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. 96. “(Ponsonby, sub Bessborough.E/PB) A house built 1669 by a branch of the Ponsonbys descended from Henry Ponsonby, younger brother of Sir John Ponsonby from whom the Earls of Bessborough and other Irish Ponsonbys descend. Of two storeys; entrance front consisting of five bays recessed between projecting wings with one bay forward-facing ends. Steep pediment-gable with lunette window over three centre bas; rusticated window surrounds. In 1705 Rose Ponsonby, the heiress of Crotto, married John Carrique; their descendents bore the additional surname of Ponsonby. Some alterations were carried out ca 1819 by a member of the Carrique Ponsonby family to the design of Sir Richard Morrison, who gave the wings “Elizabethan” gables with coats of arms and tall chimneys; he also added a curvilinear-gabled porch. In other respects, the exterior of the house kept its original character. The estate was sold by the Carrique Ponsonbys 1842. A few years later, the new owner leased the house to Lt Col H.H. Kitchener, whose son, the future Field Marshall Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, spent his boyhood here. Now demolished.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Crotto House, County Kerry, courtesy Archiseek.Crotto House, County Kerry, courtesy Archiseek.
Original house of 1669, owned by the Ponsonby family. Additions of 1819 in a Jacobean style to the existing house by Sir Richard Morrison, who added gables and the curvilinear porch. The childhood hode of Lord Kitchener, whose father leased the house from 1850-63. Described as derelict by 1925, the ruins remained until the late 1960s. Now demolished, little remains bar a portion of a wing and the farm buildings.
Crotto gate lodge, County Kerry, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached two-bay single-storey gate lodge with dormer attic, built c. 1850, originally with lancet arch openings to north gable end. Openings later remodelled. Now in use as private house. Pitched slate roof with added cement gable parapets. Random rubble stone walls with fragments of render. Pointed arch blocked openings in north gable and one in south gable. Red brick surrounded to first floor window. Later openings formed in west wall. Remains of rubble stone-built walls, built c. 1850, to south-west possibly originally part of walled garden. Crotto House demolished in latter part of twentieth century.
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. 83. “(Denny, Bt, of Castle Moyle/PB) A C18 house with a central breakfront and a curved bow at back.”
Church Hill House, GLEBE (TR. BY.) BALLYNAHAGLISH ED, County Kerry
Church hill House, County Kerry courtesy National Inventory.
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement house, built c. 1760, with single-bay full-height breakfront having single-bay full-height bowed projecting bay to south elevation. Renovated and extended, 1832, with two-bay single-storey lateral wings. Subsequently in use as monastery, c. 1910. Now in private residential use. Pitched and hipped slate roof with lead ridge rolls and rendered chimneystacks. Painted and rendered walls. Timber six-over-nine and six-over-six pane sliding sash windows with limestone sills. Tripartite window above entrance. Round-headed doorway having painted Ionic doorcase, engaged columns in 1830’s style, decorative iron fanlight, timber panelled door, brass bell pull and limestone threshold. Stable complex, built c. 1760, to west. Gateway, built c. 1760, to east comprising pair of limestone ashlar piers with ovoid finials having cast-iron gates.
At the time of Griffith’s Valuation, Rev. Henry Denny was leasing Church Hill from Sir Edward Denny when it was valued at £27. According to Bary the house was in the hands of the Denny family for much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries until it passed to the Neligans, possibly in the 1880s. In 1906 it was owned by William Neligan and valued at £27. It is still extant and occupied.
featured in Great Irish Houses. Forewards by Desmond FitzGerald, Desmond Guinness. IMAGE Publications, 2008. p. 140. “For two decades an architectural phenomenon has been going on in a quiet and scenic corner of County Kerry overlooking Tralee Bay. A modest Irish country dwelling has been turned into one of Ireland’s hidden treasures by an American industrialist, Fred Krehbiel, who opened a factory in Shannon in 1970, married Kay, from nearby Ballyduff, and started his search for an Irish country house. With its view of the bays and framed by the Slieve Mish mountains and the picturesque village of Fenit, it was Churchill that caught their eye. It is hardly surprising the prehistoric Irish also chose the site as a settlement given its strategic positioning and commanding vista.
With two storeys over basement, the structure at Churchill is typical of the glebe tradition of 18th and 19th century Ireland. They often contained three bays but Churchill has five, a hopped roof and a pair of chimneystacks close together. The uniformity of design with other glebe buildings – there is a church on the property’s doorstep – owes much to the house’s ecclesiastical function as a residence for members of the nearby clergy.
Churchill though, is an amalgamation of two separate buildings – the first was erected in 1741 and has a bow on the garden front. In the 18th century the house was said to have been one floor over basement, while in the 19th century another floor and a bow were added to the back. By 1832 it had fallen into disrepair and was turned into a double house or two-storey dwelling. The house was now the property of the Denny family, and much of the interior, such as moulded panels and door architraves, dates from the mid 19th century. The Denny family made several additions to the house.
The house passed from the Denny family shortly before 1884. It was bought by Sir John Chute Neligan, a County Court judge, who left the property to his son, Captain William John Neligan of the Kerry Militia, whose initials appear on the carved chimneypiece in the study. Following a battle with alcoholism, William died and left the house to the Dominicans in Tralee, who occupied Churchill until 1920. In the 20th century the house changed hands three times before the Krehbeils secured it in 1983 and began the process of careful restoration and renewal.
When the Krebiehls first bought the property Churchill was close to ruin. Most of the plasterwork was in need of immediate repair, dry rot was evident, the plumbing and wiring needed attention, and just one toilet and one sink worked in the main house, while both baths were unusable. “For the next ten years we discovered one disaster after another,” Fred Krehbiel recalls.
The Krehbiels wanted to create a country house experience on a modest scale that was still rugged enough to perform as a family home. In the early days they had 27 nieces and nephews to stay and Churchill was certainly more functional than stylish. Yet as the family grew up and the finances recovered after saving the fabric of the building, they drew up plans for the interiors and the gardens.
The conservation architect John O’Connell has directed the project at all stages, including the addition of the library, pavilion and barn, using mostly Irish craftsmen. Throughout the property, where possible, the furnishings are Irish. The interior design was collaboration between Imogen Taylor and Pierre Serrurier of Colefax and Fowler and Kay Krehbiel, and the team used the natural flora at Churchill, such as the plentiful fuschia, to inform their patterns to great effect.
Very few Kerry houses remain and only one of them, Tarbert House, has managed to retain its Irish furnishings and so the project at Churchill is particularly important. Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin, gave his advice and put the Krehbiels in touch with Irish furniture dealers in Dublin. Furnishings of note at Churchill include a pair of mid-18th century armchair and an 1830s wine cooler, again with paw feet.
The Irish feel is clear. In the drawing room, which has a large window opening onto the front garden, an Irish table bought from a Dublin dealer stands in one corner. A landscape by Paul Henry entitled Peat Ditches – one of the first paintings the Krehbiels bought – hangs to the side of the chimneypiece. They saw the picture when passing Pyms Gallery in London and bought it because they were struck by the uncanny resemblance to the views from Churchill.
The purchase sparked a lifelong affinity with Irish art and the Krehbiels have acquired one of the finest private collections in the country with pieces from the 16th century up to the present, put together with the help of art historian William Laffan. When wall space started to run out, the Krehbiels commissioned O’Connell to convert a barn into elegant Georgian and Victorian style rooms. The gallery tells the story of Irish art from the earliest period to about 1880; more recently a gallery of modern and contemporary art has been built.
The chimneypiece in the drawing room is original to the house, while the Irish mirror overhead was brought in from London. An Irish peat bucket sits by the fireside, a Flemish tapestry hangs on a facing wall, while the wall furnishing is completed by a William Orpen painting Woman at the Window and a large Killarney scene by John Henry Campbell. Two porcelain vases from the early 1800s stand either side of the tapestry.
In the library, the initials of William Neligan, dated 1887, on the chimneypiece are in fine condition. Most of the pictures [p. 144] date to the 18th or 19th century, including works by Orpen and Lavery.
In the dining room a traditional Irish wake dining table takes centre place while an Irish sideboard is set to one side. All the chairs in the room are Irish. Wonderful lion head woodwork is found on the walls. The Cup the Cheers by Henry Jones Thaddeus, one of the owner’s favourite paintings that depicts Irish rural bachelorhood, sets the scene on the left wall. The rest of the walls are taken up with prints in the 18th century style that now add uniformity to the room. The chandeliers were bought for the Krehbiel’s US property and imported.
A small kitchen that was originally in the basement has been removed allowing for a larger traditional Irish kitchen on the ground floor, adjacent to a new conservatory wing. Bucking the trend, the table and chairs are early 20th century American, and the family find themselves [p. 147] spending most of the tiem in this area of the house.
As well as restoring and rectifying the house’s structural issues, the Krehbiels set about recovering some of the surrounding land as the estate had been reduced to just five acres. By the 19th century, farmland had consumed the kitchen gardens, orchards and pleasure grounds and many of the trees. Today, Churchill stands proudly in more than 200 acres. In 1993, the project to restore the gardens began. Jim Reynolds and his design team have magnificently recaptured the spirit of the place. The linear driveway was returned to its circular origins, which were revealed when the flowerbeds were dug, the walled gardens were created and stable buildings converted.
A more recent building added to the grounds is Kay’s Cottage. Fred Krehbiel takes up its story: “Kay had said [p. 148] that Churchill was turning out to e a lot more work than expectd, and that in fact she only wanted a small cottage for summer visits and not another house requiring constant maintenance. So I built her a cottage as a present, but she has yet to make the move!”
Major work at Churchill is now complete and the Krehbiels have turned their attention to Ballyfin in County Laois, with plans to open a 24 room country house hotel by 2010. An early 19th century Richard and William Morrison designed house, it was originally built for Sir Charles Coote. Fred Krehbiel expands on plans for the house: “Ballyfin is being turned into a small hotel which we hope will offer the finest possible service in a wonderful country house environment with an emphasis on comfort and country pursuits. The house and demesne has undergone a careful restoration and is being furnished with period antiques and Irish paintings from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.”
Churchill, though, continues to delight the visitor with its wonderful main house, the romantic splendour of Kay’s cottage, the simplicity and elegance of the pavilion, and the sheer delight of the gardens and surrounding scenery. It is a national treasure reborn that can face the future with renewed sense of purpose and panache.”
[photo credit p. 147: A Pietro Bossi chimneypiece in the Chinese painted room in the pavilion with blue decorated rococo chairs made for David Garrick by Thomas Chippendale. Another Bossi chimneypiece in the main gallery. The bedroom is furnished with Viennese painted furniture of around 1800.]
[Kay’s cottage ornee, modelled on the cottage at Kilfane, County Kilkenny.”
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. 293. “(Leeson-Marshall, sub Milltown, E/PB) A Victorian Tudor house of 1861, built for Robert Leeson, grandson of 1st Earl of Milltown. Symmetrical front of three steep gables with a gabled enclosed porch; tall chimneystacks, single-storey three sided bow at end. Spacious rooms, attractive drawing room. The house was enlarged ca 1909, to the design of James Franklin Fuller. Now the home of Prof and Mrs B McK. Bary, having come to Mrs Bary from her cousin Mrs Ruth, nee Leeson-Marshall.”
Callinafercy House, Co Kerry courtesy National Inventory.
Detached three-bay two-storey triple-gable-fronted Jacobean Revival style house, dated 1861, with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to centre and single-bay side elevations having single-storey flat-roofed projecting canted bay window to south elevation. Extended to south-west, c. 1910, comprising three-bay two-storey Jacobean Revival style parallel block with dormer attic and three-bay two-storey return with dormer attic on a T-shaped plan comprising three-bay two-storey staggered parallel range and two-bay two-storey projecting bay with dormer attic at right angles to south west. Steeply pitched slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, gable copings, grouped chimneystacks, ball finials to springers, profiled cast-iron gutters and square downpipes. Roughcast rendered walls with render moulded plinth. Exposed rubble stone walls with ashlar quoins to part of north wing and including blocked openings. Render shield to central gable of facade. Paired or tripled timber one-over-one pane sliding sash windows with limestone sills, render architraves and hood mouldings on lion-head bosses. Projecting gabled porch with square-headed door openings having timber four-panel doors to either side of porch. Stable complex, built c. 1865, to south-west about a courtyard comprising: Detached four-bay single-storey range retaining original fenestration. Detached two-bay single-storey stone-built outbuilding. Detached four-bay single-storey rubble stone-built range with corrugated-iron roof. Detached two-bay two-storey house with two-bay single-storey wing to south. Detached two-bay single-storey outbuilding with pair of square-headed integral carriage arches. Gateway to courtyard comprising pair of rubble stone piers with cast-iron gates. Gateway, built c. 1865, to north-east comprising four cut-stone piers with cast-iron gates and railings.
Robert Leeson was leasing Callanafersy House to Ephraim Williams at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, when it was valued at £12 5s. Bary indicates that this house was leased by the Williams family and probably had been built by them earlier in the nineteenth century. It is still extant and occupied.
Burnham Manor, Dingle, County Kerry, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 50. “(Eveleigh de Moleyns, sub Ventry, B.PB) From its appearance, a three story seven bay Georgian block enlarged by the addition of two storey wings, refaced and embellished in the late C19. Entrance front with central feature of engaged Doric columns supporting sections of entablature and a steep pediment above a balustraded and pedimented Doric porte-cochere; tympana of pediments decorated with acanthus carving. Eaved roof on centre and wings; that of the centre being on a modillion cornice. Garden front with two storey rectangular projections in the centre and three sided bows at the ends of wings. Now an institution.”
Burnham House, Co Kerry courtesy National Inventory.
Detached seven-bay three-storey late-Georgian house, built c. 1800, with six-bay elevation to rear to north-east having pair of two-bay two-storey flat-roofed advanced bays. Extensively reconstructed and extended, c. 1890, with prostyle tetrastyle granite Doric porte cochere inserted to ground floor having pedimented two-storey granite Doric frontis over. Five-bay two-storey lateral wings added to north-west and to south-east comprising three-bay two-storey links with two-bay two-storey advanced pavilion blocks having three-bay two-storey canted projecting bays to north-east elevations. Extended to south-east, c. 1925, on a U-shaped plan comprising nine-bay two-storey wing with two-bay two-storey gabled advanced end bay to south-east and pair of six-bay two-storey returns to rear to north-west. Attached five-bay double-height chapel, built c. 1925, to south-east with round-headed window openings and single-bay double-height polygonal apse to south-east gable end having bellcote to gable; now in use as school. Pitched and hipped slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, cast-iron profiled gutters forming corona of eaves cornice, rendered chimneystacks with cornices and modillion cornice at eaves. Painted and rendered walls with projecting and incised string courses, recessed plaques between first and second floors having festoons, and having render architrave with keystones at ground floor. Prostyle tetrastyle Doric portico with tetrastyle pedimented centrepiece above – all in limestone. Timber one-over-one pane sliding sash windows to centre block, two-over-two pane sliding sash windows to north west wing and six-over-six sliding sash windows to south wing having limestone sills. Timber double-leaf doors to entrance flanked by pilaster strips with consoles. Interiors are predominantly late-Victorian in style. Stable complex, built c. 1850, to north about a courtyard comprising; detached thirteen-bay two-storey stone-built building on an L-shaped plan with seven-bay two-storey range having series of segmental-headed integral carriage arches to ground floor and six-bay two-storey wing at right angle to south having single-bay single-storey lean-to recessed end bay to south gable end, wing now derelict. Detached five-bay two-storey building retaining early fenestration, now disused and partly derelict. Pair of semi-detached three-bay single-storey buildings retaining original fenestration with square-headed shared integral carriage arch to centre. Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge, built c. 1850, to west retaining original aspect with single-bay single-storey gabled advanced entrance bay to centre and single-storey canted bay window to north elevation.
Burnham House, Co Kerry courtesy Archiseek.Burnham House, Co Kerry courtesy Archiseek.
Originally a three-storey, seven bay Georgian block of around 1790. It was later enlarged by the addition of two-storey wings. Later the house was re-faced by J.F. Fuller and the portico and porte-cochère added creating the house we see today. The garden front has two-storey, rectangular projections in the centre, with three-sided bows at the ends of the wings.
Burnham House was seat of Barons Ventry, the family sold it soon after 1922 to the Irish Land Commission with later internal alterations and extensions by Office of Public Works. It is now Coláiste Ide, an Irish-language secondary boarding school for girls.
Lord Ventry held a house valued at £49 at Burnham East, barony of Corkaguiny, at the time of Griffith’s Valuation. Lewis mentions that the family lived for much of the time in England and the house was occupied by their agent, David Thompson. The Ordnance Survey Name Books indicate that the house had been built c.1790 at a cost of £4000. Wilson, however, refers to Burnham as the seat of Thomas Mullins in 1786. Later, members of Lord Ventry’s family resided there. It was still owned by Lord Ventry in 1906 when the house was valued at £80 and ancillary buildings at Burnham West valued at £28. The property was sold to the Land Commission in the 1920s and the house became an Irish speaking secondary school for girls, Coláiste Íde, which is still in operation.
THE BARONS VENTRY WERE THE SECOND LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KERRY, WITH 93,629 ACRES
This noble family derives from a common ancestor with that of Molyneux, Earls of Sefton, namely,
SIR RICHARD MOLYNEUX, Knight, of Sefton, Lancashire, from whom descended
WILLIAM MOLYNS, of Burnham, Norfolk, descended from the ancient family of MOLYNS of Sandhill, Hampshire, itself a scion of the old baronial house of DE MOLEYNS OF HENLEY, whose heiress of line, ELEANOR MOLEYNS, married Sir Robert Hungerford, Knight.
Mr Molyns married firstly, the daughter and heir of William Montague; and secondly, Emily, daughter William Walrond, of Bovey, Devon, by whom he had a younger son,
RICHARD MOLEYNS or MOLINS, of Mitford, Norfolk, who wedded Jane, eldest daughter of Sir Alexander Culpeper, Knight, of Bedgebury, and was father of
FREDERICK WILLIAM MULLINS, a colonel in the army, who settled in Ireland, and obtained considerable grants in the province of Ulster, which he sold, and purchased estates in County Kerry.
Mr Mullins sat in two successive parliaments in the reign of WILLIAM III.
He wedded Jane, daughter and co-heiress of the Very Rev John Eveleigh, Dean of Cork, and by had issue,
FREDERICK; Richard; Edward; Samuel.
The eldest son,
FREDERICK MULLINS (1663-95), wedded, in 1685, Martha, eldest daughter of Thomas Blennerhassett, and granddaughter maternally of Dermot, 5th Baron Inchiquin, and by her had issue, an only son,
WILLIAM MULLINS, of Burnham, County Kerry, who espoused, in 1716, Mary, daughter of George Rowan.
Mr Mullins died in 1761, and left, with a daughter, Anne, an only son,
THOMAS MULLINS (1736-1824) who was created a baronet, 1797; and elevated to the peerage, in 1800, as BARON VENTRY, of Ventry, County Kerry.
He wedded, in 1775, Elizabeth, daughter of Townsend Gunn, of Rattoo, in the same county, and had issue,
WILLIAM TOWNSEND, his successor; Townsend, father of THOMAS TOWNSEND AREMBERG, 3rd Baron; Thomas; Richard; Edward, a major in the army; Frederick, in holy orders; Theodora; Elizabeth; Arabella; Charlotte; Catherine; Helena Jane.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
WILLIAM TOWNSEND, 2nd Baron (1761-1827), who espoused firstly, in 1784, Sarah Anne, daughter of Sir Riggs Falkiner Bt, and had issue,
ANNA;
Elizabeth.
His lordship wedded secondly, in 1790, Frances Elizabeth, only daughter of Isaac Sage, which marriage was dissolved, 1796; and thirdly, in 1797, Clara, daughter of Benjamin Jones, and had issue,
THOMAS (1798-1817).
The 2nd Baron died without male issue, when the honours devolved upon his nephew,
The heir apparent is the present holder’s only son Hon. Francis Wesley Daubeney de Moleyns (born 1965).
BURNHAM HOUSE (or Manor), near Dingle, County Kerry, comprises a three-storey, seven bay Georgian block enlarged by the addition of two-storey wings, which were re-faced during the late 19th century.
The entrance front boasts engaged Doric columns which support sections of entablature and a steep pediment above a porte-cochère.
The roof is eaved on the centre and wings; while the centre has a modillion cornice.
The garden front has two-storey, rectangular projections in the centre; with three-sided bows at the ends of the wings.
Burnham House was sold to the Irish Land Commission in the 1920s and is now a girls’ boarding school.
Other former residence ~ Lindsay Hall, Branksome, Dorset.
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. 35. “(Raymond/LG1863)/ Bateman/LGI1912) A two storey seven bay C18 house with a cut-stone front. Camber-headed windows with triple keystones; cornice. In 1837, the residence of S.S. Raymond.”
Detached seven-bay two-storey house, built c. 1790, now disused and derelict. Renovated, c. 1860, with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch added. Extended to north-east, c. 1930, comprising five-bay single-storey lean-to return with corrugated-iron roof. Pitched and hipped slate roof with clay ridge tiles and having chimneystacks rising from rear eaves. Limestone ashlar façade with eaves cornice. Roughcast rendered rubble stone side walls with roughcast. Rubble stone base to north gable. Remains of mid-nineteenth century timber two-over-two panes sliding sash windows with limestone moulded sills, lintels and triple-keystones. No windows to rear wall. Projecting gabled porch with limestone stringcourse, c. 1860. Retaining interior features. Rubble walled enclosure to south-east. Farmyard buildings remodelled or rebuilt.
Bedford House, Listowel, Co Kerry courtesy National Inventory.
‘Dunloe Castle stands on a bold promontory overlooking the river near the bridge. It has a worn, but wild and hardy look about it, as if it had suffered much at the hand of time, but remained undaunted and vigorous still. The view from the castle is most exquisite, and the row down the river will be found to be not the least interesting portion of the excursion…The castle has been kept in good repair by its various proprietors. Its position was, in former days, a strong one; and it was doubtless erected for the purpose of commanding the river and the pass into the mountains. In the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth, it frequently stood the brunt of warfare; and in 1641 it was besieged and nearly demolished by the Parliamentary forces under Ludlow.’ From The Lakes of Killarney by Robert Michael Ballantyne (1865)
Dunloe Castle, County Kerry, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
Dunloe Castle, County Kerry, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
Dunloe Castle, County Kerry, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
‘Let no one leave Killarney without rowing a mile or two down the Laune and visiting Dunloe Castle by water; – as we did in the “gloaming” of a summer evening, when the lake was calm – the grey fly floating on its surface, and the salmon and trout springing from the waters…but here stands the Castle on its bold promontory above the river – a firm, fearless looking keep, approached by a steep hill-road, recalling both by its shape and situation, one of the Rhine towers. Land, by all means and, as it is permitted, ascend; and passing through a turngate, walk along the terrace, which commands a view of the magnificent slopes, which a little pains might easily convert into hanging gardens. The greater part of the kitchen-offices were burnt some years ago, so that the dwelling-castle has a gaunt and isolated appearance, in accordance with the wild mountain scenery.’ From A Week in Killarney by Mr and Mrs S.C. Hall (1843)
Dunloe Castle, County Kerry, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
Dunloe Castle, County Kerry, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
Dunloe Castle, County Kerry, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
‘As we drive along, behold beneath us a view of Dunloe Castle, the remains of an old fortress, that, like Ross Castle, was used by the turbulent chiefs of the country as a place of strength and security. It suffered many vicissitudes and, at last, during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, was partly demolished by bombardment. It has been, by some late repairs, converted into a very romantic residence by the late Major Mahoney, whose politeness and attention every stranger was sure to experience. There is an embattled walk around the top, from which an extensive view of the Lake and the surrounding mountains may be taken, if the stranger deem it of sufficient importance to pause for it.’ From A New Guide to the Scenery of Killarney by D.E. Fitzpatrick (1845)
Dunloe Castle, County Kerry, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
Carrigafoyle Castle stands on a rocky islet in a marsh on the south side of the Shannon Estuary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
Patrick Comerford
On the way back from Ballybunion to Askeaton at the weekend, two of us stopped near Ballylongford on the Shannon Estuary to visit Carrigafoyle Castle, Co Kerry.
Ballylongford, between Ballybunion and Tarbert, is the birthplace of the poet Brendan Kennelly, the World War I general Lord Kitchener, the 1916 leader ‘The O’Rahilly,’ and Detective Garda Gerry McCabe who was murdered by the IRA in Adare in 1996.
Carrigafoyle Castle is 3 km north of Ballylongford, between the high-water and low-water marks on the shore of the Shannon Estuary, set on a small rocky islet in the marsh. its name comes from the Irish, Carraig an Phoill, ‘Rock of the Hole.’
Although the castle was wrecked in a series of bloody sieges, it remains a remarkable castle with its large tower built by the O’Connors of Kerry between 1490 and 1500. In size and grandeur, it compares with Blarney Castle, and was once one of the strongest fortresses in Ireland. It rises to 26.4 meters (86.6 ft) and immediately conveys strength.
Across the broad estuary of the Shannon are Carrig Island and Scattery Island, which provided shelter for the island and enhanced its strategic location.
We stepped across to the castle from the road along across a raised path of stones that are often submerged at high tide. Although there are no facilities, visitors can engage with the mediaeval experience, climb the circular stone staircase to the top and take in.
The sweeping, majestic panorama from the turrets and battlements Carrigafoyle Castle on the Shannon Estuary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
Carrigafoyle Castle was built by Connor Liath O’Connor of Kerry at the end of the 15th century on what was originally an island, using a design borrowed from the Anglo-Normans.
Carrigafoyle Castle is five storeys high. There is an unusually-wide, spiral staircase of 104 steps in one corner of the tower, leading to the battlements, and small rooms and the main living spaces opening off the stairs, including vaults over the second and fourth storeys.
Within the bay, the castle-rock was defended on the west and south sides by a double defensive wall; the inner wall enclosed a bawn, and surrounding this was a moat covered on three sides (the east lay open) by the outer wall, where a smaller tower stood. The precipitous sides of the castle-rock were layered with bricks and mortar.
The spiral staircase leads to the top of Carrigafoyle Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
The stone bawn wall at the foot of the castle once contained a boat dock where boats could dock and tie up safely at high tide. This was important in the 1500s while the O’Connors of Kerry continued to ‘inspect’ ships passing to and from the port of Limerick – others would have called it piracy.
Carrigafoyle Castle was the main stronghold of the O’Connor Kerry family, who for 400 years were the key family in north Kerry. From here, they intercepted ships making their way up the Shannon to Limerick, 32 km upriver, boarded them and took a part of their cargoes. This practice continued into the mid-16th century.
The Siege of Carrigafoyle Castle during the Desmond Wars in 1580 was part of the crown campaign against the forces of Gerald Fitzgerald, 15th Earl of Desmond, during the Second Desmond Rebellion.
During the rebellion, the castle was held by 50 Irish, along with 16 Spanish soldiers who had landed at Smerwick harbour the previous year in the 1579 Papal invasion; women and children were also present. Months earlier, an Italian engineer, Captain Julian, had set about strenthening the castle’s defences under the direction of the Countess of Desmond. By the time of the siege, she had retreated Castleisland while Captain Julian remained at the castle.
Inside the ruins of Carrigafoyle Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
The castle was attacked by naval artillery on land and sea, under the command of Sir William Pelham. Pelham had marched through Munster with Sir George Carew and took command of an additional 600 troops. He was supported by a fleet of three ships under the command of Sir William Winter. It was the largest army ever seen in the west of Ireland.
The bombardment of the castle was carried out over two days, six hours each day. On Palm Sunday, Pelham ordered a party of troops to cross to the sea-wall, where they were pinned down by gunfire and had boulders hurled at them from the battlements. The Earl of Ormond described seeing the sea-channel fill with wreckage as the sides of the castle-rock became slippery with blood.
The final assault was led by Captain Humfrey Mackworth and Captain John Zouche. The tower cracked under the impact of two or three shot, and the great west wall collapsed on its foundations, crushing many people inside the castle. The survivors fled through the shallow waters, but most were shot or put to the sword. The rest, including one woman, were brought back to camp and hanged from trees. Captain Julian was hanged three days later. All the castle occupants, including 19 Spanish and 50 Irish, were massacred.
The strategic significance of the siege is shown in the swift way in which other Desmond strongholds fell once news of the destruction had spread. The castle at Askeaton was abandoned, and the garrisons at Newcastle West, Balliloghan, Rathkeale and Ballyduff fled soon after. . In 1583, the Earl of Desmond was killed at Glenageenty in the Slieve Mish mountains near Tralee.
Brendan Kennelly’s poem ‘Small Light’ was inspired by the story of the servant girl who is said to have betrayed Carrigafoyle Castle during the siege.
The castle was later recovered by John na Cathach (John of the Battles) O’Connor Kerry. In 1600, this John na Cathach surrendered the Castle of Carrigafoyle and his estates into the hands of the Earl of Thomond, President of Munster, and obtained a regrant of them from Queen Elizabeth. When he died in 1640 he had five daughters but no sons and his titles and estates passed to his kinsman, Donal Maol O’Connor.
Carrigafoyle Castle was known as ‘the impregnable castle’ because of its long resistance to Cromwell’s attacks. It was one of the last castles in Ireland taken by the Cromwellians, and the 12 people found in it were hanged. By 1659, Carrigafoyle Castle had a garrison of 40 to protect the south shore of the Shannon. But the castle was so damaged it was never properly repaired. Despite its wrecked condition, it was occupied in the early 20th century by a Dr Fitzmaurice and his family.
Opposite the castle is the ruined mediaeval Church of Carrigafoyle, built in the same style.
Carrigafoyle Castle is now a listed National Monument, and is managed by the Office of Public Works. In recent years, the castle has hosted the O’Connor Kerry Clan gatherings. Although it remains in its ruined state, it has been restored in parts and is open to the public from June to September from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Climbing to the top in Carrigafoyle Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
‘Carrick and Carrig are the names of nearly seventy townlands, villages and towns, and form the beginning of about 555 others; craig and creag are represented by the various forms Crag, Craig, Creg, &c., and these constitute or begin about 250 names; they mean primarily a rock, but they are sometimes applied to rocky island. Carrigafoyle, an island in the Shannon, near Ballylongford, Kerry, with the remains of Carrigafoyle castle near the shore, the chief seat of the O’Conors Kerry, is called in the annals, Carraig-an-phoill, the rock of the hole; and it took its name from a deep hole in the river immediately under the castle.’ From The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places by P.W. Joyce (1869)
‘Sir William Pelham and the earl of Ormond set out early this year [1580] on a fresh campaign in Desmond’s territory; the first marching first to Limerick in the beginning of February, and the latter to Cork, and both forming a junction at the foot of Slieve Mis, near Tralee. They spared neither age nor sex in their march, and, owing to the state of desolation to which the country had been reduced, suffered not a little inconvenience themselves for want of provisions. They then marched northwards to destroy the castles still garrisoned by Desmond’s men, and first laid siege to the strong castle of Carrigafoyle (Carrig-an-phuill) situated in an islet in the Shannon, on the coast of Kerry. The Four Masters say that Pelham landed some heavy ordnance from Sir William Winter’s fleet, which arrived on the Irish coast about this time, and battered a portion of the castle, crushing some of the warders beneath the ruins; but other annalists make no mention of cannon landed from the ships.’ From The History of Ireland, Ancient and Modern by Martin Haverty (1867)
‘For the rebels it was a losing game all through. Pelham and Ormond took Desmond’s strongholds one by one. Carrigafoyle Castle on the south shore of the Shannon was his strongest fortress. It was valiantly defended by fifty Irishmen and nineteen Spaniards, commanded by Count Julio an Italian engineer: but after being by cannon until a breach was made, it was taken by storm about the 27th March. Without delay the whole garrison, including Julio with six Spaniards and some women, were hanged or put to the sword…A few days after the capture of this fortress the garrisons of some others of Desmond’s castles, including Askeaton, abandoned them, terrified by the fate of Carrigafoyle.’ From A Short History of Ireland, from the Earliest Times to 1608 by P.W. Joyce (1893)
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988, Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 22. “(Crosbie/IFR) The original house of the Crosbies here was long, low and thatched, facing onto an enclosed bawn or countyard, in the corner of which was a strong stone tower, part of an old castle of the De Cantillons. It was in this tower that, in 1730, Thomas Crosbie placed the chests of silver which he had rescued from the Danish East Indian Golden Lyon when that vessel was lured into Ballyheigue Bay by wreckers and wrecked; his exertions in saving the treasure and the crew of the ship proved too much for him, and he died from exposure and fatigue. Some months later the castle was attacked by rapparees and the treasure carried off; it was alleged that the attack was organised by Thomas Crosbie’s widow, who subsequently obtained the bulk of the treasure. A new house appears to have been built ca 1758, which Col James Crobie turned into a romantic castle ca 1809. His architects were Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison, the design being produced by the latter though he was only 15 at the time. Like other Gothic and Tudor-Revival houses by the Morrisons, it was intended to represent a building dating from two different periods: the entrance front, in the words of Neale, “exhibiting the rich and ornamental style of teh early part of the reign of Henry VIII”; whereas the elevation towards the sea had “the character and appearance of the castellated mansions of King Henry VI.” In fact, the seaward elevation betrays itself very much as a two storey Georgian house which has been battlemented and had round and square towers and other pseudo-medieval features added to it; while the adjoining entrance front is a not very inspired gabled affair. And whereas Neale’s well-known view shows the castle dramatically situated at the edge of a sheer cliff above the sea, it stands less spectacularly at teh top of a gently sloping lawn, quite some way from the water’s edge. A castellated outbuilding is joined to the castle by a long wall. Peirce Crosbie, the son of Co James Crosbie, had trouble with his wife, who eloped to the Continent with a groom – having previously bestowed her favours on stable-lads – and was never heard of again. The castle was burnt 1921 and is now a ruin.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 81. “A large Tudor Revival house designed by Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison for James Crosbie c. 1809, incorporating an earlier house. The house was burnt in 1921 and one wing was recently restored.”
Remains of detached two- and three-storey Tudor Gothic Revival style country house, built 1809, incorporating fabric of earlier house, 1758. Comprising six-bay two-storey side (south) elevation of entrance block with battlemented parapet, single-bay three-storey battlemented corner turrets on circular plans and nine-bay two-storey lower wing (originally return) to west having battlemented parapet and corner machicolation. Burnt, in 1840, later used as prison, burnt, in 1921 and now mostly collapsed. Wing reconstructed and remodelled, c. 1975, to accommodate use as apartments with remainder of building now ruinous. Castellated parapets with one cast-iron hopper having floral motif. Snecked sandstone walls with grey limestone string courses and plinth, castellated machicolations, blind arrow loops and having render to parts of side wall with imitation ashlar. Square-headed openings with limestone sills, surrounds, hood mouldings and having sandstone relieving arches. Timber window frames in side openings. Four-centred arch to doorway in double-height arch having window above with carved spandrels. Detached nine-bay two-storey Tudor Gothic Revival style former stable complex, built c. 1810, to east on an L-shaped plan about a courtyard with battlemented parapet, with single-bay two-storey corner turret on a circular plan and three-bay side elevations. Extensively renovated in latter part of twentieth century with pair of single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porches added to accommodate use as apartments. Detached six-bay single-storey rubble stone-built outbuilding, built c. 1810, to east on an L-shaped plan with series of elliptical-headed integral carriage arches, now disused. Section of rubble stone boundary wall to east with series of arrow loops possibly originally part of walled garden.
Gateway to Ballyheige Castle, built c. 1830, comprising pair of single-bay two-storey lodge towers with cross apertures and battlemented parapets having elliptical-headed carriage arch to centre and single-bay single-storey flat-roofed end bay to south with battlemented parapet. Lodge to north now disused. Castellated parapet walls with sandstone copings. Sandstone ashlar facing to front and rear facades with rubble stone side walls and blind arrow loops. Pointed sandstone arches with limestone profiled sills and replacement windows. Three-centred recessed carriage arch.
Architect: Richard Morrison & William Vitruvius Morrison
Long rambling castle sited across a hillside. Burnt during 1921, a wing was recently restored. The grounds are now a golf course. Interestingly while both illustrations are a reasonable representation of the castle, both exaggerate the landscape. In reality the castle is sited on top of a rolling hillside.
THE CROSBIES WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KERRY, WITH13,422 ACRES
This is a branch of the CROSBIES OF ARDFERT, extinct Earls of Glandore, themselves scions of a family long settled in the Queen’s County and in County Kerry, and latterly represented by the Crosbie Baronets, of Maryborough.
The common ancestor of the Baronet’s family and the two branches of Ardfert and Ballyheigue was
The Queen’s letter to the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord Mountjoy, dated from the manor of Oatland, in 1600, directing his appointment, describes him as “a graduate in schools, of English race, skilled in the English tongue, and well disposed in religion.”
The Bishop was previously Prebendary of Disert, in the Diocese of Limerick.
He married Winifred O’Lalor, of the Queen’s County, and had, with four daughters, six sons,
Walter (Sir), 1st Baronet, of Maryborough; DAVID, of whom presently; John (Sir), of Tullyglass, County Down; Patrick; William; Richard.
The Lord Bishop of Ardfert died in 1621.
His second son,
DAVID CROSBIE, of Ardfert, Colonel in the army, Governor of Kerry, 1641, stood a siege in Ballingarry Castle for more than twelve months.
He was afterwards Governor of Kinsale for CHARLES I; and in 1646 he inherited a portion of the estate of his cousin, Sir Pierce Crosbie Bt, son of Patrick Crosbie, who had been granted a large portion of The O’More’s estate in Leix.
Mr Crosbie wedded a daughter of the Rt Rev John Steere, Lord Bishop of Ardfert, and had, with four daughters, two sons,
THOMAS, his heir; Patrick.
Colonel Crosbie died in 1658, and was succeeded by his elder son,
SIR THOMAS CROSBIE, Knight, of Ardfert, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1668, knighted by His Grace the Duke of Ormonde, in consideration of the loyalty of his family during Oliver Cromwell’s rebellion.
He was MP for County Kerry in the parliament held in Dublin by JAMES II in 1688, and refused to take the oath of allegiance to WILLIAM III.
Sir Thomas married firstly, Bridget, daughter of Robert Tynte, of County Cork, and had issue,
DAVID, ancestor of THE EARLS OF GLANDORE; William; Patrick (Rev); Walter; Sarah; Bridget.
He wedded secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Garrett FitzGerald, of Ballynard, County Limerick, by whom he had no issue; and thirdly, in 1680, Elizabeth, daughter of William Hamilton, of Liscloony, King’s County, and had issue,
THOMAS, of whom hereafter; John; Charles; Pierce; Ann.
By a very peculiar, probably unique, settlement, executed on the marriages of Sir Thomas Crosbie and his eldest son respectively, to the two sisters, on the same day (1680), a new settlement and redistribution of all the family estates was made, by which those of Ballyheigue were appointed to the issue of the last marriage.
Under this settlement Ballyheigue passed to the eldest son of his third marriage,
THOMAS CROSBIE, of Ballyheigue, MP for County Kerry, 1709, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1712 and 1714, who espoused, in 1711, the Lady Margaret Barry, daughter of Richard, 2nd Earl of Barrymore, and had issue,
JAMES, his heir; Anne Dorothy; Harriet Jane.
Mr Crosbie died in 1731, and was succeeded by his son and heir,
JAMES CROSBIE, of Ballyheigue, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1751, who married Mary, daughter of Pierce Crosbie, of Rusheen, and had issue,
PIERCE, his heir; James; Catherine; Henrietta.
Mr Crosbie died in 1761, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
PIERCE CROSBIE, of Ballyheigue, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1797, who wedded Frances, daughter of Rowland Bateman, of Oak Park, and had issue,
JAMES, his heir; Pierse; Elizabeth; Frances Anne.
The elder son,
JAMES CROSBIE (c1760-1836) of Ballyheigue, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1792, MP for County Kerry, 1797-1800, espoused, in 1785, his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Rowland Bateman, of Oak Park, and had issue,
PIERCE, his heir; James; Francis; Thomas; Letitia; Frances.
Colonel Crosbie died in 1836, and was succeeded by his eldest son,
PIERCE CROSBIE (1792-1849), of Ballyheigue, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1815, who espoused firstly, Elizabeth, daughter of General John Mitchell. She dsp.
He married secondly, in 1831, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas William Sandes DL, of Sallow Glen, County Kerry, and had issue,
JAMES, his heir; Margaret Catherine.
Mr Crosbie wedded thirdly, Margaret, daughter of Leslie Wren, and had further issue,
William Wren; Pierce; Leslie Wren; George Wren; Francis; Elizabeth Margaret; Alice Julia.
Mr Crosbie was succeeded by his eldest son,
JAMES CROSBIE JP DL (1832-79), of Ballyheigue, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1862, Colonel, Kerry Militia, who espoused, in 1860, Rosa, daughter of Sir John Lister Lister-Kaye Bt, of Denby Grange, Yorkshire, and had issue,
Piers Lister (1860-78), died at Harrow; JAMES DAYROLLES, of whom hereafter; Kathleen Matilda; Rosa Marguerite; Marcia Ellen.
Mr Crosbie was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
BRIGADIER-GENERAL JAMES DAYROLLES CROSBIE CMG DSO JP DL (1865-1947), of Ballyheigue, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1894, who married, in 1894, Maria Caroline, daughter of Major James Leith VC, Scots Greys, and granddaughter of Sir Alexander Leith, of Glenkindie, and had issue, an only child, OONAGH MARY.
BALLYHEIGUE CASTLE, near Tralee, County Kerry, was originally low, long and thatched, facing on to an enclosed courtyard, where there was a stone tower, part of an ancient castle.
The original house on this site was constructed about 1758, but was renovated and enlarged to the design of Richard Morrison ca 1809.
The last member of the family, Brigadier Crosbie, sold Ballyheigue Castle in 1912.
The building was used as a prison at the time of the Irish civil war in 1920.
It was burnt in 1921.
Very little of the original remains, but some renovation has taken place and there is holiday accommodation at the site, now surrounded by the Golf Course.
A wing was reconstructed and remodelled about 1975, to accommodate use as apartments, with the remainder of the building now ruinous.
In 1680 two sisters from County Offaly, Elizabeth and Jane Hamilton, were married on the same day. While Elizabeth married Sir Thomas Crosbie, Jane married Sir Thomas’s eldest son (from an earlier marriage), David. Thus the latter’s heir Maurice, future first Baron Branden, was both nephew and cousin of Sir Thomas and Elizabeth Crosbie’s eldest son, also called Thomas. While David inherited the family’s main estate at Ardfert, County Kerry (see An Incomplete Story « The Irish Aesthete), Thomas Crosbie was left another estate further north in the same county at Ballyheigue. The ancient family formerly in occupation here were the Cantillons who supposedly occupied some kind of fortified building; they were displaced in the 17th century by the Crosbies (who, in turn, had been moved by the English government from their own traditional lands in Offaly). The younger Thomas died in late 1730, supposedly after he suffered from exposure and fatigue involved in rescuing the crew and cargo of a Danish vessel, the Golden Lion, which had become stranded on the local coast: the cargo happened to include 12 chests of silver valued at £20,000. A complex drama involving the disappearance of at least some of this silver, and the possible involvement of Thomas’s widow, Lady Margaret Barry (a daughter of the second Earl of Barrymore) then followed; what exactly happened and who benefitted from the theft has never been clearly established. In any case, a new residence was built at Ballyheigue c.1758 by Colonel James Crosbie, heir to the younger Thomas. Seemingly this was a long, low thatched property, by then somewhat old-fashioned in style, and surrounded by an orchard, gardens and bowling green. It was his grandson, another colonel also called James and an MP, first of the Irish Parliament and then, after the 1800 Act of Union, of the Westminster Parliament, who gave the house, renamed Ballyheigue Castle, its present – albeit now semi-ruinous – appearance. …[see website]
Ardfert Abbey, County Kerry – Destroyed by IRA by fire in 1922.
Ardfert Abbey, County Kerry entrance front, photograph: c. 1870, collection: Col. Talbot Crosbie, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
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. 8. “Crosbie/IFR) A house originally built towards the end of C17 by Sir Thomas Crosbie, MP; “modernized” 1720 by Maurice Crosbie, 1st Lord Brandon, and again altered ca 1830, though keeping its original character. Two-storey main block with seven-bay front, the two outer bays on either side breaking forwards and framed by quoins; a pedimented centre, in which a single triple window was substituted at some period – presumably during the alterations of ca 1830 – for the three first floor bays. Plain rectangular doorcase; and a high eaved roof on a modillion cornice.
“The front was elongated by lower two-storey wings which protruded forwards at right angles to it, thus forming an open forecourt, then turned outwrds and extended for a considerable way on either side. Irregular wing at back of house.
“Inside the house, the panelled hall was decorated with figures painted in monochrome on panels. There was an early 18th century staircase and gallery; Corinthian newels, and more panelling on the landing with Corinthian pilasters; modillion cornice. A large drawing-room boasted compartmented plasterwork on the ceiling. Here there was a full-length Reynolds portrait of Lady Glandore. Caryatid chimneypiece in one room.
“The gardens had an early formal layout: sunken parterre; yew alleys; trees cut into an arcade; avenues of beech, lime and elm. A ruined Franciscan friary was in the grounds.
“The mansion was burnt to the ground by the IRA ca 1922, and all that remains are some relics of the formal garden.
“Ardfert eventually passed to Rev John Talbot (see Mount Talbot), son of 2nd Earl of Glandore’s sister, who assumed the additional surname of Crosbie. It was sold in the present century by J.B. Talbot-Crosbie. Nothing now remains of the house, but there are still some relics of the formal garden.”
Ardfert Abbey, County Kerry, drawing room, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.Theodosia Bligh (1722-1777), Countess of Glandore, attributed to James Latham, courtesy of Adam’s 5 Oct 2010.
Featured in Mark Bence-Jones, Mark Bence Jones, Life in an Irish Country House. Constable, London. 1996.
“Built for Sir Thomas Crosbie, MP, built himself a house a few miles inland from the North Kerry coast at Ardfert, of which his grandfather John Crosbie had been Bishop. The Crosbies were descended from the O’More’s of Laois, their surname was originally “MacCrossan,” meaning “son of the rhymer” – were granted lands in North Kerry by Queen Elizabeth i. Sir Thomas Crosbie’s house, which was improved by his grandson Sir Maurice Crosbie in 1720, was very much of its time….A ruined Franciscan friary in the grounds caused the house to be known eventually as Ardfert Abbey.
THE EARLS OF GLANDORE OWNED 9,913 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY KERRY
This family came into Ireland during the reign of ELIZABETH I when one of the house of CROSBIE, of Great Crosby, in Lancashire, left two sons, Patrick and John.
PATRICK CROSBIE, the elder son, obtained a considerable landed property, and was succeeded by his son,
PIERS CROSBIE (1590-1646), who incurred the resentment of the great Earl of Strafford, for opposing in parliament his violent measures, which obliged him to quit the kingdom, when a second prosecution was carried on against him by the Star Chamber, in England, which ended in his confinement in the Fleet, from whence he escaped beyond seas, and continued abroad until Lord Strafford’s trial, when he became, in his turn, evidence against him.
He is said to have been created a baronet by JAMES I, and was a gentleman of the Privy Chamber to CHARLES I, and a Lord of the Privy Council.
Sir Piers died without issue, and bequeathed his estates to his cousins, Walter and David Crosbie.
THE RT REV JOHN CROSBIE, his uncle, Lord Bishop of Ardfert, appointed to that see in 1601, married Winifred, daughter of O’Lalor, of the Queen’s County, and had, with four daughters, six sons,
WALTER (Sir), 1st Baronet; DAVID, ancestor of the EARLS OF GLANDORE; John (Sir), of Tullyglass, Co Down; Patrick; William; Richard.
The Queen’s letter to Lord Deputy Mountjoy, dated from the manor of Oatland, 1601, directing his appointment to the see of Ardfert, describes the Bishop as
“a graduate in schools, of the English race, skilled in the English tongue, and well disposed in religion.”
He was prebendary of Dysart in the diocese of Limerick.
His lordship’s second son,
DAVID CROSBIE, Colonel in the army, Governor of Kerry, 1641, stood a siege in Ballingarry Castle for more than twelve months.
He was afterwards governor of Kinsale for CHARLES I.
In 1646, Colonel Crosbie inherited a portion of the estate of his cousin, Sir Piers Crosbie, son of Patrick Crosbie, who had been granted a large portion of The O’More’s estate in Leix.
He married a daughter of the Rt Rev John Steere, Lord Bishop of Ardfert, and had, with four daughters, two sons,
THOMAS (Sir), his heir; Patrick, of Tubrid, Co Kerry.
Colonel Crosbie died in 1658, and was succeeded by his elder son,
SIR THOMAS CROSBIE, Knight, of Ardfert, High Sheriff of Kerry, 1668, knighted by James, Duke of Ormonde, in consideration of the loyalty of his family during the Usurper’s rebellion.
Sir Thomas, MP for County Kerry in the parliament held at Dublin by JAMES II, 1688, refused to take the oath of allegiance to WILLIAM III.
He married firstly, Bridget, daughter of Thomas Tynte, of County Cork, and had issue,
DAVID, father of 1st and 2nd Barons Brandon; William; Patrick; Walter; Sarah; Bridget.
Sir Thomas wedded secondly, Ellen, daughter of Garrett FitzGerald, of Ballynard, County Limerick, by whom he had no issue; and thirdly, in 1680, Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of William Hamilton, of Liscloony, King’s County, by whom he had a daughter, Ann, living in 1694, and (with a daughter) four sons,
THOMAS; John; Pierce; Charles; Ann.
Sir Thomas’s eldest son,
DAVID CROSBIE, of Ardfert, wedded Jane, younger daughter and co-heir to William Hamilton.
He died in 1717, and was succeeded by his heir,
SIR MAURICE CROSBIE (1690-1762), Knight, of Ardfert, who married the Lady Elizabeth Anne FitzMaurice, eldest daughter of Thomas, Earl of Kerry.
Sir Maurice, MP for County Kerry, 1713-58, was elevated to the peerage, on his retirement, by the title Baron Brandon, of Brandon, County Kerry.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
WILLIAM, 2nd Baron (1716-81), MP for Ardfert, 1735-62, who was created a viscount, in 1771, as Viscount Crosbie, of Ardfert, County Kerry.
His lordship was advanced to the dignity of an earldom, in 1776, as EARL OF GLANDORE.
His lordship married firstly, in 1745, Lady Theodosia Bligh, daughter of John, Earl of Darnley; and secondly, in 1777, Jane, daughter of Edward Vesey.
He was succeeded by his only surviving son,
JOHN, 2nd Earl (1753-1815), PC, MP for Athboy, 1775.
He chose to sit for the latter, and held the seat until 1781, when he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the Irish House of Lords. He was sworn of the Irish Privy Council in 1785.
In 1789, he was appointed Joint Master of the Rolls in Ireland alongside the Earl of Carysfort; was married in London, in 1771, by Frederick Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury, to the Hon Diana, daughter of George, 1st Viscount Sackville. The marriage was childless.
The earldom and viscountcy expired on his death; the barony, however, reverted to his lordship’s cousin,
THE REV DR WILLIAM CROSBIE (1771-1832), 4th Baron, son of the Very Rev the Hon Maurice Crosbie, Dean of Limerick, younger son of the 1st Baron.
His lordship wedded, in 1815, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of David La Touche, of Upton, by whom he had a daughter,
THE HON ELIZABETH CECILIA CROSBIE, who married, in 1837, Henry Galgacus Redhead Yorke MP.
The 4th Baron served as rector of Castle Island in County Kerry.
On his death, in 1832, the title expired.
ARDFERT ABBEY, Ardfert, County Kerry, was a mansion originally built at the end of the 17th century by Sir Thomas Crosbie.
It was renovated in 1720 by Sir Maurice Crosbie (afterwards 1st Lord Brandon), and further altered about 1830.
The house comprised a two-storey block with seven-bay front, the two outer bays on either side breaking forwards and framed by quoins.
There was a pedimented centre; plain recangular doorcase; and a high, eaved roof on a modillion cornice.
The front was elongated by lower two-storey wings which protruded forwards at right angles to it, thus forming an open forecourt.
Inside the house, the panelled hall was decorated with figures painted in monochrome on panels.
There was an early 18th century staircase and gallery; Corintian newels, and more panelling on the landing.
A large drawing-room boasted compartmented plasterwork on the ceiling.
Here there was a full-length Reynolds portrait of Lady Glandore.
The gardens had an early formal layout: sunken parterre; yew alleys; trees cut into an arcade; avenues of beech, lime and elm.
A ruined Franciscan friary was in the grounds.
The mansion was burnt to the ground by the IRA ca 1922, and all that remains are some relics of the formal garden.
Ardfert Abbey (or House)eventually passed to the 2nd Earl of Glandore’s sister, the Lady Anne Crosbie, who married William John Talbot in 1775.
Her eldest son,
The Rev John Talbot-Crosbie MA, of Ardfert House, married Jane, daughter of Colonel Thomas Lloyd, in 1811; was MP for Ardfert, prior to taking Holy Orders.
In 1816, his name was legally changed to John Talbot-Crosbie.
He died in 1818.
His eldest son,
William Talbot Talbot-Crosbie JP DL (1817-99), of Ardfert House, High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1848.
He married firstly, Susan Anne, daughter of Hon Lindsey Merrick Peter Burrell, in 1839. He married secondly, Emma, daughter of Hon Lindsey Merrick Peter Burrell, in 1853. He married thirdly, Mary Jane, daughter of Maj.-Gen. Sir Henry Torrens, in 1868 at Edinburgh. In 1880, his name was legally changed to William Talbot Talbot-Crosbie.
His youngest son,
Lindsey Bertie Talbot-Crosbie JP DL (1844-1913), married Anne Crosbie, daughter of Colonel Edward Thomas Coke and Diana Talbot-Crosbie, in 1871; Lieutenant, RN; High Sheriff of County Kerry, 1903. His 2nd son,
John Burrell Talbot-Crosbie (1873-1969), of Ardfert House, married Mary, daughter of Gilbert Leitch, in 1910.
The marriage was childless.
Mr Talbot-Crosbie sold Ardfert House (the garden gates being re-erected outside the parish church in Tralee as a memorial to the Crosbie family).
It stood close to Ardfert Village, next to Ardfert Friary with extensive surrounding grounds.
The house was evacuated by the Crosbies and most of its furniture and belongings removed prior to it being burned by the IRA in August, 1922.
Article from a publication written thereafter: The Lord Danesfort:
“May I give two illustrations of damage to property since the truce, and of the manner in which it has been treated? I take the case of Mr. Talbot-Crosby, and I mention his name because his case was fully reported in the Cork newspapers of May last.
What happened was this. His house, Ardfert Abbey, was burnt to the ground at the end of 1922, or the beginning of 1923. In May, 1924, his case came before the County Court Judge. It was, I venture to think, a most astounding case.
It was admitted that if, at or shortly before the time when the house was burnt, Mr. Talbot Crosby had been in residence, he would have been entitled, I think, to a sum of something like £21,000 compensation.
But the counsel or solicitor who appeared for the Free State at that hearing raised this extraordinary defence. He pointed to a section in the Act of 1923 to the effect that if the house was not at the time of the damage maintained as a residence by the applicant, the applicant should only get what they called market value.
Then he went on to argue that Mr. Talbot Crosby had been driven out of his house by threats of violence some few months before; therefore, his compensation, which would otherwise be £21,000, should be reduced to £2,250.
Did ever such a travesty of justice come before the Court of any civilised country in the world?
It comes to this, that if there is a ruffianly body in Ireland desirous of getting rid of a man, turning him out of his house and country and destroying his property, all it has to do is to terrorise him, shoot at him, turn him out of Ireland, and having allowed a few weeks, or whatever time this Court thinks necessary, to elapse after he has left Ireland, then to burn his house down and otherwise destroy his property.
Then, when he comes to ask for compensation, he only gets one-tenth of what he would otherwise receive. I hope the noble Lord will see the gravity of a ease of that sort. I have already given him particulars of it, and I trust he has applied to the Free State and is able to give me the explanation that they offer.”
Former Dublin residence ~ Fitzwilliam Square.
First published in August, 2013. Glandore arms courtesy of European Heraldry.
The Glandore Gate, which once marked the main entrance to the Ardfert Abbey estate in County Kerry. Of limestone ashlar and flanked by battlemented walls, with a two-bay single-storey flat-roofed Gothic…
Ireland’s Decade of Centenaries, marking the country’s ten years of transformation 1913-23 is now drawing to a close, but there are still opportunities for analysis and reflection about what happened during that period. On Saturday, October 7th the Irish Aesthete will be participating in County Tipperary’s annual Dromineer Nenagh Literary Festival (celebrating its own 20th anniversary), in conversation with poet Vona Groarke about some of the great houses which were burnt in the early 1920s, many of them never rebuilt and lost forever. One such was Ardfert, County Kerry, set on fire in August 1922. The photographs above show the building before and after the conflagration, while those below are images of the interior, including the panelled hall with its classical grisaille figures, and the splendid main staircase, all lost in that fire, after which the house was pulled down so that nothing survives as a memory of its existence….
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. 12. “A Victorian Baronial house.. built by Sir Richard Orpen on the site of an earlier house which in turn had replaced an old MacCarthy stronghold. Burnt 1921.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Ardtully House was constructed in 1847 by Sir Richard Orpen, a Dublin based solicitor whose family had connections to the area. Built on the site of the old Ardtully castle which was finally destroyed by Cromwell during the civil wars, only ruins remain as it was itself burned down in 1921.
In Ireland few painters are better known or more admired than Sir William Orpen (1878-1931), examples of whose work today fetch some of the highest prices for a picture at auction. Yet Orpen’s background is relatively little studied, and his links with County Kerry are accordingly overlooked. Like many families, the Orpens were inclined to give themselves a more distinguished pedigree that was actually the case. So in Burke’s Landed Gentry of 1847 it is claimed that ‘The family of Orpen is of remote antiquity, and is stated to trace its descent from Erpen, second son of Varnacker (maire of the palace to Clothaire I), who was the son of Meroveus, and grandson of Theodorick, son of Clovis, King of France.’ This places their origins back in the sixth century, so that by the time William, Duke of Normandy won the Battle of Hastings in 1066, he was of course accompanied by a knight called Robert d’Erpen who thereafter settled at Erpingham in Norfolk. According to this version of events, the family turns up in Ireland in the second half of the 17th century already long established as members of the landed gentry on the other side of the Irish Sea. Such would have been the story of his forebears likely known by William Orpen. However the year before his death a cousin, the historian Goddard Henry Orpen produced an alternative, and somewhat less distinguished narrative. From this it would appear that the first Orpen to come to Ireland, a descendant of humble English yeomen, did so some time in the 1650s/60s when he acquired land around the area of Killorglin, County Kerry and that by the mid-1670s his son, Richard Orpen was employed as a land agent by the region’s greatest landowner, Sir William Petty. All of which is not quite so splendid as the lineage proposed by Burke but, as Goddard Henry Orpen wrote, ‘it is the truth I seek and not a (faked) illustrious ancestry and, after all, is it not better to rise than to fall?’
So, the earliest Orpens to settle in Kerry did so in the second half of the 17th century and prospered thanks to their association with the Pettys, later Petty-Fitzmaurices and ultimately Marquesses of Lansdowne. As a result they were able to acquire their own substantial landholdings, including the area around Ardtully in South Kerry. Until the 17th century this property was under the control of the MacFineens, a branch of the powerful MacCarthy clan but according to the Books of Survey and Distribution (compiled c.1650-80) during the course of the Confederate Wars, Colonel Donough MacFineen forfeited Ardtully, on which then stood ‘two good slate houses, a corn-mill, a castle, malthouse, barn, and tuck mill, likewise there are iron-mines and a silver mine in the quarter of Ardtully.’ The lands here were granted by the crown to one John Dillon but subsequently acquired on a long lease by the descendants of the original Richard Orpen: following a marriage between the latter’s grandson and Anna Townsend of Bridgemount, County Cork in 1766 the family’s name became Orpen Townsend. Ultimately in the first half of the 19th century the Ardtully estate was first leased and then purchased through the Encumbered Estates Court by a cousin of Richard Orpen Townsend: this was the successful solicitor Richard John Theodore Orpen. Founder of a legal practice still in existence today (as Orpen Franks) he would act as President of the Law Society from 1860 until his death sixteen years later. Knighted in 1866, he was the grandfather of the artist William Orpen and builder of a house still just extant at Ardtully.
Sir Richard John Theodore Orpen was clearly very proud of his family, if somewhat deluded about its pedigree, and assembled whatever information he could about his ancestors. He also built up a considerable land holding in County Kerry, amounting to over 12,000 acres by the time of his death. A fine residence in the centre of this property was required, and duly built at Ardtully in 1847. Its architect unknown, the house is customarily summarised as being in the Scottish Baronial style but this seems more a flag of convenience than an accurate description. In truth Ardtully looks to have been a typically Victorian grab-bag of architectural elements, its most prominent feature being a castellated round tower and turret on the south-east corner. Looking towards the river Roughty, the entrance front features a porch topped by the Orpen coat of arms (now damaged), another attempt by Sir Richard to demonstrate his lineage. Inside the house looks to have contained the usual collection of reception and bedrooms ranged over two storeys, the roofline marked by a succession of stepped gables and dormers. A substantial range of service outbuildings lay to the north. A handsome coloured illustration of Ardtully appeared in County Seats of The Noblemen and Gentlemen of Great Britain and Ireland (published 1870): conveniently the author of this six-volume work was Sir Richard’s nephew, the Rev. Francis Orpen Morris. The estate was eventually inherited by another Anglican clergyman, Sir Richard’s second son, the Rev. Raymond Orpen, Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe. Uncle of the painter Sir William Orpen, he retired from office in 1921 and the same year Ardtully was burnt by the IRA. It has remained a ruin ever since, the link with one of this country’s greatest artists forgotten.
Ardtully House lies in a field west of the village of Kilgarvan, in County Kerry in Ireland.
According to tradition the first building at this site was a 13-th century monastery which was replaced, using its stones, by a castle of the McFineen McCarthys. This castle was destroyed in the mid-17th century during Cromwell’s conquest. Later the Orpen family buit a mansion house here, within the remains of the old castle.
In 1847, Sir Richard Orpen Townsend demolished the earlier house and the remains of the castle, replacing it with a fine 5-bay 2-storey Scottish-Baronial style house of which we see the remains today. It had 27 rooms, a circular 3-storey battlemented corner tower on the southeast corner and a 3-storey corbelled circular turret on the east corner.
In 1921, during the Irish War of Independence, Ardtully House was burned down by the IRA. It was never rebuilt.
Ardtully House can freely be visited. The ruin itself can not be entered due to the risk of falling stones. Just north of it are the remains of a walled garden. A very nice ruin.
Irish Historic Houses 