Rathcline House, Lanesborough, Co. Longford

by jenjunebugAugust 28, 2025January 30, 2026

Rathcline House Farm , Lanesborough, Co. Longford for sale August 2025 courtesy Savills

N39P089

€1,200,000

8 Bed6 Bath482 m²

Rathcline House is a distinguished period residence occupying a commanding, elevated position at the heart of the estate, offering sweeping views across the surrounding countryside.

Approached via an impressive stone-pillared entrance with cast-iron gates, the driveway winds through mature parkland, gradually ascending towards the house and culminating at the front entrance, where there is ample space for parking.

This elegant four-bay, 19th-century residence sits beneath a hipped slate roof and is arranged over two storeys above a basement. The accommodation is of generous proportions, with beautifully preserved period features throughout, including ornate ceiling roses, decorative cornicing, original sash windows, detailed architraves, and striking marble fireplaces. Extending to approximately 5,195 sq ft, the house comprises four reception rooms and eight bedrooms. The light-filled entrance hall, accessed via limestone steps, features polished wooden flooring and leads directly to the principal reception rooms. The drawing room, located to the front of the house, enjoys panoramic views through a graceful bay window and flows seamlessly into both the dining room and sitting room, creating a superb space for both family living and entertaining. Also on the ground floor are a study and an additional bedroom.

On the garden level, the kitchen features an extensive range of bespoke floor and wall-mounted units. Adjacent is a cosy sitting room with an open fireplace, along with a further bedroom, making this level ideal for guests or staff accommodation.

The main bedroom accommodation is located on the first floor and includes a spacious master suite, along with five additional bedrooms, a family bathroom, and a separate shower room.

Gardens and Grounds Rathcline House is set within wonderful mature gardens and grounds, with the surrounding countryside providing an incredible backdrop. To the front of the house are sloping lawns with a diverse assortment of flora and outstanding specimen trees, providing colour, shelter, and privacy.

The estate enjoys approximately 500 metres of private frontage along Lough Ree, enhancing its natural beauty and recreational appeal.

Outbuildings To the rear of the property is a traditional courtyard framed by a series of stores and six stables. The scale and arrangement of these buildings offer excellent potential for alternative uses, subject to the necessary planning permissions. Beyond the courtyard lies an additional range of farm buildings and a walled garden, currently used as a turnout paddock and a sand arena. The outbuildings can be accessed via a separate farm entrance.

Farmland The farmland at Rathcline is enclosed by a combination of stud railing, mature hedging, and stone walls, and comprises gently undulating grassland and mature woodland. The northern end of the estate is about 43.2 metres (141.8 feet) above sea level, while the southern boundary is about 34.1 metres (112.0 feet) above sea level. The field divisions are of a good, workable size and layout for contemporary farming. Each field is equipped with drinking troughs connected to the mains water supply.

Location & Amenities Set amid the tranquil countryside of West Longford, Rathcline enjoys a superb location on the shores of Lough Ree, just 4 kilometres from the vibrant riverside town of Lanesborough. Lough Ree, meaning King’s Lake in Irish, is the second largest of the three major lakes along the River Shannon. Renowned for its natural beauty, it is a haven for water sports enthusiasts and anglers alike. The lake’s shoreline is dotted with walking trails, while the surrounding area is steeped in history and folklore. Lanesborough, where the River Shannon meets Lough Ree, lies at the junction of Counties Longford and Roscommon, and is a lively hub for boating, angling, kayaking, and lakeside walks. Local highlights such as the Commons North Woodland Walk, marina, and riverfront parklands enhance its outdoor appeal, while the town offers a full range of amenities, including shops, cafés, pubs, and a health centre. The award-winning Lough Ree Distillery adds further charm and supports the area’s growing reputation as a visitor destination. The county town of Longford lies just 14 km from Rathcline, with Athlone 41 km to the south, both offering an extended range of shops, services, and amenities. The estate benefits from excellent transportation links, including easy access to the N63 connecting Longford and Roscommon. Regular bus and rail services run from both towns, providing convenient access to Galway and Dublin City, while Dublin Airport is approximately 137 kilometres distant. The area surrounding Rathcline is renowned for its dairy, arable, and stock-rearing farms and, as such, has a well-developed agricultural infrastructure including a good selection of merchants, milk processors, livestock markets, and abattoirs.

Newtown Bond, near Edgeworthstown, Co Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 31, 2025

Newtown Bond, near Edgeworthstown, Co Longford

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. 225. (Bond/LGI1958) An early or mid-C18 gable-ended house of three storeys and five bays. Window surrounds with keystones in all three storeys. Fanlighted doorway with sidelights and baseless pediment carried on engaged columns.”

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildin gs-s earch/building/13401436/newtownbond-house-newtownbond-co-longford

*Gateway to Newtownbond House, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.*

Gateway originally serving the north entrance to Newtownbond House, erected c. 1790. Comprising a central pair of ashlar limestone piers (on square-plan) having projecting dressed limestone plinths and carved stepped capstones over, and with moulded entablatures to heads having floral motifs set within roundels to frieze. Double-leaf wrought-iron gates with spear finials. Gateway flanked to either side (east and west) by sections of sections of rubble stone walling having cut stone plinth courses and cut stone coping over, an terminated to either side by ashlar limestone gateway piers of the same design as central piers. Integral square-headed pedestrian entrances to side walls having dressed limestone surrounds, entrances now blocked with rubble stone. Rubble stone boundary walls with tapered profile to either side of outer gate piers. Set back from road to the south of Ballinalee, and to the north of Newtownbond House (demolished).

Appraisal

This ornate classically-detailed gateway formerly served as the north entrance to Newtownbond House, now demolished. This gateway is particularly well-designed and is of apparent architectural merit, acting as a reminder of the former grandeur of the main house. The piers are solidly constructed and form a strong focal point which is offset by the finely sculpted limestone side entrances. The level of craftsmanship involved in the construction of these gates is of the highest quality, partially seen in the floral detailing to the friezes of the piers. The gates are a reminder of the skill of local stone masons and sculptors available in Ireland at the time of their construction. They provide important context to the locality and form an attractive roadside feature. The rubble stone walling to either side of the main entrance suggests that either these walls were rebuilt/remodelled or that that walls were originally rendered. Newtownbond House was a five-bay three-storey early-to-mid eighteenth-century house having a pedimented fanlight doorway. It was demolished at some stage during the second half of the twentieth century. The Bonds were Presbyterians from Yorkshire who settled in the north of Ireland during the mid-seventeenth century. One of them, Revd. James Bond, bought Newtownflood about 1729, renaming it Newtownbond, and reputedly built or rebuilt the Presbyterian meeting house at nearby Corboy (13401440). His fourth son, William (1750 – 1811), High Sheriff in Longford, commanded the Carrigglas Yeomanry during the rebellion of 1798, and, as agent to the Edgeworth family, supervised the building of the road from Edgeworthstown to Longford to the south. The estate remained in the Bond family throughout the nineteenth century. Henry Bond lived here in 1837 and 1846 (Lewis, Slater’s Directory), and Capt. William Bond was in residence in 1881 (Slater’s Directory).

White Hill, Edgeworthstown, Co Longford https://aguidetoirishcountryhouses.com/2025/02/18/white-hill-edgeworthstown-co-longford-demolished/

Middleton, Killashee, Co Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 31, 2025

Middleton, Killashee, Co Longford

p. 205. “(Harman, sub King-Harman/LG1937 supp; De Montfort/IFR) A two storey mid-C18 house built by Wesley Harman. Three bay front, with an additional bay added to the left. Doorcase with blocking. Bought 1764 by Henry Montfort; sold by a subsequent Henry Montfort ca 1837.”

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings -searc h/building/13401339/middleton-house-middleton-co-longford

Detached four-bay two-storey house, built c. 1760, with recent two-bay single-storey lean-to extension to rear (west). Pitched natural slate roof with three rendered chimneystacks. Painted roughcast rendered walls over smooth rendered plinth, and having render block quoins to the corners of the front elevation. Front elevation partially cover in ivy/vegetation. Square-headed window openings to front elevation with painted stone sills, rendered reveals and replacement windows. Blank façade to rear (apart from extension). Round-headed door opening with painted carved limestone Gibbsian surround with architrave, and having timber panelled door with spider’s web fanlight over. Doorway behind modern open porch with metal columns and rendered base. Set back from road in extensive mature grounds to the south of Cloondara. Two-storey rubble stone outbuilding to rear (south) with pitched natural slate roof, rubble, square-headed door opening with timber lintel and external stone staircase having access to first floor. Dressed limestone gate pier (on square-plan) adjacent to outbuilding. Rubble stone boundary wall (probably part of walled garden) to site with dressed limestone quoins and loop hole openings, probably originally part of an outbuilding (now partially demolished). Main entrance gates to the northeast of house comprising a pair of chamfered carved limestone gate posts with wrought-iron double-leaf gates and wrought-iron pedestrian turnstile. Long approach avenue to the east of house.

Appraisal

Although altered with the loss of some original fabric, this interesting house retains much of its early character. The long narrow appearance of this house, with the stocky chimneystacks and the pitched roof would appear to indicate an early date for the structure. While a house was indeed built on this site in the 1700s (local information), the structure as it appears today is said to be a latter addition to an earlier portion (south end; map information) which was demolished in the early twentieth-century. The large window openings to the front are consistent with a nineteenth-century provenance, but perhaps more telling is the lack of any openings to the rear, an unusual feature that suggests that this building formerly had a return to the rear or that it may be of considerable antiquity. Like many large houses in Ireland, the entrance is emphasised, in this case with a fine carved stone surround and a round-headed opening, which adds a decorative element to the otherwise plan front elevation. The proportions to the front elevation, and the location of the chimneystacks, indicates that this building was extended to the south by a bay at some stage. The two-storey outbuilding to the rear and the attractive entrance gateway and pedestrian turnstile to the northwest of the house add considerably to this interesting composition. The rubble stone wall to the rear with loop hole openings is probably part of a partially demolished outbuilding, perhaps associated with a walled garden. Middleton was reputedly bought by the Montfort family in 1764, and was the residence of a Montford Esq. c. 1777 – 83 (Taylor and Skinner map). It was still in the possession of the Montford (Henry Esq.) in 1846 (Slater’s Directory). The Montford (or de Montfort family) were of French Huguenot descent, and appear to have come to have originally come to Ireland during the late-seventeenth century, probably just after 1690 (a Pierre de Montford was a lieutenant in the army of William III; he settled in County Longford in 1702). The Montfort family later bought the estate of Middletown c. 1750. It had passed out of the ownership of the Montford family by 1900.

Ledwithstown, Ballymahon, County Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 31, 2025March 8, 2026

Ledwithstown, Ballymahon, County Longford

p. 183. “A very perfect small early C18 house of two storeys over high basement, possibly by Richard Castle. Three bay front, tripartite doorway with pediment extending over door and side-lights, on pilaters which stand on miniature rusticated basements; broad flight of steps to hall door. Solid roof parapet; windows surrounds with keystones; bold quoins. Symmetrical rear elevation, wiht blocking round windows and central basement door. Deep hall with chimneypiece of black Kilkenny marble. Plaster panelling in ground floor rooms, with occasional shell and other ornament; wood panelling upstairs. Seat of the Ledwiths, became derelict, now being restored.”

*Ledwithstown, County Longford, photograph courtesy of Mark Bence-Jones, A Guide to Irish Country Houses.*

*Ledwithstown House, County Longford, by Peter Murray, 2020, courtesy Irish Georgian Society.*

https://www.igs.ie/conservation/project/ledwithstown-house-co-longford

Ledwithstown House, Co. Longford

The design of Ledwithstown House has been attributed to Richard Castle, or Cassels, an architect who, in 1728, came to Ireland, from the city of Kassel in northern Hesse, Germany. Castle came at the invitation of Sir Gustavus Hume, of Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, and over the course of a long and successful career designed many buildings, including the Printing House in Trinity College, the Conolly Folly, Leinster House, and Russborough House in Co. Wicklow. Castle also has a number of lesser-known houses attributed to him, including Ledwithstown in Co. Longford. With its Doric temple portico surrounding the entrance door, the exterior of Ledwithstown is plain, almost severe. There is no pretty semi-circular fanlight here; instead three plain squares of glass, and two windows flanking the entrance door that provide light to the hallway. Although relatively small, the windows on the façade are surrounded by heavy stone frames, making them appear larger. Thick glazing bars reinforce the early eighteenth-century character of this house. The attribution to Richard Castle is reasonable, as is the date 1746. All the architectural components have been carefully considered, and a sense of proportion—a term often over-used in relation to eighteenth-century architecture—infuses every element, up to and including the two chimney stacks, which are arranged parallel to the façade. The roof is partly concealed by an elaborate cornice, adding to the Palladian grandeur. The severity of Ledwithstown’s temple front, with its plain pilasters and rusticated base, is relieved by a Baroque flourish of balustrade and steps that lead to the entrance door. Other country houses by, or attributed to Castle include Hazelwood in Co. Sligo and Bellinter House in Co. Meath.

IGS Grants — 2001: repairs to interior decorative plasterwork; 2006: restoration of panelled rooms

The work of the Irish Georgian Society is supported through the Heritage Council’s ‘Heritage Capacity Fund 2022’.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/build ings -search/building/13402217/ledwithstown-house-ledwithstown-co-longford

*Ledwithstown, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.*

Detached three-bay two-storey over raised basement house, built 1746. Hipped natural slate roof hidden behind parapet wall with pronounced moulded cut stone eaves course and with cut stone coping over. Pair of tall dressed ashlar limestone chimneystacks, aligned along with roof ridge, having moulded cut stone coping over. Sections of cast-iron rainwater goods remain, cast-iron hopper dated 1857. Roughcast rendered walls over rubble stone construction; cut stone block-and-start quoins to the corners and chamfered cut stone string course above basement level. Square-headed window openings with replacement nine-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows having cut limestone surrounds with architraves and prominent keystone, and with tooled limestone sills. Central cut stone tripartite Tuscan doorcase to main elevation (south) comprising tetrastyle limestone pilasters resting on rusticated ashlar limestone base section and surmounted by carved pediment. Timber panelled door with overlight and having flanking six-over-four pane timber sliding sidelights. Doorway accessed by flight of moulded cut stone steps flanked to either side (east and west) by splayed rendered walls with cut stone coping over and having terminating cut stone piers (on square-plan) to base with moulded capstones over. Square-headed door opening to the east elevation having cut limestone block-and-start surround with prominent keystone, replacement timber door and a plain overlight. Set back from road in extensive mature grounds to the rural landscape to the south of Keenagh and to the northwest of Ballymahon. Long straight approach avenue to house from the south. Gateway to the south comprising a pair of dressed ashlar limestone gate piers (on square-plan) having moulded plinths and stepped capstones with moulded cornice detail. Single-bay single-storey outbuilding to the southeast of house having rubble stone walls and pitched corrugated-metal roof. Rubbles stone boundary walls to road-frontage and to site.

Appraisal

This sophisticated middle-sized house is one of the most important elements of the architectural heritage of County Longford. Its design has been attributed to the eminent architect Richard Castle (died 1751) who was probably the foremost architect working in Ireland at the time of construction and has been credited with the dissemination of the Palladian architectural style throughout rural Ireland. Ledwithstown House has quite a robust appearance on account of the heavy parapet with pronounced eaves cornice and by the large tall ashlar chimneystacks that are aligned along with the front elevation. Although built using rubble stone masonry, this building is well-detailed with high quality, if robust, cut limestone trim in features like the window surrounds and the heavy eaves cornice. The good-quality dressed limestone quoins to the corners help to emphasise the stocky appearance of this building. The fine Tripartite doorcase with pediment is strongly detailed and provides a central focus to the main elevation. This central focus is further enhanced by the flight of cut stone steps with flanking walls having splayed bases. The house is further enhance by its long and straight drive aligned with the centre of the front elevation, which creates a sense of grandeur and generates a sense of anticipation when approaching the house. The well-crafted gate piers at the start of this driveway complete the setting and add substantially to this important composition. This building has been recently restored after a long period of near-derelict. Ledwithstown House was the home of the Ledwith family from its construction until c. 1900. The Ledwith family were an important in County Longford from c. 1650, and throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and a number of family members served as Grand Jurors and as High Sheriff of the county (High Sheriffs included George Ledwith in 1764 – 5; James in 1792 – 3, Richard in 1807 and Edward in 1847 – 8).

featured in Great Irish Houses. Forewards by Desmond FitgGerald, Desmond Guinness. IMAGE Publications, 2008.

p. 200. “Ledwithstown House in the north midlands was built in 1746 by Edward Ledwith and occupied by the family until the later part of the 19^th century. Among the family members who resided there were the Reverend Palmer in the 1770s and Captain James Smyth Ledwith in the later half of the 19^th century.

The Anglo-Norman family of Ledwith was established in County Meath as early as 1270 but the first evidence of the family in south County Longford comes in the middle of the 17^th century. Ledwithstown House is probably the work of the great German architect Richard Castle, Officer of the Engineers, who came to Ireland in 1727 to design a house for Sir Gustavus Hume in County Fermanagh. He became one of the most prominent architects in Ireland and contributed to many of the great houses of the 18^th century including Leinster House, Powerscourt and Carton.

In 1893, William Ledwith, son of Captain James Smyth Ledwith, leased the house to Thomas Ronaldson and he purchased the property in 1903, thus ending the Ledwith family association with the house. Lawrence Feeney, grandfather of the present owner, bought the house in 1911. During the 1920s, at a time of political unrest in Ireland, Mr Feeney’s widow and family moved out the of the house. For the next six decades the house would be lived in by an assortment of family members, squatters and local eccentrics, until the Feeney family repossessed it in 1981.

Much damage had been done over the years: parts of the roof were falling in, panelling had been removed for firewood and the windows were in a sorry state. With the assistance of the Irish Georgian Society, the owners, Edward Feeney and his wife Mary, have set about restoring and redecorating the house. “I suppose if we had known what lay in store we might never have gone near it,” Edward Feeney says, looking back on the difficulties they encountered. “But we were young and foolish and it was too beautiful a house to leave to fall into complete disrepair. Initially we wanted to just stop the rot nd keep the weather out of the house. Our approach was to take it one step at a time.”

Today the estate has shrunk to 200 acres, having swelled to 2,500 in the middle of the 18^th century, yet the family continue to farm the land. They have kept the house as close to the original as possible. “The house is so well designed that there wouldn’t be much point making changes,” says Mary Feeney. “We have always loved the proportions of the house.”

Edward Feeney adds, “Structurally it’s quite modest but it has a typical Castle entrance and a very well-planned layout. We are not certain that Castle was the designer, but the overall structure and the black Kilkenny marble fireplaces would seem to confirm his hand at work. Also, several other houses he worked on at the time, including Belvedere in Mullingar, are not all that far from Ledwithstown. So it’s entirely possible.”

The entrance hall was last decorated in the 1850s. The cornice had to be replaced over the main door and much work was done on the ceilings. Conservation expert Mary McGrath also worked on the colour schemes, and a pale grey thought to be the original colouring was found on the panelling and window and door surrounds. McGrath explains: “In the summertime the door was probably open all the time and in the winter there would have been a fire in the hearth. So of all of the rooms of the house, the hallway was probably painted most often. All of the early coats would have been distemper and as the procedure was to dust off the loose paint and to wash down the walls, it is difficult to be certain about the full sequence of colours.”

[p. 203] “The black Kilkenny marble fireplace in the hall is original and has a black shell motif. Much of the original contents of the house had been sold during an auction in 1911, with the remainder dispersed during subsequent decades. Almost all the furniture has been brought into the house over the last two decades, including a family piano, which stands in front of the fireplace.

The breakfast room contains a fine 1859 Italian marble fireplace. Consultant historic buildings conservator Richard Ireland, who was responsible for the restoration of the surfaces of Castletown, underpinned the remaining plasterwork on the ceiling of this room in 2002. George o’Malley, who is based in County Wicklow, worked on the plasterwork with his father, Tom, who came out of retirement ages 82 to work at Ledwithstown.

When the current owners took over the house, a large tree was growing in the centre of the drawing room and out through the roof. Today the room has been beautifully restored. A local craftsman, who copied a surviving example, replaced the shuttering. The fireplace is not original and dates to sometime in the 1860s. The chandelier was a choice of the owners and the sofas were all bought in Ireland. Many of the pieces of furniture, including a fine Irish table, were bought at auction.

While oil heating has been installed, the family may convert to wood pellets to reduce energy costs. The rooms are modest in scale – the ceilings not quite as high as many Irish country houses of similar scale – so the house is already relatively efficient.

A “Marrakech” red has been chosen for the dining room, which also has a Kilkenny marble fireplace. The table was bought at an auction in Birr. The library, which has a fireplace taken from upstairs, contains some of the few pieces of original furniture including the bookcase and a round circular table. A local dealer told Edward Feeney’s mother that the table, then stored in a nearby hen house, had come out of the house during the auction in 1911. The table was purchased for £4.50

The green bedroom upstairs which has fine wood panelling and a shell motif Kilkenny marble fireplace. The Georgian cream coloured curtains offset the green of the walls. In the master bedroom the wood panelling is being restored by local craftsman Coleman Lovett and an adjacent powder room is being converted into an en suite bathroom. Edward and Mary’s dedication to the restoration of this house and its historic gardens will ensure that Ledwithstown rightfully takes its place as one of Ireland’s great houses.”

Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.

p. 142

http://visitlongford.ie/listings/ledwithstown-house/

Ledwithstown House is a handsome Georgian country house, situated outside the town of Ballymahon, and has been described as a “miniature gem” by architectural historians.

It is believed to have been designed c.1730 by the eminent architect Richard Castle, who died in 1751. Castle, or Cassels, was probably the foremost architect in Ireland at the time of construction and was one of the greatest proponents of Palladian architecture in Ireland.

His domestic villas were strongly influenced by the designs of Italian architect Andrea Palladio, who designed elegant, symmetrical houses with classical details inspired by the architecture of ancient Rome.

Ledwithstown House has solid, robust appearance with a pleasing symmetrical design, typical of Palladian villas. It features finely-carved cut limestone trim, such as the window surrounds and the heavy eaves cornice that runs along the top of the walls.

The good-quality dressed limestone quoins to the corners help to emphasise the stocky appearance of this building. The doorcase is especially attractive and provides a central focus to the main elevation, and is further enhanced by the flight of stone steps to its base.

The house has undergone an extensive programme of conservation and renovation by the present owners from the 1970s onwards, with support of agencies such as the Irish Georgian Society (www.igs.ie).

Ledwithstown House was the residence of the Ledwith family from its construction to around 1900. The Ledwith family were an important family in County Longford from 1650 onwards. Successive generations of family members served in public office as grand jurors, or as high sheriff of the county, including George Ledwith who was the high sheriff in 1764; James Ledwith in 1792, Richard in 1807 and Edward in 1847.

Ledwithstown House is privately owned by the Feeney family.

Perfection in Miniature

‘The townland, and chief part of the demesne of Ledwithstown, are in this parish (Shruel), though the dwelling house and offices are in the parish of Kilcommack. It has been long the residence of a respectable family of the name of Ledwith, who possess a considerable property in this neighbourhood.’ A Statistical Account, or Parochial Survey, of Ireland, 1819.
In 1976 Maurice Craig wrote of Ledwithstown, County Longford, ‘there can be few houses of its size in Ireland more thoroughly designed, and with internal decoration so well integrated.’ The house has long been attributed to Richard Castle and is one of three such properties considered to have been designed by the architect, the other two being Gaulstown, County Westmeath (see Gallia Urba est Omnis Divisa in Partes Tres, February 24^th 2014) and Whitewood Lodge, County Meath (see An Appalling Vista, February 9^th last). In their form and composition this triumvirate demonstrates a steadily growing assurance, with Ledwithstown displaying by far the greatest sophistication and thus inclining to the idea that it was the latest, probably dating from the second half of the 1740s (Castle died in 1751). Relatively little is known of the building’s history, other than that until 1911 it was owned, although not always occupied, by the Ledwith family who settled in the area around 1650. Members of that now-vanished class, the gentry, the Ledwiths played their part in local society as Grand Jurors and High Sheriffs but otherwise came little to public notice. The same is true of their former home, which despite its considerable charm, can be passed unnoticed on the public highway: again like Gaulstown and Whitewood, Ledwithstown lies at the end of an exceptionally long, straight drive.

As with Gaulstown and Whitewood, Ledwithstown is a three-bay house of two storeys over a semi-raised basement. With all three the main entrance is approached by a flight of stone steps; in this instance, the supporting walls splay out to create the impression of a ceremonial approach to the door. In the case of the other two properties, the doorcase is relatively plain, of cut limestone with a fanlight (that at Gaulstown also has side lights). Ledwithstown’s south-facing doorcase is altogether more elaborate, a cut-stone tripartite Tuscan design incorporating tetrastyle pilasters resting on rusticated base and surmounted by carved pediment. Such an entrance immediately indicates this is a building with greater aspirations than those of its siblings. In other respects, however, the facade of Ledwithstown is closer in spirit to Whitewood than to Gaulstown, sharing the same heavy parapet wall concealing the greater part of a slated roof with a pair of substantial chimneystacks (those at Gaulstown are at either gable end). Likewise Ledwithstown and Whitewood have raised corner quoins which add further gravitas to the building, the most striking differences between the two being that Whitewood’s facade is of cut stone (as opposed to roughcast render over rubble stone) and Ledwithstown’s first floor fifteen-pane sash windows share the same proportions as those one storey below (their equivalents at Whitewood are smaller).

The interior design and decoration of Ledwithstown is much more elaborate than either of the two houses with which it bears comparison. Although measuring just forty-eight by forty-seven feet, it can be considered a country house in miniature, the layout being identical to that found in many larger properties. There are, for example, two staircases, that to the west, of carved wood, serving only the ground and first floors while secondary service stairs of stone to the east also descend to the basement area. Immediately inside the entrance hall are doors to left and right providing access to the former morning room and study; a matching pair to the rear open to the staircases while one in the centre of the back wall leads to the drawing room. Here and in the adjacent dining room, the walls retain their mid-18^th century plaster panelling, that in the drawing room being especially fine with a combination of lugged and round topped panels topped by swags or baskets of fruit and shells. Similarly the main staircase, lit by a round-topped window, has timber wainscoting and leads to a panelled first floor landing with egg-and-dart and dentil cornicing; one of the rooms on this level is entirely panelled in wood and others still contain their shallow limestone chimney pieces. The basement likewise keeps much of its original character with a sequence of rooms opening off a central stone-flagged and vaulted central passage.

In 1911 Ledwithstown was bought from the original family by Laurence Feeney. However, following his premature death just six years later, the house was let to a variety of tenants none of whom took care of the property; seemingly a brother and sister who lived there for a while removed all the door and shutter knobs, while another family allowed the chimneys to become blocked and then knocked holes in the walls to permit smoke escape. In 1976 Maurice Craig described Ledwithstown as being ‘unhappily in an advanced state of dilapidation, perhaps not beyond recovery’ and two years later Mark Bence-Jones wrote that the place was ‘now derelict.’ However, around this time the original Laurence Feeney’s grandson, likewise called Laurence, married and he and his wife Mary began to consider the possibility of restoring Ledwithstown.
The couple, together with their children, initiated work on the house and in 1982 they were visited by Desmond Guinness. Soon afterwards the Irish Georgian Society offered its first grant to Ledwithstown, the money being put towards replacing the roof. Further financial aid from the IGS followed, along with voluntary work parties to help the Feeneys in their enterprise. By 1987 Ledwithstown had a new roof and parapet and was once more watertight. Inevitably sections of the reception rooms’ plaster panelling and other decoration had been lost to damp, but enough remained for it to be copied and replaced. The same was true of the main stair hall and sections of the first floor wood panelling, all of which was gradually replaced: when new floors were installed on this level in 1990 surviving panelled walls had to be suspended in mid-air to facilitate the removal of decayed boards. Ledwithstown demonstrates that even the most rundown building can be saved provided the task is approached with enough commitment. Today, more than thirty years after they embarked on their mission, the Feeneys remain happily living in what is, above all else, a family home. So too are both Gaulstown and Whitewood Lodge, making this another trait all three houses share.

Creevaghmore, Ballymahon, Co Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 31, 2025

Creevaghmore, Ballymahon, Co Longford

p. 95. A two storey gable-ended mid-C18 house, with two lower wings extending back towards the farmyard, which is immediately behind the house. Seven bay pedimented front; doorway with blocking and large keystone, the stones on either side of it defined with the architrave-moulding. Open well staircase of wood in entrance hall.”

https://www.buildingsofirela nd.ie/buildings-search/building/13402719/creevaghmore-house-creevaghmore-co-longford

Creevaghmore House, CREEVAGHMORE, County Longford

*Creevaghmore House, County Longford courtesy National Inventory.*

Detached seven-bay two-storey country house with attic storey, built c. 1750, having pediment over central three-bays to front elevation (northwest). Built on U-shaped plan having two-storey returns either end of the rear elevation (southeast). Single-storey extension and additions to the rear (southeast) of rear returns having pitched or lean-to natural slate roof; single-storey outbuilding blocks attached to the southwest end of building having brick bellcote over with round-headed opening; two-bay single-storey extension with lean-to natural slate roof to rear, between rear returns. Pitched natural slate roof to main block having rendered chimneystacks to gable ends (southwest and northeast) having terracotta pots, and with cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered chimneystacks to gable ends of rear returns. Moulded limestone eaves course to pedimented central three bays. Roughcast rendered walls. Square-headed window openings having cut limestone sills and nine-over-six timber sliding sash windows with partially exposed sash boxes, six-over-four box timber sliding sash windows to outer bays to central three-bay section with pediment over. Oval window to pediment with decorative timber glazing bars. Mainly replacement window openings to rear; tripartite timber sliding sash window to the rear return to the northeast at ground floor level. Square-headed door opening to centre of front elevation (northwest) having carved limestone Gibbsian surround with architrave and prominent keystone; and with timber panelled door. Cut stone threshold and moulded limestone step with cast-iron bootscraper to entrance. Timber panelled window shutters, timber wall panelling and a decorative timber staircase to interior hallway. Set back from road in extensive mature grounds to the southeast of Ballymahon. Gateway (13402718) and rubble stone boundary wall to road-frontage to the east. Complex of outbuildings (13402720) arranged around a courtyard to the rear (east/southeast). Rubble stone boundary wall to the rear of house having wrought-iron pedestrian gate. High rubble stone boundary wall to south end of rear elevation (southeast), probably originally part of walled garden complex.

Appraisal

This very fine and well-proportioned early-eighteenth century house/country house retains its early form, character and a great deal of its early fabric. The central pedimented section with an oval window opening having delicate decorative timber glazing bars, the treatment of the window openings to the central three bays, and the fine doorcase with Gibbsian surround provides a central focus and gives this building a strong classical character, albeit in a vaguely vernacular manner, and articulates a graceful symmetry to the front façade. The prominent and heavily detailed Gibbsian doorcase, which is of an unusual design, adds a strong element of artistic interest to the front elevation. The long narrow window openings have timber sash windows with partially exposed sash boxes, which are indicative of an early date. Craig (1976) draws a comparison between the plan of Creevaghmore House and Plate IX of John Payne’s ‘Twelve Designs for Country Houses’ (dated 1753, published 1757). The U-plan with lean-to section connecting the wings to rear, along with the placement of the staircase in the hallway and primary utility rooms facing the farmyard, is remarkably similar. Since Creevaghmore probably pre-dates the publication of this design book, Craig surmises that this layout was a popular contemporary farmhouse plan widely used in the early-eighteenth century. The survival of such an intact example of an early eighteenth-century farmhouse/house/small country house is extremely rare, making this an important example of its type. It forms the centrepiece of an important group of related structures along with the entrance gateway (13402718) and boundary wall to the west, and the complex of outbuildings (13402720) arranged around a courtyard to the rear (southeast), and is among the most important elements of the built heritage of County Longford. This building has historical connections with the Sandys family, who lived at Creevaghmore from the mid-seventeenth century (a Simon Sandys of Creevaghmore is detailed in the 1659 census of Ireland and a Freke Sandys received a grant of land in Longford in 1663) probably until c. 1854 (see below). Freke Sandys of Creevaghmore was appointed a Commissioner for County Longford by King William III in 1699. The presence of the Sandys family at Creevaghmore from c. 1655 suggests that the present building replaced an earlier house on or close to this site. It is possible that Creevaghmore dates to the late-seventeenth century, and the proportions of the window openings are quite similar to those found at Springhill, County Derry , which was built c. 1680 (Springhill does not have the pediment). A William Sandys of Creevaghmore (died 1774) served as High Sheriff of Longford in 1758. Creevaghmore was the home of a Robert Sandys Esq., (1782 – 1847) in c. 1835 (O’Donovan; Letters; Lewis) and in 1846 (Slater’s Directory). It was the home of a Edwin Moore Sandys J. P., son of Robert, c. 1850. The house and lands may have been sold by the Incumbered Estates Court in 1854 (newspaper article in Longford Journal). A Charles Webb Esq., J. P., lived at Creevaghmore in 1881.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildin gs-search/building/13402720/creevaghmore-house-creevaghmore-co-longford

Detached complex of outbuildings to the rear (southeast) of Creevaghmore House (13402719), built c. 1750 and altered c. 1820, comprising a multiple-bay two-storey former stable block on L-shaped plan to the northeast and a detached multiple-bay two-storey outbuilding to the southeast. Pitched corrugated-metal roof to northwest end of L-shaped former stable block; pitched natural slate roof to section to the southeast end. Raised rendered verges to a number of the gable ends and some remaining sections of cast-iron rainwater goods. Rubble limestone walls, formerly rendered. Loop hole openings to upper storeys to L-shaped outbuilding having brick block-and-start surrounds. Segmental-headed door openings and carriage arches at ground floor having red brick block-and-start surrounds. Some openings now partially infilled with modern blockwork having timber doors. Stables to interior with decorative cast-iron panels and cast-iron horse head motifs to stall dividers. Double-height segmental-headed carriage arch to the northwest end having brick voussoirs to arch. Shallow segmental-headed openings to section to the southeast end of L-shaped block at ground floor level having brick block-and-start surrounds, stone sills and remains of timber fittings to window openings, and a central doorway with battened timber door. Detached multiple-bay outbuilding to southeast having single-bay single-storey lean-to brick addition with square-headed doorway attached to the south end of the main elevation (northwest). Pitched corrugated-metal roof raised verges to gable ends (northeast and southwest). Roughcast rendered walls, render now removed to places exposing rubble stone construction. Square-headed door openings with remains of timber fittings. Segmental-headed window openings having brick block-and-start surrounds and remains of timber fittings. Segmental-headed carriage arch with brick block-and-start surround and voussoirs; and corrugated-metal doors. Arranged around a courtyard to the rear (southeast) of Creevaghmore House (13402719). Rubble limestone boundary wall to the south and southwest side of yard, the boundary wall of a former walled garden. Approach avenue to courtyard to the north having rubble limestone boundary walls flanking avenue. Gateway to house (13402719) to the west side of approach avenue having a pair of cut limestone gate posts (on octagonal-plan/square-plan with chamfered corners) having hipped/pyramidal heads with moulded detailing and a pair of wrought-iron flat bar gates. Pedestrian gateway to site comprising a pair of cut limestone gate posts (on octagonal-plan/square-plan with chamfered corners) having hipped/pyramidal heads and a wrought-iron gate. Gateway to the north end of approach avenue to house comprising a pair of dressed ashlar limestone gate piers (on square-plan) having wrought-iron flat bar gate. Set well back from road to the southwest of Ballymahon.

Appraisal

This substantial complex of outbuildings adds considerably to the historic setting and context of Creevaghmore House (13402719). They probably originally date to the middle of the eighteenth century but the brick surrounds to the openings suggests that they were extensively altered during the nineteenth century. These outbuildings survive in good condition and retain their early form and character. The scale of these structures provides an interesting historical insight into the extensive resources required to run and maintain a middle-sized country estate in Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Of particular note is the survival of the cast-iron grills and cast-iron horse head motif/finials to the stables, which are interesting and unusual features that add an element of decorative interest and indicate the attention afforded to even the most mundane of features on country estates at the time of the construction. These cast-iron features are probably later additions, perhaps added during the middle of the nineteenth century. This complex of outbuilding forms part of an interesting group of related sites at Creevaghmore along with main house (13402719) and the gateway (13402718) to the northwest, which together form an attractive grouping in the rural landscape to the southwest of Ballymahon. The rubble stone walls, the remains of the walled garden to the southwest, the cut limestone gate posts and the wrought-iron gates to site add to the setting and complete this composition.

Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993. p. 142.

Coolamber Manor, Lisryan, County Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 31, 2025March 31, 2025

Coolamber Manor, Lisryan, County Longford

p. 89. “(Stanley, sub Tyndall/LG1952supp; Wingfield, sub Powerscourt, V/PB) A house of ca. 1820, by John Hargrave, of Cork; built for Major Blackall. Two storey, eaved roof; angle piers; front with bowed projection in centre and porch with slender pillars on one side. Attractive curved rooms. Subsequently the home of the Stanleys and eventually of Brig. A.D.R. Wingfield and Mrs Wingfield (nee Stanley). Sold ca 1960; now a rehabilitation centre.”

Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.

p. 490.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-sear ch/bu ilding/13401520/coolamber-manor-cloonshannagh-or-coolamber-manor-demesne-co-longford

*Coolamber Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.*

Detached three-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c. 1830, having full-height three-bay segmental bowed projection to the centre of five-bay east elevation. Multiple-bay three-storey extensions to the southwest, added c. 1880. Later used as rehabilitation clinic, now in disuse. Later single-, two- and three-storey extensions to rear (south). Later single-bay open porch to the centre of the main elevation (north). Hipped natural slate roof , hidden behind raised parapet with eaves cornice and blocking course, having rendered chimneystacks with terracotta chimney pots. Painted lined-and-ruled rendered walls to front (north) and east elevations over moulded plinth course; snecked limestone masonry walls to rear and west elevations. Giant order pilasters to front façade, between bays and to the corners, and to east elevation, to corners and flanking bowed projection. Square-headed window openings with six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows with painted limestone sills. Sill course to first floor openings (excluding bowed projection). Round-headed window opening to west elevation, lighting stair hall, having tripartite multi-pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed window openings to rear blocks having stone sills and timber sash or replacement windows. Square-headed door opening, behind recent porch, having overlight, timber panelled door, timber pilasters, and with flanking six-over-six timber sliding sash windows. Open porch comprises a pair of round-profile Doric-like columns supporting flat roof over having moulded cornice. Flight of limestone steps to entrance with cast-and-wrought-iron railings. Set back from road, on an elevated site, to the northeast of Edgeworthstown. Complex of outbuildings (13401521), walled garden (13401525) and ancillary structures to the northwest. Main entrance gateway to the southeast, at start of long approach avenue to house, comprising a pair of lined-and-ruled rendered gate piers (on square-plan) having garland devices on raised square panels to front faces (southeast), and with carved pineapple finals over. Gates now missing. Gateway flanked to either side by sweeping sections of rendered plinth boundary wall having cast-and wrought-iron railings and terminated in a second pair of piers.

Appraisal

This impressive country house is the finest of its date and type in County Longford. It is built in a late-Georgian/Regency classical idiom, and retains its early form, character and the majority of its early fabric despite the construction of a number of modern extensions to the rear. The Giant order pilasters between the bays of the two main facades, along with the very prominent eaves cornice and blocking course, lend this building a distinctive appearance that is reminiscent of a contemporary seaside villa that could be found in Dun Laoghaire, Monkstown etc. These giant pilasters add interest to the main façade, created a stepped profile that gives this facade a robust but surprising delicate architectural character. The full-height three-bay bow to the east elevation is another interesting architectural element that helps to add further visual impact when approaching the building along the main avenue, and creates an imposing and handsome silhouette in the landscape. The plan of this house is quite unusual with the stair hall to one side of the building (west), which is lit by an enormous round-headed window opening with tripartite timber sash windows. The house also retains many notable features and materials that enhance the building, including timber sash windows and cut limestone steps with ornate cast-iron railings to the entrance. This house was built to designs by the eminent architect John Hargrave (c. 1788 – 1833). Hargrave worked extensively in County Longford during the 1820s and was responsible for the designs for the governor’s house at Longford Town Jail in 1824 (13001036); works at Ardagh House in 1826 (13312039); the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Church of Ireland church at Newtown-Forbes (13303021); the remodelling of Castle Forbes (13303001), nearby Farragh/Farraghroe House (demolished); Doory Hall (13314005) now ruinous; St. Paul’s Church of Ireland church, Ballinalee (13304009); and possibly for the designs of St. Catherine’s Church of Ireland church (13400914) at nearby Killoe. This house was built for Major Samuel Wesley Blackhall (1809 – 1871), and may have replaced an earlier house associated with the Blackall family at Coolamber (a Robert Blackall (1764 – 1855), father of the above, lived in Longford in the late-eighteenth century). Major S. W. Blackall had a distinguished career, serving as High Sheriff of Longford in 1833 and later as MP for Longford between 1847 – 51. He served abroad after 1851, acting as Lieutenant-Governor of Dominca between 1851 – 57, Governor of Sierra Leone between 1862 – 65, and as Governor of Queensland, Australia, from 1868 until his death in 1871. Coolamber Manor was the home of a Major Robert Blackall in 1846 (Slater’s Directory), High Sheriff of Longford in 1859 – 61. It was later the home of the Stanley family (Burroughs Stanley in 1894) and then the Wingfield family. It was sold c. 1960 and was in use as a rehabilitation centre until recently. Coolamber Manor is an important element of the built heritage of County Longford and forms the centrepiece of a group of related structures along with the complex of outbuildings (13401521) and the walled garden and ancillary structures to the west.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/bui ldi ngs-search/building/13401528/coolamber-manor-cloonshannagh-or-coolamber-manor-demesne-co-longford

Detached single-storey curvilinear green house associated with Coolamber Manor (13401520), built c. 1850. Constructed of small glass panes set in wrought-iron superstructure. Rendered brick plinth wall to front (southeast) having wrought-iron window openings over. Render walls on quadrant profile to either end (southwest and northeast). Coursed squared rubble limestone wall to rear (formerly part of walled garden) having red brick section over with segmental-headed window openings having remains of timber fittings; number of openings now blocked. Square-headed door opening to the rendered wall to the southwest end of green house having replacement glazed timber door. Cut stone coping over rear wall. Set in walled garden (on irregular-plan) associated with Coolamber Manor, laid out c. 1830, having coursed rubble stone walls, brick lined to the interior faces, having cut stone coping over a number of sections. Located to the west of Coolamber Manor (13401520) and to the south/southwest of complex of outbuildings (13401521).

Appraisal

This graceful curvilinear green/glass house associated with Coolamber Manor (13401520) retains its early form and character. Its construction in wrought-iron is of technical merit, and it survives in good condition despite being out of use. This green house probably dates to mid-to-late nineteenth century, and was built against the boundary wall of an existing walled garden, built c. 1830. This walled garden is solidly constructed using squared rubble stone masonry and has brick-lined walls to the interior to retain heat and promote growth of produce (orchard) for use in the main house to the east. This green house and the walled garden complex provide an interesting historical and social insight into the extensive resources needed to run and maintain a large country estate in Ireland during the nineteenth century. They form part of a wider collection of structures associated with Coolamber Manor, and are important elements of the built heritage of County Longford.

https://www.buildingsofireland .ie/buildings-search/building/13401521/coolamber-manor-cloonshannagh-or-coolamber-manor-demesne-co-longford

Complex of single- and two-storey stables and outbuildings associated with Coolamber Manor (13401520), built c. 1830 and extended c. 1880, comprising two adjoining courtyards of outbuildings/stable blocks, forming rectangle, with central carriages. Later in use as a rehabilitation clinic, with modern alterations. Now out of use. Complex to the east comprises two-bay single-storey range to east with hipped and pitched natural slate roof, pediment with cut stone detailing to west face. Coursed roughly dressed limestone masonry walls with roughly dressed flush quoins to the corners; painted plinth course. Square-headed window opening with limestone sill and replacement fittings. Square-headed door opening with replacement timber battened door having concrete ramp to entrance (west face). Section of roughly dressed limestone wall to the north end of outbuilding, having cut stone coping and an integral segmental-headed pedestrian entrance with dressed limestone voussoirs. Four-bay two-storey range to north having central pedimented bay with adjoining section of dressed limestone walling having integral segmental-headed carriage arch with double leaf spear headed cast-iron gates. Hipped natural slate roof. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Brick blank roundel to pediment having dressed limestone surrounds. Square-headed openings with replacement windows having limestone sills. Segmental-headed carriage arch to pedimented bay with dressed limestone voussoirs and timber battened double doors. Five-bay two-storey range to south having hipped roof and central pedimented bay. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Brick blank roundel to pediment having round-headed dressed limestone open work bellcote to rear. Square-headed window openings with replacement fittings having limestone sills. Round-headed door opening with replacement timber door. Segmental-headed carriage arches with dressed limestone voussoirs, now blocked up with window openings. Five-bay two-storey range to west with central pedimented bay having blank roundel with dressed limestone surround and hipped natural slate roof. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Square-headed window openings with timber fittings and limestone sills. Square-headed door opening with timber battened door. Segmental-headed carriage arch with dressed limestone voussoirs leading to west complex of outbuildings. South range to west stables having five-bay two-storey elevation. Pitched natural slate roof with brick chimneystack, rubble limestone chimneystack and rendered chimneystack. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Roundel openings with dressed limestone surrounds to first floor. Square-headed window opening with timber fittings and limestone sills. Square-headed opening with timber replacement door to first floor having flight of concrete steps to entrance. Triple arcade of segmental-headed carriage arches having dressed limestone voussoirs and timber replacement doors. Carriage arches to end bays now blocked up with inserted door and window openings. Square-headed entrance with cut limestone lintel having carved keystone and with timber battened door. Seven-bay two-storey range to north with pitched natural slate roof. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Square-headed openings with replacement windows and having limestone sills. Roundel openings with dressed limestone surrounds to first floor. Square-headed openings with timber glazed replacement doorways having dressed limestone surrounds with carved keystones. Segmental-headed carriage arch with dressed limestone voussoirs having timber battened doors. Five-bay two-storey end range with dovecote to pedimented central bay. Hipped slate roof. Snecked limestone masonry walls with painted plinth course. Square-headed openings with replacement windows having cut limestone surrounds and sills. Square-headed opening to first floor with timber battened door having a flight of concrete steps with rendered parapet walls to entrance. Roundel opening to central pedimented bay with dressed limestone surround over segmental-headed carriage arch with dressed limestone voussoirs. Various ancillary buildings to site. Extensions to rear of end range. Located to the west of Coolamber Manor (13401520), in extensive mature grounds, to located to the northeast of Edgeworthstown.

Appraisal

This substantial complex of outbuilding, stables and ancillary structures forms an important element of the Coolamber Manor (13401520) demesne, and represent one of the finest examples of planned outbuildings buildings. These buildings largely retain their early form and character, despite some alterations to accommodate new uses during the late-twentieth century. The stables comprise an elegantly proportioned walled rectangle divided into two courtyards. The scale of this complex provides an interesting historical insight into the extensive resources required to run and maintain a large country estate in Ireland during the nineteenth century. High quality materials have been used in the construction of these outbuildings including fines dressed limestone detailing to the pediments, the bellcote and to many of the openings, and ornate cast-iron gates. The east complex is distinguished from the west outbuildings by the pedimented central bays decorated having dressed limestone roundel openings. These pedimented bays lends the west complex a muted classical architectural character that compliments the style of the main house to the east. The pediment to the north range, west complex, is particularly notable as it doubles as a dovecote and makes for an interesting and unusual feature. This complex was originally commissioned by Major S. W. Blackall and may have been originally built to designs by the architect of Coolamber Manor itself, John Hargrave (c. 1788 – 1833). It appears to have been extended something during the late-nineteenth century (Ordnance Survey map information).

http://visitlongford.ie/listings/coolamber-hall-house/

Coolamber Hall House is fortified buildings similar to tower houses. They usually have a rectangular plan and are often two stories in height; their entrance is usually at first floor level and accessed by an external wooden or stone staircase.

The Coolamber hall house is situated in north-east Longford, approximately 12KM from Edgeworthstown. The main building is two stories in height and has a long, rectangular plan.

The building also has a four storey service tower to the south-east corner. The structure is located on a semi-circular platform which was once enclosed by a stone wall. Interestingly, a late-medieval church is situated to the north-west of the hall house, indicating the power and prestige the owners derived from their association with the church during the Middle Ages.

The hall-house has the remains of a barrel-vault at its northern end at ground floor level. The south end is grass-covered and may conceal two other barrel-vaults.

A doorway in the north-east corner gives access to the tower. A relieving arch located directly above the barrel-vault in the hall suggests that the service tower may be a later addition. Some architectural features remain which date it to the 16th century, including fireplaces and ogee-arched windows.

Coolamber hall house was likely to have been the residence of Thomas Nugent, one of the commissioners for Plantation of Longford in 1620 under King James I. Historically, the site of the house was strategically important as it was at the boundary of the English Pale – the area under full control of the English Crown – in the 17th century and was actually besieged by Oliver Cromwell during his invasion of Ireland after 1649.

The monument is on private property, and is in ruinous condition and therefore should not be entered. However, it is located next to the roadway and is highly visible from there

http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2014 /09 /coolamber-manor.html

THE BLACKALLS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LONGFORD, WITH 4,643 ACRES

MAJOR ROBERT BLACKALL (d 1840), of the East India Company, was father of

SAMUEL WENSLEY BLACKALL (1809-71),  High Sheriff of County Longford, 1833, Colonel, Royal Longford Militia, MP for Longford, 1847-5, Governor of Queensland, 1868-71, who married firstly, in 1833, Catherine Bowles; and secondly, in 1848, Catherine Bond, by whom he had issue,

ADELAIDE BLACKALL, who wedded, in 1864, Captain the Hon Ernest Grey Lambton Cochrane, son of the 10th Earl of Dundonald, though she died several weeks later.

COOLAMBER MANOR, near Lisryan, County Longford, is said to be the finest country house of its era and type in County Longford.

It is built in a late-Georgian/Regency classical idiom, and retains its early form, character and the majority of its early fabric despite the construction of a number of modern extensions to the rear.

The giant order pilasters between the bays of the two main façades, along with the very prominent eaves cornice and blocking course, lend this building a distinctive appearance that is reminiscent of a contemporary seaside villa.

The giant pilasters add interest to the main façade, creating a stepped profile that gives this façade a robust but surprising delicate architectural character.

The full-height three-bay bow to the east elevation is another interesting architectural element that helps to add further visual impact when approaching the building along the main avenue, and creates an imposing and handsome silhouette in the landscape.

The plan of the house is quite unusual, with the stair hall to one side of the building (west), which is lit by an enormous round-headed window opening with tripartite timber sash windows.

The house also retains many notable features and materials that enhance the building, including timber sash windows and cut limestone steps with ornate cast-iron railings to the entrance.

Coolamber Manor was built to designs by the eminent architect John Hargrave, who worked extensively in County Longford during the 1820s.

The house was built for Colonel Samuel Wesley Blackall (1809-71), though may have replaced an earlier house associated with the Blackalls (Major Robert Blackall, 1764-1855, father of the above, lived in Longford in the late-18th century).

Cooamber subsequently became the home of the Stanley family (Burroughs Stanley in 1894); and thereafter the Wingfields.

It was sold ca 1960 and was in use as a rehabilitation centre until recently.

Extending to 15,255 square feet, the manor house is a three-bay, two-storey over basement residence, built in the late Georgian/Regency period.

Adding to its distinctive appearance, the house retains many of its original features that include timber sash windows, cut limestone steps, and ornate cast-iron railings.

Accommodation comprises four reception rooms, a large commercial kitchen and bakery, two gyms, billiards-room, two shower rooms and fourteen bedrooms.

Accessed through an arch, the two cut stone courtyards have been well maintained over the years and are in excellent condition.

These have been fully converted to include four training rooms, a number of two-bedroom apartments, laundry room, stables, tack room, and some lofted stores.

Adjoining these is the farmyard which features a number of slatted and loose-bedded sheds, silage slabs, a disused dairy, and hay sheds.

There are also two other bungalow residences on the property, both of which have their own access.

The present estate includes good stables and 157 acres.

It stands on its original splendour, to the front of Coolamber Wood, adorned by landscaped lawns and gardens, and a well kept farmyard.

Castle Wilder (also known as Cloughdoo), Abbeyshrule, County Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 29, 2025March 31, 2025

Castle Wilder (also known as Cloughdoo), Abbeyshrule, County Longford

p. 80. “(O’Reilly/IFR) A three storey gable-ended house.”

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/b uilding/1 3402321/castlewilder-house-castlewilder-county-longford

Detached five-bay three-storey country house, built c. 1715 and altered c. 1880, having central single-bay two-storey gable-fronted bay to the front elevation (northeast) with two-bay single-storey lean-to extension attached to the northwest side. Pitched natural slate roof with over hanging eaves (to three sides – southeast gable end, northeast and southwest elevation) supported on timber brackets, cast-iron rainwater goods, and with rendered chimneystacks to either gable end (northwest and southeast). Timber bargeboards and timber drop finial to gable apex to southeast gable end. Terracotta ridge cresting to projecting central bay. Pebbledashed walls over smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed diminishing window openings to front elevation having two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows at second floor level; four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows or replacement window openings at first and ground floor level, all having tooled stone sills. Replacement window fittings to rear (southwest) and to gable ends. Square-headed door opening to the southeast face of projecting central bay, probably moved, having carved lugged limestone surround with architrave and moulded lintel, and with replacement door and sidelight. Set well back from road in elevated location to the south of Legan and to the northeast of Abbeyshrule. Complex of outbuildings (13402322) to the north/northwest.

This interesting and substantial house, of early eighteenth-century appearance, retains much of its early character and form. It retains some of its early fabric although the loss of a number of the early fittings to the openings, and the construction of a modern lean-to extension to the northwest side of the projecting central bay, detract somewhat from its architectural character. The proportions of this building, the form of the window openings, and the pitched slate roof with end chimneystacks indicates that this is a building of considerable antiquity. The projecting central bay was probably added sometime during the second half of the nineteenth century. The good quality carved limestone doorcase, which adds an element of artistic interest to the otherwise plain front elevation, was probably moved to its present location following the construction of the projecting central bay. The timber bargeboards to the southeast gable end, and the roof structure (with overhanging eaves) may also have been altered at this time. This building forms the centrepiece in a group of related structures along with the complex of outbuildings (13402322) to the north, and is an integral element of the built heritage of County Longford. This house was originally built by the Wilder family during the first decades of the eighteenth century, and possibly slightly earlier. There are references to the Wilder family in County Longford from the mid-seventeenth century (a Matthew Wilder of Cliduff (former name of house is Cloghdoo) is indicated in the 1659 Census of County Longford, and a Matthew Wilder was appointed as a Commissioner for County Longford from 1697 – 99; an Edward Wilder was a soldier in the 1649 Irish Confederate Wars), which suggests the presence of an earlier house/castle on or close to the site of the present structure. Castlewilder was the home of a William Wilder (1696 – 1745), during the first half of the eighteenth century, and he served as High Sheriff of County Longford in 1730. It remained in the ownership of the Wilder family (with a Matthew Wilder serving as High Sheriff in 1774, and his son, also Matthew, as High Sheriff in 1798) throughout the eighteenth and into the nineteenth century. This house was possibly the home of Theaker Wilder (c. 1717 – c. 1777; son of Matthew Wilder), a mathematician, and first Regius Professor of Greek and Senior Register at Trinity College, Dublin. He is notable for being Oliver Goldsmith’s (rather dismissive) tutor whilst he was at Trinity c. 1747. Castlewilder went into the ownership of the Pollock family c. 1823 (possibly leased), and was the home of a Hugh Pollock Esq. in 1837 (Lewis). A Richard Riggs Shaw J.P. was born here in 1823. Lewis (1837) records that ‘petty sessions are carried out at Castlewilder every alternate week’. The Castlewilder estate was sold in 1845 for a sum of £18,000 (or £13,800) to a Surgeon Richard Pearce O’Reilly (1793 – 1870) of Sackville Street in Dublin. The sale included ‘house, office and 752 acres of land’ of which 700 acres was described as ‘excellent arable, meadow and pasture land’, and c. 32 acres as ‘ornamental timber’. His son Richard Pearce O’Reilly J.P. (1843 – 1920) served as a High Sheriff of County Longford in 1867 and as Deputy Lieutenant in 1892(?).

https://www.geni.com/projects/Historic-Buildings-of-Cou nty-Longford/29631

Castlewilder House Detached five-bay three-storey country house, built c. 1715 and altered c. 1880. Originally built by the Wilder family during the first decades of the 18th century. There are references to the Wilder family in County Longford from the mid-17th century (a Matthew Wilder of Cliduff (former name of house is Cloghdoo) is indicated in the 1659 Census of County Longford, and a Matthew Wilder was appointed as a Commissioner for County Longford from 1697 – 99; an Edward Wilder was a soldier in the 1649 Irish Confederate Wars), which suggests the presence of an earlier house/castle on or close to the site of the present structure. Castlewilder was the home of a William Wilder (1696 – 1745), during the first half of the 18th century, and he served as High Sheriff of County Longford in 1730. It remained in the ownership of the Wilder family (with a Matthew Wilder serving as High Sheriff in 1774, and his son, also Matthew, as High Sheriff in 1798) throughout the 18th and into the 19th century. This house was possibly the home of Theaker Wilder (c. 1717 – c. 1777; son of Matthew Wilder), a mathematician, and first Regius Professor of Greek and Senior Register at Trinity College, Dublin. He is notable for being Oliver Goldsmith’s (rather dismissive) tutor whilst he was at Trinity c. 1747. Castlewilder went into the ownership of the Pollock family c. 1823 (possibly leased), and was the home of a Hugh Pollock Esq. in 1837 (Lewis). A Richard Riggs Shaw J.P. was born here in 1823. Lewis (1837) records that ‘petty sessions are carried out at Castlewilder every alternate week’. The Castlewilder estate was sold in 1845 for a sum of £18,000 (or £13,800) to a Surgeon Richard Pearce O’Reilly (1793 – 1870) of Sackville Street in Dublin. His son Richard Pearce O’Reilly J.P. (1843 – 1920) served as a High Sheriff of County Longford in 1867 and as Deputy Lieutenant in 1892(?).

Castle Forbes, County Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 29, 2025

Castle Forbes, County Longford

p. 67. “(Forbes, Granard, E/PB) A 19th century castle of random ashlar, built about 1830 partly to the design of John Hargrave, of Cork; replacing an earlier house destroyed by fire.

It has two storeys over a high basement, with two adjoining fronts dominated by a lofty, round corner tower. Entrance front with door in a square tower, prolonged by a low service wing and a gateway to the yard in the French style, with a high roof and conical-roofed turret and bartizan added about 1870 to the design of J.J. McCarthy. Adjoining front with four bay block prolonged by lower gabled wing. Heavy battlements and machicolations; lancet windows separated by stone mullions and some Early English tracery windows. Corbelled stone balconies with pierced balustrades.  The interior of the castle was done up in great splendour following the marriage of 8^th Earl of Granard to Beatrice, daughter of Ogden Mills, of Staatsburg, Dutchess County, USA, 1909.”

Photograph from National Library of Ireland.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/b uild ing/13303028/castle-forbes-castleforbes-demesne-newtown-forbes-co-longford

Main entrance gates to Castle Forbes (13303001), erected, c. 1820, comprising a pair of cut limestone gate piers (on square-plan) having cut limestone capstones and replacement gates. Main carriage entrance flanked to either side (north and south) by sections of rubble limestone walling having integral square-headed pedestrian entrances with cut stone surrounds and wrought-iron gates, and terminated by cut stone gate piers with cut stone capstones. Flanking rubble limestone walls on quadrant-plan to either side, terminated by cut stone piers on square-plan with cut stone capstones. Located to the centre of Newtown-Forbes, to the west side of the main street, and to the east of Castle Forbes (13303001). Altered single-storey gate lodge to the south.

Appraisal

This imposing and well-crafted gateway serves as the main entrance to Castle Forbes (13303001) and forms part of an extensive collection of related structures/sites associated with this important demesne. Good quality craftsmanship is apparent in the cut limestone gate piers and the surrounds to the pedestrian entrance. The simple but imposing flanking walls add to the setting and help create a suitably impressive main entrance to the castle/house. It creates an appealing feature in the centre of Newtown-Forbes, which is indicative of the central role Castle Forbes has played in the development of Newtown-Forbes.

https://www.buildingsofirela nd.i e/buildings-search/building/13303001/castle-forbes-castleforbes-demesne-newtown-forbes-co-longford

[no image]

Detached Gothic style six-bay two-storey over raised basement castellated country house/castle on irregular plan, built c. 1830, extensively remodeled/rebuilt c. 1860, and incorporating the fabric of earlier seventeenth century structure(s). Remodeled c. 1925, following fire damage. Comprises central block with advanced single-bay four-storey breakfront on square-plan (having a chapel to the top storey), five-stage tower on circular-plan (with battered base) attached to the south corner and recessed two-bay block attached to the north end. Lower two-storey service wing attached to north (set back from principal block), four-bay elevation to south with lower connecting corridor joining three-bay wing block, and incorporating seventeenth century structure built c. 1660 and remodeled c. 1830. Internal and external remodelling undertaken c. 1925. Hipped natural slate roofs with cut limestone chimneystacks, chamfered crenellations, machicolations (with stepped moulded corbels) and corner turrets. Snecked limestone and granite walls with cut limestone and granite trim, now largely ivy-clad. Cross pommée motifs to top stage of tower. Paired and tripartite cusped, pointed and round-headed window openings with cut stone surrounds, tracery and hood mouldings to main body of building with one-over-one pane timber sliding sash and replacement windows. Quadripartite pointed arch window opening above main entrance (at first floor level) with limestone tracery and mullions under hood moulding. Paired pointed arch window openings to tower with plate limestone tracery under hoodmoulding; paired cusped lancet openings with quatrefoil detail over at first floor level. Round-headed door opening to advanced central block with carved limestone surround and double-leaf glazed doors with wrought and cast-iron detailing. Doorway reached by flight of cut stone steps. Set within its own grounds with adjoining entrance tower to north (13303002) and stable block (13303003) to rear. Located in extensive mature landscaped grounds/demesne to the northwest of Newtown-Forbes. Lough Forbes and River Shannon form western boundary of Demesne.

Appraisal

This imposing country house is important not only for its imposing architectural style but also for the personalities associated with it. It largely dates to the nineteenth century (c. 1830 and c. 1860), but it contains fabric dating from the seventeenth, and probably the eighteenth century, creating a complex and confusing chronology. The style of this building is typical of a number of large castellated Gothic houses built and/or extended in Ireland during the first half of the nineteenth century, including the Knockdrin Castle, Tullynally Castle and Killua Castle, all in neighbouring County Westmeath. Castle Forbes has been the home of a branch of the Forbes family (later Earls of Granard from 1684), originally from Scotland, since the early-seventeenth century. The design of Castle Forbes is similar to that of its namesake in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, built in 1815 (by a branch of the Forbes family), in that it has a central breakfront containing the main entrance and a massive tower on circular plan attached to one end of the principal elevation. Arthur Forbes (later baronet of Nova Scotia) was originally granted extensive lands in County Longford c. 1620 and built a residence (on L-shaped plan and possibly incorporating the fabric of an existing castle) soon after. This house/castle was later heavily damaged by a siege during the rebellion of 1641. This house was described by Dowdall (1682) as a ‘fair aid spacious house with lovely gardens of pleasure’. Eighteenth century fabric survives to the interior of Castle Forbes, suggesting that it was altered during this century. A devastating fire in 1825 destroyed much of the original seventeenth century house, and the 6th Earl of Granard’s family was accommodated in the surviving wings, which were remodeled by John Hargrave (c. 1788 – 1833) of Cork in the late 1820s. It would appear that the rebuilding of the main house/castle was undertaken by the 7th Earl, George Forbes and his Roman Catholic wife, Jane Colclough, c. 1860. They chose the rising architect J. J. McCarthy (1817 – 1882) to execute the building in the Gothic Revival style, a style with which he was familiar due to his church commissions from the Roman Catholic Church. A number of the window openings, particularly the paired lancets to the main body of the building and the paired cusped lancets with quatrefoil detailing to the tower, are distinctly ecclesiastical in character and were probably inspired by McCarthy’s numerous church commissions. Further remodelling was undertaken following a fire in 1923 by F.W. Foster of London, under the directions of the then Countess, Beatrice Mills. The execution of the interior and exterior features is testament to the skill of the craftsmen involved and to the architect’s design. Set within private grounds Castle Forbes forms the centrepiece of a complex group of buildings, which still serve a working demesne. Castle Forbes has the largest demesne in County Longford and is one of the most important elements of the architectural heritage of the county. The Forbes family is important in the history of Longford and indeed the wider history of Ireland. In 1661, the Manor of Mullingar was granted to Sir Arthur Forbes, whose family would own/control the town for 200 years. The 1st Earl of Granard (title created 1684), Sir Arthur Forbes (1623 – 1695), served as a lieutenant general in the British Army and was later Lord Justice of Ireland (in office 1671 and 1673). The 3rd Earl of Granard, George Forbes (1685 – 1765), was an admiral in the Royal Navy. The sixth Earl, George Forbes (1760 – 1837), was made Baron Granard in 1806, a title that gave the Earls an automatic seat in the House of Lords. The 8th Earl, Bernard Arthur William Patrick Hastings Forbes, held junior office in the Liberal administrations of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H. Asquith and was later a member of the Irish Senate from 1922 to 1934.

Featured in Mark Bence Jones, Life in an Irish Country House. Constable, London. 1996.

https://archiseek.com/2015 /1830 -castle-forbes-newtownforbes-co-longford

1830 – Castle Forbes, Newtownforbes, Co. Longford

Architect: J.J. McCarthy

A 19th century castle of random ashlar, built about 1830, replacing an earlier house destroyed by fire. It has two storeys over a high basement, with two adjoining fronts dominated by a lofty, round corner tower. The house has heavy battlements and machiolations; lancet windows separated by stone mullions; and a few Early English tracery windows. There is a service wing and a gateway to the yard in the French style, with a high roof and conical-roofed turret and bartizan added about 1870 to designs by J.J. McCarthy. Illustrati0n published in The Irish Builder, November 15 1880.

https://www.geni.com/proj ects/His toric-Buildings-of-County-Longford/29631

Castleforbes or Castle Forbes, Restored Castle. Seat of the Earls of Granard, Castleforbes is situated about three miles from Longford town, standing between the river Shannon and Newtownforbes; a 19th century cut limestone structure. Designed by John Hargrave from Cork. Castleforbes was built in 1624 by Lady Jane Lauder, wife of Sir Arthur Forbes, 1st Baronet of Longford. In 1825, the castle was partly burned but restored soon afterwards. The complete decoration of the castle was completed in 1909, following the marriage of Beatrice, daughter of Ogden Mills of Strasburg to the Bernard Forbes, Earl of Granard

Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.

p. 189. “Both its scale and its well-built character were contributed by its architect, for theh ouse, unusualy, is a grand domestic design by the leading Catholic church architect of the day, James Joseph McCarthy. The window openings are McCarthy’s familiar paired lancets. Above the front door is a four-light mullioned window, typical of many a church clerestory, while pointed windows on the principal tower are paired cusped lancets with a quatrefoil above, identical to those that appear in the side aisles of the architect’s churches throughout Ireland. Even the label mouldings above the windows rest on square blocks of stone that have been left uncarved, as happened with many of McCarthy’s churches. So the details of Castle Forbes come out of the office ecclesiasticl drawer and are made to serve the purposes of domestic architecture.

The Victorian house is set at the corner of a complex series of offices and yards, running as a range of low, two-storey buildings, north to a turreted gateway and a separate round turret, and west, past a battlemented tower with flanking walls, to a small battlemented block and then a long garden wall, also with crenellations, which extends for over 90 m. The house is thus part of a larger setting and was intended to compose picturesquely as the culmination of two long views. At their apex McCarthy set an ample round tower, rather too dominant in the composition, with a battered base, five storeys and, at the top, a machicolated parapet, fully corbelled out, so that a visitor can look up at the curving surface of the tower to squares of sky appearing between the corbels and the battlements. A second, square tower in the middle of the entrance front is four storeys high (with a chapel on the top floor), and the rest of the building is of two storeys set on a high basement.

Round towers at the corners of a Gothic mansion were very much part of the standard repertoire of motifs in English and Irish picturesque buildings in the early C19. McCarthy uses the motif late in its history and to off effect, as the tower has no answering element at hte other end of either the east or the south front. It makes the principal elevations lop-sided, and the soft, circular form is at variance with the somewhat institutional square style of the rest of the house. Indeed it looks like something stuck on; but it is just possible that there was an influence from the client in the choice of this feature. Castle Forbes is the seat of the Irish branch of the Forbes family, which originally came from Scotland. There is a second Castle Forbes at Whitehouse in Aberdeenshire, and that house, which was designed by Archibald Simpson in 1815, at the hieght of the picturesque movement, has a similar though slightly larger round tower set at one corner. In Ireland the family may have wanted to include an allusion to its Scottish origins and could [p. 190] have asked McCarthy to incorporate a single corner tower in the new house.

Arthur Forbes, the sixth son of William Forbes of Corss, settled in Ireland in 1620. In 1628 he became a baronet of Nova Scotia when he obtained a grant of lands in Co Longford, including a large late medieval Irish castle, whose barrel vaulted basement and first-floor wall – clearly identified by the use of rubble and boulder stone – still forms part of the entrance fron tof the present Castle Forbes. On the south side of this castle and a little in front of it Sir Arthur built a new L-shaped house: two storeys on a basement, with high hipped roofs, and a big stepped-chimney lum, on the south side, supporting a range of tall diagonal shaped chimneystacks, typical of early C17 houses in Ireland. All the windows were paired mullioned lights. Sir ARthur’s house must have been finished by 1632, the year in which he was killed in a duel in Hamburg. It was defended successfully by his widow, Jane Lauder, in 1641 and remained the family home until 1825, when most of the building was destroyed by a fire. Its appearance in the late C18 is accurately recorded by two views: a sketch of the south side by Thomas Auchtermuchty and an anonymous view of the main front dated July 1799. All that survives today is a coat of arms coupling three muzzled bear heads for Sir Arthur Forbes and a rampant griffon for Jane Lauder, with the initials AF and IL. These are above the battlemented gateway west of the house, and McCarthy’s new mansion has replaced everything else.

§om 1684 Sir Arthur’s eldest son, who had succeeded to the estates, was raised to the peerage as Earl of Granard. When the C17 house caught fire in 1825 it belonged to George Forbes, the sixth Earl; the hero on that occasion was a springer spaniel called Pilot which according to the inscription on his portrait “pulled the Viscount Forbes out of his bed when the Castle Forbes was on fire.” By this date the C17 house had gained extensive additions in two long, two-storey wings running back from the main house; and it seems that these, which still exist, were extended and adapted for family use following the fire. The west end of the long extension to the house dates from this period, with pretty Gothic castle details, such as dummy arrow slits, stepped battlements and a mullioned window copied from Pugin’s Specimens of Gothic Architecture with carved label stops of a male and female head. This work was apparently carried out to designs of John Hargrave, who possibly made part of the ruins of the C17 house habitable at the same period.

The first notice of McCarthy being employed at Castle Forbes comes from The Dublin Builder for Sept 1859, which reported that ‘a new range of stabling of a very superior character’ was to be built to his designs. The builder was to be a Mr R. Farrell. Exactly one year before, the seventh Earl, who had succeeded his grandfather in 1837 as a child of not quite four, was married, now aged twenty-five, to a wealthy Catholic heiress, Jane Colclough from Johnstown Castle, Co Wicklow.

p. 191. The new Countess of Granard had both the funds and the taste to commission a new castle from a rising Catholic architect; as Johnstown Castle, a design by Daniel Robertson, was a Gothic house with many towers, bay windows and a romantic silhouette, the style she would expect to build in must have been something similar, only bolder and more modern. No doubt when Castle Forbes was completed its hard firm details and bold pitch-pine interiors must have seemed radically different from the more delicate plaster Gothic of the late Georgian period or the tame manorial style popular for early Victorian houses.

p. 191. In 1923, not long after the eight Earl had been elected a member of the Senate of the Irish Free State, Castle Forbes was set on fire. The south half of McCarthy’s main block was burnt nd, htough the extent of the damage is not clear, perhaps it was not very great – the fire provided an opportunity for another remodelling of the house, now of McCarthy’s interior, to suit the taste of the eight Lord Granard and his American wife, Beatrice Mills. This work was largely the cocern of the Countess, who, with the assistance of the London architect F.W. Foster, extended sections of the castle to change the proportions of McCarthy’s rooms, making space for a series of historicist interiors to replace the Victorian rooms. In these alterations the dining room wall was brought forward almost to the level of the entrance tower and lost, in the process, a large bay window which McCarthy had provided to light the ‘high-table’ end of the room. On the south front two balconies, with Ruskinian pierced stone fronts, were removed as inappropriate, and two windows were blanked out when the rooms inside were combined to create one long drawing room. Behind the main house, the west extension, a gabled manorial range which probably predated McCarthy’s work, was rebuilt as a heavy, rectangular two-storey block to contain a large library.

All that remains of the Victorian interior is the Gallery connecting the hall to the library – a long, high corridor with assertive, single-chamfer ribbed vaulting, springing from sharp prismatic corbels, as in authentic late Gothic work in Ireland, and surrounding three hexagonal roof-lights, authentically C19, and filled with orange and brown staired glass and Forbes bears. The windows in the gallery are long Y-traceried lights. Niches opposite flank a large and plain neo-Norman fireplace, whose arch is decorated with studs. The Main Tower Room is also unaltered since McCarthy’s day. It has exposed pine shutters and a doorway framed by timber colonnettes with leaf-carved lintel and a crenellated cornice. [p. 192] Old photographs show that this was the standard door for the main rooms of the house. The dining room had the same and also a Caen stone chimneypiece with paired marble colonnettes supporting an armorial achievement. The Crypt, or lower hall, is much as McCarthy left it, with shoulder arches to the windows and Romanesque brass door furniture inspired by the designs of Pugin or Burges. The main staircase was of white stone with coloured marble bosses.

In her refurbishment of the house Lady Granard was assisted by two teams of decorators: Fernand Allard from Paris and Lenygon and Morant of 31 Old Burlington St, London. Allard designed the Hall and Staircase, lining the walls with elegant pale grey ashlar blocks with broad white pointing, round-headed arches and divided mirrored doors. The ceiling cornice is a reticent pattern of shallow modillions and the stair rails are light wrought-iron scrolls in the manner of Francois Blondel. The English decorators, who also fitted out the Cunard liners of this period, provided three contrasting rooms. The Dining Room is a formal square, lined in oak, with bolection-moulded panelling, adn given a trompe l-oeil ceiling of a late baroque open dome. Fluted Corinthian columns supporting large segmental pediments frame the principal doors, giving the impression of a Wren-school room of C. 1700. The Drawing Room is an English Palladian interior in the manner of William Kent, with paired chimneypieces with pedimented overmantels, fish-scaled console brackets and continuously carved mouldings. The ceiling has an C18 allegorical canvas showing the Genius of Architecture. The Library, a large rectangular room, is lined with bookcases of exposed timber boiserie with an ambitious ceiling canvas, possibly late C17 and Dutch, depicting Faith, HOpe and Charity, in a moulded central oval, with figures of the four seasons set in each corner. The Chapel contains a gilt and timber late baroque retable, c. 1730 and probably French.

McCarthy’s stableyard is approached by a detached gatehouse, a small two-storey building with hipped roof and angle bartizans with conical slate roofs at each corner. It carried an achievement of arms of the seventh Earl, carved in high relief, over the entrance arch. The wall to the north of this may be part of the bawn wall of the original castle. Within the courtyard McCarthy built a long west range of stable offices; two storeys of coursed snecked rubble with a central carriage arch surmounted by a clocktower and flanked by battlemented gables. The facade is rather flat. At its north end a small square turret carries a royal coat of arms, C16 and apparently of Queen Elizabeth.

A small tower and dovecote, SE, may have been a flanker for the C17 house.

South of the house are several mature Lebanon cedars, Spanish chestnut trees and an enclosed Italian garden, laid out on one long axis with a central fountain, urns, and yew hedges focusing on the statue of Perseus after Canova. AT the entrance to the rose garden the large Armorial eagles, carved in stone and flanking the gateway, were once the supporters of the arms of the Early of Tylney (Viscount Castlemaine and Baron Newtown in the Irish Peerage) which were brought to Castle Forbes when Lord Tylney’s home, Wanstead House in Essex, the earliest Palladian country house, designed by Colen Campbell, was demolished ca. 1812. The gates also carry an inscribed stone of 1567 recording the capture by Sir Henry Sidney of “the great rebel Shane O’Nele” brought “in Subjectino to the Crown of Engladn to the Great Joyie of the REalm” In the park the ruin of a rectangular later medieval church, rubble built with gables, has been adapted at the chancel end to serve as the family mausoleum.”

http://lordb elmon tinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/05/castle-forbes.html

THE EARLS OF GRANARD WERE THE SECOND LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LONGFORD, WITH 14,978 ACRES 

The surname of Forbes is said to be a corruption of Forebeast, which was originally assumed by the founder of the family in Scotland, to commemorate the achievement of having destroyed a ferocious bear which had infested the country.

SIR ARTHUR FORBES (c1590-1632), Knight, directly descended from the Hon Patrick Forbes, of Corse, third son of James, 2nd Lord Forbes, by Egidia, his wife, daughter of William Keith, Earl Marischal of Scotland, settled in Ireland, 1620, and was made, by patent dated at Dublin, 1622, a free denizen of that kingdom.

In 1628, Sir Arthur was created a baronet; and having, by petition to the King, made discovery that several royal fishings in the province of Ulster belonged to the Crown, an inquiry was thereupon instituted, and Sir Arthur was eventually rewarded by a grant of such proportion of the said fisheries as he thought proper to demand, besides the sum of £300 from the first profits of the remainder.

He had previously obtained extensive territorial possessions from the Crown, particularly a grant of sundry lands in County Longford, in all 1,266 acres, which were erected into the manor of Castle Forbes, with the usual manorial privileges.

Sir Arthur wedded Jane Lowther, and falling in a duel at Hamburg, 1632, where he had accompanied his regiment (he was lieutenant-colonel in the army) to assist Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, was succeeded by his eldest son,

THE RT HON SIR ARTHUR FORBES, 2nd Baronet (1623-95), who zealously espoused the royal cause in Scotland, and was rewarded, after the Restoration, by being sworn of the Privy Council in Ireland, and appointed marshal of the army in that kingdom.

In 1671, Sir Arthur was constituted one of the Lords Justices of Ireland, and again in 1675, when he was elevated to the peerage, in the dignities of Baron Clanehugh and Viscount Granard.

In 1684, his lordship was appointed Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Foot in Ireland, and Lieutenant-General in the army; and in the same year was advanced to the dignity of an earldom, as EARL OF GRANARD.

He married Catherine, daughter of Sir Robert Newcomen Bt, by whom he had five sons and a daughter, Catherine, wedded to Arthur, 3rd Earl of Donegall.

His lordship died in 1695, he was succeeded by his eldest son,

ARTHUR, 2nd Earl (c1656-1734), who wedded, in 1678, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir George Rawdon Bt, of Moira, County Down, and had three sons and two daughters.

His lordship was succeeded by his only surviving son,

GEORGE, 3rd Earl (1685-1765), who had been called to the House of Lords in the lifetime of his father, as Lord Forbes.

His lordship was a naval officer of great eminence and rank, and at the time of his decease, was senior admiral of the Royal Navy.

In 1733, he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Muscovy; and upon his recall, in 1734, was highly complimented by the Empress.

He espoused, in 1709, Mary, eldest daughter of Sir William Stewart, 1st Viscount Mountjoy, of that family (now extinct), and widow of Phineas Preston, of Ardsallagh, County Meath, and had issue,

GEORGE, his successor;

John, Admiral of the Fleet;

His lordship was succeeded by his elder son, 

GEORGE, 4th Earl (1710-69), Lieutenant-General in the Army, Colonel, 29th Regiment of Foot, who wedded, in 1736, Letitia, daughter of Arthur Davys, and was succeeded at his decease, in 1769, by his only son,

GEORGE, 5th Earl (1740-80), who married firstly, in 1759, Dorothea, second daughter of Sir Nicholas Bayley Bt, and sister of Henry, 1st Earl of Uxbridge, by whom he had one surviving son, GEORGE, his successor.

His lordship espoused secondly, in 1766, Georgiana Augusta, eldest daughter of Augustus, 4th Earl of Berkeley, and had issue,

Henry;
Frederick;
Georgiana Anne; Augusta; Louisa Georgiana; Elizabeth.

His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,

GEORGE, 6th Earl (1760-1837), who was created a peer of the United Kingdom, as Baron Granard, of Castle Donington, Leicestershire.

He wedded, in 1779, Selina Frances, fourth daughter of John, 1st Earl of Moira, and had issue,

GEORGE JOHN, father of GEORGE ARTHUR HASTINGS;
Francis Reginald;
Hastings Brudenell;
Elizabeth Maria Theresa; Adelaide Dorothea; Caroline Selina.

His lordship was a general in the army, and Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper in Ireland.

George, 6th Earl (1760–1837);

George John Forbes, Viscount Forbes (1785-1836);

George Arthur Hastings, 7th Earl (1833-89);

Bernard Arthur William Patrick Hastings, 8th Earl (1874–1948);

Arthur Patrick Hastings, 9th Earl (1915-92);

Peter Arthur Edward Hastings, 10th Earl (b 1957).

The heir apparent is the present holder’s son, Jonathan Peter Hastings Forbes, styled Viscount Forbes (b 1981).

The ancestral family seat of the Earls of Granard is Castle Forbes, near Newtown Forbes, County Longford.

It remains in the ownership of the family (as of 2008).

The 8th Earl was the last Lord-Lieutenant of County Longford, from 1916 until 1922.

CASTLE FORBES, near Newtownforbes, County Longford, is a 19th century castle of random ashlar, built about 1830.

It replaced an earlier house destroyed by fire. 

It has two storeys over a high basement, with two adjoining fronts dominated by a lofty, round corner tower.

The house is prolonged by a low service wing and a gateway to the yard in the French style, with a high roof and conical-roofed turret and bartizan added about 1870.

Castle Forbes has heavy battlements and machiolations; lancet windows separated by stone mullions; and a few Early English tracery windows.

There are also corbelled stone balconies with pierced balustrades. 

The Castle remains the private home of the Forbes family, Earls of Granard.

The village of Newtownforbes takes its name from the Forbes family, having resided in the region since 1691.

The village church, built in the late 17th century, is one of the few Regency buildings of its type in the county.

Castle Forbes has its entrance in the centre of the village.

The Forbes family changed the name of the village from Lisbrack to Newtownforbes  ca 1750.

There is no public access to the Castle or grounds, which are strictly private.

Although Newtownforbes geographically has always been in the shadow of Castle Forbes, it cannot be regarded as an estate village.

There are only a few houses in the centre of the village, near the main entrance to the estate, which were built by the estate owners for the workers on the estate.

They were some of the first houses in the county to have flush toilets.

The present occupant is the Lady Georgina Forbes, although she lives in France (as of 1990) and uses the castle occasionally during the year.

Lady Georgina is an accomplished horse breeder and owner.

Carriglas Manor, Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 28, 2025October 29, 2025

Carriglas Manor, Longford

*Carriglas Manor, County Longford, photograph by Robert French, [between ca. 1865-1914], Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.*

P. 58. “[Newcomen; Lefroy] Originally a manor of the (C of I) Bishops of Ardagh; left to Trinity College, Dublin in C17, and leased by Trinity in C18 to the Newcomen family. Magnificent stables were built here ca. 1790, to the design of James Gandon, extending round two courtyards, with pedimented and rusticated archways; as well as an entrance gateway to the park, also by Gandon. After the failure of the Newcomen bank – which caused the suicide of one member of the family – Carrigglas was leased to Chief Justice Lefroy, who later bought the freehold of the estate, and who rebuilt the house in Tudor-Gothic to the design of Daniel Robertson of Kilkenny, 1837/40. Symmetrical entrance front, with central gable and oriel over porch, flanked by two slender polygonal battlemented turrets. Gables and oriels with Gothic tracery on side elevation; orangery on garden front. Lower service wing. Square entrance hall opening into staircase hall lit by stained glass window; stairs with cast iron handrail. Drawing room, library and dining room en suite along garden front. Drawing room ceiling with plaster Gothic ribs and cornice of foliage, coloured pale blue and gold. Gothic panels to doors. Library with Gothic bookcases of oak. Dining room with Tudor-style ceiling, and cornice of foliage.”

on An Taisce Buldings at Risk register

https://www.antaisc e.or g/buildingsatrisk/carrigglas-manor-carrigglass

Vacant with no identified new use

Suffering from neglect and/or poor maintenance

Assessment

Condition of Structure: Poor

Level of Risk: High

Appraisal

This building has been vacant for a number of years and does not appear to be maintained. Most of the external fabric remains, but there are obvious signs of deterioration, particularly water penetration, slipped slates and vegetation growth. There is no immediate danger of collapse but the condition is such that unless urgent remedial works are carried out the building will sharply deteriorate.

Carriglass is an early 19th century Tudor revival house designed by Daniel Robertson and formerly the residence of the Lefroy Family. The late 18th century stable yard and main entrance gates are designed by James Gandon. There have been major residential developments proposed on the site in the past decade, however, it has largely stalled with only the first phase of housing having been constructed on the grounds. The use of main house and stables remains unresolved. According to a local newspaper the estate was sold to the Glennon Brothers in June 2014. This building urgently requires new uses to be identified to prevent further deterioration of its character.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-se arch/b uilding/13401414/carrigglas-manor-carrickglass-demesne-longford-by-county-longford

*Carrigglas Manor, County Longford, courtesy National Inventory.*

Detached double-pile five-bay two-storey former country house on complex irregular plan, built between c. 1837 and c. 1845, having two-storey and single-storey wings and projections adjoining to the southwest. Comprises mainly symmetrical main five-bay block to northeast end with central gabled breakfront having castellated canted oriel window over projecting doorcase (on square-plan), flanked to either side at first floor by gabled half dormer bays (bay to the northeast is in the form of an oriel window), and terminated by three-stage towers (on octagonal-plan) having castellated parapets. Castellated three-bay canted projection to the centre of rear elevation (southwest), having two gabled half dormer window openings to either side at first floor level, castellated four-light single-storey box bay window to the southwest side of canted projection at ground floor level. Triple-light box bay window to northeast side elevation of main block having moulded cut stone tracery/mullions with cinquefoil heads and stained glass windows. Single-storey castellated canted bay adjacent to the northeast. Multiple-bay two-storey recessed wing to southwest of main entrance front (northwest) having gabled half dormer window flanked to the southwest by two-storey castellated canted projection, and then with a single-bay two-storey gable-fronted bay and terminated by castellated two-bay single-storey block. Three-bay two-storey block to the southwest end of rear elevation (southeast) of main block having central projecting gable-fronted bay flanked to either side by gabled half dormer openings at first floor level; single-bay two-storey advanced gable-fronted bay adjacent to the southwest. Rear elevation (southeast) terminated to southwest by canted five-bay single-storey conservatory/orangery having curvilinear wrought- and cast-iron roof, glass now missing. Castellated parapet to conservatory, screening roof. Single-storey block to southwest end is partially over basement surrounded and by limestone wall with cut limestone coping over. Pitched natural slate roofs with moulded limestone coping, cut stone kneeler stones and carved limestone finials to gable apexes of gabled bays. Single, double and clustered moulded limestone Tudor style chimneystacks having moulded string courses and cast-iron rainwater goods. Moulded cut limestone console brackets to roofline, between gabled bays and dormers. Ashlar limestone masonry walls over moulded chamfered plinth with moulded string courses between floors to main body of building and separating each stage of towers; carved limestone coats of arms to a number of gables. Engaged moulded limestone buttresses to number of canted bays and to corners of box bay windows, rising to finials over. Square-headed window openings to main block having chamfered limestone surrounds and sills, and having single, paired and multi-pane segmental-headed timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed window openings to service wing (southwest) having single, paired and multipane square-headed timber sliding sash windows. Replacement windows to some openings. Chamfered cut limestone mullions to paired and multi-pane window openings. Cut stone label mouldings over a number of window openings, particularly at ground floor level to main block. Square-headed window openings to towers (northwest elevation) having chamfered surrounds and sills, carved limestone label mouldings over, and segmental-headed tow-over-two-pane timber sliding sash windows. Tudor-arched door opening, set in square-headed limestone surround, to centre of entrance front (northwest) having quatrefoil motifs to head and carved, flanking shafts with label moulding having heraldic label stops, and with timber panelled double doors. Flight of limestone steps to entrance. Square-headed French door opening to central canted projection to rear of main block (southeast) having glazed timber doors. Doorway reached by flight of cut limestone steps flanked to either side by ashlar limestone plinth walls having moulded limestone coping over. Five-bay single-storey conservatory to rear (southeast) at the southwest end having remains of curvilinear cast-and wrought-iron roof with ornate console brackets. Castellated parapets with buttresses between bays rising to gabled finials over. Ashlar limestone masonry with moulded eaves course to castellated parapet. Wide Tudor-arched window openings, some with remains of multi-light timber window fittings. Located in an elevated site within extensive mature parkland grounds, and located to the northeast of Longford Town. Gateway to the southwest of house comprising a pair of outer ashlar limestone gate piers (on octagonal plan) having moulded limestone caps, inner tapered ashlar limestone screen walls having spear-headed cast-iron railings over, and terminating in pair of wrought- and cast-iron openwork piers with double leaf wrought-iron gates. Low ashlar limestone wall to the rear (southeast) of house having gateway comprising a pair of ashlar limestone gate piers (on octagonal-plan) having moulded limestone caps and wrought-iron double gates.

This rambling Tudor Revival or Elizabethan house, with its dramatic roofline of Tudoresque chimneystacks, turrets and gabled projections, is one of the finest houses of its type and date in the country. It is well-built using ashlar limestone masonry and is extensively detailed with carved and cut limestone of the highest quality (the main masonry contractor involved was William Dennin, while Andrew Coffey was responsible for the carved coats-of-arms and much of the detailing). The principal entrance front of the main elevation (northwest) is almost symmetrical, with its central gabled bay flanked to either side by three-stage towers on octagonal-plan, but the other elevations of the main block and to the ancillary wings are irregular, which creates an interesting plan with contrasting elevations and perspectives. Unusually for a country house of its size and date, the service wings are treated with the same architectural flair as the main house, and not hidden within a courtyard to the rear or in the basement as is more commonly encountered. The plan of the building is deceptively simple, the main block is essentially a plain rectangle, which through the addition of soaring towers and lofty Tudor style chimneystacks, acquires an almost theatrical façade. The Tudor Gothic theme culminates in the frivolous and playful conservatory/orangery to the rear. This conservatory, with its arcade of pointed arches, is reminiscent of the later French Gothic style with its towering gabled buttresses, tall wide window openings and thin walls. Carrigglas Manor is a fine example of the nineteenth century penchant for dramatic, sixteenth-century architecture given a romantic interpretation. Carrigglas Manor was built to designs by Daniel Robertson (died 1849), for Thomas Langlois Lefroy (1776 – 1869), Baron of the Court of Exchequer in 1841 and later the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland (from 1852). Reputedly, the character Mr. Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was based on the Thomas Lefroy (they met in England when Lefroy was attending college there). The architect of Carrigglas, Daniel Robertson, came to Ireland in 1829 after working on a number of Oxford colleges, buildings that are frequently built in the Tudor or Elizabethan style, which must have influenced Robertson’s Tudor-Revival designs of which he is a noted exponent. Robertson received many commissions following his arrival in Ireland, mainly for country house work (mostly in a Tudor style) in the south eastern counties, particularly in Counties Wexford and Carlow. Carrigglas is his only known commission in the north midlands. The present Carrigglas Manor is built on the site (or close to the site) of an earlier house (LF014-116—-). The estate (and house?) was originally a manor of the Church of Ireland Bishops of Ardagh. The estate was left to Trinity College, Dublin, in the seventeenth-century and was later leased by Trinity, c. 1695 (deed), to the Newcomen family (later the Gleadowe-Newcomen family). It appears to have been bought by the Newcomen family in 1772. The owner/resident at the turn of the nineteenth-century, Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, commissioned James Gandon (1742 – 1823), the architect responsible for a number of structures at Carrigglas (including the stables (13401415), to design a neoclassical villa for him at Carrigglas. However, he later went bankrupt, following the collapse of the Newcomen Bank, before work could start on this house/villa. The Newcomen family had lived in Longford, (at Mosstown, Keenagh, amongst other places) , from the early-seventeenth century. Carrigglas Manor was leased to, and later bought, by the above Thomas Lefroy, c. 1833 (newspaper). This fine house forms the centrepiece of an extensive collection of related structures at Carrigglas, which represents one of the most important demesnes in north Leinster. The estate remained in the possession of the Lefroy family until c. 2005.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-s earc h/building/13401415/carrigglas-manor-carrickglass-demesne-longford-by-co-longford

Farmyard complex and stable block associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414), built c. 1792 and c. 1800, comprising two courtyard enclosures, arranged along the same axis, with arched carriage arches. Complex of two-storey ranges to the northeast formerly in use as stableyard, complex of single-and two-storey outbuildings to the southwest formerly in use as agricultural yard. Two-storey workers houses to site. Currently out of use. Complex to the northeast comprises two-storey entrance range with central pedimented breakfront having round-headed carriage arch, hipped natural slate roof with rendered chimneystack. Coursed rubble limestone masonry walls to exterior, dressed ashlar limestone to interior. Pedimented breakfront consisting of ashlar limestone over chamfered impost course with rusticated limestone masonry to plinth. Chamfered pediment with carved dentils over sculpted limestone plaque (rectangular) having guttae to base. Round-headed groin-vaulted arch (brick) with timber panelled doors. Square-headed window openings to northeast side (exterior) having two-over-two timber sliding sash windows with limestone sills. Segmental-headed openings to interior of courtyard (southwest), ground floor having replacement timber windows with limestone sills and timber battened doors. Square-headed openings to first floor, some with two-over-two timber sliding sash windows and all retaining limestone sills. Multiple-bay two-storey ranges to the southeast and northwest sides of yard (northeast courtyard) having hipped natural slate roofs with brick chimneystacks to south-east range. Ashlar limestone masonry walls. Segmental-headed window openings to ground floors having six-over-six timber sliding sash windows, some with fixed glazed windows. Square-headed windows openings to first floor some with three-over-three timber sliding sash windows, all with limestone sills. Serliana/Venetian-type window openings to northeast side elevations of southeast and northwest ranges. Segmental-headed door openings to ground floors (main axis of southeast and northwest ranges, inner faces) with timber battened half doors having cut limestone thresholds. Round-headed openings to end-bays leading to flight of steps to first floor of southeast and northwest ranges. Two-storey range to southwest side of northeast courtyard (range dividing the two courtyards) comprising three-bay two-storey central block with pedimented breakfront flanked by single-storey recessed sections with round-headed openings and terminated to either side by two-bay two-storey end blocks. Hipped natural slate roofs with brick chimneystacks to outer blocks. Ashlar limestone masonry with string course and blank roundel to pediment. Square-headed window openings to breakfront at first floor level with six-over-three timber sliding sash windows having limestone sills. Three elliptical-headed carriage arches to central breakfront with ashlar voussoirs and projecting keystones, and having timber battened double doors. Middle range (range dividing two courtyards) rendered to southwest elevation with central pedimented half dormer opening above central carriage arch. Central block flanked to either side by three-bay two-storey blocks with hipped slate roofs, cut limestone eaves course and brick chimneystacks. Segmental-headed window and door openings at ground floor level to both blocks, square-headed window openings over, outer openings blocked. Single-storey ranges to northwest and southeast sides of courtyard (southwest courtyard) having three-bay pedimented breakfront s with lunette windows to pediments to centre of each range. Hipped corrugated-metal and natural slate roofs. Painted render over coursed rubble limestone masonry walls with ashlar quoins to corners and flush ashlar plinth. Lunette windows with rusticated limestone surrounds to west end-bay of southeast range over square-headed openings with ashlar block-and-start limestone surrounds having timber battened half doors, and with round-headed openings over with rusticated ashlar surrounds. Square-headed window openings to west end-bay of northwest range having replacement glazed windows with limestone sills. Square-headed door openings with ashlar block-and-start limestone surrounds, some retaining timber battened half doors. Central pedimented three-bay blocks having central round-headed openings with recessed ashlar limestone round-headed insets to ground floors with heavy limestone block-and-start surrounds. Flanked by round-headed openings having limestone block-and-start surrounds and continuous carved limestone impost course and ashlar quoins. Arcades to southwest end-bays of southeast and northwest ranges having round or elliptical-headed arches with ashlar limestone surrounds. Five-bay single-storey section to the northeast end of northwest range having square-headed door and window openings with ashlar surrounds and timber fittings. Five-bay single-storey section to the northeast end of southwest range having square-headed door and window openings with ashlar surrounds and timber fittings. Round-headed lunette openings over door openings having ashlar surrounds. Round-headed openings over with ashlar surrounds Southwest range comprising central three-bay two-storey breakfront with stepped ashlar limestone bellcote, flanked to either side by slightly recessed single-storey ranges with arcades of four elliptical-headed carriage arches with ashlar limestone surrounds. Hipped corrugated-metal roof to two-storey section, hipped natural slate roofs to single-storey sections to either side. Ashlar limestone round-headed openwork stepped bellcote with bell to centre of breakfront, above elliptical-headed entrance arch with ashlar limestone surrounds. Ashlar limestone masonry walls to ground floor with carved impost course and painted render over coursed rubble limestone masonry walls to first floor having limestone quoins to corners. Square-headed window openings at first floor level with limestone block-and-start surrounds having six-over-six timber sliding sash windows and limestone sills. Southwest range, southwest (outer) elevation comprises central single-bay block with projecting rusticated limestone masonry walls with carved impost course and recessed central elliptical-headed carriage arch with metal sheeted double doors. Single-storey rubble stone walls to either side. Located with the grounds of Carrigglas Manor, to the west of the main house, and to the northwest of Longford Town centre.

Appraisal

These two courtyards of outbuildings associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414) represent one of the best examples of their type in Ireland. They were designed by James Gandon (1742 – 1823) and were constructed between c. 1792 and c. 1804. This complex comprises an elegantly proportioned walled rectangle divided into two courtyards with a stable block to the northeast and a more architecturally plain and rustic, but nevertheless, impressive, agricultural/farmyard complex to the southwest. The differing architectural treatment of the yards has been interpreted as a metaphor for the superior status of the horse over agricultural/farmyard activity (Craig 1982, 240). Casey and Rowan (1993, 180) suggest that the stableyard was constructed first, c. 1792 and that the farmyard was added later. Entrance to the yards is through arched gateways that act as a central focus to the complexes. The arched entrance to the central range dividing the two courtyards, formerly had a cupola over, now no longer extant. The highest quality materials have been used throughout the fabric of these structures and they survive in good condition despite being out of use for a considerable period, which is testament to the quality of the original construction. The classical language of Gandon’s architecture is given free reign in these functional yet highly refined structures. The entrance ranges are distinguished from the side ranges, which housed the stables, animal houses and possibly also accommodation for farm workers, by the austere pedimented breakfronts with limited ornamentation. The relative scarcity of decoration lends a force and gravity to Gandon’s architecture that is immediately apparent when compared to the picturesque and frivolous Carrigglas Manor, an Elizabethan or Tudor-Gothic revival house, designed by a leading proponent of the style, Daniel Robertson (died c. 1849) c. 1837. This complex was commissioned by Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, the owner of Carrigglas Demesne at the time of construction. Gleadowe-Newcomen also commissioned Gandon to design a neoclassical villa for him at Carrigglas. However, Gleadowe-Newcomen later went bankrupt, following the collapse of the Newcomen Bank, before work could start on this house/villa. This impressive complex forms an integral element of a group of related structures associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414), which represents one of the most important demesnes in north Leinster.

“Typical of Gandon’s manner are the shallow mutules below the pediment cornice and the blank tablet with guttae set above the arch.” (Buildings of Ireland p. 180)

Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.

p. 179

“Two highly distinctive periods of Irish architecture and two of its most distinguished personalities are represented by the buidings at Carriglass. The stables, farmyard and triumphal arch entrance were designed by James Gandon between 1792 and 1804; and the house was built to the designs of Daniel Robertson from 1838-1845. Gandon is Ireland’s greatest classicist, and Robertson the undisputed master of the picturesque manor house. ..The estate, which appears as both Carrickglass and Kerryglass, belonged to the Gleadowe-Newcomen family. Gandon’s client in 1792 was Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, a banker whose buisiness kept him principally in Dublin and who, with characteristic practicality, developed the stabels, gardens and farm buildings of the estate before tackling the house. Gandon drew up plans for an unusal neoclassical villa,.. But the design was never built. His stables and farmyard capture something of the severe excellence promised in his villa scheme. They are laid out axially as two large interconnecting courtyards, with arched gateways set acress the longer central axis. The stable yard, at the north end, is of ashlar limestone, while the farmyard, to the south, uses a more rustic effect, with rendered, lime-washed walls, set off with dark limestone trim. This yard is surrounded by long low buildings, while the stableyard is of uniform two-storey blocks. The contrast probably means that the stables were built [p. 180] on their own around 1792, and that the farmyard was added later, certainly by 1804. The stylistic difference has also bee interpreted (by Maurice Craig and the Knight of Glin) as a metaphor for the superior status accorded to the horse over mere agricultural activity, a distinction which is carried through to the archways that give entrance to the yards. Teh stable arch is heroic, a cubic mass of stone pierced by a wide round-headed opening with a shallow pediment above. Typical of Gandon’s manner are the shallow mutules below the pediment cornice and the blank tablet with guttae set above the arch.”

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/13401409/carrigglas-manor-carrickglass-demesne-ardagh-by-co-longford

Gateway serving Carrigglas Manor (13401414), built c. 1795, comprising central round-headed triumphal arch flanked to either side (east and west) by screen walls with integral pedestrian entrances and terminated by single-storey gate lodges. Now out of use. Triumphal arch constructed of ashlar limestone with carved limestone entablature having dentils and roundel motifs with sculpted swags. Projecting impost course over carved plaques and having round-headed niches to lower parts of piers. Double-leaf wrought- and cast-iron gates to archway. Gateway flanked to either side by ashlar limestone walls having cut limestone coping over and with square-headed pedestrian openings having single leaf wrought- and cast-iron gates. Three-bay single-storey gate lodges to east and west, aligned north to south with single-bay end elevation to front (south) having hipped natural slate roofs with brick chimneystacks. Ashlar limestone walls (dressed walls below string course, smooth finish over) over projecting ashlar limestone plinth with flush ashlar quoins to corners, cut limestone string course over window openings, and with cut limestone eaves course. Segmental-headed window openings having carved limestone sills, some openings with remains of six-over-six timber sash sliding windows. Segmental-headed door openings having remains of timber doors. Set back from the road to the northeast of Longford. Located to the southeast of Carrigglas Manor, at the start of long approach avenue to the house through wooded parkland.

Appraisal

This elaborate and impressive gateway, incorporating two gate lodges, constitutes the main entrance to Carrigglas Manor (13401414), and acts as a fitting prelude to this important demesne. The gateway is attributed to the renowned classical architect James Gandon (1742 – 1823), the architect responsible for the designs of a number of structures at Carrigglas (including the stables (13401415) built between 1792 and 1804, and designer of both the Custom House and the Four Courts in Dublin. Indeed the form of this gateway is quite similar in style to those found along the screens to the front of the Four Courts (Casey and Rowan 1993) and at the Custom House. The gateway makes a strong, formal architectural statement with its central triumphal arch surmounted by a heavy entablature having symmetrical, flanking walls. The decoration is secondary to the architecture of the structure, but is nonetheless refined and skillfully executed. The gateway retains its ornate double leaf wrought- and cast-iron gates and flanking single leaf gates, which are a fine examples of the quality of metal work being produced at the time. This gateway was built at the expense of Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, the owner of the Carrigglas Manor at the time of construction. He later went bankrupt, following the collapse of the Newcomen Bank, and before work could start on a neoclassical villa that Gleadowe-Newcomen commissioned Gandon to design. Carrigglas Manor was leased to, and later bought, by Thomas Lefroy, a distinguished lawyer, in the early-nineteenth century, and it was Lefroy who built the present Carrigglas Manor (13401414) from c. 1837. This gateway and the gate lodges forms part of an extensive collection of structures associated with Carrigglas Manor, which is one of the most important demesnes in north Leinster.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/b uildi ngs-search/building/13400911/carrigglas-manor-corradooey-co-longford

Detached three-bay two-storey former gardener’s house associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414), built c. 1800, having lean-to single-bay single-storey extensions to either gable end (southwest and northeast), set flush with front elevation (southeast). Single-storey lean-to outbuilding attached to the rear (northwest). Now ruinous and out of use. Pitched natural slate roofs with raised tooled cut limestone verges and red brick chimneystacks to gable ends, cast-iron rainwater goods and having a tooled cut limestone eaves course. Constructed of red brick (Flemish bond). Square-headed window openings to first floor with semi-circular/lunette window opening to centre-bay, all having tooled limestone sills. Round-headed window openings to the ground floor set in round-headed recessed arches having tooled limestone sills. Remains of three-over-three pane timber sash windows at first floor level and round-headed timber sliding sash windows at ground floor level. Remains of three-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows to the rear elevation (northwest) at first floor level; ground floor openings to rear now blocked. Remains of panelled timber shutters to interior. Round-headed doorway to the centre of main elevation (southeast) set in round-headed recess having battened timber door with cast-iron fittings and the remains of timber fanlight over. Located within walled garden (13400913) formerly associated with Carrigglas Manor (13401414). Gateway to the east comprising a pair of dressed limestone gate piers (on square-plan) having moulded capstones and wrought-iron double gates.

Appraisal

This interesting, well-proportioned and sophisticated structure was probably originally built as a gardener’s house associated with the oval-shaped walled garden (13400913) in which it still forms the visual focus. Although ruinous and out of use, it retains its early form and character. The proportions and architectural language is classical, and it is unusually grand for a building of its type. The attention to detailing in its design is exhibited through features such as the shallow recessed window and door surrounds to the ground floor and the semi-circular/lunette window to the centre-bay at first floor level. The red brick front façade blends in with the surrounding brick-lined walled garden, which almost acts like quadrant walls/wings. This building originally served the Carrigglas Demesne and it forms part of an extensive collection of related structures associated with this country house. The accomplished classical architecture of this building suggests that it may have been built to designs by James Gandon (1742 – 1823), the foremost architect working in Ireland at the time, and the architect who designed the very fine complex of outbuildings and stable block (13401415) and the triumphal arch (13401409) at Carrigglas Manor for the Glendowe-Newcomen family (built between c. 1792 and 1804). This building, although now sadly ruinous, is an important element of the built heritage of Longford. The well-crafted gateway to the east adds to the setting.

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-s earc h/building/13401412/carrigglas-manor-carrickglass-demesne-longford-by-co-longford

Detached two-bay single-storey with attic storey former gate lodge serving Carrigglas Manor (13401414), built c. 1840, having castellated open porch with Tudor-arch to end-bay, front elevation (south), castellated bay window with mullions to west elevation (road) and flat roofed extension to rear elevation (north). Pitched natural slate roof with central rendered chimneystack (modern) and ornate timber bargeboards. Timber brackets under eaves. Ashlar limestone masonry walls over chamfered plinth course. Square-headed window openings having segmental-headed multi-pane timber sliding sash windows; chamfered limestone mullions, surrounds and sills, and with cut stone label mouldings over. Tudor-arched opening to open porch with chamfered ashlar limestone surround, and having chamfered string course to castellations. Square-headed entrance to west side of open porch with timber battened door. Gable end faces the road. Located adjacent to entrance gates (13401411) serving southwest entrance to Carrigglas Manor, and to the northeast of Longford Town.

Appraisal

This castellated gate lodge is situated at the southwest entrance to Carrigglas Manor (13401414), and is designed in the Tudor Revival or Elizabethan style, mirroring the architecture of the main house itself. This is a sophisticated interpretation of an essentially sixteenth-century style of architecture, constructed with fine ashlar limestone masonry and with good quality cut stone detailing throughout. The windows are in the Tudor style with limestone mullions complete with carved limestone label stops. The bay window with castellations, is another Tudor or Elizabethan motif which adds further interest to the gable end facing the road. This gate lodge is attributed to Daniel Robertson (died c. 1849), a Scottish architect who designed Carrigglas House in the Tudor Revival or Elizabethan style for The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Thomas Langlois Lefroy, between 1837 and 1845. This appealing building forms part of a group of structures related to Carrigglas Manor, and forms part of a pair with the attendant gateway (13401411) to the south.

Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.

p. 181. “The new house occupies an elevated site and is designed to group effectively from a variety of angles. In contrast to the late Georgian ideal, which sought to minimize the impact of the servants’ quarters, these rooms are now on a level with the rest of the house, not hidden underneath it, and are employed to add picturesque effects and incident to the design. The composition is clever, for though the principal facades are both intrinsically symmetrical, the silhouette of teh house is constantly changing, with a variety of intriguing patterns.

The key to the entrance front is the pair of tall octagonal turrets, 3 metres in diamter, at the corners of the facade.These would be common enough in many early C19 Tudor designs, but Robertson gives them dramatic impact by placing them, not at either end of a battlemented facade of much the same height, but as twin towers which rise a full storey above the slates of a low two-storey block. A gable containing the front door surmounted by an oriel window projects from the centre of the facade, with simple mullioned windows on either side and half-dormers above. One of these projects and the other is flush with the wall. The garden front uses dormers again, two on either side of a broad bay window, with large three-light mullioned windows below. Here absolute symmetry is avoided by projection the mullioned window, which lights the dining room on the west, while its pair, whigh lights the drawing room on teh east, is flush with the wall. The east, or end, elevation of the house is quite asymmetrical: two gables side by side, one projected and narrower than the other, with a square bay-window squashed against it and containing a large cupsed Perp window to light the landing of the stairs. The kitchen wing and offices extend as low gabled additions at the far end of the house. A four-bay Tudor-arched conservatory screens the service yard on the garden front.

p. 182. “the interiors have much of the charm of Regency Gothic continuing in the early Victorian age. Wide four-centred archways in the inner hall or gallery spring from cluster shafts with C16 profiles. The doors have Perp panelling and are set stilted square arches. The ceilings are flat, with plaster ribs, miniature bosses and cavetto cornices, filled appropriately with roses and lilac in teh drawing room, oakleaf and holly in the library, and grapes and vineleaves in the dining room. Stained glass fills the smaller panels in the windows. The chimneypieces are Perp-panelled, shallow late Gothic designs in marble. [note, p. 548:Perp (Perpendicular): historical division of English Gothic architecture covering the period from c. 1335-50 to c. 1530.]

in Irish Castles and Historic Houses by Brendan O’Neill

Irish Historic Houses, by Kevin O’Connor

Ownership, Mr. and Mrs J.G. Lefroy

The Irish seat of the Huguenot Lefroy family, Carriglas Manor was designed by Daniel Robertson [of Scotland] and built in 1837 for Thomas Lefroy, Lord Chief justice of Ireland, a youthful inamorato of Jane Austen. Indeed it is claimed by some of her biographers that she based Darcy on the dashing young Thomas Lefroy.

The exterior of the house is Tudor Gothic Revival in style, with gables, oriels and polygonal battlemented turrets in delighful profusion [oriel is a projecting window on an upper floor, carried on corbels, which are stone projections acting as support].

Inside, the three main reception rooms interconnect and all have ceilings adorned with plaster ribs and elaborate cornices of flowers and foliage. The drawing-room, which was the main target of recent burglary, has been refurnished with some fine, recently designed ‘Irish’ pieces replacing the magnificent collection of early 18th century continental furniture which was stolen in 1995.

The house is surrounded by 18th century parkland and a charming woodland water garden. The grand Georgian stable and farm yards were designed by James Gandon [in 1790 (architect of the Custom House and Four Courts) is the only surviving example of his agricultural work, and now houses a fascinating costume and lace museum – Brendan O’Neill]… The buildings extend around two courtyards with pedimented and rusticated archways.

[Irish Castles and Historic Houses. ed. by Brendan O’Neill, intro. by James Stevens Curl. Caxton Editions, London. 2002: The beautifully restored interiors of the house have some charming plasterwork ceilings with appropriate symbolism: grapes and vines – the symbol of a good table – in the dining-room; oak leaves for wisdom in the library; and roses and lillies in the drawing-room.

https://www.geni.com/projects/Histo ric-B uildings-of-County-Longford/29631

Carrigglas Manor House - Tudor Revival style manor house built with blue-grey limestone in 1837 by Thomas Langlois Lefroy of Huguenot descent and is still owned by the Lefroy family. The house is a private residence. 

Falling Apart

The main entrance gates to Carrigglas Manor, County Longford. These were designed c.1795 for the estate’s then-owner Sir William Newcomen whose family owned one of Ireland’s most successful private banks. The gateway was part of a large scheme for Carriglas commissioned from James Gandon, of which only this and the interlinked stable and farmyards were actually built. Sir William’s son, Sir Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen lacked his father’s acumen and when the bank collapsed in 1825 he shot himself. Carrigglas then passed into the ownership of a clever lawyer, Thomas Lefroy, today best-remembered as the possible object of Jane Austen’s amorous intentions. His descendants remained at Carrigglas until 2005 when the estate was sold to a property company called Thomas Kearns Developments which proceded to wreak havoc on the place, cutting down large swathes of ancient woodland and throwing up cheap housing before – like Sir Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen – going bust. Three years ago Carrigglas was bought by a local company, Glennon Brothers, but since then little seems to have happened other than that the existing buildings around the estate have deteriorated further. Such is the case with the entrance, a triumphal arch flanked by low walls that conclude in a pair of lodges: stylistically it has many similarities with the entrances to the Four Courts in Dublin, also designed by Gandon. Unfortunately neglect in recent years means the ashlar blocks are beginning to shift, thereby putting the entire ensemble at risk. The structure is, of course, listed for protection.

Sense and Insensibility

Almost big enough to serve as a punchbowl, this exquisitely simple piece of Irish silver dates from 1778 and was made in Dublin by Matthew West, a member of the family which continued operating as the country’s oldest jewellers until its Grafton Street premises closed two years ago. Due to be auctioned by Adam’s on Tuesday, the bowl is one of a number of lots coming from Carrigglas Manor, County Longford.
Like a great many Irish houses, the Carrigglas estate has had what can best be described as a chequered history. Originally part of the estates of the Bishop of Ardagh, the lands were acquired by Trinity College, Dublin before passing into the hands of the Newcomen family who operated one of 18th century Ireland’s most successful banks; designed in 1781 by Thomas Ivory, its former premises still stands on Lord Edward Street, Dublin, albeit enlarged in size. Clearly the Newcomens appreciated fine architecture since they commissioned a range of new buildings on their Carrigglas estate from the greatest architect of the period, James Gandon, responsible for both the Custom House and the Four Courts in Dublin. Unfortunately, of Gandon’s designs only the main entrance gates and the double stable yard were completed before the Newcomen Bank went into decline; on its ignominious collapse in 1825, the institution’s head, Sir Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen, 2nd Viscount Newcomen, shot himself in his office.

Following this catastrophe, Carrigglas was acquired by a successful Irish barrister called Thomas Lefroy. Today Lefroy is best remembered as the possible object of Jane Austen’s amorous attentions and, arising from this, as inspiration for the character of Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice; in the rather fanciful 2007 film Becoming Jane, Lefroy was played by James McAvoy. He certainly knew and saw a great deal of Austen in 1796, being mentioned several times in her letters and on one occasion was described by her as ‘a very gentlemanlike, good-looking, pleasant young man’ with whom she admitted to having flirted. However, the following year he became engaged to Mary Paul, sister of a college friend, marrying her on completion of his legal studies in 1799. Ultimately becoming Lord Chief Justice of Ireland in 1852, some fifteen years earlier Lefroy had requested architect Daniel Robertson to design a new house for him at Carrigglas in the Tudoresque idiom. This remained in the hands of successive generations of the family, finally being inherited in the mid-1970s by Jeffry and Tessa Lefroy. Like many other people in their position, they struggled with managing the place and trying to make it generate sufficient income. To this end, they opened the house to day visitors and paying guests. But by the start of the present millennium it was clear the battle for survival was never going to be won and in 2005 the Lefroys sold Carrigglas to a property company which trumpeted its intentions to preserve the estate. Writing in The Times in March that year, Tessa noted that many old Irish houses had been lost over the previous decades but ‘thankfully, Carrigglas’ future is secure: it is going to be turned into a country house hotel development with new homes in the grounds. The planning laws are now so strict that the house and yards must be restored to their former glory.’
Would that this had been the case. Far from taking care of the main house, stable yards and so forth, the only thing Carrigglas’ new owners, Thomas Kearns Developments, did was to strip large stretches of the parkland of trees and start throwing up rows of houses notable for their lack of sympathy with the surroundings. And before this work could be completed, the company ran into financial trouble; by autumn 2007 sub-contractors on the site had withdrawn their labour. The following spring the Bank of Ireland, which had advanced €35 million, called in accountants to assess the project’s viability. It was glaringly obvious this scheme had no future, especially after Thomas Kearns Developments went into liquidation and Carrigglas went into a limbo from which it may never emerge. Over the intervening four years, as these photographs make plain, the place has been allowed to suffer neglect, almost the only attention it receives coming from vandals.

The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage classifies the complex of inter-related structures at Carrigglas as representing ‘one of the most important demesnes in north Leinster.’ This designation did not stop the authorities of Longford County Council from granting permission for the estate’s irrevocable despoilment with that addition of over 300 residential units, a hotel, spa and inevitable golf course. Nor, it would appear, have the same authorities shown much concern for the preservation of what remains, not least the important group of Gandon buildings which are without peer anywhere else in the country. The silver bowl being auctioned on Tuesday will no doubt find a new owner and be much cherished. Regrettably the same good fortune cannot be hoped for Carrigglas. To paraphrase Jane Austen, It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an estate in the possession of a receiver, must be in want of a saviour.

With thanks to Brendan Harte and Mary Morrissey for their photographs. 

*Insufficiently dispirited by what you have read and seen here? Watch John O’Neill’s short film showing the present wretched condition of Carrigglas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYDKZ33pWX8&feature=plcp 

Addendum: the bowl sold for €4,200.00 at Tuesday’s sale. What price Carrigglas?

http://lordbe lmon tinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2014/07/carrigglas-manor.html

THE LEFROYS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LONGFORD, WITH 4,229 ACRES

The LEFROYS are of Flemish extraction, and emigrated from Cambrai to England in the time of the Duke of Alva’s persecutions, settling at Canterbury, Kent.

The first settler, about 1559, was

ANTOINE LEFROY, a native of Cambrai, who settled in Canterbury ca 1587, where his descendants followed the business of silk dying.

His descendent in the fourth generation, 

THOMAS LEFROY (1680-1723), of Canterbury, married Phœbe, daughter of Thomas Thomson, of Kenfield, by Phœbe his wife, daughter of William Hammond, of St Alban’s Court, Kent, and granddaughter of the Rt Hon Sir Dudley Digges, of Chilham Castle, Kent, Master of the Rolls, and had a son,

ANTHONY LEFROY (1703-79), of Leghorn and Canterbury, who married, in 1738, Elizabeth, sister of  Benjamin Langlois MP, many years Under Secretary of State, and had (with one daughter, Phoebe, married to an Italian nobleman), two sons,

ANTHONY PETER;

Isaac Peter George.

The elder son, 

ANTHONY PETER LEFROY (1742-1819), Lieutenant-Colonel, 9th Dragoons, married, in 1765, Anne, daughter of Colonel Gardiner, and had issue,

THOMAS LANGLOIS, of whom hereafter;
Anthony, an army captain;
Benjamin, ancestor of Jeremy John Elton Lefroy MP;
Christopher;
Henry (Rev), Vicar of Santry.

The eldest son, 

THE RT HON THOMAS LANGLOIS LEFROY  (1776-1869), of Carrigglas Manor, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF IRELAND, espoused, in 1799, Mary, only daughter and heir of Jeffry Paul, of Silver Spring, County Wexford, member of the younger branch of the family of Sir Robert Paul Bt, and had issue,

ANTHONY, his heir;
THOMAS PAUL, succeeded his brother;
Jeffry (Very Rev), Dean of Dromore;
George Thomson;
Jane Christmas; Anne; Mary Elizabeth.

Lord Chief Justice Lefroy, one of the most distinguished lawyers of his time, was called to the Bar in 1797, and appointed a Bencher of the King’s Inn, 1819.

He was MP for Trinity College, Dublin, from 1830 until his elevation to the Bench, which took place in 1841, when he was appointed a Baron of the Exchequer.

He was appointed Lord Chief Justice in 1852.

The eldest son,

ANTHONY LEFROY JP DL (1800-90), of Carrigglas Manor, MP for Trinity College, Dublin, 1858-70, County Longford, 1830-47, High Sheriff of County Longford, 1849, married, in 1824, Jane, eldest daughter of Robert Edward, 1st Viscount Lorton, and granddaughter of Robert, 2nd Earl of Kingston, and had issue,

Thomas, died an infant;
Frances Jane; Mary Louisa.

Mr Lefroy was succeeded by his brother,

THOMAS PAUL LEFROY QC (1806-91), of Carrigglas Manor, County Court Judge of Down, Chancellor of the Diocesan Court of Down, Connor and Dromore, Bencher of the King’s Inns, who wedded, in 1835, the Hon Elizabeth Massy, daughter of Hugh, 3rd Baron Massy, and had issue,

THOMAS LANGLOIS HUGH, his heir;
AUGUSTINE HUGH, successor to his brother;
Anthony William Hamon (Rev);
Charles Edward;
George Henry;
Alfred Henry;
Margaret Everina; Mary Georgina; Millicent Elizabeth; Grace Elizabeth; Frances Anna.

Judge Lefroy was succeeded by his eldest son,

THOMAS LANGLOIS HUGH LEFROY JP DL (1836-1902), of Carrigglas Manor, High Sheriff of County Longford, 1892, Barrister, who espoused, in 1894, Dorothy Winifred, daughter of Robert Carreg DL, of Carreg, Carnarvonshire.

He dsp 1902, and was succeeded by his brother,

AUGUSTINE HUGH LEFROY JP DL (1839-1915), of Carrigglas Manor and The Lodge, Boxted, Colchester, Essex, High Sheriff of County Longford, 1909, who wedded, in 1878, Isabel Mary, eldest daughter of John Hebblethwaite, of St Clair, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and had issue,

HUGH PERCIVAL THOMSON, his heir;
Augustine George Victor;
Mary Elizabeth; Kathleen Grace.

The eldest son,

HUGH PERCIVAL THOMSON LEFROY DSO MC (1880-1954).

It is believed that Jeffry and Tessa Lefroy were the last of the family to live at Carrigglas.

They had moved in to the house in 1976 and opened to visitors in 1985.

Sadly, the cost of maintaining the mansion house was unsustainable and, after twenty-nine years, they sold the estate in 2005.

CARRIGGLAS MANOR, near Longford, County Longford, is one of the larger and more impressive country estates still extant in that county.

It features buildings from two distinct periods and in two different architectural styles.

The present manor house is built on, or close to, the site of an earlier house.

The estate was originally a manor of the Anglican Bishops of Ardagh.

It was left to Trinity College, Dublin, in the 17th century and was later leased by Trinity College, ca 1695, to the Newcomen family (later the Gleadowe-Newcomen family).

The estate appears to have been later bought by the Newcomens in 1772.

The owner or resident at the turn of the 19th-century, Sir William Gleadowe-Newcomen, commissioned the eminent neoclassical architect James Gandon (1742-1823) to design for him an unusual house/villa.

Gleadowe-Newcomen later went bankrupt, following financial troubles that led to the eventual collapse of the Newcomen Bank, before work could start on this house/villa.

However, a magnificent stable block and farmyard with central pedimented archways, and an elegant triumphal arch gateway incorporating gate lodges to either side, designed by Gandon were built at Carrigglas.

An unusual walled garden on oval-plan and a gardener’s house may also have been built to designs by Gandon.

Carrigglas was leased to, and later bought by, Thomas Lefroy (1776-1869) ca 1833.

Reputedly the character Mr Darcy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was based on Judge Lefroy (they met in England when Lefroy was attending college there during the late-18th century).

Lefroy engaged the architect Daniel Robertson (d 1849) to design a new house for him at Carrigglas, ca 1837, demolishing the earlier country house to site.

Robertson designed the new house in an Elizabethan/Tudor architectural idiom, creating a highly picturesque building with a dramatic roof-line of tall Tudoresque chimney-stacks, crenellated turrets and gabled projections that ranks as one of the finest buildings of its type in Ireland.

Robertson was also an accomplished landscape architect, well-known for his work on the Italian gardens at Powerscourt, and he also carried out extensive landscaping at Carrigglas.

The Lefroy family remained at Carriglass Manor until about 2005, when they sold the estate and grounds. 

http://davidhicksbook.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-04-10T03:25:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=59&by-date=false

THURSDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2012

Yesterday when I seen that Carriglass Manor was for sale it reminded of when I met the original owners of this house at my book signing in Slane Castle a few weeks ago..  The developer that purchased this estate a number of years ago has left the main house in a terrible condition with half built houses and a hotel in the grounds. This house is an architectural jewel and has connections with Jane Austin.

Back in 2004 it was unveiled as the site for a new €100m tourism project which would have been the largest of its kind in Longford. Now the 605-acre Carrigglas Demesne is being put up for sale in the hope that a leisure operator might come up with a new vision or a farmer might return it to its former glory.

About two-thirds of the land is in farmland, parkland or mature woodland with the remainder containing buildings or various stages of the development with its Retief Goosen designed golf course. Agents Lisney have not declared a guide price.

In May this year another large Longford estate, the 214-acre Ardagh Demesne, sold at auction for €1.36m or about €6,355 per acre.

That average price was below the average of €7,500 per acre which smaller tracts of good land made in the county last year.

However, it is higher than the €4,000 to €5,000 per acre quoted for marginal land in the county.

At an average round price of €5,100 for farmland, Carrigglas could generate bids of around €3m, but about a third of the land is in various stages of development which means the value really depends on the ambitions of possible buyers.

Carrigglas is located only 4km from Longford town and it benefits from an attractive 11-bedroom manor house.

Two of the other five houses are in reasonable condition, while three of them, gate lodges, need refurbishment.

A 96-bedroom wing for a proposed hotel has been partly-built, as have 37 courtyard houses beside the R194 route, 59 village houses and a 21-hole championship golf course.

Foundations have been laid for a golf clubhouse. It also benefits from stables designed by the famous architect Gandon.

Lisney has set December 7 as the closing date for expressions of interest.

Originally the Kearns family company, Kearns Developments, had envisaged the leisure attraction including a four-star hotel, a romantic woodland walkway and a selection of exclusive homes.

In 2006, the then Finance Minister Brian Cowen performed the sod-turning ceremony for what its developers hailed as “one of the most important developments ever to take place in Longford”.

– Donal Buckley

SUNDAY, 7 OCTOBER 2012

Carriglass Manor Longford

http://youtu.be/LYDKZ33pWX8

Please click on the above link to see the current state of Carrigglass Manor in Co. Longford. The ancestral home of the Lefroy family. This weekend I was signing books at the Adams Country House Sale at Slane Castle and I had the pleasure of meeting its former owner Jeffery Lefroy who sold the estate in 2005. A number of items in the auction were some of the original contents of his former home in Longford which he was now reluctant to sell, however needs must. Jeffery was saddened by the current state of his former home which is now in the hands of Nama who are doing very little to protect the structure. The developer who purchased the property had the intention of developing a hotel in the house and building houses in the grounds of the estate. Neither of these enterprises succeeded and now the whole estate is a desolate place.

The once beautiful dining room that contains lots for sale in the Adams Auction

The Drawing Room

Located five kilometers north of Longford Town on the T15 stands stately Carrigglas Manor. A once beautiful Gothic Revival style Manor house built by Thomas Lefroy in 1837 and was the Lefroy family seat until 2005. Chief Justice Thomas Lefroy who built the house was a one time love of the novelist Jane Austen, it being frequently suggested that the character Darcy in Pride and Prejudice was modelled on him. Carrigglas Manor was built to designs by Daniel Robertson (died 1849). The stableblock situated near the house was designed by the famous architect James Gandon. However these structures are not protected by the state and are now falling into dereliction, how can this be allowed to happen. Have we not learned from the mistakes from previous generations, do we have to wait for Carriglass to be be a roofless ruin before we lament its loss? Action needs to be taken now.

Brianstown, Cloondara, Co Longford

by jenjunebugMarch 28, 2025

Brianstown, Cloondara, Co Longford

p. 47. “(Achmuty/LG1850-53) A cut-stone house of two storeys over basement, with a dormered attic in a high-pitched roof; built 1731 for Samuel Achmuty, whose arms are incorporated in the modified Venetian doorway, above which there used to be a niche between two windows. Gibbsian window surrounds. After a fire in the present century, the house was reconstructed without the upper storey.”

Family tree, see Thomas Gordon Achmuty.

https://www.buildingsofireland .ie/build ings-search/building/13401305/brianstown-house-brianstown-county-longford

Detached double-pile five-bay single-storey over half-basement country house, dated 1731, with three-bay single-storey ballroom addition built c. 1880 to southeast end having bowed end, with recent greenhouse extension to rear (southwest) elevation of ballroom. Two flat-roofed single-bay two-storey extensions to northwest side elevation. Hipped natural slate roof to main block with painted two rendered chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods; natural slate roof to ballroom extension having curved roof profile to southeast end and red brick chimneystack with moulded cut limestone dressings and terracotta chimney pots. Painted roughcast rendered walls to ground floor, painted smooth rendered walls to half basement level. Cut limestone quoins to corners of main block and ballroom extension; cut limestone eaves course to main block; and sting course (separating basement and ground floor level) to main block and ballroom. Square-headed window openings having two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows and cut limestone sills. Cut limestone Gibbsian window surrounds to front elevation of main block, and carved limestone window surrounds to ballroom block. Square-headed window openings at half-basement level with cut limestone surrounds, cut limestone sills and replacement windows. Central round-headed door opening to main block with cut limestone Gibbsian surround, cut limestone tympanum over with carved coat-of-arms, and square-headed doorway with replacement timber panelled door. Flight of limestone steps to main entrance. Steps flanked to either side by cut limestone parapet walls with moulded limestone coping over and terminated by cut limestone piers (on square-plan) with recessed rectangular panels and moulded limestone coping. Square-headed door opening to southeast end of ballroom block with carved limestone surround, replacement door and mature grounds to the northwest of Longford Town. Yard to the northwest of house (13401106). Main entrance gates to the southwest (13401107). Main approach avenue to house flanked by wrought-iron railings.

Appraisal

This interesting early eighteenth-century house retains much of its early character and form despite a rather chequered history. Originally a two-storey house over a basement with an attic storey and high-pitched roof with two dormer windows (Bence-Jones 1978, 47; Casey and Rowan 1993, 437), its lowered elevation is the result of rebuilding in the 1930’s after being partially burnt in 1922. The late nineteenth-century ballroom to the southeast survived the fire. Typical of many country houses in Ireland, cut limestone is used to emphasise the architectural form of the house, providing window surrounds, quoins and string courses. This house is so elaborately decorated that even the basement windows have cut limestone surrounds, and unusual feature for houses of its size. The entrance is emphasised by using a combination of two motifs popular in Palladianism, the Palladian window and the Gibbsian surround. The carved tympanum in place of a fanlight is a notable and unusual feature, and features the coat of arms of the original owner of the house, Samuel Achmuty (high sheriff of Longford in 1720/21), and the inscription reads ‘Dum Spiro Spero’, the Achmuty (or Auchmuty) family motto. There was formerly a niche above the doorcase, flanked to either side by window openings. Craig (1976) describes this building as standing Janus-like between the seventeenth-century (now thought to date from the early eighteenth-century) Dutch-inspired Beaulieu (County Louth NIAH 13902509) and the eighteenth-century Palladian classicism then becoming current through the influence of James Gibbs and William Kent. The present house replaced an earlier residence (associated with the Achmuty family at Brianstown (possibly built c. 1640 or 1654? – grant of fee farm at Brianstown from the Forbes family of Castle Forbes). The Achmuty family (from Fifeshire, Scotland) originally came to Ireland during the early seventeenth-century (c. 1625), and a Capt. A(u)chmuty was later involved in the defence of Castle Forbes during the war of 1641. The Achmuty family were an important family with a number of notable military connections (indeed the family were originally granted lands in Ireland as reward for military service); including Thomas Achmuty (d. 1766), a captain of the 27th Foot Regiment; Samuel Achmuty, a lieutenant-colonel in the Longford militia during the late-eighteenth and high sheriff of the county in 1789; and Samuel-Benjamin, an assistant-adjunct-general to a division in the British Army during the Peninsular Wars (1808 – 1814). The house was the residence of a Thomas Gordon Auchmuty, Esq., in 1837 (Lewis); a Capt. Henry Musters in 1846 (Slater’s Directory), a H. Aughmuty Musters in 1881 (Slater’s Directory), and a John G. Musters, J.P. in 1894 (Slater’s Directory). This distinctive and impressive building is an important element of the built heritage of County Longford, and forms the centrepiece of a group of related structures along with the outbuildings to the northwest (13401306), and the gateway (13401307)to the southeast. Set in mature grounds, this fine building is enhanced and contextualised by its surroundings.

https://landedfamilies.blogspot.c om/20 13/03/achmuty-alias-auchmuty-of-brianstown.html

Achmuty alias Auchmuty of Brianstown and Kilmore House

This family traces its descent from Capt. Arthur Auchmuty (1600-98), a descendant of an ancient Scottish family of that name from Fife, who settled at Brianstown (Co. Longford) in the reign of Charles I.  The family name is spelled in a remarkable variety of forms, including Ahmuty, Achmuty, Auchmuty and Aghmooty. Brianstown was rebuilt as a two-storey Georgian house in 1731, by Samuel Achmuty (d. 1766).  The estate passed from father to son until the mid 19th century, when on the death of Thomas Gordon Achmuty without male issue, it passed to his daughter Bridget Domvile Achmuty, who married Capt. Henry Musters (of the Chaworth-Musters of Annesley and Colwick family).  The Musters seem to have sold up in the early 20th century, probably soon after the death of J.G. Musters in 1917.

Dr. Arthur Auchmuty (d. 1749), the brother of the builder of Brianstown, married Mary, the daughter and eventual sole heiress of James Lawler of Kilmore House (Roscommon). Either he or his son, Thomas Auchmuty (d. 1775) inherited Kilmore through this connection, and like Brianstown it descended through the generations, passing to James Auchmuty (d. 1809) and then to his brother, another Dr. Arthur Auchmuty (1769-1845), who as a naval surgeon amputated Lord Nelson’s right arm in 1797. Dr. Auchmuty had no sons, and the estate passed to his younger daughter, Judith (d. c.1864), who married Horatio Nelson Lawder (d. 1877) and thus carried the estate back to the family from which it had come more than a century before. Their son, Arthur Auchmuty Lawder (d. 1882), was the last member of the family to own the estate, which was sold after his death, apparently to John Jones (d. 1906) who had been the family’s agent at Kilmore and resident in the house after Horatio Nelson Lawder built a more modern residence at Aghamore (Leitrim).

Brianstown (Longford)

A house with a grass field

Description automatically generated

The original house on the site (possibly built c.1640 or c.1654) was rebuilt in 1731 as a two-storey five bay house on a basement for Samuel Achmuty, whose arms and motto are in the tympanum above the door.  It was gutted by fire in 1922 and rebuilt in the 1930s as a single storey above the basement, with a narrow entrance set between two small windows and held together by a border of raised quoins.  Similar quoins frame the windows of the outer bays, and the top storey had them too.  A high hipped roof was pierced by two dormer windows.  The house looked very much like Barretstown (Kilkenny), and was on the cusp between the Dutch-inspired Beaulieu tradition and the 18th century Palladian classicism  that was reaching Ireland in the 1730s.

Previous owners: Arthur Auchmuty (1600-98); to grandson, Thomas Achmuty (d. 1712); to son, Samuel Achmuty (d. 1766); to son, Thomas Achmuty (d. 1772?); to son, Samuel Achmuty, lieutenant-colonel of the Longford militia (d. 1829); to son Thomas Gordon Achmuty (d. after 1850); to daughter, Margaret Domvile Achmuty (d. 1883), first wife of Capt. Henry Musters (1812-96); to son John George Musters (1844-1917)… Andrew McHugh (fl. 2011). 

Auchmuty of Brianstown

Achmuty, Capt. Arthur (c.1600-98) of Brianstown. Possibly the son of John Achmuty; born c.1600.  Assisted the defence of Castle Forbes against the Irish rebels, 1641.  Married Martha (parentage unknown) and had issue:

(1) Arthur Achmuty (d. 1696) (q.v.)

(2) Capt. John Achmuty MP (?1649-1722) of Newtown Flood (Longford), m. Isabella, daughter of Rev. James Stirling, rector of Temple Michael, and had issue five sons and two daughters;

(3) Catherine Achmuty, m. William Lawder esq. (d. 1715) of Bunnybeg (Leitrim)

He died in 1698 at an advanced age.

Achmuty, Arthur (d. 1696) of Brianstown.  Son of Capt. Arthur Achmuty (c.1600-98) and his wife Martha.  Married Elizabeth, daughter of David Rhynd of Enniskillen, merchant and had issue:

(1) Thomas Achmuty (1679-1712) (q.v.);

(2) Margaret Achmuty, m. Anthony Jessop esq. of Doory Hall, Ballymahon (Longford);

(3) Martha Achmuty m. Capt. Deane;

(4) Isabella Achmuty, m. Morgan Galbraith esq.;

(5) Jane Achmuty, m. Francis Fetherston esq.;

(6) Elizabeth Achmuty, m. Lt. Carruthers.

He died in 1696.

Achmuty, Thomas (1679-1712) of Brianstown.  Son of Arthur Achmuty (d. 1696) and his wife Elizabeth, dau of David Rhynd of Enniskillen, merchant.  Married Dorcas, daughter of Samuel Towneley of Moygne Hall (Cavan) by his wife Dorcas, daughter and co-heir of Roger Moygne, and had issue:

(1) Samuel Achmuty (d. 1766) (q.v.);

(2) John Achmuty, died at sea;

(3) Thomas Achmuty (d. 1758); married 9 February 1732, Ann King and had issue two daughters (one of whom married John Daniel (1734-90) and was ancestor of the Tyssen-Amherst family, Barons Amherst of Hackney); died 7 February 1758;

(4) Towneley Achmuty of Dublin (d. 1758), who married 1st Margaret French and had issue three sons and one daughter, and married 2nd Letitia Wetherall and had issue two sons and one daughter;

(5) Arthur Achmuty MD (d. 1749) of Shervogne [for whom see below, under Auchmuty of Kilmore House].

He died in 1712.

Achmuty, Samuel (1700-66) of Brianstown.  Eldest son of Thomas Achmuty (d. 1712) and his wife Dorcas, dau of Samuel Towneley of Moygne Hall (Cavan); born 1700.  He married 1st, Mary (d. 1761), eldest daughter of John King of Charlestown (Roscommon), grandson of Rt. Rev. Edward King, bishop of Elphin, and 2nd, 15 October 1763, Sarah Handcock (d. 1787), and had issue:

(1.1) Thomas Achmuty (d. 1762) (q.v.);

(1.2) Elizabeth Achmuty, m. as his first wife Sir Ralph Fetherston, 1st bt. (d. 1780) but had no issue;

(1.3) Frances Achmuty, m1, 1761, Robert Hanley and m2, Capt. Francis Piers.

(1.4) Dorcas Achmuty, m. 1766, John Bomford/Bombard esq. of Dublin;

(1.5) Col. Arthur Achmuty (1729-93), governor of Dynapore, m. 1766 at Calcutta, Ursula de Cruz and had issue 6s and 3d;

(1.6) Judith Achmuty (d. 1829), married her cousin, Thomas Achmuty (d. 1757) [for whom see below, under Auchmuty of Kilmore House];

(1.7) Rev. Samuel Achmuty (1740-1800), vicar of Ballymahon, married 1st, his cousin, Susannah Maria (1742-90), daughter of Francis Savage and had issue two sons and four daughters; married 2nd, Sarah King (d. 1799); died 9 May 1800.

He inherited Brianstown in 1712 and rebuilt the house.

He died 18 January 1766 in Jervis St., Dublin. His wife died 2 September 1761.

Achmuty, Thomas (d. 1762) of Brianstown.  Son of Samuel Achmuty (d. 1766) and his first wife Mary, daughter of John King of Charlestown (Roscommon).  Captain, 27th Regiment of Foot.  He married Isabella (d. 1777), daughter and heir of Col. Archibald Gordon (who was a scion of the Earls of Huntly and was killed at the taking of Havanna in 1762) and had issue:

(1) Samuel Achmuty (1755-1829) (q.v.).
He died in August 1762, in the lifetime of his father. 

Achmuty, Samuel (1755-1829) of Brianstown. Son of Thomas Achmuty (d. 1762) and his wife Isabella, dau of Col. Archibald Gordon, born 1755.  Lt-Col of the Longford militia; JP; High Sheriff of Co. Longford, 1789.  He married February 1777, Elizabeth Domvile Savage (b. 1758), only daughter of Francis Savage esq. of Ballygawly, Co. Sligo by his second wife Bridget, daughter of Rear-Adm. Christopher Pocklington, and had issue:

(1) Thomas Gordon Achmuty (1778-1850) (q.v.);

(2) Gen. Sir Samuel Benjamin Achmuty (1781-1868); married Mary Buchanan (d. 1869)

(3) Francis Achmuty (d. 1788);
(4) Archibald Gordon Achmuty (b. & d. 1785);

(4) Lt. Charles Achmuty (d. 1810), 7th Royal Fusiliers; died at Coimbra (Portugal)

(5) Anna Maria Auchmuty;

(6) Isabella Gordon Achmuty;

(7) Elizabeth Domvile Achmuty.

He died 16 February 1829.

Achmuty, Thomas Gordon (1778-1850) of Brianstown.  Eldest son of Lt-Col. Samuel Achmuty (d. 1829) and his wife Elizabeth Domvile, dau of Francis Savage esq. of Ballygawly (Sligo), born 1778.  Major, 3rd Dragoons; JP, DL; High Sheriff of Co. Longford 1824.  He married, 2 Sept. 1811 in Worcester, Bridget Domvile Pocklington (d. 1873), seventh daughter of Charles Pocklington esq (who assumed the name of Domvile under the will of the Rt. Hon Sir Compton Domvile, bt), and had issue:

(1) Margaret Domvile Achmuty (c.1813-83), m. 28 May 1839 Col. Henry Musters (1813-96) of Colwick Hall (Notts) (q.v.) and had issue; died Jan-Mar 1883.
He died after 1850.

Musters (né Chaworth), Col. Henry Musters (1813-96) of Brianstown (Longford).  Son of  John Musters (1777-1849) and his wife Mary Ann (1786-1832), dau of George Chaworth (d. 1791) of Annesley Hall (Notts).  He married 1st, Margaret Domville (c.1813-83), daughter and heir of Thomas Gordon Achmuty of Brianstown, and 2nd, 2 August 1883, Maria Eliza Plunket (d 1892), daughter of John Atkinson of Dublin and widow of Patrick Plunket (d. 1859) and had issue:

(1.1) Auchmuty Henry Musters (1843-83)

(1.2) John George Musters (b. 1844), m. Edith Elizabeth Manders and had issue

(1.3) Charles Ralph Auchmuty Musters (1846-71); Lieutenant in Royal Marines;

(1.4) Caroline Alicia Victoria Musters (1849-98); married 1st, 1874, Capt. the Hon. Thomas Oliver Westenra Plunkett (d. 1889) and 2nd, 1892, her cousin Annesley Horace Packe.

On the death of his father-in-law in the 1850s he succeeded to the Brianstown estate in Co. Longford.

He died in Jersey, 11 May 1896.

Musters, John George (1844-1917) of Brianstown (Longford).  Second son of Col. Henry Musters (1813-96) and his first wife, Margaret Domville (d. 1856), dau and heir of Thomas Gordon Achmuty of Brianstown; born 26 October 1844.  He married 1st, 1888, Edith Elizabeth Manders, and 2nd, Mary Kennedy, and had issue:
(1.1) John Domvile Auchmuty Musters (1892-1978), m. 1915 Olga Gertrude Helena (1894-1987), daughter of Cmdr. Benjamin Barnes RN and had issue.
He inherited Brianstown from his father in 1896.

He died 16 November 1917 at Brianstown.

Auchmuty of Kilmore House

Auchmuty, Dr. Arthur (d. 1749). Youngest son of Thomas Achmuty (1679-1712) of Brianstown [for whom, see above] and his wife Dorcas, daughter of Samuel Towneley of Moygne Hall (Cavan). Doctor of Medicine. He married Mary, daughter and eventually sole heir of James Lawler of Kilmore (Roscommon), and had issue:

(1) Thomas Auchmuty (d. 1775) (q.v.);

(2) Deborah Auchmuty;

(3) Elizabeth Auchmuty.

He lived at Shervoge (Longford). Either he or his son inherited Kilmore House from his wife’s family.

His will was proved in 1749. His wife’s date of death is unknown.

Auchmuty, Thomas (d. 1775). Only son of Dr. Arthur Auchmuty (fl. 1712) and his wife Mary, daughter of James Lawder of Kilmore (Roscommon). He married, 17 November 1757, his cousin Judith (d. 1829), daughter of Samuel Achmuty of Brianstown, and had issue:

(1) James Auchmuty (d. 1809); married Marcella (who m2, November 1811, Richard Chaplin of Woodburn, Carrickfergus (Down)), daughter of James Lawder Kelly esq. of Churchborough (Roscommon) but had no issue; died 6 February 1809; will proved in the Prerogative Court of Ireland, 1810;
(2) Sidney Eliza Auchmuty; married, 1797, John Kirkwood and had issue;
(3) Letitia Forbes Auchmuty; married, 1794, Mark Anthony Tisdall of Dublin, barrister-at-law;

(4) Dr. Arthur Auchmuty (1769-1845) (q.v.).

Either he or his father inherited Kilmore House from his mother’s family, but he lived chiefly in Dublin. After his death, the estate passed to his two sons in turn.

He died 5 June 1775. His widow died in 1829.

Auchmuty, Dr. Arthur (1769-1845). Younger son of Thomas Auchmuty (d. 1775) and his wife Judith, daughter of Samuel Achmuty of Brianstown, born 29 September 1769. There is some suggestion that he was trained as a surgeon at Edinburgh, but his name does not appear on the official list of medical graduates of that university. He was a surgeon in the Royal Navy for fifteen years from 1796 and in 1797 he amputated Lord Nelson’s arm after he had been wounded; a sword given to him by the Admiral to commemorate this event was treasured in the family for several generations; the saw with which the deed was performed is now in the National Maritime Museum. JP for Roscommon and Leitrim. He married 1st, 26 June 1801, Emily, daughter of James Lawder Kelly esq. of Churchborough (Roscommon), and 2nd, 6 February 1812 at St Anne, Dublin, Harriet Bourne, and had issue:

(1.1) Alicia Jane Auchmuty (c.1807-73); married, 27 August 1822, Lt. Robert Ross Auchmuty RN (1789-1844) and had issue three sons and three daughters; died 10 January 1873; will proved 12 September 1873 (effects under £100)

(2.1) Judith Marcella Auchmuty (d. c.1864) (q.v.).

He inherited Kilmore House from his elder brother c.1806. 
He died at Kilmore House, 30 January 1845. His first wife died between 1809 and 1812. His second wife’s date of death is unknown.

Auchmuty, Judith Marcella (d. c.1864). Daughter of Dr. Arthur Auchmuty (1769-1845) and his second wife, Harriet Bourne. She married, 21 September 1842 at Kilmore, Horatio Nelson Lawder JP DL, and had issue:

(1) Arthur Auchmuty Lawder (d. 1882) (q.v.);

(2) Christopher Richard Lawder (d. 1891); died 9 January 1891; administration granted to his sister, 27 July 1891 (effects £438);
(3) Harriet Alice Lawder (fl. 1891); married, March 1866, Thomas Whelan, sub-inspector of constabulary.

Her husband inherited Kilmore House in her right on the death of her father in 1845. He may have abandoned the house for a new one at Aghamore (Leitrim), on which it was said in 1884 that he had spent £2,500.

She died in about 1864. Her husband married 2nd, 9 May 1866, Barbara Mary, daughter of John Whelan of Rath (Wicklow) and 3rd, Katherine Louisa (d. 1900), fourth daughter of Dr. David Brereton MD of Dublin (who m2, Thomas Ievers of Dingle (Kerry)) and died 1 August 1877; administration of his goods was granted 24 August 1877 and again 12 June 1882.

Lawder, Arthur Auchmuty (d. 1882). Elder son of Horatio Nelson Lawder of Kilmore House and his wife Judith Marcella, younger daughter of Dr. Arthur Auchmuty (1769-1845) of Kilmore House, born after 1842. An officer in the Leitrim Rifle Regiment of Militia (Lt., 1865). He married, 10 May 1877 at St Stephen, Dublin, Martha Maria (b. 1858), youngest daughter of John Whelan of Rath (Wicklow), and had issue:

(1) Esther Lawder (b. 1878), born 27 June 1878.

He inherited Aghamore and Kilmore House from his parents; both were apparently sold in 1884 after his death.

He died at Maryborough (Co. Leix), 9 April 1882.

Sources

Burke’s Landed Gentry, 1850, p.2; M. Bence-Jones, A guide to Irish country houses, 2^nd edn, 1988, p. 47; Casey & Rowan, The buildings of Ireland: North Leinster, 1993, p. 437; http://www.bomford.net/IrishBomfords/Chapters/Chapter14/Chapter14.htm#14.10.4 _The_Achmuty_Family_; http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=LF&regno=13401305;

Location of archives

Achmuty of Brianstown: miscellaneous deeds and family papers, 1696-1920 (Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre, 1040/100-102).

Coat of arms

Auchmuty of Brianstown and Kilmore House: Argent, a broken spear bendwise between two spur rowels of six points, azure, pierced of the field.

Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.

p. 437. Brianstown House. Built in 1731 for Samuel Achmuty, whose arms and motto are in the tympanum over the door. Formerly a two storey house, Brianstown was gutted by fire in the early C20 and became a single-storey house on a basement, with a shallow hipped roof. Five-bay front, with a narrow entrance set between two small windows and held together by a border of raised limestone quoins. Similar quoins frame the windows of the outer bays. Before its demolition the first floor continued this window pattern, with a niche between the two central windows. A high hipped roof was pierced by two dormer windows. A strong resemblance to Barretstown in Co Kilkenny has been remarked by Maurice Craig; both these early C18 Georgian houses stand Janus-like between the C17 Dutch inspired Beaulieau tradition and the C18 Palladian classicism then becoming current through the influence of James Gibbs and William Kemp.

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