wilton Place, in a house which, to the day of her death, had only gas light. There she was surrounded by beautiful furniture, china, and Irish silver. From the time of my father’s marriage in 1913 (she had previously kept house for him at Oakley Park) she shared this flat with her great friend Miss Kathleen Hamilton, who was, in fact my godmother’. Nonie died in Dublin on August 30th 1960 and was buried in the Maunsell plot in the village of Celbridge, Co. Kildare.
St. Raphael’s
Oakley Park was purchased by the Guiney family in 1935 and then sold to the Christian Brothers. Their plans to open a school did not come to fruition and, in the 1950s, the property passed to the St John of Gods. The house now forms part of the St Raphael’s complex training centre for mentally handicapped children and young adults.
Further Reading
The Maunsell family with its numerous branches has not only found extensive coverage in various of Burke’s and other publications, but has also been in depth investigated in Robert George Maunsell’s ‘History of Maunsell or Mansel (And of Some Related Families” (1903) and in Commr Edward Phillips Statham’s and Col Charles Albert Maunsell’s 3 volume work ‘History of the Family of Maunsell (Mansell, Mansel)‘ (1917-1920).
With thanks to Josef Muether, Lois Adams, Paul Ostic, Elizabeth Maunsell, Catherine Maunsell, Anne Armstrong, Wendy Artiss, Patrick Hourigan and others.
Bert House, or de Burgh Manor, County Kildare, courtesy Sherry FitzGerald O’Reilly.
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. (Be Burgh/IFR) A gable-ended house of 1725-30, enlarged early in C19 by the addition of two storey Classical overlapping wings, of the same height as the centre block; which is of three storeys over basement with two seven bay fronts. On one front, the top storey is treated as an attic above the cornice and has blank windows. On this front, the wings are of three bays with, on the ground floor, a Wyatt window between two niches. On the other front, the wings project further and are joined by a Doric colonnade. Plasterwork ceiling in drawingroom; screen of columns in dining room. In recent years, the home of Misses Geoghegan.”
Bert House, or de Burgh Manor, County Kildare, courtesy Sherry FitzGerald O’Reilly.
Detached eleven-bay three-storey Classical-style house, c.1780, on a H-shaped plan possibly over basement comprising seven-bay three-storey recessed central block with seven-bay single-storey flat-roofed open loggia to ground floor, three-bay three-storey projecting flanking end bays, three-bay three-storey side elevation to east and seven-bay three-storey Garden Front to south having single-bay single-storey projecting glazed porch to centre and three-bay projecting flanking end bays. Hipped roofs on a H-shaped plan with slate behind parapet wall. Clay ridge tiles. Rendered chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Flat-roof to open loggia behind parapet with iron railings over. Materials not discerned. Nap rendered walls. Ruled and lined. Painted. Rendered dressings including channelled piers to ground floor to end bays, motifs to loggia and decorative panels to upper floors to end bays. Moulded cornice with blocking course parapet wall over. Square-headed window openings (tripartite in round-headed recessed niches to ground floor end bays). Stone sills (balustraded panels to first floor end bays). Moulded architraves (with keystones to first floor; moulded consoles and entablatures to first floor end bays). 2/2 and 6/6 timber sash windows. Square-headed door openings. Moulded keystone with coat of arms over. Replacement timber panelled double doors, c.1995. Square-headed loggia along front (north) elevation with cut-stone columns. Projecting glazed porch to centre Garden Front (south) with ogee-headed domed roof. Fixed-pane windows. Glazed double doors with overlight. Set back from road in own extensive landscaped grounds. Tarmacadam forecourt to front. Lawns to rear.
Bert House, County Kildare, courtesy National Inventory.
Appraisal
Bert House is a fine and large country residence that has been well-maintained to retain an early or original appearance. The front (north) and rear (south) elevations of the house are composed of long, imposing ranges of Classical proportions and Classical motifs and are a prominent landmark from the surrounding landscape. Although regular in the dispersion of openings, the front (north) elevation is much ornamented and the use of decorative render of plasterwork is especially noteworthy, being of artistic interest. This is used to add incident to the house through its application on the round-headed recessed panels to the end bays, decorative panels to the upper floors, architraves, stringcourses, and so on. The long, low, flat-roofed loggia is also a feature that is not entirely common to Ireland and is more associated with Italian architecture – at Bert it is used to enhance the entrance front and is gracefully composed of tall, slender columns. The railings over are also a pleasant feature. While the side elevation to east is similarly decorative in its treatment, the elevation to west is comparatively more utilitarian and does not boast any ornate plasterwork. The house retains most of its original external features, including the rendered decorations, multi-pane timber sash fenestration and a slate roof, and this suggests that early features of interest may also survive in the interior. The house is of social and historic significance for having provided much employment in the locality – a role it continues to fulfill at present, where the attendant stables are used for the rearing and training of horses. The house is attractively set in its own extensive landscaped grounds on a hillside overlooking the River Barrow and the Grand Canal and is a picturesque and imposing landmark in the region.
Bert House, County Kildare, courtesy National Inventory.Bert House, County Kildare, courtesy National Inventory.
Inside this classical Kildare mansion with two bars and 17 bedrooms
A Kildare mansion that’s seen many romantic moments
Classical mansion: Bert House
Eithne Tynan
September 15 2017 02:30 AM
‘I know, let’s call it Bert,” one of the brothers must have said. “This house…” – sweeping his eyes over the seven-bay, three-storey edifice with its Italian-style first-floor loggia and its magnificent ornamental plasterwork – “…looks like a Bert.”
Consider the possible conversation 300 years ago between William Burgh and his brother Thomas when they were deciding what to name William’s classical mansion which had finally been completed near Athy, Co Kildare.
The Sitting Room, Bert House, or de Burgh Manor, County Kildare, courtesy Sherry FitzGerald O’Reilly.
Once you’ve finished building your colossal stately home, all that remains is to choose a name for it.
You might spend months musing on the matter, or else the name might come to you in a single moment of dizzying inspiration.
A cherub gazes down from its vantage point. Bert House, or de Burgh Manor, County Kildare, courtesy Sherry FitzGerald O’Reilly.
The year was around 1720 (though some sources say 1709); William was the owner of the house and his brother Thomas was the architect. Thomas was also responsible for various important Dublin buildings such as the Trinity Library, Dr Steevens’ Hospital, the Royal Barracks (now Collins Barracks), and the Old Custom House, which was replaced by a Gandon-designed building later in the century. It is perhaps just as well Burgh wasn’t given responsibility for naming any of those, or we may have ended up with Trinity Library being called something like Ernie or Cedric.
Bert House has been going by the same unassuming name since then, and in the intervening three centuries has gained even more stature and become even less unassuming itself.
Bert House, or de Burgh Manor, County Kildare, courtesy Sherry FitzGerald O’Reilly.
One of the 17 bedrooms
It was extended in the early 19th century to add the two side wings, and, at 24,000 sq ft, it’s the largest mansion in south Kildare.
Much of the Bert Demesne has been hived off though. The former coaching yard has been turned into Bert House Stud, also on the market recently, and the Bert House estate itself has been reduced to six acres. Six resplendent acres they are though, hugging the banks of the River Barrow and with a stately, tree-lined avenue a kilometre long.
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Bert House, or de Burgh Manor, County Kildare, courtesy Sherry FitzGerald O’Reilly.
It has been bought and sold many times as a family home, and in more recent years has been obliged to pay for itself as a country house hotel specialising in wedding parties.
For that purpose, it has gone by the more grandiose name of De Burgh Manor, Bert sounding perhaps not quite chic enough for a couple bent on spending all their savings on their big day.
Ornate plasterwork adorns the ceiling of a reception room
It’s now on the market again for €1.5m, and is a lot of house for the money.
The selling agents point out that it would make “an idyllic property for a large country residence”, and for a buyer who does intend to convert it back to its intended use as a family home, the biggest difficulty is likely to be shooing away prospective brides from the grounds.
The grounds lead down to the River Barrow
The 24,000 sq ft is spread out over three floors and a basement, and consequently the hoovering will be a Sisyphean job. Like painting the Forth Bridge, you will no sooner be finished than you’ll have to start again.
Some reconfiguration of the layout will also be necessary. The basement, for example, has a bar, a sauna, a snooker room and a dance studio, together with various storerooms and ladies’ and gents’ changing rooms and toilets.
There’s another bar on the ground floor, which is probably at least one bar too many for a private house.
The ground floor is also where the best of the reception rooms are, complete with beautiful plasterwork ceilings with overseeing cherubs, original sash windows, and fine old fireplaces. These include a drawing room, a dining room, a breakfast room and kitchen, as well as a TV room and a living room.
Then there are 17 bedrooms, all en suite, and one of them – positioned for marketing purposes as the Bridal Suite – has a bathroom with a free-standing claw-foot bath.
The back of the property faces southwest towards the River Barrow. There’s a formal garden out here with a fountain, together with a patio and rose garden. Beyond this, there’s a lawn culminating in a flight of steps down to the riverbank. Directly in front of the house and at the end of the avenue is a forecourt for parking.
The nearest village is Kilberry, almost at the end of the old avenue that now leads to the Bert House Stud and hence less than a kilometre away. There’s a quaint, early 19th-century church there, in the graveyard of which all the old Burghs (later known as de Burghs and distant ancestors of the singer Chris) of Bert House are buried.
The town of Athy is about six kilometres to the south, along the course of the Barrow. There are nine or ten trains a day from Athy to Dublin, and the journey takes about an hour. Alternatively, you can get to the capital by car by joining the M7 outside Monasterevin, some 17 kilometres away.
Bert House is for sale with Sherry FitzGerald O’Reilly in Naas, (045) 866 466, and has an asking price of €1,500,000.
Maria De Burgh, Lady Downes (1788-1842) of Bert House, County Kildare, attributed to Adam Buck, only child and heiress of Walter Bagenal of Duckleckney and Mount Leinster Lodge, Co Carlow, courtesy of Fonsie Mealy auction.Maria de Burgh, Lady Downes (1788-1842), only child and heiress of Walter Bagenal of Dunleckney Manor, and Mount Leinster Lodge, Killedmond, County Carlow, courtesy of Fonsie Mealy auction
“Beautiful self catering, Georgian Manor centrally located in the hearth of Kildare in a very private setting. De Burgh Manor comprises of 15 bedrooms all ensuite. The ground floor consists of a double reception room, drawing room, dining room, bar, library , breakfast room and kitchen. Situated on c. 6 acres of grounds overlooking the River Barrow.“
The website also tells us about the history:
“De Burgh Manor was built circa 1709 [the National Inventory says it was built around 1780] by Thomas Burgh [1670-1730] of Oldtown [built ca 1709 by Thomas Burgh (1670-1730), MP, Engineer and Surveyor-General for Ireland, to his own design. The centre block was burned 1950s. A house has now been made out of one of the wings. He also designed Kildrought house, a Section 482 property] for his brother William Burgh later known as Captain William De Burgh and who became Comptroller and Auditor General for Ireland. Thomas Burgh was Barracks Overseer for Ireland from 1701 and was also responsible for [building] – the Library at Trinity College Dublin, Collins Barracks Dublin – now a museum – and Dr Steeven Hospital Dublin.
“William De Burgh was born in 1667 and had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Elisabeth. Thomas, born in 1696, eventually became a Member of Parliament for Lanesboro, Co. Longford. Freeman of Athy Borough and Sovereign of Athy, in 1755 he married Lady Ann Downes, daughter of the Bishop of Cork & Ross. Her mother was a sister to Robert Earl of Kildare. Her brother, Robert Downes, was the last MP for Kildare in 1749 and was Sovereign of Athy.
“Thomas had two sons, William and Ulysses [Ulysses was actually the grandson of Thomas, son of another Thomas]. William born in 1741 went on to represent Athy as an MP in Parliament between 1768 and 1776. A monument to his memory by Sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott, a statue of faith, which depicts him with a book in one hand and a scroll in the other and stands in York Minster. He wrote two books on religion and faith.
“Ulysses, born in 1788succeeded to the title of Lord Downes [2nd Baron Downes of Aghanville] on the death of his cousin William Downes who was made Lord Chief Justice in 1803 and created Lord Downes on his retirement in 1822. It was Ulysses De Burgh who presented the Town Hall Clock to Athy in 1846 and it was he who had the wings added to Bert House. [Mark Bence-Jones writes of Bert: “enlarged early in C19 by the addition of two storey Classical overlapping wings, of the same height as the centre block; which is of three storeys over basement with two seven bay fronts.”]
“Ulysses’ daughter Charlotte was the last of the De Burgh’s to call Bert House home with her husband Lt. General James Colbourne [2nd Baron Seaton of Seaton, co. Devon]. Charlotte and James came to Bert House in 1863 as Lord and Lady Seaton after the death of Lord Downes. It was sold by them in 1909 to Lady Geoghegan who then sold it onto her cousin, Major Quirke.“
Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Military Road, Dublin 8.
Since the 2025 Revenue Section 482 list has not yet been published, today’s entry is about the Royal Hospital Kilmainham: not a Historic House, but of relevance since designed by several important architects: William Robinson, Thomas Burgh and Francis Johnson.
The most decorative rooms have been closed to the public for years for renovation, but I am writing now as I had an opportunity to enter the magnificently baroque chapel in order to see a film. Excuse the poor quality of my photographs in the chapel – I didn’t want to disturb the other film viewers.
“Since 2018, The North Range has been closed due to remedial works and essential upgrades, including fire safety improvements, mechanical and electrical system replacements, and the meticulous restoration of the Baroque Chapel ceiling, historic timber panelling, and stained glass. This extensive project, operated by the Office of Public Works (OPW), was completed in July 2024, and it was announced the reopening after 6.5 years. We are more than proud to share the news that we are preparing to host events in The North Range.“
Aww, events? But what about access to the wonderful dining room with its portraits? We shall have to see if it is open…
“Kilmainham” is named after St. Maighneann who established a church and monastery in the area around AD 606. In 1174 the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic order that focussed on aiding the sick and the poor, founded a Priory in Kilmainham, with the aid of Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, better known as Strongbow. The Priory was destroyed in 1530s with the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII.
With this history, it seemed appropriate to locate the Royal Hospital here when Arthur Forbes, later Earl of Granard, proposed the idea of building an institution to accommodate veteran soldiers, similar to Les Invalides in Paris. The building was founded by King Charles II in 1679 to accommodate 300 soldiers and construction was overseen by the King’s representative in Ireland, known as the viceroy or Lord Lieutenant, James Butler 1st Duke of Ormond. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1661-1669 then again 1677-1684.
Over the next 247 years, thousands of army pensioners lived out their final days within its walls.
The information board from the Royal Hospital tells us that it was hoped that care for injured and elderly soldiers would promote recruitment. After the Civil War between Cromwellian Parliamentarians and Royalists, Charles II was naturally concerned to have a strong military force.
The building was designed by the Chief Engineer and Surveyor General for Fortifications, Buildings, Works, Mines and Plantations for Ireland, William Robinson (1645-1712).
The information board tells us: “Born in England, Robinson went on to hold a great number of public positions. When he resigned as Surveyor General in 1700 due to ill health, he was knighted and given the position of Deputy Receiver-General at the Privy Council of Ireland. However, he was implicated in a financial scandal and following a period of imprisonment at Dublin Castle, he fled to England. He died in 1712 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.”
He must have been forgiven if buried in the Abbey! The notice board also tells us that he personally acquired the portion of the original site near Islandbridge, and built himself a house with a view of the Royal Hospital, but it no longer stands.
Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.
The next Surveyor General, Thomas Burgh (1670-1730), added more to the building. In 1704 he added the tower and steeple over the north range, and designed the infirmary.
In the fourth wing, not generally open to the public, is the splendid Robinson’s Chapel with a baroque plaster ceiling, carved oak and beautiful stained glass window, and the Geat Hall. You can see an online tour at https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=ce2pG4J1huc&mls=1
The chapel is dedicated to the memory of King Charles I and its ceiling is beautifully Baroque, a profusion of cherubs’ heads, geometrical shapes, borders, garlands and flowers. Amazingly, the ceiling is a papier-maché replica of the original. The original was too heavy, and the replica was installed in 1901. The artist of the original is unknown. The room is panelled in Baltic pine with ornate oak carving and Corinthian pilasters.
The oak carving of the altar is by Huguenot refugee from Paris, James Tabary. The carvings above the south, east and west Hospital entrances, which are made of wood but painted to look like stone, may also be by Tabary.
The stained glass in the Chapel’s large east window mostly dates to the 19th century, although some of it is said to come from the medieval Priory of St. John the Hospitaller.
In 1849 young Queen Victoria visited the hospital and bestowed a gift of stained glass which shows the coats of arms of the various Masters of the Hospital, which was made c. 1852 in London by Irish artist Michael O’Connor.
The Great Hall contains portraits that have hung here since 1713, and splendidly carved trophies over the doors remind me of those at Beaulieu in County Louth. The portaits include Queen Anne, Queen Mary, William III, Narcissus Marsh, Charles II, James 1st Duke of Ormond and the Richard Butler Earl of Arran and Earl of Ossory (sons of the Duke of Ormond), amongst others. A library which belonged to the original hospital is also cared by the OPW. The northern wing also contains the Master’s Lodgings, made for the Master of the Royal Hospital.
Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.The Great Hall, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, photograph taken 1987, from Dublin City Library and Archives. [see 2]Royal Hospital Kilmainham dining hall by Robert French, Lawrence Photographic Collection NLI, flickr constant commons.Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.Richard Butler (1639-1686) 1st Earl of Arran, son of the Duke of Ormonde, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.Thomas Butler (1634-1680) 6th Earl of Ossory, studio of Sir Peter Lely, circa 1678, courtesy of National Portrait Gallery NPG 371. Second son of the Duke and Duchess of Ormond and father of 2nd Duke of Ormonde.
In 1805, Francis Johnston carried out restoration work, and in the 1820s remodelled the Master’s Quarters in the northwest corner. He also designed the Adjutant General’s office and the Richmond Tower which stands at the west entrance to the hospital grounds.
The garden, known as the Master’s Garden, has been restored to its formal glory under the suprvision of architect Elizabeth Morgan. In 1693 Chambré Brabazon 5th Earl of Meath was Master of the Hospital and a Minute of the Royal Hospital Committee notes that he was asked to prepare an account for an estimate of works necessary to put some order on the garden. The work was not carried out at the time.
The Garden house is included in a painting by Joseph Tudor in 1750. It was probably designed as a small dining pavilion or banqueting house, with a high coved ceiling on the first floor, and it is attributed to Edward Lovett Pearce circa 1734.
The house was extended in the late 19th century into ahouse for the head gardener.
I look forward to this and book it into my calendar every year. I published about it before but will republish about some of the places that are open again this year. It has returned to the high quality offerings of its earlier years.
1. Blackhall Place (formerly Blue Coat School) Dublin (we visited during Open House 2019)
2. Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment, 23 Kildare Street (2019)
3. Irish Architectural Archive, Merrion Square.
4. Iveagh House, 80 and 81 Merrion Square, Dublin (Department of Foreign Affairs) (Open House 2014)
5. Mansion House, Dublin (2015)
6. Marsh’s Library, Dublin (Heritage Week 2013)
7. Na Píobairí Uilleann, 15 Henrietta St, Dublin
8. Nellie’s Flat, Iveagh Trust, Patrick Street, Dublin (Open House 2014)
Archiseek tells us that the first Blue Coat School or King’s Hospital was erected in Oxmantown Green between 1669-1673. It was officially named the Hospital and Free School of King Charles II. Orphans were nominated to attend the school by the Alderman or the parish, with funding coming from voluntary donations and from ground rent of St. Stephen’s Green. This building was demolished to make way for the new building, pictured above. The current building was started in 1773. Ivory resigned in disgust before it was finished, due to lack of funds, and only a stub was built instead of his tower, and the stub was removed in 1894 and a dome constructed.
The description of the tour tells us:
“The last of Dublin’s Palladian public buildings, the granite and Portland stone Blue Coat School replaced earlier premises, which had been established by King Charles I in 1671 to care for the sons of impoverished citizens. Construction began in 1773 to designs by Thomas Ivory, however funding issues led to a reduced building programme and Ivory’s departure. In 1894, a copper-clad cupola designed by Robert Stirling was added. Today, the building is home to the Law Society of Ireland, which has taken great care to retain many fine interior features.“
The building now houses the Law Society. It was built as a traditional country house composition with a central block, two wings and connecting passages. The wings have decorations intended to mirror the central tower.
The architect was J. R. Boyd Barrett, who won a competition to built it in 1936. It has a stripped Classical design with an Art Deco entrance bay addition. The external relief sculptures are by Gabriel Hayes. The tall round-headed window passes up through the floors to a keystone of representing Eire, with “jazzy” interstitial panels [Archiseek]. On the Schoolhouse Lane side the keystone represents Brendan the Navigator. The main entrance has a heavy cast bronze gates, and the carved lintel of the doorway represents the Celtic god Lugh releasing aeroplanes into the air!
The interiors were also designed by Boyd Barrett and everything from the ashtrays, fireplaces and door handles were specially designed. The interiors feature polished woods and metals and patterned linoleum floors, and the ceilings are deeply coffered.
“Take a tour of the largest terraced house on Merrion Square, learn about its history, see the latest exhibitions and discover the work of the Irish Architectural Archive.
No. 45 Merrion Square, the home of the Irish Architectural Archive, is one of the great Georgian houses of Dublin. Built for the speculative developer Gustavus Hume [1732-1812] in the mid-1790s and situated directly across Merrion Square from Leinster House, this is the largest terraced house on the Square and is the centrepiece of its East Side. Founded in 1976, the house was restored to its original plan by the Office of Public Works in 2003-4, and update fro use as a best-practice archive facility.
Tours start on the hour and will operate on a first come basis, no need to book in advance.“
“No. 45 Merrion Square, the home of the Irish Architectural Archive, is one of the great Georgian houses of Dublin. Built for the speculative developer Gustavus Hume in the mid-1790s and situated directly across Merrion Square from Leinster House, this is the largest terraced house on the Square and is the centrepiece of its East Side.
Light-filled, spectacularly-proportioned, interconnected rooms on the piano nobile of this Georgian palazzo offer a range of venues and facilities: meeting rooms for up to 20 people; multimedia lecture facilities for up to 55, dining space for up to 80, and receptions for up to 250. Whether the event is a meeting, a conference with breakout sessions, or a private or corporate reception, the Irish Architectural Archive’s beautifully graceful spaces provide Georgian elegance in the heart of Dublin.”
“Standing four stories over basement, and five bays wide, No. 45 is the largest of the terraced houses on Merrion Square. The house was built circa 1794 for the property developer Gustavus Hume. The architect may have been Samuel Sproule who, in the early 1780s, was responsible for the laying out of much of Holles Street, of both Mount Streets and of the east side of Merrion Square. The first person to live in the house seems to have been Robert la Touche [of Harristown, County Kildare] who leased the building in 1795. In 1829 the house was sold to Sir Thomas Staples [9th Baronet Staples of Lissan, County Tyrone]. It had been built in an ambitious and optimistic age, but in the Dublin of the late 1820s its huge size was somewhat anachronistic and certainly uneconomical, so Sir Thomas had the building carefully divided into two separate houses. Sir Thomas died aged 90 in 1865, the last survivor of the Irish House of Commons.
On his death, both parts of the house passed to Sir John Banks, Regius Professor of Medicine in Trinity College, who, like his predecessor, leased the smaller portion of the divided building, by now numbered Nos. 10 and 11 Merrion Square East. Banks himself lived in No. 11, the larger part, which he maintained in high decorative order. Banks died in 1910, and both parts of the building fell vacant and remained so until 1915 when the whole property was used to accommodate the clerical offices of the National Health Insurance Company. With single occupancy restored, the division of the building, renumbered 44 – 45 Merrion Square, began to be reversed, a process carried on in fits and starts as successive Government departments and agencies moved in and out over the decades. The last to go was the Irish Patents Office, relocated to Kilkenny in 1996.
The house was assigned to Irish Architectural Archive by Ruairí Quinn TD, Minister for Finance, in his budget of 1996. The Office of Public Works carried out an extensive programme of works to the house from 2002 to 2004, including the refurbishment of the historic fabric and the construction of new state-of-the-art archival stores to the rear.“
“Iveagh House, the headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs, has many stories within its walls. Explore the nooks and crannies of its beautiful architecture and artwork on this guided tour.
You will be welcomed in to the Entrance Hall and onwards to the Secretary General’s Office where, under the political direction of the Tánaiste and Minister, the Secretary General manages the Department. From there you will be brought through the Inner Hall to The Secretary General’s Ante Room. When you exit the Ante room you will be meet with the houses’ spectacular double Staircase. Moving on, you will be guided to through the Tánaiste’s Dining Room, Ante Room and finally the Tánaiste’s Office. The tour will continue on to the Ballroom before ending in Lady Iveagh’s Boudoir.
This tour is pre-book only, booking opens 14 September.“
“Iveagh House is now the Department of Foreign Affairs as it was donated to the Irish State by the Guinness family in 1939. Originally two houses, nos 80/81 St Stephen’s Green, no 80 was originally designed by Richard Cassels [also spelled “Castle”] in 1736. After both houses were bought by Benjamin Guinness in 1862, he acted as his own architect and produced the current house.
“The Dublin Builder, February 1 1866: ‘In this number we give a sketch of the town mansion of Mr. Benjamin Lee Guinness, M.P , now in course of erection in Stephen’s Green, South, the grounds of which run down to those of the Winter Garden. As an illustration so very quiet and unpretending a front is less remarkable as a work of architectural importance than from the interest which the name of that well-known and respected owner gives it, and from whose own designs it is said to have been built. The interior of the mansion promises to be of a very important and costly character, and to this we hope to have the pleasure of returning on a future occasion when it is more fully advanced. The works, we believe, have been carried out by the Messrs. Murphy of St. Patrick’s Cathedral notoriety, under Mr. Guinness’s own immediate directions, without the intervention of any professional architect.’ “
The Buildings of Ireland website featured the Mansion House as one of its Buildings of the Month, and tells us that The Mansion House, Dawson Street, is the oldest freestanding house in the city and the only surviving mayoral residence in Ireland.
The Mansion House owes its origins to Joshua Dawson (1660-1725), a member of the Guild of Merchants and at the time the second-wealthiest man in Ireland, who in 1705 purchased a tract of poor marshy ground east of the medieval core of Dublin and within two years had laid out a new street which he named Dawson Street. Work on a suitable townhouse began in 1710 and it is clear that the house was intended as the centrepiece of the new street.
The house, a rare example of a Queen Anne-style house, was substantially refronted in 1851 when the original brick finish was plastered, the windows were given robust classical frames, and the parapet was remodelled about a central pediment carrying the Coat of Arms of the City. The elaborate cast-iron canopy (1886) was designed by Daniel J. Freeman (1856/7-1902), City Architect (fl. 1879-93).
The death of Queen Anne in 1714 abruptly disrupted Dawson’s ambitious plans. Fearing that her successor would not be so favourable toward him, Dawson agreed on the 18th of May, 1715, to sell the house to Dublin Corporation at a cost of £3,500 in addition to a yearly ground rent of forty shillings and a loaf of double-refined sugar weighing six pounds due each Christmas. As a condition of the sale, Dawson agreed to build an additional room which could be used for civic receptions: the now-famous Oak Room.
The Oak Room was the venue of the annual City Ball throughout the eighteenth century. On such occasions the Lord Mayor dispensed generous hospitality, aided in no small part by a yearly grant of twenty thousand oysters from the civic oyster beds. The Oak Room continues to play a central role in the life of the Mansion House today. [2] It contains portraits of Charles II, George II, Duke of Cumberland and the Duke of Richmond.
The extension of the property continued well into the nineteenth century and included the Round Room completed in just six weeks in 1821 for the reception of King George IV. Designed by John Semple (d.1840) in the “exotic” style, an apparent nod to the monarch’s Hindu-Gothic Brighton Pavilion, it was remodelled 1892 by J. G. Ashlin, and was the venue for the first sitting of Dáil Éireann in January 1919.
The improvement of the Mansion House continued into the early twentieth century when, in anticipation of a royal visit by Queen Victoria, new ceilings were installed in the entrance hall and drawing room to designs by Charles James McCarthy (c.1857-1947), City Architect (fl. 1893-1921). The stained glass window over the principal staircase dates from the same period and carries the signature of Joshua Clarke and Sons of North Frederick Street. The Dublin City coat-of-arms again features as the centrepiece in a frame including the shields of the four provinces of Ireland and the names of prominent supporters of Home Rule. Topped and tailed by a Garland of Peace and a Cornucopia of Prosperity, the window is today known as “The Peace Window”.
Marsh’s Library 1975, photograph from National Library and Archives. [3]
Marsh’s Library was built in 1701, designed by William Robinson who was surveyor general from 1670-1700, and who also designed the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The Library was set up as the first public library in Ireland, by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713).
Unchanged for three centuries, this perfectly preserved library of the early Enlightenment, with its original oak bookcases, houses more than 25,000 rare and fascinating books. Narcissus Marsh was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, and formerly Provost of Trinity College, Dublin. In 1707 the library was established by an act of Parliament with the second gallery added shortly after under the supervision of Robinson’s successor as Surveyor General Thomas Burgh.
Built as the first public library in Ireland and still in use today by scholars and students, Marsh’s Library is one of the few buildings of its time in Dublin still being used for its original purpose. A small garden on the grounds provides a peaceful haven in the middle of the city.
Tours of the building will take place discussing the history of the building and how it was designed to preserve the books and the various alterations that have been made over the years since the Library first opened.
Meeting point: Front landing of Marsh’s Library
Tours will operate on a first come basis on the hour from 11am to 4pm with last tour starting at 4pm.
The interior of the library remains unchanged from when it was set up. It is no longer a public library, unfortunately, as the books are too delicate for general handling, but one can request to look up books in the catalogue, and it operates as a sort of museum open to the public for a fee. It contains dark oak bookcases topped with lettered gables and a mitre. The library contains the original reading cages – a reader would be locked in so that he or she could not steal the books.
“No. 15 Henrietta St. consists of the remaining two bays of an originally four bay, four storeys over basement townhouse, with a red brick façade, of the early 1740s. It is located on a cul-de-sac containing the finest early Georgian houses in the city. The street is of unique European significance, being the single remaining intact example of an early-18th century street of houses, which was at the forefront of what was to become the Georgian style.
“The building underwent significant restoration which was completed in 2007, and the 18th-century appearance of the interior, including much of the original joinery and plaster work, was restored. Perhaps the most important features of the house are the stucco ceilings on the ground and first floors which were restored in the 1980s.
“The building is now the headquarters of Na Píobairí Uilleann, an international organisation involved in promoting the playing, the making, and the teaching of the Irish uilleann pipes. They now plan to reinstate No. 16 Henrietta St. next door.
“Tours will include access to the ground floor formal reception rooms, including the rear reception room featuring a mid-18th century figured papier-mâché ceiling, depicting the Four Seasons and including busts of Shakespeare and Milton. Tours will continue up a staircase, belonging to the 1828 division of the house, to the Library and Archive of Na Píobairí Uilleann, the current occupants of the building.“
See also the wonderfully informative book, The Best Address in Town: Henrietta Street, Dublin and its First Residents 1720-80 by Melanie Hayes, published by Four Courts Press, Dublin 8, 2020.
The Iveagh Trust buildings were commissioned by Edward Cecil Guinness 1st Earl of Iveagh in 1901. He provided houses and amenities for working-class people with low incomes in Dublin. The architects were Joseph and Smithem, London architects. The centrepiece of the buildings, built to house people who lived in the slums about St. Patrick’s cathdral, was the Iveagh Baths.
The Open House website tells us that Flat 3B, Bull Alley Estate on Patrick Street is a cosy flat comprising a living room and two bedrooms. It was once home to the Molloy family and built by The Iveagh Trust.
The Iveagh Trust replaced some of the worst slum dwellings in Europe. And, at the time, these new flats were state of the art. Nellie, their daughter, was one of six children. She lived here in this flat from 1915 right up until to 2002. Today, flat 3B is a museum and remains unchanged since the trust first built Bull Alley Estate.
“The vast ruin of the former Pigeon House power station is the one of the most striking industrial architecture complexes in the city and is now one of the largest protected structures in Ireland. Built in three main phases (1902-03, 1911-1913 and 1933-40; decommissioned in the 1970s), the power station was constructed of red brick and steel, and later of reinforced concrete. These layers of exposed fabric show how the building was constantly modified to keep up with increasing electricity demand. Today, only one of the 12 chimneys remain and the ruins of the power station resemble the atmospheric drawings of classical ruins by the 18th century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The vast ruin of the former Pigeon House power station is the one of the most striking industrial architecture complexes in the city and is now one of the largest protected structures in Ireland. Built in three main phases (1902-03, 1911-1913 and 1933-40; decommissioned in the 1970s), the power station was constructed of red brick and steel, and later of reinforced concrete. These layers of exposed fabric show how the building was constantly modified to keep up with increasing electricity demand. Today, only one of the 12 chimneys remain and the ruins of the power station resemble the atmospheric drawings of classical ruins by the 18th century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi.“
Join to 30-40 minute tour. Exterior of building only. This tour is pre-book only and booking opens 14 September.
The Royal College of Surgeons was built in two phases, first by architect Edward Parke, who built what is now the last three bays on the south side and five bays deep on York Street. This was subsumed later by architect William Murray, who added four bays to the north and moved the pediment to the new centre of the building, on St. Stephen’s Green. The facade has large round-headed windows separated by freestanding columns. The pediment has the royal arms, and is topped with three statues: Athena (goddess of Wisdom and War), Asclepius (god of Medicine) and Hygiea (Goddess of Health), all by John Smyth [Archiseek]. It has a rusticated basement storey.
The interior, as listed in Lewis’s guide in 1837, contains a large board room, a library, an apartment for general meetings, an examination hall, several committee rooms and offices, lecture theatres and three museums, two of which have galleries.
There is a top-lit gallery with Adamesque plasterwork.
Tailor’s Hall was built in 1706 and is the only Guild Hall from the medieval guilds still in existence in Dublin. It is two storeys over basement and the hall inside is lit by tall round-headed windows on both sides, and has two floors of smaller rooms. It is now the headquarters for An Taisce. It was originally the meeting hall for the Guild of Merchant Tailors, from 1706-1841.
It was used in 1792 as the meeting place for the Catholic Committee during their campaign against Penal Law, and for this the building earned the nickname of “Back Lane Parliament.” Later still, it was used as a meeting place for the United Irishmen around 1798.
From Christine Casey, The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin, 2005, p. 367: “1703-1707, Richard Mills overseer. The Tailors’ Guild Hall is a tall shallow red brick building with a steep roof and dormer windows, a large gabled chimneystack and stair compartment projecting from the rear or N. wall. The entrance front is the long S elevation, reached by a stone arch and forecourt from Back Lane. In the 18th century the Hall was concealed behind houses on High Street and Back Lane and preceded only by the narrow arched pathway and a basement area. This unusual sequestered position is explained by the fact that the site was formerly occupied by a Jesuit chapel and college, endowed in 1629 by the Countess of Kildare. Seized by the Crown in 1630, it was subsequently repossessed by Lord and Lady Kildare and returned to the Jesuits who remained here for an unknown period prior to 1706…Tailors’ Hall is substantially early 18C. However, curiosities in the design and [p.368] structure suggest that it may incorporate something of the fabric of the 17C chapel.
The most striking feature of the facade is its asymmetry. Four tall narrow round-headed windows lighting the assembly hall fill almost two-thirds of the facade. To their right the facade is of two storeys and three bays with the entrance on the left next to the hall framed by an elegant rusticated limestone door surround of 1770. The basic arrangement reflects a pragmatic medieval-based system of hall and upper chamber, common in London livery halls of the late C17… A granite base-mould divides the brick masonry of the principal floor from the basement walling, which is largely of Calp with a band of brick forming the slightly cambered heads of the basement windows.”
2026 Diary of Irish Historic Houses (section 482 properties)
To purchase an A5 size 2026 Diary of Historic Houses (opening times and days are not listed so the calendar is for use for recording appointments and not as a reference for opening times) send your postal address to jennifer.baggot@gmail.com along with €20 via this payment button. The calendar of 84 pages includes space for writing your appointments as well as photographs of the historic houses. The price includes postage within Ireland. Postage to U.S. is a further €10 for the A5 size calendar, so I would appreciate a donation toward the postage – you can click on the donation link.
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Help me to pay the entrance fee to one of the houses on this website. This site is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!
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I have been working to save all my photographs on USB sticks so do not have a new property to post, although I have lots to write up. I am therefore reposting this entry.
On the map above:
blue: places to visit that are not section 482
purple: section 482 properties
red: accommodation
yellow: less expensive accommodation for two
orange: “whole house rental” i.e. those properties that are only for large group accommodations or weddings, e.g. 10 or more people.
Open dates in 2026: May 1-31, June 1-30, July 1-2, 8-9, 15-16, 22-23, August 15-23, 10am-1pm
Fee: adult €10, OAP/student/child €6
Burtown House and Gardens, Athy, Co Kildare, photograph by Sonder Visuals, 2022, Courtesy Failte Ireland.
The Historic Houses of Ireland website tells us:
“Ballytore, in County Kildare, was a stronghold of the Irish Quakers and the centre of a sizeable Quaker community. One of their members, Robert Power, built Burtown House as the hub of a two thousand acre farming enterprise in the 1720s. His Georgian villa, shown on early maps as “Power’s Grove,” was only one room deep so wings were added later in the century. These were subsequently removed, though their faint outlines can still be identified and Burtown was further extended in the early nineteenth century when a full height bow was added on the garden front.
“The new extension provided a bow ended room on the garden front, a large bedroom above and a grand staircase, lit by a tall round-headed window. Pretty plasterwork in the manner of James Wyatt was also introduced at the time, most notably in an arched alcove in the bow-ended room, which is likely to have been the original dining room. The alcove is filled with a shallow fan, and delightfully cursive sprays of vine leaves, and is flanked by a pair of classical vases on pilasters of foliage with naive Corinthian capitals.
“Burtown has never been sold in all its three hundred years. The house passed from the Power family to the Houghtons and thence to the Wakefields, who gave it a new roof with widely projecting eaves in the early nineteenth century. They also lengthened the sash windows, installed a new front door with a fanlight in a deep recess, and carried out a number of other alterations.
“When Mr. Wakefield was killed playing cricket Burtown passed to his sister, who had married a fellow Quaker from County Tipperary, William Fennell. Their son, William James was a keen horseman but “was asked to leave the Quaker congregation because of his fondness for driving a carriage with two uniformed flunkeys on the back”.
“Today Burtown is in the midst of two hundred acres of parkland, including ten acres of lush flower, vegetable and woodland gardens with many fine walks. The house has now been home to five generations of the Fennell family, and to the acclaimed botanical artist and illustrator, Wendy Walsh. Coincidentally, the leading Irish botanical artist of the early twentieth century, Lydia Shackleton, also came from the same small Quaker community.” [1]
“Donadea Forest Park includes Donadea Castle and estate, the former home of the Aylmer family up until 1935. There are many historical features including the remains of the castle and walled gardens, St. Peter’s church, an ice house and boat house. The Lime tree avenue planted in the 19th century formed the original entrance to the estate. Another feature of the park is the 9/11 Memorial, a scaled replica of the twin towers carved in limestone. The small lake is brimming with ducks, waterhens and has a beautiful display of water lilies in the summer. There is a café open throughout the year.“
In 1581 Gerald Aylmer, (1548-1634), Knight, of Donadea, son of George Aylmer, of Cloncurry, and grandson of Richard Aylmer, of Lyons, built a new tower in Donadea, not fully completed until 1624 and it is now the oldest part of the Castle. [2]
In 1626, he repaired the medieval Church in Donadea and built a new extension in which he established his family burial plot. In the extension he also constructed an Altar Tomb monument as a burial memorial for his family. Gerald was titled by the Crown and became the first Baronet of Donadea.
The Aylmers were connected with the various conflicts and rebellions over the next two centuries. During the wars of the 1640s, Sir Andrew, 2nd Baronet (c. 1610-c. 1671), supported the rebels and was imprisoned at the beginning of the war.
Although he was a brother-in-law of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, there were no favours granted to him. The Aylmers rebuilt the castle after it was burned by James Butler’s troops.
In 1689, after the battle of the Boyne, Lady Helen Aylmer, widow of the 3rd Baronet, (born Plunkett, daughter of Luke Plunkett 3rd Earl of Fingall) was in charge of the Castle. She was outlawed due to her support for James II, but she managed to hold on to the Castle and lands under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick.
In 1736, Sir Gerald, 5th Baronet, died leaving an only son FitzGerald who became the 6th Baronet.
He was only one year old when his father died and was subsequently raised by his mother (Ellice or Ellen, daughter of Gerald Aylmer, 2nd Baronet of Balrath, County Meath) and her relatives who were members of the established church. FitzGerald subsequently conformed to the established religion. In 1773, he built a new house in front of the Castle and incorporated the Tower in his new residence.
Gerald, 8th Baronet, held the lands of Donadea between 1816 and 1878 and he is accredited with most of the construction work that is visible in Donadea demesne today. He began his building program in the 1820s by re-routing the roads away from the Castle and the construction of a high wall enclosing the demesne. Gate lodges were then built at all the entrances.
He also built a new grand entrance known as the Lime Avenue.
In 1827 he completely remodelled the front of the Castle which gave it an attractive bow shaped appearance. It has been suggested that he employed the renowned architect Richard Morrison to design this new structure.
The older cabin-type dwellings close to the castle were demolished and new estate houses built at the Range. To the west of the Castle he built an eight acre area of gardens and paddocks, surrounded and sub-divided by walls. In the Castle yard he built dwellings for staff and elaborative farm buildings. He also constructed the artificial lake and the Ice House. Large areas of the demesne were planted and, by the time of his death, Donadea demesne was listed as one of the finest parkland settings in the county.
Outside the demesne he was involved in numerous construction projects including the famous ‘Aylmer Folly’, viz. the Tower on the summit of the hill of Allen. (see [2]) Sir Gerald’s grandson Justin, 10th Baronet, died unmarried in 1885. His sister Caroline inherited the castle and much of the demesne, while the baronetcy passed to a cousin. Caroline Maria Aylmer, who was the daughter of Sir Gerald George Aylmer, 9th Baronet, was the last Aylmer to live at Donadea. She died in 1935, leaving the estate to the Church of Ireland who, in turn, passed it bequeathed to the Irish state.
The castle remained unoccupied and its roof was removed in the late 1950s.
For more on the Aylmer family, see The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of County Kildare by Turtle Bunbury & Art Kavanagh (published by Irish Family Names, 2004).
Open dates in 2026: Feb 9-28, May 5-19, June 5-14, July 6-10, Aug 15-24, 2pm-6pm
Fee: adult €8, OAP/student €5, child free
The Historic Houses of Ireland website tells us:
“In 1685, the village of Ballitore on the river Griese in the southern corner of County Kildare became the first planned Quaker village in England and Ireland. The Shackleton family from Yorkshire settled here some decades later and besides establishing wool and corn mills, founded the famous village school in 1726. Thanks to an entry by Mary (née Shackleton) Leadbetter in her ‘Annals of Ballitore’, we know that the first stone of Griesemount House (also known as Ballitore Hill House) was laid on Midsummer Day in 1817. While the three-bay side elevation is symmetrical, the two-bay front façade with the front door under the left window is quite modest, as was often the case with Quaker houses. It was built by George Shackleton, who had grown up in Griesebank House beside the now-ruinous Ballitore Mills on the river just below. He married Hannah Fisher and they raised 13 children in the new house, including the noted botanical artist Lydia Shackleton, the first artist-in-residence at the Botanic Gardens in Dublin. One of her first recorded sketches is of the house. The family lived here until the early 20th century; the house then changed hands several times. It was briefly owned and restored by the mother of mezzosoprano Frederica von Stade, and has recently come into new ownership.” [3]
Open in 2026: May 17-31, Aug 12-31, Sept 7-16, Dec 17-31, 9am-1pm
Fee: adult €8, student/OAP/child €5
The Historic Houses of Ireland website tells us:
“The forebears of the Greenes of Millbrook House in the far south of County Kildare lived at Kilmanaghan Castle and Moorestown Castle [now a ruin] in County Tipperary. A great grandson of the family patriarch Captain Godfrey Greene moved up to settle near Carlow. William Nassau Greene (1714-1781) was a businessman and magistrate, and built a residence known as Kilkea Lodge (c. 1740) adjacent to the ancient Fitzgerald seat at Kilkea Castle, where his descendants are still resident. A younger son, John (1751-1819), who became High Sheriff of Kildare and Captain of the Castledermot Yeomanry, built a neighbouring house at Millbrook with the help of his father. It was completed in 1776 with its attendant mill and millrace off the River Griese, which had replaced an earlier mill in the nearby Kilkea Castle demesne. The house passed through generations of the family until finally the mill ceased operating under Thomas Greene (1843-1900), a poet and author who was made High Sheriff of Kildare in 1895. The house was left by inheritance to one of the cousins from Kilkea Lodge, father of the present owner. Throughout WWII, he had served as a frontline doctor in the 4th Indian Division in North Africa, Italy and Greece, and returned with his wife in 1950 to an utterly neglected house. Millbrook is still in the process of being restored to its former state.” [5]
Open dates in 2026: Jan 12-16, 19-23, 26-27, 29-31, Feb 3, 5-8, May 1-5, 7-13, 21, 23-34, 26-27, June 25-29, July 2, 20-21, 23-28, Aug 15-23, 8.30am -12.30pm
Fee: adult €6, OAP/student/child €3
16. Steam Museum Lodge Park Heritage Centre, Lodge Park, Straffan, Co. Kildare– section 482
Open dates in 2026: Apr 5-6, 12, 19, 26, May 3-4, 9-10, 16-17, 23-24, 30-31, June 1, 6-7, 12, 14, 20-21, 27-28, July 4-5,11 12, 18, 19, 25-26, Aug 1-3, 8-9, 15-23, 29-30, Sept 5-6, 12-13, 19-20, 26-27, Oct 4, 10, 18, 25-26, 1pm-5pm
Fee: Garden and Museum With steam adult €20, OAP €15, (Sun and Bank Holidays), No steam (Sat) adult €15, OAP €10, Museum only -with steam, adult €15, OAP €10 (Sun and Bank Holidays), No steam (Sat) adult €10, OAP €7, Garden only – adult/OAP €7, student/child free
Lodge Park, photograph courtesy of Historic Houses of Ireland.
The Historic Houses of Ireland website tells us about Lodge Park:
“Lodge Park, overlooking a fine stretch of the River Liffey, was built by Hugh Henry who had married his cousin, Lady Anne Leeson from Russborough [daughter of Joseph Leeson 1st Earl of Milltown]. Completed in about 1776, the centre block forms the core of an unusual composition with curved quadrants leading to a pair of two-storey wings, both attached to two further pavilions by curtain walls to form a unique elongated ensemble of five interconnected buildings, “perhaps the most extreme example of the Irish Palladian style.”
“Henry’s father was the merchant banker Hugh Henry, who had purchased the entire Straffan estate with 7,000 acres. Lodge Park was long thought to be the last building by Nathaniel Clements, who died in 1777, but has now been attributed to John Ensor. The hipped roof is surrounded by a granite-topped parapet, and the walls are finished in rough cast, with ashlar block quoins and granite window surrounds with detailing. It is Ireland’s best exampe of concatenation, having curtain walls attached to the main house, leading to two pavilions, attached by two gateways to two further buildings. Hugh’s son Arthur built the Victorian walled garden, now beautifully restored and open to the public, as well as the fine gate lodge. The house was bought by the Guinness family in 1948.
The walled garden has been beautifully restored while a disused Victorian church has been re-erected in the grounds to house a magnificent Steam Museum with early inventor’s models, scientific engineering models and historic works of mechanical art. The Power Hall displays six huge stationary steam engines, which are run on special occasions.” https://www.ihh.ie/index.cfm/houses/house/name/Lodge%20Park
“Balyna House lies to the south of Moyvalley Bridge over the Grand Canal, about half way between Enfield and Kinnegad on the old Dublin — Galway road. The house lies in the centre of the estates 500 acres. Balyna Estate was granted in 1574 by Queen Elizabeth I to the O’Moore family because they had lost their land in Laois and were reinstated in Balyna.
“Major Ambrose O’Ferrall married Letitia More in 1796. Their eldest son Richard More O’Ferrall was born in 1797. [ I don’t think this is correct. I believe that Letitia More married Richard O’Ferrall (1729-1790) and that their son was Ambrose More O’Ferrall who married Ann Baggot daughter of John Baggot of Castle Baggot, Rathcoole. Richard More O’Ferrall (1797-1880) was their son]. He is reputed for having been responsible for the erection of the Celtic cross which now stands to the rear of the house. It is said that this Cross, along with another was transported from Europe, the two being encased in wooden crates and towed behind the ship on a barge. Legend has it that one was lost at sea, but its twin survives to this day.“
p. 30. [More O’Ferrall] “The ancestral home of the O’More family, the land having been granted to them by Eliz I as a small compensation for their forfeited territories in Laois… A new house was built 1815, which was burnt 1878; this was replaced by the present house, built 1880s. It is slightly Italianate, with a Mansard roof carried on a bracket cornice; of 2 storeys with a dormered attic. Entrance front with two 3 sided bows and a single-storey Ionic portico, 5 by garden front with pediment, the windows on either side being larger than those in the centre. Imposing staircase with handrail of decorative ironwork; ceiling of staircase hall has modillion cornice. Chapel in garden. Sold 1960s, subsequently owned by Bewleys Oriental Cafe Ltd” [6]
The website continues: “The first real record of any house dates from 1815 when Ambrose built a large mansion. That Georgian house was burned down and replaced in the 1880’s by the present Italianate mansion.
“The estate was a refuge for bishops and priests for centuries and Dr. Forstall, Bishop of Kildare, ordained priests here in the year 1678 — 1680. For this loyalty, the family was granted Papal permission to build a private Chapel on the estate (located to the rear of the house) and up to approximately 1914 Sunday Mass was offered. It was only used intermittently after that, with the last occasion being in the summer of 1959.
“The estate remained in the More O’Ferrall family until May 1960 when it was sold to the Bewley family (of Café fame). The wonderful milk and cream in the Cafes came from the pedigree Jersey herd at Balyna. In 1984 the estate was sold to Justin Keating; it was sold again in 1990-1991 to George Grant. Moyvalley was developed into a Hotel & Golf Resort in 2007.
“Balyna House consists of 10 luxurious ensuite bedrooms, 3 reception rooms to cater for up to 100 guests, Balyna Bar and Cellar Bar. The house is available exclusively for private events and weddings.
“In 2014 the resort was purchased by the late Oliver Brady (well-known horse trainer from Co. Monaghan) with his business partner a well know entrepreneur Rita Shah owner of Shabra Recycling Plastic’s Group, Thai business woman Jane Tripipatkul and her son Mark McCarthy who are based in London.
“It is likely that several Irish and European military campaigns were discussed and argued over at Balyna, as apart from the fierce-some O’More’s and the well documented Irish battles in which they took part, several later generations saw service in European armies. All three sons of Richard and Letitia O’Ferrall saw service abroad. The eldest, Ambrose, and his youngest brother, Charles, rose to the rank of Major in the Royal Sardinian Army, while the middle brother, James attained the rank of Major General in the Austrian Hohenzollern Army.“
Incidentally, there was a Bagot family of “Castle Baggot” in Rathcoole, and neither son had children so all the Bagot property, which included land around Smithfield in Dublin and extensive property in County Carlow, passed to the daughter, Ann, who married the above-mentioned Ambrose More O’Ferrall.
“As a digression, it is worth noting that Rory O’ More’s eldest daughter, Anne, married Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan and famous military leader. His father in law was the man behind the Irish Rebellion of 1641.
“King James had adopted the policy of remodelling the Irish army so as to turn it from a Protestant-led force to a Roman Catholic led one, and Sarsfield, whose family were Roman Catholics, was selected to assist in this reorganisation. Colonel Sarsfield went to Ireland with Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell , who was appointed commander-in-chief by the king.“
Barberstown Castle, photograph courtesy of barberstowncastle.ie
Mark Bence-Jones writes (1988): p. 31. “A tower-house with a long plain 2 storey wing attached. In 1814, the residence of Jos Atkinson, in 1837, of Capt Robinson.”
The website gives a timeline:
“1288: Nicholas Barby built the original Castle towards the end of the 13th Century on the land which was originally owned by the Great Norman family the Fitzgerald’s.
“1310: The Castle was built as a fortress to protect the village and people of Barberstown from the attack of the rebellious Ui Faolain tribesmen who tried to burn the town (among others) in 1310. It has traditionally found itself in the middle of political struggle and local wars which generally resulted in change of ownership.
“Retaining Ownership: Some of its previous owners have gone to extreme lengths to retain ownership. Just how far some went is illustrated by the story of the body that is said to be interred in the tower of the Castle Keep (the original part of the Castle). His fate can be explained by reading the lease on the Castle at the time in which was written that the lease would expire when he was buried underground (ie. his death). The ending of a lease normally resulted in an increase in rent so after the man’s death he was buried in the tower above the earth which ensured the family continued to hold the lease to the Castle!
“The walls of the Castle Keep walls slope inwards so as to prevent an enemy getting out of range by closing up to the building. Ironically however the rooms on the upper floors of the Castle are larger than those on the ground level as their walls are somewhat thinner.
“Penal Times: The neighbouring village of Straffan is named after St. Straffan, one of the early sixth century missionaries. Its close linkages with the local town and people were proven when an underground tunnel from the Church in Straffan to the Castle was found in 1996 during renovations. A ‘Priest’s Hole’ can be also found in the Castle which was originally made to protect the priests of the town during Penal Times.
“1630: William Sutton of one of the most important families in the area owned the property. The population of Barberstown at the time was 36!
“1689: Lord Kingston [I’m not sure who they mean here – Robert King (d. 1693) was the 2nd Baron of Kingston at the time] had his ownership confiscated by Earl of Tyrconnell after the accession to power of James 11 of England. It was around this time that it fell into the less glamorous hands of the Commissioners of the Revenue who let it out to a Roger Kelly for £102 annual rent in the late 1600s.
“1703: It was purchased by Bartholomew Van Homreigh in 1703 for £1,033 the sixth owner in six years. At the time the property was 335 acres. Van Homreigh had been mayor of Dublin in 1697 and his greatest ‘claim to fame’ lies in the fact that he was the father of Vanessa of whom Swift wrote so passionately about. He sold it to the Henrys who were prone to excessive spending at the time….
“1830: The Henry’s had no option but to sell it to Mr. Hugh Barton [1766-1854] who completed the last wing of the house in the 1830s which added to the present day unique architectural status of Barberstown. He is also famed for constructing Straffan House known today at the K-Club.
“1900: As the property became too expensive to retain as a residence, the Huddlestons who owned Barberstown Castle in the 1900s sold it to Mrs. Norah Devlin who converted it into a hotel in 1971. Barberstown was one of the first great Irish country houses to display its splendour to the outside world when it opened as a hotel in 1971. It has maintained the elegance of design over the centuries by sympathetically blending its Victorian and Elizabethan extensions with the original Castle Keep.
“1979: The acclaimed Musician, Singer, Songwriter & Record Producer Mr. Eric Clapton CBE purchased the property in 1979 and lived in the property until 1987. Music sessions took place in the Green Room and original Castle Keep during the time Eric lived here with many famous Rockstars from all over the world coming here to stay.
“1987 to Present Day: Upon purchasing Barberstown Castle from Eric Clapton in 1987, this beautiful historic house has since been transformed from a 10-bedroom property with three bathrooms to a 55-bedroom Failte Ireland approved 4 Star Hotel. They are a proud member of Ireland’s Blue Book of properties and Historic Hotels of Europe.
“Since 1288 Barberstown has had 37 owners all of whom had the foresight to protect its heritage and character. Look out for the names of all the owners of Barberstown Castle painted on the bedroom doors of the hotel!“
One of the entrances to the Castletown demesne has a Gothic lodge, from a design published by Batty Langley (1696-1751) 1741. Batty Langley was an English garden designer who produced a number of engraved “Gothick” designs for garden buildings and seats. He was named “Batty” after his father’s patron, David Batty. He also published a wide range of architectural books.
“The Village at Lyons, County Kildare is often described as a restoration but to be frank it is more a recreation. By the time the late Tony Ryan bought the estate in 1996, the buildings beside the Grand Canal, which had once included a forge, mill and dwelling houses, were in a state of almost total ruin. Therefore the work undertaken here in the years prior to his death in 2007 involved a great deal of architectural salvage, much of it brought from France, although some Irish elements were incorporated such as a mid-19th century conservatory designed by Richard Turner, originally constructed for Ballynegall, County Westmeath. Today the place primarily operates as a wedding venue, providing an alluring stage set for photographs but bearing little resemblance to what originally stood here.”[9]
The entrance front of Lyons House, designed by Oliver Grave for Nicholas Lawless, 1st baron Cloncurry circa 1786 and remodelled by his son Richard Morrison in 1802-05. Pub Orig Country Life 16/01/2003, vol. CXCVII by Photographer Paul Barker. (see[7])
Mark Bence-Jones writes of Lyons:
p. 196. “(Alymer/IFR; Lawless, Cloncurry, B/PB1929; Winn, sub St. Oswalds, B/PB) Originally the seat of the Aylmer family. Sold 1796 by Michael Aylmer to Nicholas Lawless,the 1st Lord Cloncurry, son of a wealthy blanket manufacturer, who had a new house built in 1797, to the design of an architect named Grace.
“Three storey block with a curved bow on either side of its entrance front, joined to two-storey wings by curved sweeps. About 1801, shortly after his release from the Tower of London, where he had been imprisoned for two years on account of his advanced political views and friendship wiht some of the United Irishmen, the 2nd Lord Cloncurry hired Richard Morrison to undertake improvements and alterations to his father’s house, work continuing till 1805.
“During this period, Lord Cloncurry was in Italy, collecting antiques and modern sculpture for the house; he also acquired three antique columns of red Egyptian granite from the Golden House of Nero, afterwards at the Palazzo Farnese, which were used as three of the four columns in a single-storey portico at Lyons, with a triangular pediment surmounted by a free-standing coat-of-arms.The other notable alteration made to the exterior of the house at this time was the substitution of straight colonnades for the curved sweeps linking the main block to the winds, a change similar to that which Morrison made a few years later at Carton. Also the main block and wings were faced with rusticated ashlar up to the height of one storey on the entrnace front. The hall was given a frieze of ox-skulls and tripods based on the Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome, doorcases with fluted entablatures and overdoor panels with classical reliefs; a pair of free-standing antique marble Corinthian columns were set against one wall, and vaarous items from Lord Cloncurry’s collection fo sculpture disposed around the other walls. The walls of the dining room and music rom were painted with Irish waterfalls – and other enchanting decoration by Gaspare Gabrielli, an artist brought by Lord Cloncurry from Rome. The bow-ended dining room was also decorated with a wall painting, of Dublin Bay; and was adorned with reliefs of the story of Daedalus.”
The garden front of Lyons House, The new orangery and pool house are the single-storey buildings flanking the central block. Pub Orig Country Life 16/01/2003, vol. CXCVII by Photographer Paul Barker. (see [7])GASPARE GABRIELLI A Group of Five Mythological Landscapes a preparatory scheme for the murals at Lyons, County Kildare courtesy Adams Irish Old Masters 15 May 2025
Bence-Jones continues: “The seven-bay garden front was left fairly plain, but before it a vast formal garden was laid out, with abundant statuary and urns and an antique column supporting a statue of Venus half way along the broad central walk leading from the house to what is the largest artificial lake in Ireland. Beyond the lake rises the wooded Hill of Lyons.
“The Grand Canal passes along one side of the demesne, and there is a handsome Georgian range of buildings beside it which would have been Lord Cloncurry’s private canal station. A daughter of 3rd Lord Cloncurry was Emily Lawless, the poet, a prominent figure in the Irish Revival of the early yars of the present century. Her niece, Hon Kathleen Lawless, bequeathed the Lyons estate to a cousin, Mr G M V Winn, who sold it about 1962 to University College, Dublin, which has erected a handsome pedimented arch from Browne’s Hill, Co Carlow at one of the entrances to the demesne.”
Art Kavanagh’s book on the Landed Gentry and Aristocracy: Meath, volume 1, tells us more about the Aylmers of Balrath. During the reign of Henry VI, Richard Aylmer of Lyons was a Keeper of the Peace for both Dublin and Kildare. He was in charge of protecting the settler community from attack by the neighbouring O’Toole and O’Byrne septs. The family rose to become one of the most prominent families in Meath and Kildare and key figures in the Dublin administration. Before the end of the 16th century they had established two independent branches at Donadea in Kildare and Dollardstown in County Meath.
The first Aylmer of real significance, Art Kavanagh tells us, was John Aylmer (c. 1359 – c. 1415) who married Helen Tyrell of Lyons, an heiress, at the end of the 14th century, and so the family acquired Lyons. [p. 1, Kavanagh, published by Irish Family Names, Dublin 4, 2005]
Mary Aylmer, daughter of Richard Aylmer of Lyons by Hugh Douglas Hamilton courtesy of House Contents Auction by deVeres 2011.
9. The K Club, Straffan House, County Kildare – hotel
Straffan House, the K Club, courtesy of the K Club Resort, 2005.
The Straffan estate formed part of the original land grant bestowed upon Maurice Fitzgerald by Strongbow for his role in the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169. In 1679, the property was purchased by Richard Talbot, the Duke of Tyrconnell who commanded the Jacobite army in Ireland during the war between James II and William of Orange. Tyrconnell’s estates were forfeited to the crown in the wake of the Williamite victory. In about 1710, the property was purchased by Hugh Henry, a prosperous merchant banker, who also owned Lodge Park. He married Anne Leeson, a sister of Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown. Straffan passed to their son, Joseph, who travelled in Europe and collected art. In April 1764 he married Lady Catherine Rawdon, eldest daughter of the 1st Earl of Moira.
Joseph Henry of Straffan, Co. Kildare by Francis Hayman, R.A. (c. 1708-1776) courtesy of Christies Irish Sale 2001.
Their son John Joseph (1777-1846) married Lady Emily Fitzgerald, the 23-year-old daughter of the 2nd Duke of Leinster. He was an extravagant spender and had to sell Straffan in 1831.
Hugh Barton (1766-1854) acquired Straffan House from the Henry family in 1831 and his descendents remained there until the 1960s. The Barton family were part of the Barton & Guestier winemakers. Hugh soon commissioned Dublin architect, Frederick Darley, to build a new house, based on Madame Dubarry’s great Château at Louveciennes to the west of Paris. [10] The house passed through many hands subsequently.
Mark Bence-Jones writes of Straffan House (1988):
p. 266. “(Barton/IFR) An imposing C19 house in a style combining Italianate and French chateau. Main block of two storeys with an attic of pedimented dormers in a mansard roof; seven bay entrance front, the centre bay breking forward and having a tripartite window above a single-storey balustraded Corinthian portico. Entablatures on console brackets over ground-floor windows; triangular pediments over windows above and segmental pediment of central window. Decorated band between storeys; balustraded roof parapet; chimneystacks with recessed panels and tooth decoration. The main block prolonged at one side by a lower two storey wing, from which rises a tall and slender campanile tower, with two tiers of open belvederes. Formal garden with elaborate Victorian fountain. Capt F.B. Barton sold Straffan ca 1949 to John Ellis. It was subsequently the home of Kevin McClory, the film producer, and later owned by Mr Patrick Gallagher, who restored the main block to its original size.”
10. Kilkea Castle, Castledermot, Kildare – hotel
Kilkea Castle County Kildare by Elena on flickr constant commons 2005.
p. 167. “(Fitzgerald, Leinster, D/PB) A medieval castle of the FitzGeralds, Earls of Kildare, especially associated with C16 11th Earl of Kildare, the most famous “wizard Earl.” [Gerald (1525-1585)] After Carton became the family seat in C18, it was leased to a succession of tenants; one of them being the Dublin silk merchant, Thomas Reynolds, friend of Lord Edward Fitzgerald through whom he became a United Irishman, only to turn informer when he realised the full aims of the movement. His role as informer did not prevent the unhappy Reynolds from having the castle, which he had only recently done up in fine style, sacked by the military; who tored up the floorboards and tore down the panelling on the pretext of searching for arms. Subsequent tenants caused yet more damage and there was a serious fire 1849; after which the third Duke of Leinster resumed possession of the castle and restored and enlarged it as a dower-house for his family. The work was sympathetically done, so that the tall grey castle keeps its air of medieval strength with its bartizans and its massively battered stone walls; though its battlements and its rather too regularly placed trefoil headed windows are obviously C19. AT one side of the caslte a long, low, gabled office range was added, in a restrained Tudor Revival style. The interior is entirely of 1849, for the lofty top storey, where the principal rooms were originally situated, was divided to provide a storey extra. The ceilings are mostly beamed, with corbels bearing the Leinster saltire. In 1880s the beautiful Hermione, Duchess of Leinster (then Marchioness of Kildare) lived here with her amiable but not very inspiring husband [Gerald the 5th Duke of Leinster]; finding the life not much to her taste, she composed the couplet “Kilkea Castle and Lord Kildare/are more than any woman can bear.” After the sale of Carton 1949, Kilkea became the seat of the 8th and Present Duke of Leinster (then Marquess of Kildare), but it was sold ca 1960 and is now an hotel.”
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
p. 117. “About 100 yards from the front of the castle on the right-hand side is the original motte of the castle that was mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis in 1181. The motte is 40 feet high and is now covered with trees. High in the wall that overlooks the entrance is a carving known as the “Evil Eye” Stone. It is designed to attract the evil eye of anyone entering the building, thus preserving the inhabitants of the castle from evil – for anybody might possess it without knowing. … The stone table in the garden came from Maynooth and was the Council Table of the Earls of Kildare. It is inscribed in Latin with the name of Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, the date 1533 and the family motto “crom-a-boo.”
Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare, “Silken Thomas,” c. 1530 attributed to Anthony Van Dyck.
p. 118-119: “…legend has it that one day he [11th Earl, Gerald] was at his ease in a room on the ground floor of the castle, when his wife came in and asked him to demonstrate his powers as a great magician. He refused at first but then agreed to her request on the sole condition that she should not cry out in fear. If she did so, he warned her, he would vanish and she would never see him again. He gave her three tests. For the first he caused water to flood the room until it reached all the way to her mouth. Despite this, she held her tongue. He then caused a friend, recently deceased, to enter and shake her by the hand. Again, she kept silent. Finally he conjured up a giant snake to coil itself around her neck and lick her face. Even now, she did not utter a sound but, with the three tests finished, the earl decided on a fourth. He transformed himself into a small bird, which perched on her shoulder. A large black cat crept up behind her and pounced and at this the countess shrieked and fainted. When she came to, her husband had vanished and was never seen alive again.
…The 11th Earl is supposed to return to the scene once every seven years when, mounted on a white horse shod with silver shoes he rides across the country from the Rath of Mullaghmast to Kilkea Castle. He then rides up the stairs to the haunted room and is not seen again until another seven years has passed.”
p. 119. “During the rebellion of the 1640s, the Countess of Kildare leased the castle to the Jesuits. A manuscript from Clongowes Wood College tells us what happened next: ‘In the reign of Charles I, 1634, the good and ever to be honoured Countess of Kildare gave the Castle and all of its furniture to Father Robert Nugent, the Superior of the Jesuits of Kilkea. Father Nugent was a near relative of the Earl of Inchiquin of the noble House of Thomond. In the year 1646 Father Nugent entertained, for twenty days, the celebrated Rinnuccini, the Pope’s nuncio, and several companies of soldiers on their way to besiege Dublin. The nuncio wanting pecuniary means Father Nugent leant him four thousand pieces of gold which the nuncio never repaid; and, consequently, the Jesuit mission was much neglected as they had not sufficient means to support them.”
Elizabeth FitzGerald, née Holles (1638-1666), Countess of Kildare, 1660, by John Michael Wright, wife of Wentworth Fitzgerald 17th Earl of Kildare.
p. 119. “The Jesuits remained at Kilkea until 1646. As for Lady Kildare, she was implicated in the rebellion of 1641 and outlawed in 1642. After the destruction of Maynooth Castle in 1641, George, 14th Earl of Kildare, resided at Kilkea Castle from 1647-1660, and it continued as the family’s principal seat until Robert, the 19th Earl, made Carton House his home in 1738, after his marriage to Lady Anne O’Brien, the daughter of the 3rd Earl of Inchiquin. The 20th Earl of Kildare was made the 1st Duke of Leinster in 1766.
Elizabeth née Jones (d. 1758), Countess of Kildare wife of 18th Earl, daughter of Richard Jones 1st Earl of Ranelagh by Peter Lely.
John Fitzgerald (1661-1707) the 18th Earl had no surviving children and the title passed to his cousin, Robert Fitzgerald (1675-1744) 19th Earl of Kildare.
Robert Fitzgerald (1675-1744) 19th Earl of Kildare, after Frederick Graves, courtesy of Adam’s auction 15th Oct 2019. Robert FitzGerald was married to Mary O Brien, daughter of William O’Brien 3rd Earl of Inchiquin. They had 12 children but only 2 survived to majority. They had lived quietly at Kilkea Castle, near Athy, but in 1739 Robert bought back the lease of Carton, in Maynooth, for £8,000. He commissioned Richard Castle, the eminent architect, to reconstruct the existing house. In the pediment over the South front, previously the main entrance, is the coat of arms of Robert FitzGerald and his wife Mary O’Brien. Robert also employed the La Franchini brothers to construct the wonderful ceiling in the Gold Salon. The additions to Carton were not finished when Robert died in 1744 but he left instructions in his will to finish the restoration according to his plans. A monument dedicated to Robert FitzGerald is situated in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. (This portrait hung in Carton until 1949 when the Fitzgerald family sold the estate. It hung in Kilkea Castle until 1960. It was in the FitzGerald family collection in Oxfordshire until 2013.)
p. 120. “In 1787 Kilkea was redecorated and then leased to Thomas Reynolds, through the influence of his relation, Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Reynolds is supposed to have had some of the tall lancet windows put in at Kilkea. One of the most notorious informers in Irish history, Reynolds was born in Dublin in 1771, the son of a prosperous poplin manufacturer, and became the brother-in-law of Theobold Wolfe Tone, one of the founders of the Society of United Irishmen. The Society was founded on 14th October 1791 in Belfast to lobby for parliamentary reform, Catholic emancipation and, as Wolfe Tone said, ‘the unity of all the people – Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter – under the common name of Irishmen.’
In 1797, Reynolds joined the Society (he was to betray their plans for independence to the authorities in Dublin Castle for a large sum of money as early as March of that year); at about the same time he also obtained a lease on Kilkea Castle….[p. 121] Reynolds was in residence at Kilkea until 1798. Having been informed that Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who had escaped arrest after Reynold’s betrayal of the Society, was hiding at Kilkea, Col. Campbell, who commanded the military in the district, arrived there and ordered his men to find the fugitive patriot. The 9th Dragoons and a company of the Cork Militia proceeded to tear the place apart… but all to no avail, since Lord Edward was hiding in Dublin. Reynolds was arrested and held in custody until May On his release he surrendered the lease of the castle to the duke who then re-let it to a Mr. Daniel Caulfield in 1799. This family was to stay in Kilkea for half a century….
‘In 1849, following a fire, Augustus, the 3rd Duke, recovered possession of the castle and undertook a programme of restoration and refurbishment. The great solar on the top floor was divided in two to provide an extra room. The existing windows were enlarged and brought down, or up, so that the façade presented a more balanced and regular appearance, with rows of trefoil-headed windows….
Augustus Frederick FitzGerald, 3rd Duke of Leinster, (1791-1874) Engraver George Sanders, After Stephen Catterson Smith, photograph courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
Jeremy Williams has suggested that the architect of this remodelling may have been Frederick Darley, who had been engaged by the duke to build the Church of Ireland and the model schools in nearby Athy. In the course of the reconstruction, the great hall was divided to provide a new dining room below, with extra bedrooms above. The table that was in the dining room is the same one on which the Confederation of Kilkenny was signed and had been brought to Kilkea from Carton. The Irish battlements were extended from the former great hall to cover the whole edifice and, in the gardens, French style parterres were introduced.
“In the 19th century the castle was used as a dower house or as a residence for the Marquess of Kildare, the duke’s son and heir.
“Tragedy hit the family early in the 20th century. The 6th Duke was mentally ill and was detained until his death in a lunatic asylum in Scotland. His next brother, Lord Maurice Fitzgerald, died without a male heir and the youngest brother, Lord Gerald, eventually became the 7th Duke. The real problem with this scenario was that Lord Gerald had previously sold his birthright. He had contracted an unsuitable marriage to a Gaiety Girl, just as Lord Headfort had done; however, Gertie Miller was no Rosie Boote. The couple ran up debts and, in order to pay them, Lord Gerald sold his inheritance, should he ever become Duke, to Sir Malaby Deeley, the ’50-shilling tailor.’ Lord Gerald was to receive £1300 a year for life, while Sir Malaby would inherit Lord Gerald’s prospects, should he ever come into them. On the death of the 6th Duke in 1921, he did. Carton was seized by Deeley and subsequently sold to Lord Brockett. It is currently being destroyed as a country house hotel, with hideous and inappropriate new buildings, in the demesne are the usual gold course and chalets aplenty.
p. 122. “The new duke was apportioned Kilkea Castle in the subsequent settlement, but he never accommodated to his reduced state of affaris. He was bankrupted and later stated that the annuity of £1300 was his sole annual income. Gerald Fitzgerald, Premier Duke, Marquess and Earl of Ireland, committed suicide in 1973. His son, the Marquess of Kildare married, as his first wife, Joane Kavanagh, the daughter of the MacMurrough Kavanagh from Borris House in County Carlow. She was the chatelaine of the castle when these photographs were taken. In 1960, the castle with 100 acres was sold for £8000. It was reopened as a health farm, which must have proved financially unhealthy since it had to be closed quite soon afterwards. The castle was sold on and is now a successful luxury hotel.”
p. 222. “The Society of United Irishmen was founded on 14 Oct 1791 in Belfast, to lobby for parliamentary reform, Catholic Emancipation, and, as Wolfe Tone said, for the unity of all the people – Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter – under the common name of Irishmen. Although in 1793 the Government extended the franchise to Catholics with a minimum freehold of 40 shillings, and allowed them to hold minor military rank, the United Irishmen pressed for the full repeal of the Penal Laws, and by 1798 they had thrown in their lot with Revolutionary France from whom they expected military assistance. In March of that year, however, lmost the entire Leinster Directory of the Society was arrested, on the information of Thomas Reynolds, while planning a rising for 23 May. Their leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, was later taken and died of his wounds in gaol. Those members who had not been taken then decided to proceed with the rebellion, even if the French did not arrive. Their efforts failed, as they were unable to take Dubln, were defeated in Wicklow and Kildare, and received no assistance for the Northern Directoy, which failed to mobilize. In Co Wexford a ‘Wexford Republic’ was set up, but the atrocities perpetuated upon Protestant captives tarnished this part of the rebellion. The Wexford Republic was defeated at the Battle of Vinegar Hill on 21 June. Two weeks earlier, Henry Joy McCracken led a belated uprising in Ulster, but was defeated at Antrim, and six days later, Crown forces beat his colleague, Henry Munro, at the battle of Ballynahinch. After this, the Ulster part of the rebellion collapsed and McCracken and Munro were executed. Eight weeks later the French under General Humbert arrives on the west coast of Ireland with 1019 men. After an initial success at Castlebar, they were also defeated, so when another French army, with Wolf Tone in attendance, arrived on 12 Oct, the rebellion was all but over. The British captured the French flagship, La Hoche, and Tone was taken prisoner, sentenced to death, he committed suicide in prison. The Government reaction to the uprising was severe, several of the Society’s members were executed and hangings took place all over Ireland. The rebels in Co Wicklow under Michale Dwyer held out in the mountains until 1803, when Dwyer surrendered and was transported, but by then the government had arranged for the dissolution of the Irish Parliament and for the political Union of Great Britain and Ireland.”
11. Leixlip Manor hotel (formerly Liffey Valley House hotel, formerlySt. Catherine’s Park), Leixlip, Co Kildare
The house that stood before the current Manor House was taller and was tenanted by the Earl of Lanesborough. Then in 1792, it was occupied by David La Touche, of the Huguenot banking family. It shortly thereafter burned to the ground and in around 1798 a new house, also called St Catherine’s Park, was built in the same townland to the design of Francis Johnston; it is now Leixlip Manor Hotel & Gardens.
Rt. Hon. David La Touche of Marlay (1729-1817) Date c.1800 by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Irish, 1740-1808, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
12. Moone Abbey, County Kildare holiday cottages– see above
Whole house accommodation in County Kildare:
1. de Burgh Manor (or Bert), Kilberry, County Kildare– whole house accommodation
Bert House or De Burgh, photograph courtesy of National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
“Beautiful self catering, Georgian Manor centrally located in the hearth of Kildare in a very private setting. De Burgh Manor comprises of 15 bedrooms all ensuite. The ground floor consists of a double reception room, drawing room, dining room, bar, library , breakfast room and kitchen. Situated on c. 6 acres of grounds overlooking the River Barrow.“
The website also tells us about the history:
“De Burgh Manor was built circa 1709 [the National Inventory says it was built around 1780] by Thomas Burgh [1670-1730] of Oldtown [built ca 1709 by Thomas Burgh (1670-1730), MP, Engineer and Surveyor-General for Ireland, to his own design. The centre block was burned 1950s. A house has now been made out of one of the wings. He also designed Kildrought house, a Section 482 property] for his brother William Burgh later known as Captain William De Burgh and who became Comptroller and Auditor General for Ireland. Thomas Burgh was Barracks Overseer for Ireland from 1701 and was also responsible for [building] – the Library at Trinity College Dublin, Collins Barracks Dublin – now a museum – and Dr Steeven Hospital Dublin.
“William De Burgh was born in 1667 and had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Elisabeth. Thomas, born in 1696, eventually became a Member of Parliament for Lanesboro, Co. Longford. Freeman of Athy Borough and Sovereign of Athy, in 1755 he married Lady Ann Downes, daughter of the Bishop of Cork & Ross. Her mother was a sister to Robert Earl of Kildare. Her brother, Robert Downes, was the last MP for Kildare in 1749 and was Sovereign of Athy.
“Thomas had two sons, William and Ulysses [Ulysses was actually the grandson of Thomas, son of another Thomas]. William born in 1741 went on to represent Athy as an MP in Parliament between 1768 and 1776. A monument to his memory by Sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott, a statue of faith, which depicts him with a book in one hand and a scroll in the other and stands in York Minster. He wrote two books on religion and faith.
“Ulysses, born in 1788succeeded to the title of Lord Downes [2nd Baron Downes of Aghanville] on the death of his cousin William Downes who was made Lord Chief Justice in 1803 and created Lord Downes on his retirement in 1822. It was Ulysses De Burgh who presented the Town Hall Clock to Athy in 1846 and it was he who had the wings added to Bert House. [Mark Bence-Jones writes of Bert: “enlarged early in C19 by the addition of two storey Classical overlapping wings, of the same height as the centre block; which is of three storeys over basement with two seven bay fronts.”]
“Ulysses’ daughter Charlotte was the last of the De Burgh’s to call Bert House home with her husband Lt. General James Colbourne [2nd Baron Seaton of Seaton, co. Devon]. Charlotte and James came to Bert House in 1863 as Lord and Lady Seaton after the death of Lord Downes. It was sold by them in 1909 to Lady Geoghegan who then sold it onto her cousin, Major Quirke.“
2. Firmount, Clane, County Kildare – whole house or weddings
“Firmount House is a unique and stunning venue just outside Clane in County Kildare, only 40minutes from Dublin city centre. Lovingly restored by the owners, the house is known for flexibility and creativity and is now open for weddings, private parties, film shoots, yoga retreats and corporate events. Enjoy visiting the Firmount website and see for yourself the lifelong journey these restoration warriors have taken to provide you with the perfect location in a wonderful, natural setting.
“This fabulous house consists of a sitting room, breakfast room and dining room downstairs reached from a large hallway, alongside a commercial kitchen and butlers pantry. The first floor consists of seven large and sumptuous bedrooms – five doubles and two twin rooms with plenty of room for two travel cots which are also provided. There are also six bathrooms. Heated by oil fired radiators, there are also two stoves in the main entertaining space.
“Firmount House has a colourful history dating from the 13th century when there was reputed to be a fortified house on the current site. The Down Survey of 1655 seems to show a house on the land (then known as Keapock). In the 18th century the house was owned by the Warburtons and sat on extensive grounds. The story of the current house really begins in 1878 when Hugh Henry Snr having married his cousin Emily Henry (of Lodge Park, site of the current K-club) bought Firmount house and renovated it extensively. It seems he took what was a Georgian house, wrapped it in concrete (one of the first houses of it’s kind) and added a Victorian wing to the South.
“The estate consisted of 409 acres at that point. Hugh Henry’s son, imaginatively named Hugh Jr, inherited the house in 1888 and lived there until 1917. It is rumoured that his wife, Eileen, had nightmares of the house going down in flames – although given it was made of concrete, we think she would have been ok. The house became a WWI hospital in 1917 and 390 soldiers were treated there until 1919, with no deaths registered – thank goodness for that. However the next decades were not so lucky for the house. In 1929 the house was bought by Kildare County Council and turned into a TB sanatorium. It ran as such until 1961. There are local stories of movies being run in the ballroom for patients with the now Mayor of Clane, at the projector. And of patients sitting on the elevated banks at the very front of the house on the roadside, watching life on the road go by but being unable to participate. 1964 brought the purchase of the house by the Department of Defence who ran it as a Control Centre for Nuclear Tracking and named it Section Seven Regional Control.
“Here things get really interesting as the basement of the house was intended to house senior officials, media and communications personel in the event of nuclear fall out. It is rumoured the Taoiseach (Irish prime-minister) was supposed to have a bunker on site and the house can still be found on Russian nuclear maps! This picture shows one of the several signs found in the house. The downside of government and county council ownership is that many original period features were lost through ignorance, neglect and the reinforcement of windows, floors, porticos and doors with concrete.
“The current “madthings” bought the house in 2012 with the aim of slowly bringing Firmount house back to life, window by window and floor by floor aswell as bringing Firmount forward into a gathering place with a welcome for all.“
3. Griesemount House, County Kildare, whole house rentals– see above
4. Martinstown House, Kilcullen, Co Kildare – group accommodation and weddings
Martinstown House 2012, photograph courtesy of Martinstown House on flickr constant commons.
“Martinstown House is a stunning Strawberry Gothic-style cottage ornée in Kildare, Ireland that looks like it is right out of a fairy tale. With 130 acres of fields, gardens, and it’s own miniature parkland, Martinstown House is an exclusive venue nestled in a peaceful setting with old growth trees and a picturesque vista. From the moment you step over our threshold you will realise that we are not hotel, but rather a stylish private country residence where your every need is catered for. We specialise in bespoke wedding celebrations, corporate events, retreats, and group bookings.”
featured in Great Irish Houses. Forewards by Desmond FitzGerald, Desmond Guinness. IMAGE Publications, 2008.
p. 232. “Martinstown House is one of the finest cottage ornee style buildings in Ireland today. Originally part of the huge estates of the Dukes of Leinster, this fine house was commissioned by Robert Burrowes [d. 1850, son of Kildare Dixon Borrowes, 5th Baronet] and completed by the Burrowes family between 1832 and 1840, when decorative effects such as thatched roofs, undressed stonework and verandahs made of free growing branches were being incorporated into rural Irish dwellings. While experts feel the house was built in 1833, it may have been started years earlier, with many of the outbuildings including stables and also the walled gardens dating to some time between 1815 and 1820.” The book’s authors add that Decimus Burton was involved in the creation of this house.
[6] 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.
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The former St. Mary’s Church of Ireland was built from 1700-1704. It is now in use as bar and restaurant, with modern glazed stair tower built to northeast, linked with an elevated glazed walkway to the restaurant at the upper level within the church. The National Inventory tells us that it was designed by William Robinson and completed by his successor, Thomas Burgh.
The church has a special place in my husband’s heart because his ancestor John Winder visited Dublin to preach a sermon here in around 1720, when he was rector at Kilroot in County Antrim, a position he obtained after Jonathan Swift. St. Mary’s parish was founded in 1697, the second parish on the north side of the River Liffey (the first must have been St. Michans). It took its name from the medieval monastery of St. Mary’s Abbey that had occupied most of the north side of the river from 1139 until its dissolution in 1539.
It was closed as a church in 1986 due to the fall of parishioners, as residents moved from the city centre. The building was used for various purposes until purchased by publican John Keating in 1997. Until it was changed for use as a bar it contained the oldest unaltered church interior in Dublin, and much of this has been preserved.
William Robinson was made surveyor general of buildings in Ireland in 1671. He was also engineer general and master of ordinance, so was responsible for fortifications. He built Charles Fort in Kinsale, and in 1677–8 he was adviser and contractor on the construction of Essex Bridge in Dublin. In 1679 was involved in the rebuilding of Lismore cathedral, Co. Waterford, and designed the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham (1680–84). [1] In 1682 he oversaw the construction of Ormond Bridge in Dublin.
William Robinson, information board at Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.
The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us that William Robinson’s patent as surveyor general was renewed in 1684, though he now shared the post with William Molyneux (1656–98), who later oversaw the partial construction of Robinson’s design for the courtyard of Dublin castle when he and Robinson were deprived of the surveryorship by the lord deputy, the earl of Tyrconnell. Robinson went to England during Tyrconnell’s deputyship and Molyneux remained in Ireland and carried out extensive building work at Dublin castle, presumably to Robinson’s designs.
In 1689 Robinson was appointed comptroller general of provisions and commissary general of pay and provisions in the Williamite army, the latter position being shared with Bartholomew van Homrigh (the father of Jonathan Swift’s friend, whom he called “Vanessa”).
Robinson returned to Ireland, and was Elected MP for Knocktopher, Co. Kilkenny (1692–3) and Wicklow town (1695–9) and in 1702 was appointed to the Privy Council in Ireland. In 1695 he rebuilt Dublin’s Four Courts, and in 1703–4 he designed Marsh’s Library in Dublin, his last major work.
Robinson served as MP for Dublin University 1703–12, and he purchased forfeited lands in Carlow and Louth in April and June 1703. His career ended in disgrace however as he was accused of shady financial dealings and misrepresenting public accounts for which he was responsible. (see [1])
Thomas Burgh, information board at Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.
Thomas Burgh (1670–1730) succeeded Molyneux and Robinson in 1700 as surveyor-general, and was also made lieutenant of the ordnance in Ireland. The rebuilding of Dublin castle, started by Robinson, advanced considerably under Burgh, but his undisputed masterpiece was to be TCD library. His work designing and building the lower part of the library began in 1712 and continued into the next decade. It was finally opened in 1732. He may have been responsible for designing Kildrought house in Celbridge, Kildare (see my entry). He too had engineering interests including navigation and coalmining. He lived in Oldtown, County Kildare, and became high sheriff of the county in 1712 and was MP for Naas 1713–30. [2]
It is difficult to photograph the church, as it is in the middle of city streets, and Christine Casey writes in her The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin (2005) that it exhibits “a curious amalgam of awkwardness and aplomb”! [3]
St. Mary’s church has four-bay double-height side elevations, with convex quadrant single-bay links to a shallow chancel which contains a lovely chancel window. It has a three-stage tower at the opposite end flanked by lower two-storey vestibules. It does not have a spire.
The west front has the main entrance door (no longer in use as the main door, which is on the north facade). Unfortunately I was unable to take a good photograph due to the position of outdoor tables and sheltering umbrellas. The doorcase is of Portland stone with Ionic columns and an entablature. Casey tells us that the lugged surrounds of the outer vestibule door are of brown sandstone.
The window frame on the east end chancel is of Portland stone, which Casey tells us “has a vigour and plasticity rare in a city by-passed by the Baroque.” She describes the window:
“Above a raised granite plinth, two broad panelled pilasters support an emphatic curved scroll-topped hood-moulding with urns to centre and ends, while successive inner lugged framed have scrolled base terminals.”
Casey suggests that the gable on this end may be a later addition.
William Robinson prepared a model for this window, and may have designed the unusual plan for the church. It was completed by Thomas Burgh in 1704 and in 1863, S. Symes may have inserted new windows as well as replacing the perimeter wall with railings. The original chancel window of St. Mary’s was smashed by vandals on the result of polling at the election in 1852. The current window was set in 1910, commissioned in 1909 by John North, the proprietor of the “Hammam,” a Turkish Bath on O’Connell (then called Sackville) Street. The new window reads: “To the glory of God and in affectionate memory of his daughters Maria North (Molly) and Rosanna (Rose) wife of Joseph Armstrong also his grandchild John Hubert Armstrong (Jack) erected by John North 1909.”
Inside, it is of double height with a gallery surrounding three sides. On the fourth side is the east window. The west end has a large organ on the upper floor. The centre of the floor is taken up with an oval shaped bar which is made attractive by its arrangement of bottles and glasses. The gallery is carried on octagonal timber-clad limestone shafts. Above, the gallery reaches up to the ceiling with fluted square Ionic columns. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted. Memorial monuments still line the walls. Outside, the gravestones have been moved to one end of the public square.
The east Chancel window has a lugged and scrolled surround.
Casey tells us that the building was remodelled in 2002-5 as a bar and restaurant by Duffy Mitchell Donoghue, who filled in the crypt and altered the floor level of the nave. The glazed tower holds a cylindrical elevator.
In 1761 Arthur Guinness (1725-1803), founder of the Brewery, married Olivia Whitmore in the church. His son, also named Arthur, married here also.
The National Inventory tells us: “It was the first classical parish church in the city and was the site of Arthur Guinness’s marriage in 1761. Wolfe Tone was baptized here and the church also witnessed John Wesley’s first Irish sermon... The galleried interior is one of the earliest in Dublin, and is a triumph of Classical timber design. Grand proportions combine with the set-pieces of the original organ case, east window and surviving Corinthian reredos, connected by an ornate mix of joinery and innovative modern alterations, to create a sumptuous and exuberant space. Mary Street was laid out by Humphrey Jervis from the mid-1690s and in 1697 the parish of Saint Michan’s was divided into three which precipitated the construction of Saint Mary’s. Jervis Street was named for the developer himself and was once home to seventeenth and eighteenth-century buildings. The streets are much altered now and consist largely of Victorian buildings, leaving Saint Mary’s to ground the district in its earlier historic milieu. As such, it makes a highly significant contribution to the streetscape and to Dublin’s overall architectural fabric.”
A rather simple baptismal font in the church is the font in which Theobald Wolfe Tone was baptised, and also Sean O’Casey the playwright.
The organ was designed by Renatus Harris. George Frederick Handel, who wrote the famous “Messiah,” lived nearby on Abbey Street and was a regular visitor to Mary’s to play on this organ.
Below ground, is the Cellar Bar. These function rooms are located in an area that was excavated out from underneath the church, and are not part of the original building. There are six crypts in the basement of the church, and 32 skeletons were removed and reinterred elsewhere when the church was converted to its current use. Access to the crypt was by an external stairwell in the church.
[3] p. 89-91. Casey, Christine. Buildings of Ireland: Dublin, The City within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the Phoenix Park. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2005.
I have a bigger project than this section 482 houses blog. It helps, when writing about big houses, to know what is out there. So I have studied Mark Bence-Jones’s 1988 publication in great detail,A Guide to Irish Country Houses, and have conducted research with the help of the internet.
For my own interest, and I am sure many of my readers will appreciate, I am compiling a list of all of the “big house” accommodation across Ireland – finding out places to stay for when Stephen and I go on holidays, especially when we go to see the section 482 houses!
I am also discovering what other houses are open to the public. There are plenty to see which are not privately owned or part of the section 482 scheme. In fact many of the larger houses are either owned by the state, or have been converted into hotels.
This Monday, 8th June 2020, Ireland moves to the next phase of the government’s Covid-19 prevention plan, and we are allowed to travel 20km from our home, or to places within our county. Big houses won’t be open for visits, but some will be opening their gardens – already my friend Gary has been to the gardens of Ardgillan Castle for a walk. Stephen and I went there before lockdown, meeting Stephen’s cousin Nessa for a walk. The castle was closed, but we were blown away by the amazing view from the garden, and walked down to the sea.
Here is my list of houses/castles to visit in Dublin. Some are on section 482 so are private houses with very limited visting times; others are state-owned and are open most days – though not during Covid-19 restriction lockdown – they might be open from June 29th but check websites. Some have gardens which are open to the public now for a wander.
The website says “Original home to the Overend family, today Airfield House is an interactive tour and exhibition which brings visitors closer to this admired Dublin family. Here you’ll view family photographs, letters, original clothing and display cases with information on their prize-winning Jersey herd, vintage cars and their much loved Victorian toys and books.
We focus not just on the way of life the family lived at Airfield, but also on their fantastic charitable work for organisations such as St John Ambulance and The Children’s Sunshine Home (now The Laura Lynn Foundation) to name but a few.“
The name was changed from Bess Mount to Airfield circa 1836. It is a working farm, in the middle of suburban Dundrum! The house was built around 1830. [1] It was built for Thomas Mackey Scully, eldest son of James Scully of Maudlins, Co Kildare. Thomas Mackey Scully was a barrister at Law Grays Inn 1833 and called to the bar in 1847. He was a supporter of O’Connell and a member of the Loyal National Repeal Association. In 1852 the house went into the Encumbered Estates, and was purchased by Thomas Cranfield.
The Stillorgan History and Genealogy website tells us that Thomas Cranfield married Anne Keys in 1839. Thomas was a stationer and printer of 23 Westmorland Street. In 1847 he became the first mezzotint printer in Ireland producing copies of a works by Irish artists such as William Brocas. He received an award from the RDS for his print from a portrait of the Earl of Clarendon. He moved to 115 Grafton Street and received a Royal Warrant in 1850. The family moved to Airfield in 1854. Thomas was also an agent for the London Stereoscopic company and moved into photography. He disposed of his business in 1878 to his son and his assistant George Nutter. I recently heard Brian May member of the former rock band Queen discussing his interest in stereoscopic photography, which was fascinating. I wonder has he been to Airfield? It’s a pity there is nothing about it in the house. Thomas moved to England in 1882 after the death of his son Charles.
Thomas’s father was interesting also: the website tells us: “In 1753, Dr Richard Russell published The Use of Sea Water which recommended the use of seawater for healing various diseases. Circa 1790 Richard Cranfield opened sea baths between Sandymount and Irishtown and by 1806 was also offering tepid baths. Originally called the Cranfield baths it was trading as the Tritonville baths by 1806. Richard Cranfield born circa 1731 died in 1809 at Tritonville Lodge outliving his wife by four years to whom he had been married for over 60 years. He was a sculptor and a carver of wood and had a share in the exhibition Hall in William Street which was put up for sale after his death. He was also the treasurer for the Society of Artists in Ireland. He worked at Carton House and Trinity College. His son Richard took over the baths.“
The Stillorgan History and Genealogy website continues. When the Cranfields left Airfield, it was taken over by the Jury family of the Shelbourne hotel in Dublin. William Jury born circa 1805 was a hotel proprietor. He and his second wife went to live at Tolka Park, Cabra and William became proprietor of the Imperial Hotel in Cork and in Belfast and also had an interest ‘Jurys’ in Derry. In 1865 William, together with Charles Cotton, (brother of his wife Margaret) and Christian Goodman, (manager of the Railway Hotel in Killarney) purchased The Shelbourne from the estate of Martin Burke. They closed The Shelbourne in February 1866, purchased additional ground from the Kildare Society, and proceeded with a rebuild and reopened on 21.02.1867. John McCurdy was the architect and Samuel Henry Bolton the builder. The four bronze figures of Assyrian muses/mutes installed at the entrance of the Shelbourne Hotel were designed by the Bronze-founders of Gustave Barbezat & CIE of France.
William’s wife Margaret took over the running of the hotel after the death of her husband. She travelled from Airfield each morning bringing fresh vegetables for use in the hotel. She left Airfield circa 1891.
Four of their sons followed into the hotel business. Their fourth son, Charles, took over the running of The Shelbourne and died in 1946 in Cheshire aged 91 years.
The Overends seem to have taken over Airfield from 1884. Trevor Thomas Letham Overend (1847-1919) was born in Portadown, 3rd son of John Overend of 57 Rutland Square. He married Elizabeth Anne (Lily) Butler 2nd daughter of William Paul Butler and Letitia Gray of Broomville, County Carlow. Their daughters Letitia and Naomi were left well provided for with no necessity to work and instead devoted themselves to volunteer work and never married.
The website continues: “We focus not just on the way of life the family lived at Airfield, but also on their fantastic charitable work for organisations such as St John Ambulance and The Children’s Sunshine Home (now The Laura Lynn Foundation) to name but a few.“
“Airfield Ornamental Gardens Airfield gardens came to prominence under the leadership of Jimi Blake in the early 2000’s. Like all progressive gardens the garden in Airfield is an ever-evolving landscape. The gardens were redesigned in 2014 by internationally renowned garden designer Lady Arabella Lenox Boyd and landscape architect Dermot Foley. The colour and life you see in our gardens today are the result of the hard work and imagination of our Head Gardener Colm O’Driscoll and his team who have since put their stamp on the gardens as they continue to evolve. The gardens are managed organically and regeneratively with a focus on arts and craft style of gardening.
Airfield Food Gardens Certified organic by the Irish Organic Association this productive 2-acre garden supplies the onsite café and farmers market with fresh seasonal produce. Food production is only one element of this dynamic food garden. Education is at the core of this space. Annual crop trails, experimental crops and forward-thinking growing methods are implemented throughout the garden. Soil is at the heart of the approach to growing and and on top of being certified organic the garden is managed under “no dig” principals. These regenerative approaches result in a thriving food garden that is a hive of activity throughout the growing season.”
“The Walled Garden was originally a Victorian-styled kitchen garden that used to supply the fruit, vegetables and cut flower requirements to the house. It is 1 hectare (2.27 acres) in size, and is subdivided by free standing walls into five separate compartments. The walled garden was replanted in 1992 and through the 1990’s, with each section given a different theme.“
“The Victorian Conservatory was originally built in 1880 at Seamount, Malahide, the home of the Jameson family, who became famous for their whiskey all over the world. It was built by a Scottish glasshouse builder McKenzie & Moncur Engineering, and is reputed to be a replica of a glasshouse built at Balmoral in Scotland, the Scottish home of the British Royal Family. The conservatory was donated to Fingal County Council by the present owner of Seamount, the Treacy family and was re-located to the Ardgillan Rose Garden in the mid-1990s by park staff.
“The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht (DAHG) approached Fingal County Council in early 2014 to participate in a pilot project to develop and enhance skill sets in built heritage conservation, under the Traditional Building Skills Training Scheme 2014. The glass house/ conservatory at Ardgillan was selected as part of this project. The glass house has been completely dismantled because it had decayed to such an extent that it was structurally unstable. All parts removed as part of this process are in safe storage. This work is the first stage of a major restoration project being undertaken by the Councils own Direct Labour Crew in the Operations Department supervised by David Curley along with Fingal County Council Architects so that the glasshouse can be re-erected in the garden and can again act as a wonderful backdrop to the rose garden. This is a complex and difficult piece of work which is currently on going and we are hopeful to have the glasshouse back to its former glory as a centrepiece of the visitor offering in Ardgillan Demesne in the near future.“
The Bewleys business began in 1840 as a leading tea and coffee company, started by Samuel Bewley and his son Charles, when they imported tea directly from China. Charles’s brother Joshua established the China Tea Company, the precursor to Bewleys.
The Buildings of Ireland publication on Dublin South City tells us: “Rebuilt in 1926 to designs by Miller and Symes, the playful mosaics framing the ground and mezzanine floors are indebted to the Egyptian style then in vogue following the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. The interior, originally modelled on the grand cafés of Europe and Oriental tearooms, was restructured in 1995 but retains a suite of six stained glass windows designed (1927) by the celebrated Harry Clarke (1889-1931). Four windows lighting the back wall of the tearoom are particularly fine and represent the four orders of architecture.“
Recently Paddy Bewley died, the last of the family directly involved with the running of the cafe and coffee business of Bewleys. Paddy was responsible for starting the coffee supplying end of the Bewley business.
Paddy, like those in his family before him, was a Quaker, and he lived by their ethos. The Bewley family migrated from Cumberland in England to County Offaly in 1700. Their association with coffee and tea dates back to the mid nineteenth centry, when they began to import tea from China.
Mark Bence-Jones writes in his A Guide to Irish Country Houses (1988):
p. 52. [Nugent, Byrne 1863, Ormsby-Hamilton sub Ormsby] A C18 house built round three sides of a square; with well-proportioned rooms and good decoration. Built by that genial Irishman on the C18 English political scene, Robert [1702-1788] 1st and last Earl Nugent, on an estate which belonged to his brother-in-law, George Byrne [or O’Byrne (1717-1763), husband of Clare Née Nugent], and afterwards to his nephew and political protege, Michael Byrne MP. The house was originally known as Clare Hill, Lord Nugent’s 2nd title being Viscount Clare; but it became known as Cabinteely House after being bequeathed by Lord Nugent to the Byrnes, who made it their seat in preference to the original Cabinteely House, which, having been let for a period to John Dwyer – who, confusingly, was secretary to Lord Chancellor Fitzgibbon, 1st Earl of Clare [John Fitzgibbon (1748-1802)] – was demolished at end of C18 and a new house, known as Marlfield and afterwards a seat of the Jessop family (1912), built on the site. The new Cabinteely House (formerly Clare Hill), afterwards passed to the Ormsby-Hamilton family. In recent years, it was the home of Mr. Joseph McGrath, founder of the Irish Sweep and a well-known figure on the Turf.”
Cabinteely House, photograph from Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council website.
The National Inventory attributes it to architect Thomas Cooley. It is described as: Detached nine-bay (three-bay deep) two-storey country house, built 1769, on a quadrangular plan originally nine-bay two-storey on a U-shaped plan; six-bay two-storey parallel block (west). Sold, 1883. “Improved” producing present composition” when sold to George Pim (1801-87) of neighbouring Brenanstown House. The Inventory also lists other owners: estate having historic connections with Robert Byrne (d. 1798, a brother to above-mentioned Michael Byrne MP) and his spinster daughters Mary Clare (d. 1810), Clarinda Mary (d. 1850) and Georgina Mary (d. 1864); William Richard O’Byrne (1823-96), one-time High Sheriff of County Wicklow (fl. 1872) [he inherited the house after his cousin Georgiana Mary died]; a succession of tenants of the Pims including Alfred Hamilton Ormsby Hamilton (1852-1935), ‘Barrister – Not Practicing’ (NA 1901); John Hollowey (1858-1928); and Joseph McGrath (1887-1966), one-time Deputy Minister for Labour (fl. 1919-2) and co-founder of the Irish Hospitals’ Sweepstake (1930). [4]
Charlemount House. Photograph from flickr constant commons, National Library of Ireland.
The architect of Charlemount House was William Chambers, and it was built in 1763. The Archiseek website tells us:
“Lord Charlemont [James Caulfeild, 1st Earl, 4th Viscount of Charlemont] had met and befriended Sir William Chambers in Italy while Chambers was studying roman antiquities and Charlemont was on a collecting trip. Years later Charlemont had hired Chambers to design his Casino on his family estate at Marino outside Dublin. When the need arose for a residence in the city Charlemont turned again to Chambers who produced the designs for Charlemont House finished in 1763. The house now the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art consists of a single block of five bays with curved screen walls to either side. The house breaks up the regularity of this side of Parnell Square as it is set back from the other houses…Charlemont house was sold to the government in 1870 becoming the General Register and Census Offices for Ireland and later the Municipal Gallery for Modern Art – a development that Charlemont would undoubtedly would have approved.” [5]
Robert O’Byrne tells us that inside is work by Simon Vierpyl also.
James Caulfeild, 1st Earl of Charlemont (1728-1799) by Richard Livesay, British, 1753-1826.
Open dates in 2026: Apr 17-20, May 1-4, 15-18, 29-31, June 1, 5-8, 15, 19-22, July 17-20, 24-25, Aug 14-24, 28-29, Oct 23-26, Nov 6-9, 20-23, 27-30 Sat -Thurs 9am-1pm, Fridays 3pm -7pm
Open dates in 2026: June 2-30, Tues-Fri, July 1-31, Tue-Sat, Aug 4-23, 10am-2pm
Fee: adult €10, entrance fee is a voluntary donation in honesty box at door
“The house was built in the 1820’s to designs by William Farrell as an Italianate seaside villa. A Mediterranean grove was planted with a Cork tree as its centrepiece. In the remains of this romantic wilderness, the present owner, architect Alfred Cochrane, designed a garden punctuated by a collection of architectural follies salvaged from the demolition of Glendalough House, an 1830’s Tudor revival mansion, built for the Barton family by Daniel Robertson who designed Powerscourt Gardens.”
“There is more fun at Corke Lodge” writes Jane Powers, The Irish Times, where ” the ‘ancient garden’ of box parterres is punctuated by melancholy gothic follies, and emerges eerily from the dense boskage of evergreen oaks, myrtles, and a writhing cork oak tree with deeply corrugated bark. Avenues of cordyline palms and tree ferns, dense planting of sword-leaved New Zealand flax, and clumps of whispering bamboos lend a magical atmosphere to this rampantly imaginative creation.”
Believe it or not, I did my Leaving Certificate examinations in this building! I was extremely lucky and I loved it and the great atmosphere helped me to get the points/grades I wanted!
Dalkey Castle in Dalkey in the suburbs of south Dublin, photograph by Brian Morrison, 2014, from Tourism Ireland. (see [2])
The website tells us: “Dalkey Castle is one of the seven fortified town houses/castles of Dalkey. The castles were built to store the goods which were off-loaded in Dalkey during the Middle Ages, when Dalkey acted as the port for Dublin. The castles all had defensive features to protect the goods from being plundered. These are all still visible on the site: Machicolation, Murder Hole, Battlements and arrow-loop windows. In Dalkey Castle, you will see a fine example of barrel-vaulted ceiling and traces of the wicker work that supported it. Niches have been exposed on the walls where precious goods may have been stored. The Castle is an integral entrance to both the Heritage Centre and Dalkey Town Hall.
Dalkey Castle was called the Castle of Dalkey in the Middle Ages. Later, in the mid to late 1600s it was called Goat Castle when the Cheevers family of Monkstown Castle were the owners.
In 1860s the former living quarters, upstairs, became a meeting room for the Dalkey Town Commissioners. It continued as a meeting room until 1998 when it was incorporated into Dalkey Castle & Heritage Centre. Today, part of the Living History tour takes place there. There is a re-creation of the stocks that were across the street where the entrance to the church is today.“
The website describes the Castle: “Drimnagh Castle is the only castle in Ireland to retain a fully flooded moat. Its rectangular shape enclosing the castle, its gardens and courtyard, created a safe haven for people and animals in times of war and disturbance. The moat is fed by a small stream, called the Bluebell. The present bridge, by which you enter the castle, was erected in 1780 and replaced a drawbridge structure.“
Open dates in 2026: Jan 9-12, 16-19, 23-26, 30-31, Mon-Fri, 9.30pm-1.30pm, Sat-Sun, 1pm-5pm, May 11, 15-18, 29-31, June 5-8, 12-15, 19-22, Aug 14-23, Sept 11-12, 18-21, 25-28, Oct 16-19, 23-24, Mon- Fri 9.30am-1.30pm, Sat-Sun 2pm-6pm
The website tells us: “Fernhill is a former substantial family residence on 34 hectares of land at Stepaside. Fernhill Park and Gardens is Dublin’s newest Public Park, and forms an important component of the historic landscape on the fringe of Dublin City and an impressive example of a small estate dating back to around 1823. The former estate is a unique collection of heritage buildings, gardens, parkland, woodland and agricultural land. The elevated nature of the site, overlooking Dublin Bay on the threshold between the city and the Dublin mountains, lends a particular magic to the place. Fernhill is also home to a unique plant collection, made up of acid-loving plants such as Rhododendrons, Camelias and Magnolias, among others.“
The Stillorgan Genealogy and History website tells us:
“The original house was a single-storey (possibly a hunting lodge) built circa 1723. By 1812 it was substantial family residence with additional out buildings surrounded by gardens, woodlands, parkland and farming land on an elevated location overlooking Dublin Bay. The house itself is a series of rambling interconnecting blocks of one and two stories transcended by a three storey tower which has developed and evolved over the years.
The gardens were planted with exotics such as magnolia and Chilean firetrees but it is also home to an extensive daffodil collection. Originally on 110 acres it now now on about 82 acres. The land was owned by Sir William Verner and part was leased to Joseph Stock. Alderman Frederick Darley purchased the lease from Verner in 1812 and his son William purchased the property outright in 1841.” Another son was the architect Frederick Darley (1798-1872).
20. Georgian House Museum, 29 Lower Fitzwilliam Street, Merrion Square, Dublin 2 – virtual visit only
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. 155. “Gaisford-St. Lawrence/IF) A rambling and romantic castle on the Hill of Howth, which forms the northern side of Dublin bay; the home of the St. Lawrences for 800 years. Basically a massive medieval keep, with corner towers crenellated in the Irish crow-step fashion, to which additions have been made through the centuries. The keep is joined by a hall range to a tower with similar turrets which probably dates from early C16; in front of this tower stands a C15 gatehouse tower, joined to it by a battlemented wall which forms one side of the entrance court, the other side being an early C19 castellated range added by 3rd Earl of Howth. The hall range, in the centre, now has Georgian sash windows and in front of it runs a handsome balustraded terrace with a broad flight of steps leading up to the entrance door, which has a pedimented and rusticated Doric doorcase. These Classical features date from 1738, when the castle was enlarged and modernized by William St. Lawrence, 14th Lord Howth, who frequently entertained his friend Dean Swift here; the Dean described Lady Howth as a “blue eyed nymph.” On the other side of the hall range, a long two storey wing containing the drawing room extends at right angles to it, ending in another tower similar to the keep, with Irish battlemented corner turrets. This last tower was added 1910 for Cmdr Julian Gaisford-St. Lawrence, who inherited Howth from his maternal uncle, 4th and last Earl of Howth, and assumed the additional surname of St Lawrence; it was designed by Sir Edward Lutyens, who also added a corridor with corbelled oriels at the back of the drawing room wing and a loggia at the junction of the wing with the hall range; as well as carrying out some alterations to the interior. The hall has C18 doorcases with shouldered architraves, an early C19 Gothic frieze and a medieval stone fireplace with a surround by Lutyens. The dining room, which Lutyens restored to its original size after it had been partitioned off into several smaller rooms, has a modillion cornice and panelling of C18 style with fluted Corinthian pilasters. The drawing room has a heavily moulded mid-C18 ceiling, probably copied from William Kent’s Works of Inigo Jones; the walls are divided into panels with arched mouldings, a treatment which is repeated in one of the bedrooms. The library, by Lutyens, in his tower, has bookcases and panelling of oak and a ceiling of elm boarding. Lutyens also made a simple and dignified Catholic chapel in early C19 range on one side of the entrance court; it has a barrel-vaulted ceiling and an apse behind the altar. Howth Castle is celebrated for the custom, continuing down to the present day, of laying an extra place at meals for the descendent of the chieftan who, several centuries ago, kidnapped the infant heir of the Lord Howth at the time in retaliation for being refused admittance to the castle because the family was at dinner, only returning him after the family had promised that the gates of the castle should always be kept open at mealtimes and an extra place always set at the table in case the kidnapper’s descendants should wish to avail themselves of it. Famous gardens; formal garden laid out ca 1720, with gigantic beech hedges; early C18 canal; magnificent plantings of rhododendrons.”
“It is with great sadness that we report the death of Pat Herbert, the founder and curator of The Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio, sadly he passed away on the 18th of June, 2020.
The museum has been a very special place since it first opened its doors in 2003. Pat had begun collecting radios and all things connected with communications, when he was working in the construction industry in London in the 1950’s. His collection grew over the years and found its rightful home in the Martello Tower which has a long history with the story of radio in Ireland. Pat had an encyclopedic knowledge on the history of radio and was also a great storyteller. He generously allowed the setting up of the amateur station EI0MAR in the Martello Tower and was always fascinated with the contacts made throughout the world over the airwaves.”
25. Knocknagin House, Coney Hill, Ballbriggan, Co Dublin, K32 YECO – section 482
Open dates in 2026: June 2 – 27, July 1 – 31, Aug 1-14, Tues – Sat, National Heritage Week, Aug 15-23, 9.30am-1.30pm
Lambay Island, photograph courtesy ofwww.visitdublin.comLambay Island, photograph courtesy ofwww.visitdublin.comLambay Castle, Lambay Island. Photograph from Country Life.The east court of Lambay Castle. (see [8])
26. Lissen Hall, Lissenhall Demesne, Swords, Dublin – open by appointment
The Historic Houses of Ireland tells us about Lissen Hall:
“Looking over the Meadow Water near the expanding village of Swords, Lissen Hall presents a tranquil mid-Georgian façade that is typical of rural Leinster. In fact country houses have become a rarity in the suburb of Fingal, formerly North County Dublin, which reuses an ancient place name for one of Ireland’s newest administrative regions. A pair of end bows disguise the fact that Lissen Hall is part of a far earlier building, possibly dating from the very end of the 17th century. The newer five-bay front is a typical mid-Georgian concept, with a tripartite door-case surmounted by a Serlian window.
“The arrangement is repeated on the upper storey, where the central window is flanked by a pair of blind sidelights, and the façade continues upwards to form a high parapet, now adorned with a pair of stone eagles. The building’s other main decorative features, a pair of attached two-storey bows with half conical roofs, have many similarities with Mantua, a now-demolished house that faced Lissen Hall across the Meadow Water in former times. At Mantua, which was probably slightly earlier, the silhouettes of the bow roofs prolonged the hip of the main roof in an uninterrupted upward line. It is difficult to imagine how this arrangement could have been achieved at Lissen Hall without compromising the outer windows on the top floor.
“The principal rooms are not over large but the interior of the mid-Georgian range is largely intact and original, with good joinery and chimneypieces. Architectural drawings from 1765 can be seen in the house, which at that time was owned by John Hatch, MP for Swords in the Irish Parliament in Dublin.
“Lissen Hall has only been sold once in 250 years. It passed from John Hatch to the politically influential Hely-Hutchinson family, one of whose seats was Seafield House in nearby Donabate. In 1950 Terence Chadwick purchased the house and park from the Hely-Hutchinsons and the house was subsequently inherited by his daughter Sheelagh, the wife of Sir Robert Goff.”
The Great Hall has an important collection of Jacobite portraits, on loan from the National Gallery of Ireland. It has corbel heads of King Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483), which are original.
Malahide Castle 1976, Dublin City Library and Archives. (see [6])Malahide Castle 1976, Dublin City Library and Archives. (see [6])
The library wing dates to the seventeenth century and is hung with eighteenth century leather wall hangings.
The pair of drawing rooms were rebuilt c.1770 after a fire in 1760. They contain rococo plasterwork and decorative doorcases. The castle also has turret rooms.
Open dates in 2026: Jan 12-16, 19-23, 26-30, Feb 3-6, 9, May 1-2, 5-9, 25-30, June 2-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22, Aug 15-23, 9am-1pm
Fee: adult €5, OAP/child/student €2
Meander, photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes it:
“Detached four-bay two-storey mono-pitched house, built 1939, on an asymmetrical plan with single-bay single-storey flat-roofed projecting porch to ground floor abutting single-bay two-storey mono-pitched higher projection; five-bay two-storey rear (south) elevation with single-bay two-storey projection on a shallow segmental bowed plan….A house erected to a design by Alan Hodgson Hope (1909-65) representing an important component of the twentieth-century domestic built heritage of south County Dublin with the architectural value of the composition, one ‘exploring Scandinavian modernism rather than Mediterranean modernism‘ (Becker 1997, 117), confirmed by such attributes as the asymmetrical plan form; the cedar boarded surface finish; the slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with some of those openings showing horizontal glazing bars; and the oversailing roofline: meanwhile, a cantilevered projection illustrates the later “improvement” of the house expressly to give the architect’s children a room to wallpaper (pers. comm. 12th April 2016). 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 plywood-sheeted interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of a house ‘which has grown and matured together with its garden to make an ensemble appealing more to the senses than to the mind’.”
“No. 45 Merrion Square, the home of the Irish Architectural Archive, is one of the great Georgian houses of Dublin. Built for the speculative developer Gustavus Hume in the mid-1790s and situated directly across Merrion Square from Leinster House, this is the largest terraced house on the Square and is the centrepiece of its East Side.
Light-filled, spectacularly-proportioned, interconnected rooms on the piano nobile of this Georgian palazzo offer a range of venues and facilities: meeting rooms for up to 20 people; multimedia lecture facilities for up to 55, dining space for up to 80, and receptions for up to 250. Whether the event is a meeting, a conference with breakout sessions, or a private or corporate reception, the Irish Architectural Archive’s beautifully graceful spaces provide Georgian elegance in the heart of Dublin.”
“Standing four stories over basement, and five bays wide, No. 45 is the largest of the terraced houses on Merrion Square. The house was built circa 1794 for the property developer Gustavus Hume. The architect may have been Samuel Sproule who, in the early 1780s, was responsible for the laying out of much of Holles Street, of both Mount Streets and of the east side of Merrion Square. The first person to live in the house seems to have been Robert la Touche who leased the building in 1795. In 1829 the house was sold to Sir Thomas Staples. It had been built in an ambitious and optimistic age, but in the Dublin of the late 1820s its huge size was somewhat anachronistic and certainly uneconomical, so Sir Thomas had the building carefully divided into two separate houses. Sir Thomas died aged 90 in 1865, the last survivor of the Irish House of Commons.
On his death, both parts of the house passed to Sir John Banks, Regius Professor of Medicine in Trinity College, who, like his predecessor, leased the smaller portion of the divided building, by now numbered Nos. 10 and 11 Merrion Square East. Banks himself lived in No. 11, the larger part, which he maintained in high decorative order. Banks died in 1910, and both parts of the building fell vacant and remained so until 1915 when the whole property was used to accommodate the clerical offices of the National Health Insurance Company. With single occupancy restored, the division of the building, renumbered 44 – 45 Merrion Square, began to be reversed, a process carried on in fits and starts as successive Government departments and agencies moved in and out over the decades. The last to go was the Irish Patents Office, relocated to Kilkenny in 1996.
The house was assigned to Irish Architectural Archive by Ruairí Quinn TD, Minister for Finance, in his budget of 1996. The Office of Public Works carried out an extensive programme of works to the house from 2002 to 2004, including the refurbishment of the historic fabric and the construction of new state-of-the-art archival stores to the rear.“
32. MOLI, Museum of Literature Ireland, Newman House, 85-86 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin
“No. 85 St. Stephen’s Green was built in 1738 by Richard Cassels, architect of Powerscourt House and Russborough House, and is notable for its exquisite baroque plasterwork by the Lafranchini brothers. The adjoining townhouse at No. 86 was constructed in 1765 and features superb examples of rococo stuccowork by the distinguished Dublin School of Plaster Workers.
The building takes its name from the theologian and educationalist Dr. John Henry Newman, who was rector when the Catholic University was founded in 1854.”
One entire room is dedicated as a “cabinet of curiosities.” Desmond Guinness and Desmond FitzGerald tells us in their entry about Newbridge House in Great Irish Houses that the collection may have started life as a shell collection in the 1790s by Elizabeth Beresford (1736-1860), who married the archbishop’s son Colonel Thomas Cobbe (1733-1814). She came from Curraghmore in County Waterford (see my entry on Curraghmore) and would have been familiar with her mother’s Shell Cottage. Much of what we see in the collection today comes from the Indian subcontinent, including a Taj Mahal in alabaster, ostrich eggs, corals, statues of house gods, snake charmer’s box and tusks with carving noting the abolition of slavery [see 12]. The oriental theme is even carried through to the elephant design curtains. The panels on the wall are reproduction of the originals.
An Arts and Crafts Gothic Revival mansion built in the late 1870s by its architect owner George Coppinger Ashlin for himself and his wife, Mary in tribute to her father, the hugely influential Gothic Revival architect, Augustus Pugin, who most famously designed the British Houses of Parliament and a number of Irish churches and Cathedrals. [17]
The website tells us: “Located in the centre of the ancient town Swords Castle contains over 800 years of history and, as a recent surprising discovery of burials beneath the gatehouse shows, it has yet to give up all of its secrets. The castle was built by the Archbishop of Dublin, John Comyn, around 1200, as a residence and administrative centre. The extensive complex of buildings is in the form of a rough pentagon of 0.5 hectares and is enclosed by a perimeter wall of 260 meters. It is a National Monument, and it is the best surviving example of an Archbishop’s Palace in Ireland. The curtain walls enclose over an acre of land that slopes down to the Ward River. This complex of buildings is made up of many phases of reuse and redesign reflecting its long history and changing fortunes.”
Swords Castle, 1971, Dublin City Library and Archives photograph. (see [6])Swords Castle, 1971, Dublin City Library and Archives photograph. (see [6])
47. The Church, Junction of Mary’s Street/Jervis Street, Dublin 1– section 482
The National Inventory tells us it is: “Freestanding former Church of Ireland church, built 1700-4… Now in use as bar and restaurant, with recent glazed stair tower built to northeast, linked with recent elevated glazed walkway to restaurant at upper level within church… Saint Mary’s (former) Church of Ireland was begun c.1700 to the design of Sir William Robinson and was completed by his successor, Thomas Burgh.” [18]
Mark Bence-Jones writes in his A Guide to Irish Country Houses (1988):
“[Guinness/IFR] A Victorian house of two storeys over a basement with plate glass windows, built ca 1860 for Thomas Hosea Guinness and his wife Mary, nee Davis, who was heiress of the estate. Rich plasterwork and Corinthian columns with scagliola shafts in hall.”
The National Inventory adds the following assessment:
“A country house erected for Thomas Hosea Guinness JP (1831-88) to a design by Joseph Maguire (1820-1904) of Great Brunswick Street [Pearse Street], Dublin (Dublin Builder 1st December 1861, 692), representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of south County Dublin with the architectural value of the composition, one superseding an adjacent farmhouse annotated as “Tibradden House” on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey (surveyed 1837; published 1843), confirmed by such attributes as the deliberate alignment maximising on scenic vistas overlooking rolling grounds and the minor Glin River; the compact near-square plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase demonstrating good quality workmanship; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the open bed pediment embellishing a slightly oversailing roofline. 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 where contemporary joinery; Classical-style chimneypieces; and decorative plasterwork enrichments, all highlight the artistic potential of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent outbuildings (extant 1909); a walled garden (extant 1837); and a nearby gate lodge (see 60250002), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained ensemble having historic connections with the Guinness family including Colonel Charles Davis Guinness (1860-1939), one-time High Sheriff of County Louth (fl. 1918); Major Owen Charles Guinness OBE (1894-1970); and Second Lieutenant Charles Spencer Guinness (1932-2004).“
Current owner Selina Guinness’s memoir The Crocodile by the Door tells us about the house and how she acquired it from her uncle, and the work she has undertaken to run it as a family home, with her adventure of taking up sheep farming to maintain the property and its land.
“Tyrrelstown House & Garden is set in 10 hectare of parkland in Fingal, North County Dublin, just minutes from the M50, off the N3 (Navan Road). There are 2 walled gardens, and an arboretum with woodland walks including 2 hectares of wild flower & pictorial meadows. Lots of spring bulbs and cyclamen adorn this lovely sylvan setting.
The walled gardens are over 600 years old and include a wide range of alkaline and acid loving plants and shrubs and include an organic vegetable garden.
The Wilkinson family arrived here in 1895 & have been farming the land ever since.“
[3] 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.
Irish Historic Houses 
