Hunt Museum, Limerick, County Limerick, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
Limerick’s former Custom House, today the Hunt Museum, dates from the second half of the 1760s when designed by architect Davis Ducart. His origins were uncertain: in 1768, William Brownlow wrote that he had ‘dropped into this Kingdom from the clouds, no one knows how, or what brought him to it’ although it has been proposed that Ducart – his original name Daviso de Arcort – may have been Sardinian or Piedmontese. Whatever his background, Ducart enjoyed a successful career in Ireland, including the commission to design this custom house. Here is a splendid Venetian window on the northern wall of what is now called the Captain’s Room, seemingly where ships’ captains were received while their vessels were moored on the quay outside. It rises high to a coved ceiling, at the centre of which is a plaster rose. Simple, dignified, flawless.
Hunt Museum, Limerick, County Limerick, courtesy Irish Aesthete.
Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, Photograph from Knight Frank Estate agents.
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. 76. “(Cox, sub Villiers-Stuart/LGI1912; Wyndham-quin, Dunraven, E/PB; Blacque/LGI1958 and sub Waterford/M/PB) One of the most beautiful houses in Ireland, the masterpiece of Davis Duckart (Daviso de Arcort), the architect-engineer of Franco-Italian descent who came here in mid-C18, having been in the Sardinian service. Built 17567-71 for Michael Cox, Archbishop of Cashel, whose father, Sir Richard Cox, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, had obtained a lease of the estate from the Duke of Ormonde. Centre block of three storeys over basement and seven bays, flanked, in the Palladian manner, by stable and kitchen wings, which prolong two fronts of the house and then run outwards at right angles to form a partially enclosed forecourt. The centre block has a more or less similar facade on each of its two fronts, which is a variant of William Wynde’s Buckingham House in London: a centrepiece of four fluted Corinthian pilasters rising through the two lower storeys, and a Corithinan entablature running all round the building below the top storey, which is treated as an attic. The roof parapet is balustrated. The house is built of dressed sandstone and unpolished Kilkenny marble; the main block being of very finely cut stone, contrasting with the rougher stonework of the wings, which have ashlar dressings. The wings on either side of the garden front are arcaded, and terminate in pavilions with octagonal domes and cupolas.
Castletown Cox courtesy of Knight Frank.Castletown’s central block is flanked by arcades and domed pavilions and is set against the backdrop of the Co Kilkenny mountains, Castletown Cox County Kilkenny, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI9_12Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, from Country Life, photographer: Henson, 1917.Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, from Country Life, photographer: Henson, 1917.Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, from Country Life, photographer: Henson, 1917.
Bence-Jones continues: “Magnificent rococo plasterwork in the principal rooms by the Waterford stuccodore, Patrick Osborne; the hall, staircase hall and dining room having decorative plaster panels on their walls, as well as plasterwork ceilings. The hall has a screen of monolithic fluted Corithian columns of the same unpolished Kilkenny marble as that used in the exterior of the house; and a chimneypiece with terms. Castletown passed by inheritance to a branch of the Villiers-Stuart family; it was sold 1909 to Col. W.H. Wyndham-Quin, who laid out an elaborate knot garden at one side of the house and introduced various pieces of statuary. Ca 1928, having succeeded as 5th Earl of Dunraven 1926, he sold it to Major-Gen E.R. Blaque (son in law of Adm Lord Beresford), whose son, Mr Charles Blaque, re-sold it 1976. Subsequently bought and beautifully restored by the late Brian de Breffny. The delightful little Georgian church with a steeple, at the corner of teh demesne, is being restored as an ecumenical chapel.”
The Staircase Hall has richly decorated plaster panels and rococo plasterwork ceilings by Patrick Osborne which are being restored, Castletown Cox County Kilkenny, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI9_20. Castletown Cox, Copyright Fritz von der Schulenburg/The Interior Archive Ltd, FS_56_18 Castletown Cox courtesy of Knight Frank: Sean O’Reilly tells us in Irish Houses and Gardens. From the Archives of Country Life that the geometric pattern of the saloon ceiling was probably inspired by Irish developments in the Adam style. This design was adapted for another house associated with the same designers, Temple Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Castletown Cox courtesy of Knight FrankOne of Castletown’s many reception rooms with an ornate plasterwork ceiling is in the process of being restored, Castletown Cox County Kilkenny, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI9_31. Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, Photograph from Knight Frank Estate agents. Castletown Cox, Copyright Fritz von der Schulenburg/The Interior Archive Ltd, FS_56_29 Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, Photograph from Knight Frank Estate agents.
Paddy Rossmore. Photographs. Edited by Robert O’Byrne. The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, 2019.
“Inside, as this photograph shows, the house features ravishing rococo plasterwork by Waterford stuccodore Patrick Osborne.”
featured in Irish Houses and Gardens. From the Archives of Country Life. Sean O’Reilly. Aurum Press Ltd, London, 1998.
p. 47. “The appearance of Castletown Cox in Country Life in 1918 ushered in the extended if erratic era of the magazine’s interest in Irish Georgian architecture. The author is not credited, but the clear style and critical values suggest it is Weaver, and the article is acknowledged as such in his subsequent history of Heywood. Castletown Cox’s importance was affirmed by its being the first Irish house to receive the compliment of two articles on its first appearance. It was visited by Country Life again in the 1960s when the Knight of Glin presented his study of its architect, Davis Duckart. Situated in the mild southern district of Co Kilkenny, it has always vied with its Kildare counterpart, Castletown, in both name and history.
[photo: The doorway to the saloon in the entrance hall, with the bust of Archbishop Cox over it, is polite Irish Palladianism at its most mature.]
p. 49. “Castletown Cox never surpassed its older namesake in scale, quality, association or variety, yet it has regularly won a special place in the hearts of lovers of Irish architecture. Never suffering the vagaries of neglect, rescue and restoration that dogged the Kildare Castletown, or the radical changes in taste that altered the interior of the older house, Castletown Cox has managed to retain a unique veneer of pristine newness and historical authenticity.
The plan of the house itself is suggestive of these associations. The layout, with a central corridor intersecting the columnar entrance hall, from where it gives access to the rooms extending along its fronts, continues a tradition familiar from the Kildare Castletown. Yet the smaller scale, with only three rooms across its garden front, suggests that such an arrangement, in which so much space is lost to a largely redundant corridor, is more a gratuitous emulation of that earlier house than a functional necessity.
In contrast to Castletown’s slow and often mysterious evolution, however, Castletown Cox remains a pure expression of its architect’s original intentions, and even its window openings have not been enlarged. Consequently, part of the success of Castletown Cox’s original design, and the reason for its survival, must lie in the ease with which the building could accommodate more modern lifestyles inside, with bright interiors of a homely scale, although appearing from the outside as a building parading all the grandeur of the early eighteenth century.
p. 49 “Castletown Cox was built in the early 1770s by Michael Cox, whose surname the house adopts as a suffix to distinguish it from the more famous Castletown. Cox, formerly the Bishop of Ossory, and Archbishop of Cashel from 1755, came from an active family of soldiers and settlers who had made their name and fortune in Ireland since the beginning of the previous century. A younger son, Cox turned towards the church for his advancement rather than to soldiering or the Bar. This was an area in which he proved himself eminently successful despite – or perhaps because of – his disdain for the politics, pamphleteering and polemics that tended to advance the careers of his fellow clerics. Indeed, his reknown was more for his lack of professional interests. One wit attached his own verse to a blank panel, intended for an encomium, on the memorial of the deceased Archbishop:
Vainest of mortals! Had’st thou sense or grace
Thou ne’er had’st left this ostentatious space
Nor given thy numerous foes such ample room
To tell posterity, upon thy tomb,
This well-known truth, by every tongue confest
That by this blank thy life is well expressed.
p. 51. Despite such a notorious lack of notoriety, by securing the archbishopric of Cashel, Cox gained a position perfectly suitable to his interests, lacking the onerous duties of more famous sees yet with the attraction of a liberal income. This was put to use in building the present house, reputedly assisted by a handsome bequest intended for the construction of a church but redirected towards the Archbishop’s own, more worldly interests.
The house-building itself appears to have spanned the years from about 1770-1774. The date of completion is confirmed by the rare survival of a bill, submitted by the Irish plasterworker for the house, Patrick Osborne. It details the cost of different items adorning the interior, form the four capitals in the hall and the fifty six festoons in the staircase to the 1,591 feet of bedroom cornices. The final payment was registered by Osborne’s signed receipt dated 1 Aug 1774 and countersigned by John Nowlan, clerk of works.
Though at Castletown Cox the decorator’s work is uncommonly well documented, the identity of the architect is not. Stylistic evidence provided in the Georgian Society Records, however, and supported by Weaver and later studies, suggests, with near certainty, that the design of the house derives from the hand of Italian architect Davis Duckart, perhaps more properly referred to as Daviso D’Arcort, then resident in Ireland for less than a decade. Like so many architects in Ireland in the eighteenth century, Duckart remains a figure only tentatively defined. The evidence of his will confirms Continental links, an association suggested by the curious detailing of his architecture. Despite the overall continuity of his work within the rather staid late Palladian styles of Ireland, it has a vigour indicative less of provincial idiosyncrasies than of a personal taste, even if one so outmoded as to be almost returning to fashion at the time.
The house is laid out on Duckart’s preferred Palladian tripartite arrangement, with straight arcaded links connecting the residential block to flanking pavilions. [p. 52] This gives the building a rather impressive swagger despite the homely scale, for it has only seven bays compared to the Kildare Castletown’s thirteen. The broad mass is enlivened by the curves of the pavilion domes and the quirky rustication of the basement. Throughout Duckart’s limited body of known and attributed work may be found a similar combination of traditional arrangement and personal detail, but only at Castletown Cox is it so prevalent. Perhaps most surprising is the degree to which Duckart developed his designs for Castletown Cox from traditional sources. As the Knight of Glin observed in his study of Duckart published in Country Life in 1967, the main elevations of the house were based on Buckingham House in London, fashionable in the early 1700s.
After enduring a seesaw of ownership that typified so many Irish estates in the nineteenth century, the house was purchased in 1909 by W.H. Wyndham-Quin, later to succeed to the Dunraven title as the 5th Earl, from Col H.J.R. Villiers-Stuart, who had inherited the property. The gardens were the Wyndham-Quins’ most important addition to the character of the Georgian house, for hey made very few alterations to the building. They produced box hedges and terraces in a rather formulaic sequence, arranged around a series of statues brought over from Clearwell Court, Gloucestershire, but with little of the subtlety of the compartmental gardens then being developed elsewhere in Ireland by Lutyens. The fashion was adopted here also by Norah Lindsay, the Irish-born garden designer, who was a cousin of Wyndham-Quin’s wife. It may be that this connection inspired the selection of the house by Weaver, though its full report in the Georgian Society Records would also have attracted his attention.
By the time Castletown Cox was featured in the pages of Country Life, most of the original furnishings had been dispersed. Weaver considered the bust of Cox over the door to the saloon might be by Scheemaker, as he had been respsonsible for the tomb of this archbishop’s second wife. He was complimentary about the modern refurnishing by the new owners, describing it as “fitting” and showing “just taste” but he was no less exacting than his photographer in the removal of furniture detrimental to the rigours of the architecture, a point emphasized by comparison with the photographs of the Georgian Society Records which document the more homely character of the rooms in 1913.
[The geometric pattern of the saloon ceiling was probably inspired by Irish developments in the Adam style. This design was adapted for another house associated with the same designers, Temple Hill, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
More lively rococo details appear in the enfilade from the drawing room, through the saloon, to the dining room.]
p. 55 Country Life’s photographs of Castletown Cox, taken by Henson on a visit in 1917, record the house some eight years after its purchase by the Wyndham-Quins. His presentation of the rooms captures well the variety of Osborne’s decorative effects. Stony formality reigns in the hall and staircase hall, with heavy festoons framed by equally heavy moulded panels occasionally tweaked into life by scrolled heads.
Such civility is offset, but never dimmed, by the lively Irish rococo plasterwork of the ceilings. In the rooms at the garden front a lighter air is manifest, and a more progressive style begins to appear. In the original arrangement, as suggested by Osborne’s surviving bill, the central saloon would probably have been papered – Weaver considered the possibility of a Chinese-style paper found in other interiors of the date – framing the lively and light bracketed cornice and geometrically ordered ceiling. Such plasterwork is much more in the style of Adam, a fashion then promulgated in Ireland by Michael Stapleton. It is a striking contrast with the other ceilings and suggests that Osborne was either learning the newer style or moving between the old and new as required by his patron. Certainly this lighter mood provided an effect quite different from that of the other two halls, and one that persists in the flanking dining room and drawing rooms.
The house was sold by the family in about 1928, two years after Wyndham-Quin had succeeded to the Dunraven title and moved to his family seat, Adare Manor in Co Limerick. It was purchased by Major General E.R. Blacque, and sold by his son in 1976 when, with an uncertain future in an unfashionable climate, its survival was secured by the late Brian de Breffny. Given the growing awareness of the importance of the house – it is currently undergoing restoration – together with its manageable scale, its future should never again be in doubt.”
[The flanking ranges to the garden have robust arcades. Duckart eschews architectural detail in favour of a broad banding of linked circles – a favourite motif throughout his career. The garden terraces include box hedges and parterres, and were developed by the new owners to add ‘incident’ to the setting of the house soon after its purchase in about 1909.]
Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, from Country Life, photographer: Henson, 1917.Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, from Country Life, photographer: Henson, 1917.View from the roof across the re-landscaped parkland and one of a pair of arcades and domed pavilions which flank the house, Castletown Cox County Kilkenny, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI9_10.
Detached seven-bay three-storey over raised basement Classical-style country house, built 1767-71, on a symmetrical Palladian plan with three-bay full-height breakfront, three-bay three-storey side elevations, seven-bay three-storey over raised basement Garden (south-west) Front having three-bay full-height breakfront, five-bay two-storey lateral wings having single-bay full-height advanced end bays (five-bay double-height Garden (south-west) Front elevations), and single-bay two-storey higher pavilions on square plans leading to five-bay two-storey perpendicular outbuilding wings returning as three-bay double-height ranges. Hipped slate roofs (on a quadrangular plan to central block behind parapet) with rolled lead ridges, sandstone ashlar chimney stacks having cut-limestone stringcourses, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-sandstone eaves (concealed to central block). Octagonal slate domes to pavilions with rolled lead ridges, and open timber vents to apexes on octagonal plans (with elliptical-headed openings having balustraded parapet, moulded surrounds having keystones, frieze supporting dentilated cornice, and octagonal ogee-domed capping having ball finial supporting iron weathervane). Sandstone ashlar walls to Entrance (north-east) Front with cut-limestone dressings including quoins to corners, tripartite frontispiece to breakfront (comprising half-fluted double-height Composite pilasters supporting entablature, frieze, and dentilated cornice), carved entablature supporting frieze, dentilated cornice supporting top floor (treated as attic storey), carved cornice supporting balustraded parapet, limestone ashlar walls to remainder having rustication to basement to side elevations, quoined piers to ends to Garden (south-west) Front, and tripartite frontispiece to breakfront (comprising half-fluted double-height Composite pilasters supporting entablature, frieze, and dentilated cornice). Unpainted (dyed) lime rendered walls to wings with sandstone dressings including quoined piers to corners, band to eaves, sandstone ashlar walls to pavilions with cut-limestone dressings including quoined piers to corners, frieze supporting cornice, blocking course to first floor (treated as attic storey) supporting panelled pilasters, and frieze supporting cornice. Square-headed window openings (lunette window openings to basement to Entrance (north-east) Front; Venetian window openings to ground floor side elevations; round-headed window openings to basement to Garden (south-west) Front) with cut-limestone sills (profiled sills to first floor), carved limestone shouldered surrounds (supporting friezes to ground floor having entablatures with blocking course over), nine-over-six (ground floor), six-over-six (first floor), and three-over-three (top floor) timber sash windows (fixed-pane timber fittings to lunette window openings). Group (three-part arrangement) round-headed openings to ground floor Entrance (north-east) Front approached by platform with flight of fifteen cut-stone steps having iron railings, carved cut-limestone pilaster surrounds supporting archivolts having keystones, timber panelled double doors having fanlight, and nine-over-six timber sash windows to flanking openings having fanlights. Round-headed door opening to breakfront to Garden (south-west) Front approached by flights of cut-limestone steps forming perron on cut-limestone pillars having iron railings, carved cut-limestone pilaster surround supporting archivolt having keystone, and twelve-over-eight timber sash window forming French door having fanlight. Square-headed window openings to wings with round-headed window openings to end bays, round-headed window openings to return ranges, cut-sandstone sills, cut-sandstone Gibbsian surrounds having double keystones, six-over-six (ground floor) and three-over-three (first floor) timber sash windows having six-over-six timber sash windows to round-headed openings incorporating fanlights. Square-headed door openings with cut-sandstone Gibbsian surrounds having double keystones, and timber panelled doors. Elliptical-headed carriageways (some paired) with cut-sandstone surrounds having double keystones, and timber panelled double doors. Series of five (full-height) round-headed openings to Garden (south-west) Front forming arcade with cut-limestone pilaster surrounds supporting entablature, frieze, dentilated cornice to spring of arches, carved archivolts rising into roundel keystones, panelled soffits, and no fittings. Round-headed window openings to ground floor to pavilions with oculus window openings over having carved cut-limestone sill course, cut-limestone surrounds with stringcourse to spring of arches, double keystones, six-over-six timber sash windows, and carved limestone surrounds to oculus openings having timber fittings. Set back from road in own grounds with landscaped grounds to site including terrace to south-west leading to lake approached by flight of six cut-limestone steps.
Appraisal
An impressively-scaled country house built for Michael Cox (b. pre-1729), Archbishop of Cashel to designs prepared by Davis Ducart (Daviso de Arcort or Daviso d’Arcort) (fl. 1767-71) after Buckingham House (1703), London, by William Winde (c.1645-1722). Widely regarded as second only to Castletown House (begun 1722), County Kildare, the house in many ways almost surpasses the more renowned earlier namesake as the prime exemplar of the Palladian tradition in Ireland. Formally composed on a symmetrical plan accommodating residential and service ranges in a wholly integrated composition the architectural design value of the house is identified by elegant attributes including the identical frontispieces to each frontage, the distinctive pavilions, and so on. Exhibiting expert stone masonry throughout the carved dressings in locally-sourced Kilkenny limestone and sandstone further enhance the aesthetic appeal of the house. Having been carefully restored following a period of uncertainty regarding the future of the site in the late twentieth century the historic fabric survives largely intact both to the exterior and to the interior where decorative plasterwork dressings executed by Patrick Osborne (n. d.) are amongst the many features identifying the artistic design significance of the site. Forming the centrepiece of a large-scale country estate (including 12403808 – 13, 16 – 8/KK-38-08 – 13, 16 – 8) the house remains of additional importance in the locality for the connections with the Cox, the Villiers Stuart, the Wyndham-Quin, the Blacque, and the de Breffny families.
Formal hall furniture is arranged around the walls of one of a pair of domed pavilions which flank the central block of Castletown, Castletown Cox County Kilkenny, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI9_33.
in Irish Castles and Historic Houses by Brendan O’Neill
Built in 1767 for Michael Cox, Archbishop of Cashel. Designed by a Sardinian architect, Davis Ducart, the garden front with its giant fluted Corinthian pilasters and beautiful arcades, is spectacular.
All the ground-floor rooms, and the staircase, have rich Rococo plaster decoration by Patrick Osbourne of Waterford. The Corinthian columns in the front hall are monoliths, each carved out of a single piece of limestone. The attractive formal box gardens were laid out in 1909. The design is one of overall perfection, and it is regarded as the finest small Palladian houses in the country.
Great Houses of Ireland by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes. Laurence King Publishing, 1999.
p. 175. “George Magan is a merchant banker descended from a long-established Irish landed family chronicles in Burke’s Irish Family Records. The ancient Irish name of their original seat in Co Westmeath, Umma-More, was the title chosen by George’s father, Brigadier William Magan, for a remarkably perceptive book of reflections on the history of Ireland. The Brigadier has also written an evocative memoir of his Irish boyhood in the foxhunting country of the South Westmeath; he went on to become its Master.
p. 174. Following his own father’s death, Brigadier Magan reluctantly decided in 1967 to sell Killyon Manor, Co Meath, together with its demesne – all that remained of the formerly substantial family estates. This undoubtedly spurred George Magan’s determination one day to re-establish the family in a fine Irish country house. Finally, in 1991, the opportunity to acquire one of the most architecturally important Palladian palaces in Ireland, the masterpiece of Davis Duckart, proved too good to miss.
Having bought the house, he fortuitously was able to buy back the heart of the demesne running to some 500 acres. The perfectionist Magan decided to take his time over the wholesale restoration in order to get it absolutely right. At the time of writing, eight years after the purchase, there is still more to be done to complete the restoration of the interior of the house – though the external renovation work, including the demesne, is virtually complete.
To help him undertake this marathon labour of love, George Magan assembled a team of all the talents: a project manager, architects, surveyors, historic buildings consultants, artisans, craftsmen, structural engineers and an industrious group of local contractors and builders. He was also fortunate in securing a first-class estate management and gardens team. For the creaaation of the new formal gardens, Magan turned to the Marchioness of Salisbury, whose grandparents Col. W.H. and Lady Eva Wyndham-Quin, made their home at Castletown earlier in the century before the Colonel succeeded a cousin in the Earldom of Dunraven and the Tudor-Revival Adare Manor. And in the demesne a landscaping scheme involving the planting of over 80,000 trees has more than compensated for the removal of the trees previously planted too close to the house, where they had latterly obscured its architecture.
The Magans were determined to ‘open up’ Castletown’s wonderful setting against the backdrop of the Co Kilkenny mountains and to show off Davis Duckart’s supreme composition of house, arcades and cupolas to the full. The park was accordingly remodelled, the lake dredged, a ha-ha wall built, the gardens levelled and the parterres (originally laid out by Lady Salisbury’s grandfather) moved. A new walled garden is currently being planned and Maxine Magan, George’s mother and a keen garden enthusiast, is actively involved in its creation.
Geroge Magan, an engagingly modest and straightforward proprietor, points out that the theme of all this restoration work at Castletown is ‘repair not Renewal.’ [p. 176] Yet no effort has been spared on the exterior and the interior of the house, the arcaded wings and pavilions. The weathered stonework has been thoroughly rejuvenated; the roofs and the windows renovated; the power systems comprehensively replaced (so that the state-of-the-art boiler room in the basement resembles the control room of an ocean-going liner); and the great joy of the interior, the Rococo plasterwork by the Waterford stuccodore Patrick Osborne, brought back to its pristine glory.
What strikes one about the Castletown restoration is the astonishing attention to detail, the accentuation of accuracy, the uncompromising standards of quality. It is particularly instructive to note the high level of expertise that still exists in Ireland when the opportunity to undertake top-flight work is made available. The old myth that ‘you can never get the right quality of craftsmanship these days’ has proved to be nonsense. In fact, the good craftsmen today are better than ever.
On our visit, for instance, we saw lime render for the plasterwork repairs being made in the traditional method, complete with goats hair. And up on the top floor, craftsmen were to be found cheerfully reconstructing walls in the proper, intricate way of combining lath and plaster that was used centuries ago.
Going back in time, the Castletown estate, near Carrick-on-Suir, was part of the vast landholding of the ‘Old English’ or Anglo-Norman family of Butler (Earls of Ormonde from 1328), who from their castle of Kilkenny used to rule over what was more like a kingdom than an estate. Indeed they actually held palatine rights over the neighbouring county of Tipperary, the border of which is close to the Castletown demesne. The Cavalier 12th Earl of Ormonde was created a Duke, and is known to history as ‘the Great Duke of Ormonde’ on account of his wisdom and integrity as King Charles II’s Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. His grandson the Jacobite 2nd Duke (described in Macky’s Characters as ‘One of the most generous, princely, brave men that ever was, but good-natured to a fault.’ ) at first leased and then sold the Castletown estate to the lawyer Sir Richard Cox of Dunmanway, Co Cork, who was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland in 1703 and created a Baronet three years later.
Although Sir Richard was the father of the present house’s builder, Michael Cox, Archbishop of Cashel, the succession was not as simple as that, for Sir Richard seems to have either sold or sublet Castletown to Edward Cooke of Cookestown, who died in 1751. It then passed to Michael Cox (Sir Richard’s fifth and youngest son), who happened to be the widower of Cooke’s sister Anne.
The Archbishop seems to have had the traditional sporting instincts of the irish clergy, as he laid out a racecourse on the demesne. He was also a legendary trencherman. Dorothea Herbert, who lived not far from Castletown, has left us a memorable picture of Cox’s character:
It happened that there was a fine Turkey for dinner…The Archbishop himself was an odd character – He was very close and often blew out the Wax lights before half of his company dispersed… He was excessively fond of cards but so cross at them that few would venture to be his partner.”
‘Close’ he may have been, but he commissioned Davis Duckart to build a house of distinction…
p. 177. The wings at Castletown also have arcades, though with the delightful bonus of culminating in pretty pavilions topped off with octagonal cupolas (the ‘fish-scale’ slates have been carefully restored). The central block of the house is built of dressed sandstone and unpolished Kilkenny marble, with the stonework very finely cut to give an exquisitely crisp effect. The Corinthian motif of the two principal facades is continued inside the Hlal, which has a screen of monolithic fluted Corinthian columns of lightly polished Kilkenny marble (which is such a luxurious feature of Castletown), and also a stone chimneypiece with terms. The Hall, Dinign Room and Staircase Hall have richly decorated plaster panels on their walls as well as plasterwork ceilings. The total cost of the magnificent plasterwork is given in a detailed bill, still extent, as £696 10s 5d.
p. 179. The Archbishop adorned the garden front with his coat of arms impaling those of his second wife, another Anne, who had died in childbirth in 1746. The second Anne was the daughter of James O’Brien, MP for Youghal, and a grand-daughter of the 3rd Earl of Inchiquin. Fortunately, her baby son survived and Castletown, largely unchanged, remained in the Cox family until the middle of the next century, when it passed to Lieut. Col William Villiers-Stuart, a younger son of the family seated at Dromana, Co Waterford, whom married Katherine, the heiress of Michael Cox of Castletown.
It was their son, another Colonel, who sold the place to the Wyndham-Quins in 1909. Next, in the late 1920s, after they Wyndham-Quins had furnished the gardens with statuary, followed Major-General Edmund Blaque and his wife, Kathleen, daughter of the colourful Admiral Lord Beresford (‘Charlie B. from Curraghmore). Charlie B’s famous foxhunting tattoo would doubtless have earned the admiration of the Archbishop and indeed of Blaques’ son and successor Charles, Master of the Kilmaganny Harriers. Charles Blaque sold Castletown in 1976 and, after some uncertainty about its future, it was acquired three years later by Ulli de Breffney, whose husband the late Brian de Breffney, was a well-known writer on Irish architecture, genealogy and culture.
At the end of a chequered century at Castletown it is gratifying to report that the future of this exceptionally elegant house, now being so immaculately restored by George and Wendy Magan, looks reassuringly secure. The work in progress illustrated here encourages one to think that we may be witnessing a new Golden Age for the Irish country house.”
THE VILLIERS-STUARTS OWNED 2,790 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY KILKENNYLORD HENRY STUART (1777-1809), fifth son of John, 4th Earl and 1st Marquess of Bute, married, in 1802, the Lady Gertrude Amelia Mason-Villiers, only daughter and heir of George, 2nd and last Earl Grandison, and had issue,
HENRY, cr BARON STUART DE DECIES; WILLIAM, of whom presently; Charles; Gertrude Amelia.
The second son,
WILLIAM VILLIERS-STUART JP DL (1804-73), High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1848, MP for County Waterford, 1835-47, wedded, in 1833, Catherine (d 1879), only daughter of MICHAEL COX, of Castletown, County Kilkenny (by the Hon Mary Prittie his wife, daughter of Henry, 1st Baron Dunalley, and sister and heir of Sir Richard Cox, 8th Baronet, of Dunmanway, County Cork, and had issue,
HENRY JOHN RICHARD, his heir; Dudley; Gertrude Mary; Geraldine; Evelyn.
Mr Villiers-Stuart and his siblings assumed, in 1822, the additional surname and arms of VILLIERS.
He was succeeded by his eldest son,
HENRY JOHN RICHARD VILLIERS-STUART JP DL (1837-1914), of Castletown and Castlane, County Kilkenny, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1887, who espoused, in 1870, Jane Rigby, eldest daughter of Benjamin Rigby Murray, of Parton Place, Kirkudbright, and had issue,
WILLIAM DESMOND (1872-1961), Brigadier, CBE, DSO; Charles Herbert; John Patrick; Kathleen Jane; Gertrude Elsie; Marie Violet.
FAMILY OF COX
MICHAEL COX, the youngest son of a respectable Wiltshire family (amongst whose progenitors was the learned Dr Richard Cox, one of the compilers of the Liturgy, tutor to EDWARD VI, and in the reign of ELIZABETH I, Lord Bishop of Ely), seated at Kilworth, County Cork, some time within the first quarter of the 17th century, and left, with other children, at his decease,
RICHARD COX, a man of great bodily strength and courage, who became a captain in Major-General John Jephson’sregiment of dragoons, and fought successively under the royal banner of CHARLES I, and the republican one of Cromwell.
He married Catherine, daughter of Walter Bird, of Clonakilty, and died in 1651 (in consequence of a treacherous wound received from a brother officer of his own regiment, a Captain Narton) when his orphan son,
RICHARD COX (1650-1733), then not quite three years of age, was taken under the care of his maternal grandfather, Walter Bird; but that relation dying a few years later, he was placed by his uncle, John Bird, at an ordinary Latin school in the town of Clonakilty, where he soon evinced a strong disposition to learning.
In 1671, he entered himself at Lincoln’s Inn, and was, in regular time, called to the bar.
Upon his return to Ireland, Mr Cox married; but in consequence of some disappointment regarding the fate of his wife, retired, in a fit of despondency, very uncharacteristic of his active mind, to a farm near Clonakilty, and there remained in obscurity for almost seven years.
The patronage of Sir Robert Southwell at length, however, recalled him into active life; and in 1680 he was Recorder of Kinsale, County Cork, when he settled at Cork and practiced as a barrister with considerable success.
In 1687, he withdrew, in consequence of the religious dissensions prevalent at that period in his native country, to Bristol, and there, at his leisure hours, compiled a “History of Ireland.”
At the period of the Revolution he returned to Ireland, as secretary to Sir Robert Southwell, who accompanied William, Prince of Orange, in the capacity of principal secretary of state.
Upon his royal master’s march to Dublin, after the battle of the Boyne, that prince published his manifesto, called “The King’s Declaration at Finglass,” which emanated from the pen of Mr Cox, and which so pleased His Majesty that he was heard to say that “Mr Cox has exactly hit my own mind.”
After the surrender of Waterford, Mr Cox was made Recorder of that city, and thence, in 1690, removed to the second seat upon the bench of the Court of Common Pleas.
In 1692, he received the honour of knighthood; in 1701, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas; and in 1703 was appointed LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND.
In the absence of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he was twice nominated one of the Lords-Justices; and created a baronet in 1706, designated of Dunmanway, County Cork.
Upon the termination of the Duke of Ormonde’s government, however, in 1707, Sir Richard Cox was removed from the chancellorship, but he subsequently accepted the office of Lord Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench, from which he was removed, with the other judges, upon the accession of GEORGE I, and his conduct was subsequently censured by a vote of the House of Commons.
Sir Richard married, in 1673, Mary, daughter of John Bourne, and had issue,
Richard (1677-1725), father of RICHARD, 2nd Baronet; Walter; John; William; MICHAEL, of whom hereafter.
The youngest son,
THE MOST REV DR MICHAEL COX (1689-1779), Lord Archbishop of Cashel and Primate of Munster, Chaplain to James, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who espoused, in 1712, Anne, daughter of the Hon James O’Brien MP, and granddaughter of William, 3rd Earl of Inchiquin, by whom he left at his decease, in 1779, an only son,
RICHARD COX (1745-), of Castletown, County Kilkenny, who married, in 1776, Mary, daughter of Francis Burton, brother of Sir Charles Burton, 1st Baronet, and had (with two daughters), five sons,
MICHAEL, of whom hereafter; Francis (Sir), 9th Baronet; Richard (Rev), Rector of Caherconlish; William; Benjamin.
The eldest son,
MICHAEL COX (1768-), of Castletown, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1819, wedded Mary, daughter of Henry, 1st Baron Dunalley, and had issue,
Richard (Sir), 8th Baronet, of Castletown, dsp 1846; Henry, died unmarried; CATHERINE, of whom we treat.
The only daughter,
CATHERINE COX (c1808-1879), of Castletown, heir to her brother, wedded, in 1833, LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WILLIAM VILLIERS-STUART (see above).
Entrance Front
CASTLETOWN, Piltown, County Kilkenny (popularly known as Castletown Cox to distinguish it from the celebrated Castletown in County Kildare), was the creation of the renowned architect, Davis Ducart, who was commissioned, in 1767, by the Most Rev Michael Cox, Lord Archbishop of Cashel (whose father, Sir Richard Cox, 1st Baronet, had leased the land from the Duke of Ormonde).
The Archbishop’s armorial bearings adorn the garden front.
His Grace acquired the property following his first marriage to Anne Cooke, who had inherited it from her brother.
The Archbishop’s second wife, Anne O’Brien, was granddaughter of the Earl of Inchiquin.
Castletown Cox has a principal centre block comprising three storeys over a basement, and seven bays.
At each side, in the Palladian style, there are stable and kitchen wings which lengthen two fronts of the mansion and then run outwards at right angles, thus forming a partly-enclosed forecourt.
The central block is said to be a variant of William Wynde’s Buckingham House in London.
The roof is balustraded.
Castletown Cox is made of dressed sandstone and unpolished Kilkenny marble.
The main block is very finely cut, and the wings have rougher stonework with ashlar dressings.
Garden Front
The wings on the garden front are arcaded and terminate in pavilions with cupolas and octagonal domes.
The garden front is adorned with large, fluted Corinthian pilasters and exceptionally beautiful arcades.
Brockley Park, County Laois drawing room ceiling c. 1944, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 48. “(Jocelyn, Roden, E/PB; Young/LGI1912) A house built 1768 for 2nd Viscount Jocelyn, afterwards 1st Earl of Roden, Auditor-General of Ireland, to the design of Davis Duckart. Of three storeys over basement; seven bay entrance front with breakfront centre; garden front of four bays with a projection at one side ending in a three-sided bow. Two storey wing. Good interior plasterwork. By 1825 the Rodens had ceased to live at Brockley, which afterwards became the seat of the Young family; it was demolished 1944.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 97. “A large three storey house built in 1768…Superb interior plasterwork and staircase. Dismanteld in 1944, some ruins remain.”
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 273. “Murphy/IFR) A mid to late-C18 house in the Palladian manner, probably designed under the influence of Davis Duckart… built by James Morrison, a rich Cork merchant and Mayor of Cork, who named it Tivoli because of its steep and romantically wooded grounds going down to the Lee estuary, which he adorned with a reproduction of the Temple of Vesta, as well as with a larger and more elaborate temple in the Gothic taste. Tivoli was eventually acquired by James Morrison’s grandson, James Morgan, a member of another wealthy Cork merchant family, who bought it from a cousin who was also his sister-in-law. Some time ca 1820s the house was largely gutted by fire caused by James Morgan’s children playing with fireworks. Demolished a few years ago and the follies have long since disappeared. ..”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 53. “Large late 18C house built for James Morrison which consisted of centre block joined to pedimented pavilions by straight arcaded links. The house was damaged by fire in the 1820s and rebuilt, but was demolished in recent years.”
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 191. (Rogers/LG1863) A fine Palladian house overlooking the Lee estuary just above the mouth of the Glanmire River; built 1765 for Robert Rogers to the design of Davis Duckart. Three storey nine bay centre block joined to pyramidal-roofed pavilions by wings with wondows set in niches beneath oculi; central feature of pilasters and urns and delightful Baroque porch with banded columns, blocked pilasters and concave-curving entablature and wrought iron balustrade. Richly carved and moulded mahogany bifurcating staircuase at back of hall; gallery supported by arch and coffered barrel vault on Doric entablature and columns; fluted Corithian columns above. Oval recessed with frames of simple rococo plasterwork on walls. The exterior of the house has been much altered but the porch remains as it was, as does the hall and staircase. The house is now owned by the Brothers of Charity.”
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 24. Ducart’s origins are a mystery…He made use of certain distinctive details such as vermiculated rustication, straight quoins, architraves with upward breaks and concave weatherings, and lunette-shaped basement windows, all of which look more to the Continent than to English Palladianism.
25. It was Ducart who popularized in Cork the Palladian format of a central block connected to wings, although his plans are often more complex than those of Pearce and Castle. Kishannig is unquestionably the county’s finest C18 house: a central block with the proportions of a villa, standing two storeys over basement, and linked to L-plan wings by quadrant screen walls which enclose compact courts. On the garden front the wings are connected to the centre by straight arcades which terminate in domed pavilions. A similar pattern was employed at Castletown Cox, and in Cork in a modified form at The Island (demolished). By contrast, at Coole Abbey House (Castlelyons) and Lota (Tivoli), Ducart used straight screen walls to connect the central block to service wings which themselves enclose a yard at the back of the house. It was this pattern which found most favour in Cork, providing a compact economical and efficient layout with a modicum of grandeur. Later C18 examples include Mount Massy (Macroom), Dunkathel (Dunkettle) and Gortigrenane (Minane Bridge), and on a smaller scale the glebe houses and Creagh and Kilmalooda.
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 27. Of mid-C18 Palladian interiors, good representative examples with panelled dados, lugged architraves, fielded panelling and chunky cornices are found at Coole Abbey House, Assolas, Cloghroe, Kilshannig, and Blackrock House. Curiously, the heavy Palladian lugged architrave remained in use in the county long after it fell out of fashion elsewhere. At Lisnabrin, Dunkathel, Burton, Rockforest and Muckridge, the form is encountered in late C18 Neoclassical interiors, suggesting an innate conservatism among local joiners. The finest joinery in most houses is reserved for the staircase, and in many cases these have survived. The best early C18 staircases, at the Red House and Annes Grove, have alternating barley-twist and columnar balusters, big Corinthian newel posts, ramped handrails and carved tread-end brackets. Mount Alvernia (Mallow), Carrigrohane and Cloghroe all have good mid-C18 staircases of a similar type; that at Lota is exceptional in its use of mahogany and for its imperial plan. Good Neoclassical staircases, geometrical in form with delicate ironwork balustrades, survive at Maryborough, Newmarket Court and Castle Hyde; the destruction of those at Vernon Mount is a particularly sad loss.
The best early plasterwork is that of the Swiss-Italian brothers Paolo and Filippo Lafranchini at Riverstown, where highly sculptural late Baroque figurative ornament is applied to the walls and ceilings of the Saloon… Filippo alone decorated two rooms at Kilshannig, blending late Baroque figures with lighter acanthus arabesques and putti. Rococo plasterwork featuring scrolling acanthus and birds comparable to the Dublin school of the 1760s is encountered in the Saloon at Castlemartyr, and at Maryborough. At Laurentium (Doneraile) and the Old College (Youghal), it is rather more hesitant. For the most part, stucco workers remain anonymous, so it is a happy circumstance that Patrick Osborne’s accomplished work at the former Mansion House at Cork is recorded. He also probably worked at Lota, as well as at Castle Hyde. Good Neoclassical plasterwork in low relief and employing small-scale classical motifs of the type made fashionable by Robert Adam and James Wyatt is found at Maryborough, at Old Court House (Rochestown), and at the Old College and Loreto College at Youghal.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 189. “(Bury/IFR) A Palladian house built for the Bury family, stylistically of ca 1780 and from its plan, probably a late work by Davis Duckart…. Now a ruin, having stood empty and derelict for many years.”
Not in national inventory
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
“A large late 18C house sometimes attributed to Davis Duckart because of the similarity of its plan to that of Kilshannig. Seven bay, three storey centre block with Doric pedimented doorcase, flanked by two storey pavilions linked to the entrance front by quadrant walls. Built for the Bury family. Now a ruin.”
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 90. “A house built ca 1765 by Henry Peard; attributed, on stylistic grounds, to Davis Duckart. Of two storeys over basement; handsome ashlar facade of one bay on either side of a three bay breakfront with superimposed Doric and Ionic pilasters; the pilasters on teh upper storey and those on either side being heavily rusticated. Round-headed central window over doorway with semi-circular fanlight set in rectangular surround; bold quoins; shouldered window surrounds, some with keystones; broad steps up to hall door, platform with iron railings. C19 eaved roof. Curved quadrant walls link the back of the house to the stables with arches of plain cut stone blocks, forming a handsome courtyard. Large hall with staircase of solid C18 joinery.”
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 24. Ducart’s origins are a mystery…He made use of certain distinctive details such as vermiculated rustication, straight quoins, architraves with upward breaks and concave weatherings, and lunette-shaped basement windows, all of which look more to the Continent than to English Palladianism.
25. It was Ducart who popularized in Cork the Palladian format of a central block connected to wings, although his plans are often more complex than those of Pearce and Castle. Kishannig is unquestionably the county’s finest C18 house: a central block with the proportions of a villa, standing two storeys over basement, and linked to L-plan wings by quadrant screen walls which enclose compact courts. On the garden front the wings are connected to the centre by straight arcades which terminate in domed pavilions. A similar pattern was employed at Castletown Cox, and in Cork in a modified form at The Island (demolished). By contrast, at Coole Abbey House (Castlelyons) and Lota (Tivoli), Ducart used straight screen walls to connect the central block to service wings which themselves enclose a yard at the back of the house. It was this pattern which found most favour in Cork, providing a compact economical and efficient layout with a modicum of grandeur. Later C18 examples include Mount Massy (Macroom), Dunkathel (Dunkettle) and Gortigrenane (Minane Bridge), and on a smaller scale the glebe houses and Creagh and Kilmalooda.
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 27. Of mid-C18 Palladian interiors, good representative examples with panelled dados, lugged architraves, fielded panelling and chunky cornices are found at Coole Abbey House, Assolas, Cloghroe, Kilshannig, and Blackrock House. Curiously, the heavy Palladian lugged architrave remained in use in the county long after it fell out of fashion elsewhere. At Lisnabrin, Dunkathel, Burton, Rockforest and Muckridge, the form is encountered in late C18 Neoclassical interiors, suggesting an innate conservatism among local joiners. The finest joinery in most houses is reserved for the staircase, and in many cases these have survived. The best early C18 staircases, at the Red House and Annes Grove, have alternating barley-twist and columnar balusters, big Corinthian newel posts, ramped handrails and carved tread-end brackets. Mount Alvernia (Mallow), Carrigrohane and Cloghroe all have good mid-C18 staircases of a similar type; that at Lota is exceptional in its use of mahogany and for its imperial plan. Good Neoclassical staircases, geometrical in form with delicate ironwork balustrades, survive at Maryborough, Newmarket Court and Castle Hyde; the destruction of those at Vernon Mount is a particularly sad loss.
The best early plasterwork is that of the Swiss-Italian brothers Paolo and Filippo Lafranchini at Riverstown, where highly sculptural late Baroque figurative ornament is applied to the walls and ceilings of the Saloon… Filippo alone decorated two rooms at Kilshannig, blending late Baroque figures with lighter acanthus arabesques and putti. Rococo plasterwork featuring scrolling acanthus and birds comparable to the Dublin school of the 1760s is encountered in the Saloon at Castlemartyr, and at Maryborough. At Laurentium (Doneraile) and the Old College (Youghal), it is rather more hesitant. For the most part, stucco workers remain anonymous, so it is a happy circumstance that Patrick Osborne’s accomplished work at the former Mansion House at Cork is recorded. He also probably worked at Lota, as well as at Castle Hyde. Good Neoclassical plasterwork in low relief and employing small-scale classical motifs of the type made fashionable by Robert Adam and James Wyatt is found at Maryborough, at Old Court House (Rochestown), and at the Old College and Loreto College at Youghal.
Castle Mary, County Cork, entrance front before late 19C alterations. Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 73. “(Longfield/IFR) A three storey late C17 and early C18 house with three bay recessed centre and one bay projecting wings, for which the architect Davis Duckart is recorded as having designed a “difficult” roof. Camber headed windows with scrolled pediments. REbuilt as a castle late C19 with a square tower. Burnt 1920, after which the family made a house in the stable quadrangle.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
“An interesting three storey late 17C and early 18C house with a recessed three bay centre flanked by single bay projecting wings. The walls of these wings at ground floor level have a very distinct “batter.” The pedimented doorcase was late 18C with engaged columns having “Tower of the Winds” capitals. The architect Davis Duckart is recorded as having designed a “difficult” roof for the house. The house was much altered in the late nineteenth century, in the “baronial” style. A seat of the Longfields. It was destroyed by fire in 1920. Now a ruin. A good stable court survives.”
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 24. Also during the first half of the C18, a small group of “towered” houses were built. Glanmire House (now Colaiste an Phiarsaigh) and Mohera House (Castlelyons) have projecting single-bay corner blocks, Annesgrove at Carrigtwohill and the rectory at Schull (1724) have been lost. Unlike in other parts of Ireland, few medieval tower houses continued to be inhabited into the C18 and C19. Exceptions include Castle Mary (Cloyne) and Duarrigle Castle (Millstreet), where the towers were fully incorporated within new houses. At Castle Widenham (Castletownroche) and Castle Salem (Rosscarbery), the new houses took the form of largely independent wings added to the tower.
Detached country house, built c. 1680, altered c. 1740, substantially altered and extended c. 1880. Former five-bay three-storey Georgian house with projecting end-bays, Gothic extension and features later additions. Irregular-plan, comprising two-bay three-storey recessed section with projecting porch, flanked by single-bay three-storey tower with two-storey bay window to east and by stepped single- and two-bay four-stage projecting tower to west. Six-bay three-storey garden elevation with single-bay single-storey flat-roofed porch to east. Now in ruins. Rendered crenellated parapets with rendered cornices and rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered walls with render quoins and plinth courses. Square-headed openings with rendered surrounds, transoms and mullions. Camber-headed openings with render surrounds incorporating projecting and dropped keystone details. Segmental-headed opening to west elevation with render surround incorporating projecting and dropped keystone. Retains doorcase comprising flanking columns with decorative fluted and foliate capitals, architrave, frieze and cornice with dentilated pediment. Red brick walls to interior
Built in the late seventeenth century, renowned eighteenth century architect Davis Ducart worked on the house during one of its phases of renovation. The nineteenth century renovations created a complicated plan and variety of blocks, and it is to this period that the building owes it romantic Gothic appearance. Features such as the crenellations, doorcase, window surrounds and ornament cast-iron, along with the irregular-plan, combine to create the fanciful character. The several gate lodges and extensive outbuildings are indicators of the former importance and influence of this country house.
Former outbuilding complex, built c. 1730, renovated c. 1925 to accommodate use as house. North range comprising three-bay two-storey main block with gabled breakfront to front (south) elevation, and hipped-roofed projection flanked by links and bay windows to north elevation with flanking two-bay two-storey blocks having gablets to south elevations and bay window to north elevation of east block. East and west ranges comprising multiple-bay two-storey blocks with taller central bays having integral carriage arches. South range comprising multiple-bay two-storey block with central taller four-bay block and integral carriage arch. Pitched slate roofs with rendered chimneystacks. Render copings to main block. Rendered walls to main block. Rubble stone walls to other blocks. Camber-headed openings with timber casement windows to south elevation of main block. Square-headed openings to north elevation of main block with fixed pane timber windows. Camber-arched openings to west elevation of east block with red brick block-and-start surrounds, timber casement and plate glass windows. Lunette window above carriage arch with plate glass window and red brick voussoirs. Camber-arched openings to east elevation of west block with red brick block-and-start surrounds, timber casement windows to ground floor and three-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows to first floor. Lunette window to central bay with tripartite three-over-three flanked by fixed pane timber sliding sash window. Camber-headed openings to north elevation of south block with plate glass windows and red brick block-and-start surrounds. Cut stone sills to some window openings. Camber-headed and square-headed openings to east, south and west elevations with timber casement windows and fixed timber windows. Camber-headed opening to south elevation of north range with stepped render surround with keystone detail, timber battened door and overlight. Camber-headed door openings to east, west and south ranges with replacement timber doors. Elliptical-arched integral carriage arches having rubble stone voussoirs.
Substantial group of outbuildings retaining much of original form and fabric, including intact retention of square design around courtyard. Varying rooflines to central bays of ranges and symmetrically typical features of consciously designed outbuildings of era. Other characteristic features are carriage arches and lunette windows. Forms impressive feature on landscape setting, particularly due to projections to north elevation of north range. Forms a group with Castle Mary to north and other demesne structures to south and east. Renovated to accommodate residential use following the burning of Castle Mary.
Castle Hyde, County Cork, photograph by Robert French, (between ca. 1865-1914), Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 70. “(Hyde, now Sealy/IFR; Wrixon-Becher, Bt/Pb) a house built ca 1801 for John Hyde to the design of the elder Abraham Hargrave, of Cork; consisting of a centre block of three storeys over a basement and seven bays joined by straight corridors to bow-fronted pavilions, both the corridors and the pavillions being of one storey over basement. The centre block has a three bay breakfront; the entrance door and the two flaking windows are round-headed, as is the central first floor window’ all the basement windows are semi-circular, and all the windows in the front have keystones. The corridors are of three bays, divided by Ionic pilasters; and there ar three round-headed windows in the bows of the pavilions, which are curved. Large hall with screen of fluted Corinthian columns; frieze of transitional plasterwork; plaster panelling on walls. The drawing room, on one side of the hall, has a rather similar frieze. Long and wide corridors – more like galleries, lead from the hall to oval rooms in the pavilions, which are very much of their period in containing additional reception rooms rather than offices. The latter would almost invariable have been the case had the house been a few years earlier; though in some other respects it seems old-fashioned for the date, and might possibly be a rebuilding of an earlier house. But if the wings are very much of 1801, so is the splendid oval cantilevered staircase of stone with its elegant wrought-iron balustrade, which rises to the top of the house in a domed staircase hall behind the main hall. Surprisingly, one has to clim to the top of this beautiful staircase to reach teh garden, for the house stands beside the River Blackwater with its back up against a cliff. From the top of the stairs one crosses the chasm between the house and the cliff by a bridge; then, after climbing a few more steps cut in the rock one goes through a door and finds onself at the end of a brad vista between colossal beech hedges, looking towards a church tower There is an old ruied castle of the Condons rising from the cliff immediately above the house. Handsome entrance gates, with trefoil arched wickets surmounted by sphinxes and flanked by tall piers with Doric friezes. The seat of the Hydes, of which Douglas Hyde, founder of the Gaelic League and 1st President of Ireland, was a cadet. Sold in mid-C19 during the lifetime of John Hyde, son of the builder fo the house, by order of the Encumbered Estates Court. Subsequently the seat of William Wrixon-Becher, a great yachtsman, and a great hunting man who hunted for almost 60 years with almost every pack in Ireland. For many years the home of Mr and Mrs Henry Laughlin, who bought Castle Hyde btween the wars.”
The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020.
p. 27. Of mid-C18 Palladian interiors, good representative examples with panelled dados, lugged architraves, fielded panelling and chunky cornices are found at Coole Abbey House, Assolas, Cloghroe, Kilshannig, and Blackrock House. Curiously, the heavy Palladian lugged architrave remained in use in the county long after it fell out of fashion elsewhere. At Lisnabrin, Dunkathel, Burton, Rockforest and Muckridge, the form is encountered in late C18 Neoclassical interiors, suggesting an innate conservatism among local joiners. The finest joinery in most houses is reserved for the staircase, and in many cases these have survived. The best early C18 staircases, at the Red House and Annes Grove, have alternating barley-twist and columnar balusters, big Corinthian newel posts, ramped handrails and carved tread-end brackets. Mount Alvernia (Mallow), Carrigrohane and Cloghroe all have good mid-C18 staircases of a similar type; that at Lota is exceptional in its use of mahogany and for its imperial plan. Good Neoclassical staircases, geometrical in form with delicate ironwork balustrades, survive at Maryborough, Newmarket Court and Castle Hyde; the destruction of those at Vernon Mount is a particularly sad loss.
The best early plasterwork is that of the Swiss-Italian brothers Paolo and Filippo Lafranchini at Riverstown, where highly sculptural late Baroque figurative ornament is applied to the walls and ceilings of the Saloon… Filippo alone decorated two rooms at Kilshannig, blending late Baroque figures with lighter acanthus arabesques and putti. Rococo plasterwork featuring scrolling acanthus and birds comparable to the Dublin school of the 1760s is encountered in the Saloon at Castlemartyr, and at Maryborough. At Laurentium (Doneraile) and the Old College (Youghal), it is rather more hesitant. For the most part, stucco workers remain anonymous, so it is a happy circumstance that Patrick Osborne’s accomplished work at the former Mansion House at Cork is recorded. He also probably worked at Lota, as well as at Castle Hyde. Good Neoclassical plasterwork in low relief and employing small-scale classical motifs of the type made fashionable by Robert Adam and James Wyatt is found at Maryborough, at Old Court House (Rochestown), and at the Old College and Loreto College at Youghal.
Detached seven-bay three-storey over half-basement country house, built c. 1790, facing south, with shallow three-bay breakfront, four-bay side elevations whose north end bays project slightly, seven-bay rear elevation, and three-bay single-storey over half-basement wings terminating in higher single-storey over half-basement pavilions having three-bay bowed front elevations and four-bay side elevations, middle bays of latter projecting slightly. Skirt slate roofs to main block and to pavilions, with cut limestone chimneystacks and moulded limestone cornices and eaves courses. Glazed dome over staircase. Painted rendered walls throughout, with cut limestone quoins to corners of façade and to north bay of side elevations, with pilaster quoins to breakfront. Cut limestone platband between ground and first floors and moulded string course between first and second floors. Carved limestone Ionic-style pilasters flanking openings to ground floor of wings. Cut limestone string course between basement and ground floor of wings and pavilions. Square-headed window openings throughout, with timber sliding sash windows, having cut limestone sills. Blind window openings to south bays of east side elevation. Cut limestone keystones to window openings to front and side elevations. Main block has three-over-three pane windows to second floor, six-over-six pane to first floor, and six-over-nine pane to ground floor. Windows to breakfront have cut limestone surrounds, carved triple-keystones, and sills, with round-headed openings to ground floor and middle bay of first floor having Doric-style pilasters and fanlights. Diocletian windows to basement of main block, with cut limestone surrounds, keystones and sills, blind to side elevation and with fixed windows to front elevation. Elliptical-headed windows to middle bay of side elevations, four-over-eight pane to second floor with cobweb fanlights and eight-over-eight pane to first floor with cobweb and spoked fanlights. Tripartite window to north end bay of ground floor of west side elevation with carved sandstone surround having engaged Ionic-style columns flanking six-over-nine pane lights, with moulded cornice and fluted console brackets to cut-stone sill. Rear elevation of main block has elliptical-headed windows to end bays and square-headed elsewhere, with six-over-six pane windows, and with some six-over-three pane windows to second floor. Decorative cast-iron bridge to rear elevation leading to square-headed timber panelled double-leaf door, other end leading to flight of cut limestone steps. Recessed round-headed window openings to first floor of pavilion bows, having six-over-nine pane windows with spoked fanlights, square-headed elsewhere, with four-over-four pane windows to basement and six-over-nine pane windows to side elevations, some blind window openings to latter. Round-headed main entrance opening having carved limestone surround having pilasters with plinths and moulded capitals, moulded archivolt with triple-keystone and having carved heraldic device and vegetal decoration to tympanum, moulded cornice and timber panelled double-leaf doors, approached by flight of moulded limestone steps having landings to each side with diocletian windows to basement underneath and having cast-iron railings above and to steps, landings having panelled cut limestone piers. Flights of cut limestone steps to doorways to wings and to north-west corner of west pavilion, latter leading to terrace, and wing steps being moulded, all having cast-iron railings. Square-headed doorways to wings having overlights and timber panelled doors. Elliptical-arched vehicular gateway to east, leading to rear of house and having plinths, cut limestone voussoirs, impost course, jambs and coping.
Appraisal
Castle Hyde was built for the Hyde family to the design of the architect Davis Duckart. The architect Abraham Hargreave c. 1800 was employed to enlarge the house; the wings and staircase possibly date from this period. Castle Hyde is similar in design to Cregg House, located in the adjoining townland. Castle Hyde, however, is larger and grander in scale and treatment. Whilst Castle Hyde is characteristic in form of late eighteenth century country houses built in the classical style, it is distinguished by the ornate limestone dressings such as the Ionic style pilasters and tripartite window to the wings. The symmetrical proportions of the façade are articulated by the finely cut limestone quoins, which also add decorative interest to the front elevation. The ornate raised entrance constitutes the focal point of the house; the door surround and heraldic motifs are particularly finely carved. The well-proportioned façade has a piano nobile level raised above the basement, which was a favourite device of eighteenth century Irish architecture. The basement windows are notable for their Diocletian form and cut limestone dressings. The house has an unusual cast-iron bridge to the rear, which leads to walled gardens to the north. The walled gardens retain much of their form and features including carriage arch, dovecote and brick courses. The site retains many demesne related structures such as the walled gardens, grotto, outbuildings and lodges, which provides valuable context.
Complex of two-storey outbuildings, mainly stable-blocks, built c. 1810, for Castle Hyde, comprising square-plan yard with ranges to all sides, having central archways to north and south, latter accessed along street formed by south-west and south-east outbuildings running at right angles to courtyard. All have slate roofs and rubble stone walls. Former steward’s house forms south end of west range. Thirteen-bay north range has exposed stone walls, slight breakfront with gabled single-storey porch to front, rendered pediment with moulded limestone surround, clock-face and having recent louvered timber lantern with weather-vane. Blind elliptical-arched opening to upper level of breakfront with rubble voussoirs and elliptical archway to porch. Slate-roofed lean-to to whole length of range to each side of porch, supported on braced timber posts. Camber-arched window openings with rubble voussoirs and three-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows. Ten-bay east range has roughcast rendered walls, blocked elliptical-headed archways to ground floor and camber-headed three-over-three-pane windows to first floor. Eleven-bay south range has gabled breakfront to courtyard elevation with recent elliptical carriage archway and exposed rubble stone walls, roughcast rendered elsewhere, square-headed three-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows to first floor and altered openings to ground floor with glazed timber doors. External side of archway has roughcast rendered walls, dressed limestone voussoirs, pediment with moulded limestone surround, oculus with timber window, and double-leaf cast-iron gate. West range, thirteen bay externally, formerly used as hotel and comprises seven-bay former outbuilding to north end and multiple-bay rear elevation of former steward’s house to south. North block has recent single-storey hipped slate-roofed addition to four northern bays and recent gabled porch to next bay south, recent brick chimneystack, exposed stone walls except for roughcast rendered south gable, with eaves course, camber-headed three-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows with rubble voussoirs and elliptical-arched openings to ground floor of additions and southmost bay, with glazed timber fittings. West elevation of north block has six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows and recent three-bay single-storey flat-roofed addition to west. Former steward’s house has brick chimneystacks with string courses and stepped copings, coursed rubble sandstone walls, square-headed window openings with six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows having brick surrounds and some limestone sills, round-headed door opening with fanlight, timber panelled door and flight of moulded limestone steps with replacement metal railings. Large limestone trough and overflow, and cast-iron water pump, to centre of courtyard. Four-bay, two-storey south-west and south-east buildings, being pairs of workers’ houses, having chamfered corners to street corners with wheel guards, hipped slate roofs, brick chimneystacks, exposed snecked squared rubble stone walls, partly roughcast rendered, with cut-stone quoins, moulded limestone eaves courses, cut-stone voussoirs and sills. Square-headed window and door openings, having three-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows to first floor and six-over-six pane to ground floor, and timber battened doors with paned overlights. Semi-circular limestone arch detail between middle bays. Other stone-walled outbuildings to east and north, with square-profile rubble sandstone piers to road entrance to north, having cut-stone caps.
Appraisal
The Georgian stables of Castle Hyde are a fine example of planned farm buildings, complete with steward’s house. The stables comprise a well-proportioned walled square with perpendicular ranges to the entrance range of the stables proper. High quality materials are used in the dressings of the stables such as the limestone surrounds to the oculus and pediments. The entrance ranges are distinguished from the side ranges, which housed the stables, animal houses and accommodation for farm workers, by means of the pedimented breakfronts. This is a characteristic device of late eighteenth, early nineteenth-century planned farm buildings in Ireland. The complex represents an interesting group of demesne-related structures.
Ashlar limestone gateway to Castle Hyde House, built c. 1830, comprising vehicular gateway and flanking arched pedestrian entrances. Square-profile piers having moulded plinths and entablature with triglyphs, metopes, bucrania and roundel motifs. Pedestrian entrances have moulded coping courses, trefoil-arched openings with hood-mouldings, having moulded panels above, with sphinxes to parapets. Entrance openings flanked by pilasters with moulded capitals. Gateway flanked by curving rubble limestone walling and terminating in second pair of square-profile ashlar limestone piers. Replacement decorative wrought-iron gates. Piers recently resituated back from road. Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge, built c. 2000, inside gates.
Appraisal
These ornate gates form one of the entrances to Castle Hyde House. The gateway is notable for its design which incorporates both classical and Gothic elements. The piers are enlivened by the finely sculpted bucrania, roundel motifs and triglyphs which serve as a reminder of the skill of local stone masons and sculptors available in Ireland at the time of construction. The gateway provides important context to the locality and forms an attractive roadside feature.
Entrance gateway from north, to Castle Hyde, erected c. 1830, comprising square-profile ashlar limestone inner and outer piers, with moulded plinths, string courses and moulded caps, and with decorative double-leaf wrought-iron gates. Lower inner piers have acorn finials and outer piers have eagles. Dressed limestone and sandstone sweeping walls between piers, with limestone copings.
Appraisal
These imposing and ornate gates form the northern entrance to Castle Hyde House. They are well designed and solidly constructed and form a strong focal point. The varied finials provide eyecatching decorative detail and the stonework is indicative of high quality craftsmanship.
A late 18th century house, which was the home of the Hyde family. In 1786 Wilson describes it as “a beautiful house, magnificent demesne, highly cultivated, the seat of Arthur Hyde”. At the time of the sale of Castle Hyde in 1851 the house was occupied by Spencer Cosby Price, the brother-in-law of John Hyde. The house was valued at £115. Castle Hyde was bought by John Sadleir MP in trust [for Vincent Scully]. Major Chichester was the tenant from year to year in 1861. John Wrixon Becher, second son of Sir William Wrixon Becher of Ballygiblin, county Cork, subsequently lived at Castle Hyde. in the 1870s John R. Wrixon of Castle Hyde is recorded as the owner of 1,263 acres in county Cork. He was resident in 1906 when the buildings were valued at £96. The Irish Tourist Association Survey of 1942 indicated that the house was then “occupied by the military”. Castle Hyde is now the home of dancer, Michael Flatley.
THE WRIXON-BECHER BARONETS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY CORK, WITH 18,933 ACRES
The BECHERS settled in County Cork in the reign of ELIZABETH I.
The family has a pedigree in its possession tracing their ancestors in that line to Sir Eustace D’Abrichecourt, who came from Hainault with Philippa, consort of EDWARD III, in 1328.
HENRY WRIXON, of Assolas, County Cork, married Anna, daughter of William Mansfield; and dying in 1794, left a daughter (Mary, who wedded William, Viscount Ennismore) and a son and heir,
WILLIAM WRIXON (1756-1847), of Cecilstown, County Cork, who espoused Mary, daughter of John Townsend Becher, of Annisgrove, and sister and heir of Henry Becher, of Creagh, both in County Cork, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir;
John;
Nicholas, in holy orders;
Mary Anne; Jane; Georgiana.
Mr Wrixon was succeeded by his eldest son,
WILLIAM WRIXON (1780-1850), of Ballygiblin, MP for Mallow, 1818-26, who assumed the additional surname of BECHER, and married, in 1819, Elizabeth O’Neill, the very celebrated actress, and had issue,
HENRY, his heir;
John;
William;
Mary; Elizabeth.
Mr Wrixon-Becher was created a baronet in 1831, denominated of Ballygiblin, County Cork.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR HENRY WRIXON-BECHER, 2nd Baronet (1826-93), DL, who wedded, in 1878, Florence Elizabeth, daughter of Frederick John Walker; though died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother,
SIR JOHN WRIXON-BECHER, 3rd Baronet (1828-1914), JP DL, High Sheriff of County Cork, 1867, who espoused, in 1857, the Lady Emily Catherine Hare, daughter of William, 2nd Earl of Listowel, and had issue,
EUSTACE WILLIAM WYNDHAM, his successor; Edgar; Henry; Arthur Nicholas; Charles Edward; Alice Elizabeth; Victoria Emily; Mary; Cecil Eleanor; Barbara Elizabeth; Adelaide Maud; Georgina Victoria; Hilda Mary.
Sir John was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR EUSTACE WILLIAM WYNDHAM WRIXON-BECHER, 4th Baronet (1859-1934), DL, High Sheriff of County Cork, 1859, who married, in 1907, Constance, daughter of Augustus, 6th Baron Calthorpe, and had issue,
WILLIAM FANE, his successor; Muriel Mary; Aileen; Shiela; Rosemary.
Sir Eustace was succeeded by his son,
SIR WILLIAM FANE WRIXON-BECHER, 5th Baronet (1915-2000), MC, who wedded firstly, in 1946, Ursula Vanda Maud, daughter of George, 4th Baron Vivian, and had issue,
JOHN WILLIAM MICHAEL, his successor; Susannah Elizabeth.
He wedded secondly, in 1960, Yvonne Margaret, daughter of Arthur Stuart Johnson.
Sir William was succeeded by his son,
SIR JOHN WILLIAM MICHAEL WRIXON-BECHER, 6th Baronet, born in 1950.
CASTLE HYDE, near Fermoy, County Cork, was built about 1801 for John Hyde MP.
The architect was Hargrave of Cork.
It comprises a central block of three storeys over a basement and seven bays, joined by straight corridors to bow-fronted pavilions on either side (of one storey over a basement).
The centre block has a three-bay breakfront.
The corridors are of three bays each, with dividing Ionic pilasters.
The pavilions have round-headed windows.
The interior boasts a large hall with a screen of fluted Corinthian columns; a frieze of transitional plasterwork, and plaster panelling on the walls.
The stone staircase is magnificent, being oval and cantilevered, with an exquisite wrought-iron balustrade which ascends to the top of the house in the domed staircase hall, which is behind the principal hall.
Castle Hyde is situated behind the River Blackwater, directly against a cliff, where there is an ancient ruined castle.
The entrance gates are no less impressive to visitors, with their trefoil-arched wickets surmounted by sphinxes, flanked by lofty piers with Doric friezes.
*****
In the early 1850s John Hyde’s estate was located in the baronies of Fermoy, Condons and Clangibbon, and Barrymore, county Cork and Ardmayle and Holycross, barony of Middlethird, county Tipperary.
The first division (over 11,600 acres) of the estates of John Hyde, comprising the manor, town and lands of Castle Hyde with other lands, was advertised for sale in December, 1851.
Printed papers accompanying this rental in the Irish National Archives refer to the history of the Hyde family and the surprise at the sale of their estates which is ”attributed to mismanagement of the estates by agents rather than to any faults on the part of the possessors”.
There is also a newspaper cutting listing the purchasers of the various lots: John Sadleir MP bought Castle Hyde in trust for £17,525.
In 1861 Castle Hyde was for sale again, the estate of John W. Burmester, William Corry and James Andrew Durham (bankers).
Douglas Hyde, founder of the Gaelic League and first Irish President, was a scion of this family.
Castle Hyde subsequently became the seat of William Wrixon-Becher, a great yachtsman and, indeed a hunting man who hunted for sixty years with most packs in Ireland. . [Bence-Jones: For many years the home of Mr and Mrs Henry Laughlin, who bought Castle Hyde between the wars]
In 2003, the Irish Sunday Independent newspaper reported that:-
Costing a staggering €30m, Castlehyde House now boasts 14 lavish bedrooms, an entire first-floor suite for Flatley and his partner, Lisa Murphy, two climate-controlled wine cellars, a Roman spa, a 20-seat private cinema, an African safari room, a Jameson-designed whiskey room, a three-storey 3,000-volume library, a music room, a gym and various reception rooms, not to mention a reinforced steel, eight-bay garage for the star’s collection of Ferraris, BMWs and Rolls-Royce cars.
Incredibly, that €30m price-tag does not include the collection of artwork, antiques and collectibles that Michael Flatley is now hoarding for his private palace.
As if that isn’t enough to impress, consider the fact that Castlehyde’s red-wine cellar will, thanks to the star’s collection of fine Bordeaux labels, become the most valuable collection in the country.
The three-storey library – topped with a meticulously painted ceiling mural and American walnut shelves – will house 3,000 volumes and, at the dancer’s insistence, will boast first editions and signed copies of the most famous works of Irish literature.
“Michael loves Joyce’s Ulysses so we have private buyers now searching out suitable works for the collection,” architect Peter Inston explained.
Incredibly, just four years ago this famous mansion – built in 1760 and extended in 1800 – was falling apart with flood damage to its basement and roof. Its foundations were subsiding due to over 100 years of flood damage and its main walls were leaning outwards by over ten inches at their outer peaks.
“To be honest, it would have been easier to demolish the house,” explained David Higgins, co-owner with his wife, Monica, of Cornerstone Construction, the family firm entrusted with turning Flatley’s dream into reality.
But, with the Riverdance and Lord of the Dancestar determined to retain the mansion’s original character, a painful and laborious process of restoring and rebuilding was launched.
“Just to put it in context, every window in this house has been restored from the original. It cost over €500,000. But if we had torn them out and put in cheaper PVC windows, it would have cost less than €250,000,” he explained.
Hailed by Flatley as “my dream home”, the four-storey River Blackwater mansion will now be formally completed in October when the Chicago-born dancer is scheduled to move in.
Flatley’s friend and world-renowned architect, Peter Inston, admitted he has never handled a project of such magnificence in 20 years of work for the world’s rich and famous.
“I’VE worked for the King of Qatar and other royals but I’ve never seen anyone take such a hands-on interest in restoring a property as Michael has,” Inston told the Sunday Independent. Peter stressed that, in his opinion, Castlehyde House would be regarded as the finest restoration project in Ireland and, quite probably Europe, for decades to come.
“The point is that everything in this house is original. We’ve saved absolutely everything we could. We’ve repaired and restored the original floors, windows, ceilings and slates. In the basement, we even stripped out the original bricks, numbered them, repaired the flood damage and then replaced the bricks exactly as they were,” he added.
Castlehyde Estate caretaker and local historian Pat Bartley admitted that the house is now back to its 18th-century splendour, when it was one of the most famous features on Ireland’s aristocratic ‘social circuit’. ”This house is a treasure and only Michael could have ensured that it was restored the way it is,” Bartley explained.
Castlehyde’s location is a suitable setting for such a project – the River Blackwater was, for a time, known as “the Irish Rhine” thanks to its plethora of great houses and castles.
Landscaping is now under-way on the rolling parkland which sweeps in front of Castlehyde House down to the banks of the river. But if the location of the house is spectacular – with the river providing its frontage and, to the rear, a sheer cliff-face topped by the ruin of a 13th-century Condon Castle – entering the mansion literally takes the breath away.
“This house was restored to bring it back to its former glory,” Peter Inston explained. “But we restored it so that it could once again be lived in and enjoyed. This isn’t going to be a museum. It’s a family home.”
Castlehyde’s most famous features are its collection of 18th-century fireplaces – regarded as priceless – as well as its stone cantilever staircase which is widely acknowledged as the finest in Ireland. But guests arriving for one of Flatley’s future parties will savour not only an 18th-century mansion but a palace equipped with every conceivable 21st-century mod-con.
The entrance hall is now equipped with an electric, conveyor-belt operated coat rack. All coat-rooms are climate-controlled. The main ground-floor hallways can also have their doors opened so that, in one giant room stretching the entire length of the house, guests can dine at a single long table a la royalty.
All the original plaster cornices and murals are being restored with specialist gilt-work by British artists including Keith Ferdinand and Tony Raymond, both of whom have worked on numerous Royal palaces.
The music room – fully sound-proofed and with spectacular views over the Blackwater valley – is equipped with a Steinway grand piano, a concert harp and Flatley’s valuable collection of flutes. Every chimney in the house has been relined – and all the marble fireplaces, many of which were in poor repair, have been restored and can be used.
The entire first floor is Flatley’s personal suite – complete with a butler’s chamber, an Italian-style bedroom with four-poster bed and hand-crafted silk hangings.
Off the bedroom are matching ‘his’ and ‘hers’ bathrooms and dressing rooms – with the 18th-century baths raised on a special dais so that bathers can enjoy full views of the river.
A complete wardrobe can be stored in the changing room – and altered, with the season, with clothing in a basement storage room.
Off the first-floor hallway, the dancer can savour direct access to his stunning library.
The books will be stored on hand-carved American walnut shelves with special display cases for the more valuable volumes.
Upstairs lie the guest bedrooms. Each is decorated to a theme reflecting Flatley’s interests or the house’s own heritage. Themes include the China room, the American Presidents room, the French room, the Napoleon room, the Venetian room and the Beecher-Wrixon room, complete with a nautical theme to reflect the yachting exploits of the family that formerly owned Castlehyde.
Each bedroom has its own specially-designed wallpaper or hangings – each is also complete with its own marble bathroom.
The entire house boasts a centralised, computer-controlled audio-visual system offering satelliteTV to all rooms as well as a selection of classic and popular music.
But it’s in the basement that Castlehyde’s lavish decadence truly comes to the fore.
The African Safari room has canvass-lined walls to given an authentic feel to anyone wishing to feel ‘Out of Africa’ while playing billiards, drinking whiskey or smoking the stock of fine Cuban cigars.
Down the corridor lies the Jameson-designed whiskey room – complete with four giant casks of Irish whiskey and cabinets lined with rare malts and distillations.
Nearby is the 20-seat private cinema complete with 20-foot screen and bar. There is also American pop-corn and Coca-Cola machines. In minutes, the cinema can also be transformed into a private audition room for rehearsals or dance preparations.
THERE are two wine cellars – one for red and white – with a special climate control system. Red wines will be stored by the case – Michael Flatley’s collection, includes fine Chateau Latoursand Margaux.
Those opting for fitness over indulgence will be catered for at Castlehyde’s own Roman spa – which includes a massage room with heated-floor, a relaxation room, steam room, sauna, salt-water flotation tank, showers, mechanical massage room, hair-salon and a state-of-the-art gym.
Guests who arrive with children needn’t be too concerned – there is a special children’s dormitory complete with plasma TV screen and computer games.
Staff are also catered for with a laundry room, fully-fitted kitchens and a butler’s room.
Because the basement is located at the foot of the cliffs and was prone to flooding, exacerbated by the nearby river, the entire sub-structure had to be water-proofed. That water-proofing programme alone cost almost 25 per cent of the original purchase price of the house.
“I don’t think any private individual has ever undertaken a restoration project of this scale or cost,” Peter Inston admitted.
Even the grounds are being restored at lavish expense – Castlehyde’s famous stone gateway is being repaired while the caretaker and lodge-keepers homes are also being restored.
As if all that wasn’t enough, consider the eight-bay garage.
Because it is located near Castlehyde’s cliffs, it was decided to build it of reinforced steel complete with a toughened concrete roof – to protect the priceless vehicles housed inside.
The centrepiece of these will be Michael’s new Rolls-Royce Phantom – which, at 20 feet in length, forced the garage to be redesigned.
Also stored will be the dancer’s sports cars, a Ferrari and BMW roadster, as well as a pre-1904 vintage car he is currently negotiating to buy.
And the star needn’t worry too much about taking them onto North Cork roads because his estate will also boast one-and-a-half miles of resurfaced roadways for private jaunts.
Paddy Rossmore. Photographs. Edited by Robert O’Byrne. The Lilliput Press, Dublin 7, 2019.
“The remains of a large castle, originally called Cariganedy, stands perched on cliffs above the Blackwater, its site clearly chosen because it offered an excellent vantage up and down the river. Some old accounts say that it was built by the Condons, others that it was built by the Mahonys. Whichever is true, in the second half of the sixteenth century the property passed into the possession of Sir Arthur Hyde, granted some six-thousandacres in this area by Elizabeth I following the attainder of the Earl of Desmond.
The old castle, and it inhabitants, suffered during the Confederate Wars of the 1640s so it is not surprising that a new residence was constructed soon afterwards, this in turn replaced by the core of the present building at some date during the second half of the eighteenth century: it has been proposed that the central block was designed by the Sardinian architect-engineer Davis Ducart, who may have been of Italian origin. In 1786 William Wilson’s The Post-Chaise Companion or Travellers Directory Through Ireland described Castle Hyde as “a beautiful house, magnificent demesne, highly cultivated, the seat of Arthur Hyde.” Another account of 1825 notes the building as being “recently greatly enlarged and improved.” This work is likely to have begun at the start of the nineteenth century to the designs of Cork architect Abraham Hargrave: it would appear he was responsible for the additions to the rear and also the wings, giving Castle Hyde’s facade a curiously old-fashioned Palladian appearance.
Mark Bence-Jones writes of Lota Lodge (1988): p. 191. “(Sharman-Crawford/LGI1912) A two storey Regency house with circular projections and iron veranda. Eaved roof. Partly destroyed by fire 1902, rebuilt 1903.”
The website tells us:
“Cork’s Vienna Woods Country House Hotel has a history as dramatic as the rich mustard tone that sets the building apart from the surrounding woodlands on the peaks of Glanmire, Co. Cork.
“The building, perched on a height overlooking the Glashaboy River, has stood proudly since 1756. Built by Davis Ducart as a summer leisure lodge for Lord Barrymore, the building was designed in the Regency Style, a style that was very popular in the latter part of the 18th century.
“Characteristic traits of the Regency Style include an emphasis on the classical form, and the forging of a close relationship between structure and the landscape, evident in The Vienna Woods Country House Hotel, which nestles in to the surrounding mountainous woodlands.
“Vienna Woods, or Lota Lodge as it was originally titled, forms part of a collection of grand country houses in the Glanmire area of Cork, like; Dunkathel House, Glenkeen, Glyntown House, Lauriston House and Brooklodge House.
“The house was home to AF Sharman Crawford and his family from 1875-1946, who was thankfully here to restore the house to its original glory after a fire in the early 1900s destroyed some of the original building. Crawford was a managing director of the Beamish and Crawford Brewery, (which was founded by his uncle, William Crawford II), and the city of Cork benefited from his philanthropic disposition, particularly in the arts; in fact the Crawford family funded the establishment of the Crawford Art Gallery and the Crawford School of Art.
“As with so many other grand houses in 20th century Ireland, the building was purchased by a religious order in 1951, and was used as a seminary for 13 years, until it was converted into a hotel in 1964 by Joan Shubuek renamed the building ‘Vienna Woods’, because of the parallels she drew between the area, and the Austrian capital city where she had lived for a number of years.
“The Fitzgerald family along with Michael Magner, bought the hotel in 2006 and renamed it ‘The Vienna Woods Country House Hotel’. Michael Magner, one of the co-owners, is also the General Manager of the hotel, and this close level of personal care and involvement is most evident in the building’s most dramatic makeover to date, which has taken almost fifteen years to complete. The Fitzgeralds/Magners have lovingly and painstakingly restored much of the original protected features of the building.“
Irish Historic Houses 
