Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 87. “A two storey Victorian house consisting of two ranges at right angles to each other, and forming one corner of a large office courtyard. Rebuilt ca 1858 by Fulke Greville-Nugent, afterwards 1st Lord Greville. Eaved roof, symmetrical entrance front with gable-pediment and three-light centre window, above porch with Ionic columns. Sold 1917 to E.W. Hope-Johnstone; sold 1927 to the Harvey-Kelly family.”
Clonhugh, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Detached five-bay two-storey Italianate country house, built in 1867, with projecting single-bay pedimented breakfront and projecting Ionic entrance porch to centre. Various two-storey extensions to the northwest. Now in use as a private dwelling. Hipped natural slate roof with overhanging bracketed eaves and two cut stone chimneystacks to the centre, aligned behind ridge. Constructed of coursed limestone with cut limestone trim. Square-headed window openings with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows and cut stone sills to ground floor and outer bays to first floor, three round-headed sash windows to projecting bay (centre) on first floor (above porch). Square-headed doorcase to centre with glazed timber double-doors and plain overlightabove. Main doorcase flanked by narrow sidelights to either side. Cast-iron and timber conservatory to south side and extensive collection of single and two-storey outbuildings to the north, arranged around a central courtyard. Gate lodge (15401124) serves original main entrance to the northeast. Located in extensive mature grounds.
An appealing late nineteenth-century country house, which retains its early form, character and fabric. The symmetrical front façade is enlivened by the projecting Ionic porch, and by the triple round-headed windows and shallow pediment over to the centre. This house was (re)built in an Italianate design by William Caldbeck (1824-1872), a noted architect of his day, for a Colonel F.S. Greville, later Lord Greville. Lord Greville’s main seat was at Clonyn Castle (15308017), Delvin. The builder of this impressive structure was a Francis Nulty of Kells. The extensive collection of outbuildings to the northwest adds considerably to this fine composition, which is located in a very attractive location, in extensive mature grounds on the shores of Lough Owel. Some of these outbuildings appear to predate the house and may have been built to serve the earlier Clonhugh House (Ordnance Survey Map 1838), which was demolished to make way for the present structure. This earlier house is recorded by Lewis (1837) as being in the ownership of Lord Forbes. The entrance gates and gate lodge to the northeast (15401124) provide a suitably elegant approach to this grand house. An ice house survives to the south of the main house on the shores of Lough Owel. William’s Trevor’s ‘Fools of Fortune’ (1990) was filmed here.
Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.
Clonhugh Lodge, Multyfarnham, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Goffs Property
Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.
Clonhugh Lodge, Multyfarnham, Co. Westmeath N91 K2P3 For Sale by Private Treaty “One of the finest contemporary country houses in Ireland, with extensive lake frontage and an accessible location.”
Description: Clonhugh Lodge is a remarkable, compact country estate conveniently situated in a sought-after and easily accessible location in County Westmeath. This outstanding property is positioned within a ring-fenced boundary, occupying a superb waterfront setting and extending to about 111 acres in total. The estate initially formed part of the expansive Clonhugh Demesne, where Lord Greville resided and held the position of Member of Parliament for Westmeath from 1865 to 1874.
The magnificent modern house has been meticulously planned and designed in a period-style for contemporary living, surrounded by picturesque formal garden grounds and sprawling parkland. The property’s elevated position offers delightful views over the surrounding countryside and onto Lough Owel. The mature grounds encompassing the house are a key feature, providing privacy and a scenic rural backdrop with an abundance of amenity.
The estate is currently run with equestrian activities to the forefront and comprises five stables, a tack room and a sand area. The land is divided into a number of good-sized paddocks enclosed by stud railing. The estate benefits from road frontage and internal roads, ensuring excellent accessibility throughout. Clonhugh Lodge offers the extremely rare opportunity to acquire a unique blend of high-quality modern assets with an unrivalled waterside setting in a central location.
Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath photograph courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.Clonhugh Lodge, County Westmeath for sale courtesy Savills.
Drumbaragh, County Meath, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
supplement.
p. 296. “Woodward/LG1875) A tall three storey three bay C18 block. Central chimneystack; C19 pillared porch and window surrounds.”
Not in National Inventory
Record of Protected Structures:
Drumbaragh House, townland: Drumbaragh.
Three storey over basement house built c. 1800, attributed to designs by Francis Johnston, remodelled in late 1860s by William Caldbeck, extended to the rear c.1900. Includes gate lodge, walled garden.
Drumbaragh, also spelled Drumbarrow, is located on the Oldcastle Road from Kells. Drumbaragh house is a three storey house with a large central chimneystack, erected about 1800, possibly to the design of Francis Johnston. The house was remodelled in the 1860s by architect, William Caldbeck. The house was extended at rear by architect, L.A. McDonnell, about 1900. The 1800s interiors have survived. The house was a distance from the public road with the farmyard between the house and the road. A gate lodge was erected for Robert Woodward to the design of his cousin the noted architect, Benjamin Woodward.
Drumbaragh was the seat of the Woodward family. Benjamin Wodward was confirmed in his lands at Drumbarrow in 1668 following their confiscations from the Hill and Plunkett families by Cromwell. Benjamin’s son, Joseph, died in 1702 leaving a son, Charles who married three times. By his second wife he had a son, Benjamin, born in 1710. Benjamin married Judith Meredyth of Newtown in 1733. Benjamin died in 1761 and was succeeded at Drumbarrow by his second son, Charles. Charles was born in 1740, entered the church. Rev. Charles Woodward was rector of Ardee. He died in 1793 and there is a memorial to him and his family in Kells Church of Ireland church. His first wife, Esther Wade of Clonabreany, died in 1776 and his second wife Elizabeth Minchin died in 1778. Henry, son of Benjamin and Esther, succeeded to Drumbarrow. The present house at Drumbaragh was constructed in 1800 for Henry Woodward.
In 1835 Drumbarrow House was described as the residence of Mr. Woodward. Drumbarrow was described as a neat house of two storeys and basement, surrounded by a well cared small demesne. There were considerable offices. A school house stood not far from the house in the 1830s. The famous Victorian architect, Benjamin Woodward, spent his childhood at his uncle’s home in Drumbarragh
Henry married Sarah-Catherine Wade of Clonabreany in 1800. Their second son, Robert, inherited Drumbarrow in 1838. Born in 1805, Robert entered Trinity College and was called to the Irish bar in 1829. His brother, Henry Thomas, emigrated and settled in Illinois, U.S.A. Robert died in 1864.
Drumbaragh was purchased by the Sweetman family in 1859 and it remained in the family’s hands until 1958. John Sweetman was the eldest son of a Dublin brewer. He took an active interest in nationalistic politics. In the mid to late 1870s he took over the full running of Drumbaragh from his mother. He joined the Irish Land League and proposed the MP for Meath, Charles Stewart Parnell for the position of President. He was one of the first Meath landowners to dispose of his estate under the 1903 land act. In 1880 Sweetman visited America and became involved in a scheme to settle poor Irish farmers in a colony in Minnesota. The family brewery in Dublin was sold to Arthur Guinness & Sons in 1891 and Sweetman decided to enter full time into politics. He was elected as an anti-Parnellite Irish Parliamentary Party MP for East Wicklow in 1892. In the general election of 1895 he stood for Meath North and was narrowly defeated. On 11 September 1895 Sweetman married Agnes, daughter of John P. Hanly of Navan.
In 1899 Sweetman was elected to Meath County Council and served as chairman 1902-8. He was one of the founders and financial backers of Sinn Féin in 1905, succeeding Edward Martyn to be the second President of the party in 1908. Arthur Griffith took over as the third President later in the year. He was arrested at his home in Meath followin the 1916 Rising in which he did not apparently play any active part, and was taken to prison in England. Sweetman was an opponent of women’s suffrage, and was criticised for endowing a UCD scholarship on condition that female students should be excluded from competing for it. He supported the Pro-Treaty side in the Civil War but changed his allegiance to Fianna Fail after 1927. He died in 1936. There is an article on Sweetman in the Dictionary of Irish Biography, written by Patrick Maume. The Sweetman family papers are in the National Library. John Walter Sweetman, the eldest son of John and Agnes Sweetman, married Olivia Dudley, and inherited the Drumbaragh estate after the death of his father. John Walter died in 1961.
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. 285. “(Walsh/IFR) A mid-C19 Italianate house of two storeys over rusticated and vermiculated basement. Five bay front, with broken pediment above central Wyatt window and portico with Ionic columsn and Doric corner piers. Entablatures on console brackets over some windows. Windows with straight-arched heads in upper storey; rectangular windows below and camber-headed windows in basement. Eaved roof on bracket cornice.”
Williamstown, County Louth, courtesy National Inventory.Williamstown, County Louth, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement house, built 1856-60. L-plan, single-bay three-storey over basement return to north, broken pedimented breakfront over projecting portico to south, lean-to single-storey return to north-east. Hipped slate roofs, clay ridge tiles, smooth rendered ruled-and-lined corbelled chimneystacks, stone caps and clay pots; projecting eaves on chequer-set brackets, painted timber soffit supporting moulded cast-iron gutters, circular cast-iron downpipes. Smooth rendered ruled-and-lined walling to ground and first floor, smooth rendered channelled basement, ashlar limestone plinth and stringcourse between ground and first floors, ashlar limestone rock-faced quoins to basement, channelled quoins ground floor, vertical banded quoins to first floor; random rubble stone walling to basement, north; family crest to tympanum of pediment, south. Segmental-headed windows openings to basement, vermiculated block-and-start rendered surrounds, rock-faced limestone keystones, limestone sills, multiple-pane metal casement windows; square-headed openings to ground floor, limestone sills over moulded panel, smooth rendered surround console brackets to limestone cornice, painted timber one-over-ones sliding sash windows; basket-arched openings to first floor, limestone sills over recessed panels, roll-moulded smooth rendered surrounds, painted timber two-over-two sliding sash windows; Wyatt window to breakfront, tooled limestone surround comprising panelled pilaster, console brackets, frieze and cornice, painted timber sliding sash windows; simple Wyatt windows to north elevation central return, tooled limestone mullions and surround, painted timber fixed windows with margin-lights. Tooled limestone entrance portico to south comprising paired Ionic columns flanked by Doric piers supporting frieze and dentil cornice, rounded carved detailing to roof of portico; round-headed door opening, moulded surround, console keystone, flanking Doric pilasters, round-headed sidelights in turn with flanking pilasters, egg-and-dart and dentil cornice; timber double doors with four decorative raised-and-fielded panels, etched glass fanlight; flight of stone steps to entrance flanked by tooled limestone vermiculated blocks. Enclosed yard to north bounded by random rubble stone wall containing ranges of brick and stone outbuildings. Walled garden to north-east, remains of glass house and gardener’s house to north-east corner. Three-bay single-storey gate lodge to south-west, central canted entrance bay, hipped roof (slates missing) painted timber bargeboards, smooth rendered ruled-and-lined walling. Elaborate wrought-iron gates flanked by squared smooth rendered piers, pyramidal caps and iron railings.
Appraisal
Designed by William Caldbeck this is a fine example of the Italianate architecture, popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Fine proportions and symmetry give this building elegance and the beautifully executed detailing around window and doors give artistic significance to the building. The striking limestone portico and elegant pedimented breakfront are features worthy of particular note. The existence of the outbuildings, walled garden, gardener’s house and gate lodge are also significant as they form the original context of Williamstown House which was once important to the local population, provided employment to the community.
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
Knockabbey Castle and Gardens(also known as Thomastown Castle), Tallanstown, County Louth
Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.
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. 178. “(O’Reilly/IFR) An old tower-house with a three storey six bay buttressed Georgian wing, and also an early C19 Gothic wing. The old tower has Georgian Gothic doorway. Famous library, which burnt ca 1920.”
Section 482 in 2000, owner Janice Tynan 01 677 8816 or 086 3903376
Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Archiseek.Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.
When it was first built in 1399, it was called Thomastown Castle and consisted only of a towerhouse. Reflecting their prestige and position, the Bellews, who had lived here since 1399, extended the tower house to the west around 1650. That extension with its original stairwell and its elegant six-bayed facade still exists today. The house was remodelled again in 1754. In the 19th century, it was renamed as Knock Abbey, and the owner commissioned architect William Caldbeck to add a new house. This required substantial alterations to the original tower house including fitting Gothic Revival windows and rebuilding all the battlements. The addition to the east and south, including the contents of the library, were lost when the Irish Republican Army broke into Knock Abbey and set fire to it in 1923. What survived was rebuilt in 1925.
Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.
Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.
Knockabbey Castle has evolved over the last millennium and each of the families who lived there have left their mark. They contain some of the finest historical water gardens to be found anywhere in the country, dating back to the 11th century. The gardens contain a wide range of magnificent specimen trees and its tulip tree ranks among the largest and finest in Ireland.
Today you have a unique opportunity to see these gardens restored after generations of neglect. Spend an afternoon strolling through the 30 acres, which include meadows, herbaceous border, formal Victorian garden with restored glasshouse, parkland and various other garden buildings. Experience the peace and tranquillity of this magical place.
Spend some time in the courtyard where you can view a film on the restoration in our Interpretive Centre or browse through the Tack Room. A visit to Knockabbey Castle and Gardens is like a step back in time, here you can see for yourself a real piece of Irish gardening history.
Refer to website for opening times and rates.
Facilities Coffee Shop | Audio Visual Presentation | Public Toilet | Coach Parking | Interpretative centre | Refreshments by appointment for groups of 20 or more | Wheelchair friendly | Guided Tours |
Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.The wooden pillars in the core reception room, Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.
After more than seven years on the market, the stunning Knockabbey Castle has finally been sold in recent months.
The Louth Village castle first went on the market in April 2011 with an asking price of €2.5 million but a deal was finally completed earlier this summer for €800,000.
It is not known at this stage who is beyond the purchase.
The castle is famous for its stunning gardens.
The building dates back to 1399 when it was called Thomastown Castle. Having housed the Tennyson and O’Reilly families in the 14th and 15th centuries, the estate was home to the Bellew family for many years until it was confiscated following William of Orange’s victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
More recently, Knockabbey was purchased by Dublin-based property developer Cyril O’Brien in 1998. The grounds were in a bad state of disrepair, but with support from the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Fund, horticultural experts, stonemasons, tree surgeons and other experts, the historic gardens at Knockabbey are now in fine condition and have even been used as a setting for wedding pictures in recent years.
In total €3.81 million was invested in the restoration.
Knockabbey, County Louth, courtesy Hassett and Fitzsimons estate agent.
A pub owner with an eye for the exotic is selling his 14th century Co Louth castle on 30 acres of glorious garden
KNOCKABBEY Castle is an eight-bedroom castellated property set on 30 acres of national showcase gardens outside Ardee in Co Louth.
Situated about nine miles from the historic town, Knockabbey weaves a stone and brick tapestry that is influenced by many episodes in Irish history, starting with the monks who first manipulated its waters 1000 years ago. They were the demesne’s first inhabitants – moving from the nearby metropolis of Louth Village, then ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, to the pastoral splendour of Knockabbey.
The house is under-done rather than overstated. a family could happily knock about it without feeling restricted by its architecture.
Knitted into the fabric of the house are several building styles; the oldest, a tower built in 1399 with a £10 grant from Dublin Castle to protect the north-west corner of the Pale, was enlarged by the Bellows family in 1650, who added a six-bay, three-storey Queen Anne extension.
By the late 1700s the castle came under the ownership of the O’Reillys, a family who could trace their roots back to Niall of the Nine Hostages. They put their stamp on the house, remodelling it and adding Gothic windows.
The additions to the east and south, including the contents of the O’Reilly family library, were lost when the IRA set fire to it in 1923. What survived was rebuilt in 1925.
The property is asking €2.5 million through joint agents Knight Frank and Hassett Fitzsimons.
It was a Sunday drive that convinced owner, former publican, Cyril O’Brien, to pay £475,000 for the historic building back in 1998.
That it needed work didn’t deter O’Brien, a man who transformed Dublin’s pubscape in the 1980s by introducing a destination gay bar, The George, and turning a certain generation onto dance music through his club Sides.
In the 1990s he introduced the capital to the principles of the super-pub and boutique hotel with the respective launches of Zanzibar and The Mercantile. Flourishes of both styles are evident throughout the house.
The restoration drama wasn’t as traumatic as his friends and family had warned, he says, but it was way more costly. A basic refurbishment turned into a large-scale restoration. O’Brien says he paid £250,000 in professional fees alone never mind materials and labour.
The main entrance is via the tower house into a hall with vaulted ceilings and a flagstone floor. A wood-burning stove sits in the fireplace while display units showcase costumes made by Emmy and Oscar-winning costumier, Joan Bergin for a Millennium house party.
The Gothic hall has a red quarry tile floor, ornate staircase and stained glass roof light. To the left is a large eat-in kitchen with dog baskets a-plenty, a four-door Aga and a linen cupboard from upstairs now a large larder.
Traverse the hall to interconnecting reception rooms, a sittingroom and adjoining diningroom. An adjacent utility room has an ice machine, glass washer, bathrooms and storage.
Down the hall is the music room, two rooms opened into one where the star feature is the pair of wooden pillars O’Brien discovered during the refurbishment. A bar and tea rooms complete the ground floor accommodation.
Back in the original tower a stone “trip-step” staircase leads upstairs to the propertys chapel and on up to an interpretative centre.
Climb up onto the ramparts and enjoy 360 degree views of the surrounding rolling hills. The view also shows the number of fine trees on the property – all sheltering the house.
In its current configuration, the house has eight bedrooms, six of which are en suite. Most are decorated in a traditional style – the exception being the Thai room, which is fitted out with a raised platform bed and has windows veiled by reed blinds.
But it is the property’s sylvan setting that makes this house special. Restored by Finola Reed using some monies from the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Fund, there are 30 acres of gardens set out in lawn and wild flower meadows. The meadows have paths mown through them so you can get up close and personal with the estate’s numerous specimen trees – including one of the largest-girthed tulip trees in these islands.
Buttercup-laden, the meadows tap into our inner child and make you want to kick off your shoes and go running through the thigh-high foliage.
A Victorian tea house, a stone-built fern house and an octagonal gazebo: all offer sheltered settings from which to admire the gardens, their Italian-style ornamental canals, pergolas wrapped in white wisteria and walls hung with fruit trees of apple, pear and plum.
Business-motivated buyers should know that the gardens, while gorgeous, havent delivered the tourist numbers O’Brien had hoped for.
He ran a tea rooms on the property for some years but there simply wasn’t enough interest, he admits. Neither, he believes, are any of the rooms sufficiently big to appeal to the wedding market.
This is a place that celebrates the sound of silence. As the crow flies Knockabbey is two miles from the N2 and about seven from the M1 – yet the drone from either is blissfully absent.
The house comes with a two-bedroom gate lodge, a replica of the original, a one-bedroom apartment and stables where further accommodation could be considered.
It is approximately 76km from Dublin Airport and 105km to Belfast Airport. Off-peak, Dublin city centre is an hour’s drive.
Owner O’Brien is staying in the area. This time though he’s building a thoroughly modern eco-friendly house from scratch.
Attached six-bay three-storey country house, dated 1754, on a T-shaped plan with single-bay (single-bay deep) full-height central return (south); four-bay (two-bay deep) two-storey block (south-east) on a rectangular plan. Extended, 1858; 1863, producing present composition. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Burnt, 1923. Reconstructed, 1925. Sold, 1998. Restored, 2004. Pitched slate roof on a T-shaped plan behind parapet centred on pitched slate roof (south), clay ridge tiles, coping to gables with rendered chimney stacks to apexes having stepped capping supporting terracotta tapered pots, and concealed rainwater goods with cast-iron downpipes; flat roof not visible behind parapet (south-east) with concealed rainwater goods retaining cast-iron hoppers and square-profile downpipes. Replacement rendered walls with “Cavetto”-detailed ogee cornice below lead-covered dwarf parapet; part creeper-covered repointed rubble stone walls (south-east) with machicolation (west) or turret (east) framing battlemented parapets having coping. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing nine-over-nine or three-over-six (top floor) timber sash windows without horns. Pointed-arch door opening (east) with threshold supporting cast-iron bootscrapers, timber doorcase with clustered colonettes on cut-limestone padstones supporting shallow cornice on rosette-detailed frieze, and moulded rendered surround having stepped reveals framing glazed timber panelled double doors having sidelights on panelled risers below fanlight. Pointed-arch off-central door opening (south-east) with repointed voussoirs framing glazed timber panelled double doors having sidelights on panelled risers below fanlight. Pointed-arch window openings with cut-limestone sills, and repointed voussoirs framing eight-over-eight timber sash windows centred on six-over-six timber sash windows having overlights. Set in landscaped grounds.
A country house erected by Thomas Tenison (“TT 1754”) representing an important component of the domestic built heritage of County Louth with the architectural value of the composition, one abutting a tower house erected on lands granted (1st November 1399) ‘by John Kenefer to John Bedelew and John Boscombe the younger’ (Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 1923, 193-7), confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the parapeted roof showing a slab-like slate finish: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the later “improvement” of the country house (1858; 1863) to designs by William Francis Caldbeck (c.1824-72) of Harcourt Street, Dublin (The Builder 29th May 1858, 381), with the compact rectilinear plan form; the construction in unrefined local fieldstone; the “pointed” profile of the openings showing switch-track glazing patterns; and the monolithic battlements, all rooted firmly in a surprisingly conservative Georgian Gothic fashion. Having been sympathetically restored (“COB 2004”), the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or replicated fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior reconstructed following ‘the barbarous mania of incendiarism’ during “The Troubles” (1919-23) (ibid., 179-83), thus upholding the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent outbuildings (—-); and nearby gate lodges (see 13901128 – 13901129), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of an estate having historic connections with the O’Reilly family including Matthew O’Reilly (1756-1817); Matthew O’Reilly (1779-1841); William Joseph O’Reilly MP (1792-1844); Myles William Patrick O’Reilly MP (1825-80) ‘late of Knockabbey [sic] Louth County Louth’ (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1880, 583); and William Joseph O’Reilly (1864-1937).
Irish Historic Houses 