Just to finish up my entries about Office of Public Works properties: Carlow, Dublin, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Louth, Meath, Offaly, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow are the counties that make up the Leinster region.
Carlow:
1. Altamont Gardens
Kildare:
2. Castletown House, County Kildare
3. Maynooth Castle, County Kildare
Carlow:
1. Altamont House and Gardens, Bunclody Road, Altamont, Ballon, County Carlow:
Altamont House and Gardens, photograph by Sonder Visuals, 2015, for Tourism Ireland, from Ireland’s Content Pool. [1]
“A large and beautiful estate covering 16 hectares in total, Altamont Gardens is laid out in the style of William Robinson, which strives for ‘honest simplicity’. The design situates an excellent plant collection perfectly within the natural landscape.
“For example, there are lawns and sculpted yews that slope down to a lake ringed by rare trees and rhododendrons. A fascinating walk through the Arboretum, Bog Garden and Ice Age Glen, sheltered by ancient oaks and flanked by huge stone outcrops, leads to the banks of the River Slaney. Visit in summer to experience the glorious perfume of roses and herbaceous plants in the air.
“With their sensitive balance of formal and informal, nature and artistry, Altamont Gardens have a unique – and wholly enchanting – character.” [2]
From “In Harmony with Nature, The Irish Country House Garden 1600-1900” in the Irish Georgian Society, July 2022, curated by Robert O’Byrne.Altamont, photograph by Sonder Visuals 2017 for Tourism Ireland, Ireland’s Content Pool. [see 1]
From Living Legacies: Ireland’s National Historic Properties in the care of the OPW, Government Publications, Dublin, 2018:
“Altamont House was constructed in the 1720s, incorporating parts of an earlier structure said to have been a medieval nunnery. In the 1850s, a lake was excavated in the grounds of the house, but it was when the Lecky-Watsons, a local Quaker family, acquired Altamont in 1924 that the gardens truly came into their own.
“Feilding Lecky-Watson had worked as a tea planter in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where he nurtured his love of exotic plants, and of rhododendrons in particular. Back in Ireland, he became an expert in the species, cultivating plants for the botanical gardnes at Glasnevin, Kew and Edinburgh. So passionate was he about these plants that when his wife, Isobel, gave birth to a daughter in 1922, she was named Corona, after his favourite variety of rhododendron.” [3]
Altamont House and Gardens lake, photograph by Sonder Visuals, 2015, for Tourism Ireland, from Ireland’s Content Pool. [see 1]
Around the lake are mature conifers that were planted in the 1800s, including a giant Wellingtonia which commemorates the Battle of Waterloo. [3] Corona continued in her father’s footsteps, planing rhododendrons, magnolia and Japanese maples. Another feature is the “100 steps” hand-cut in granite, leading down to the River Slaney. There are red squirrels, otters in the lake and river, and peacocks. Before her death, Corona handed Altamont over to the Irish state to ensure its preservation.
The Temple,Altamont House and Gardens, photograph by Sonder Visuals, 2015, for Tourism Ireland, from Ireland’s Content Pool. [see 1]
Kildare:
2.Castletown House and Parklands, Celbridge, County Kildare.
Castletown House, County Kildare, Photo by Mark Wesley 2016, Tourism Ireland, from Ireland’s Content Pool. [see 1]
The Obelisk, or Conolly Folly, was reputedly built to give employment during an episode of famine. It was restored by the Irish Georgian Society in 1960.
“This majestic stone castle was founded in the early thirteenth century. It became the seat of power for the FitzGeralds, the earls of Kildare, as they emerged as one of the most powerful families in Ireland. Garret Mór, known as the Great Earl of Kildare, governed Ireland in the name of the king from 1487 to 1513.
Maynooth Castle was one of the largest and richest Geraldine dwellings. The original keep, begun around 1200, was one of the largest of its kind in Ireland. Inside, the great hall was a nerve centre of political power and culture.
Only 30 kilometres from Dublin, Maynooth Castle occupies a deceptively secluded spot in the centre of the town, with well-kept grounds and plenty of greenery. There is a captivating exhibition in the keep on the history of the castle and the family.“
Gerald Fitzgerald (1487-1534) 9th Earl of Kildare, courtesy Bodleian Library.
[3] p. 8, Living Legacies: Ireland’s National Historic Properties in the Care of the OPW. Government Publications, Dublin 2, 2018.
[4] p. xiii, Jennings, Marie-Louise and Gabrielle M. Ashford (eds.), The Letters of Katherine Conolly, 1707-1747. Irish Manuscripts Commission 2018. The editors reference TCD, MS 3974/121-125; Capel Street and environs, draft architectural conservation area (Dublin City Council) and Olwyn James, Capel Street, a study of the past, a vision of the future (Dublin, 2001), pp. 9, 13, 15-17.
[7] p. 75. 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.
[8] p. 129. Great Irish Houses. Forewards by Desmond FitzGerald, Desmond Guinness. IMAGE Publications, 2008.
Continuing my posts about Office of Public Works sites, we visited several last year. The five counties of Connacht are Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.
I will be writing of more Section 482 properties soon! We visited the lovely Ballysallagh House in County Kilkenny last weekend. The 2022 Section 482 list should be out this month, in February, but it is not available yet.
Galway:
1. Athenry Castle, County Galway
2. Aughnanure Castle, County Galway
3. Dun Aonghasa, County Galway
4. Ionad Culturtha an Phiarsaigh (Pearse’s Cottage), County Galway
5. Portumna Castle, County Galway
Galway:
1. Athenry Castle, County Galway:
Athenry Castle 1938, from Dublin City Library and Archives. [1]
General information: 091 844797, athenrycastle@opw.ie
“Guarding a strategic ford on the Clarinbridge River is the monumental bulk of Athenry Castle. The imposing three-storey hall-keep survives from the mid-thirteenth century. It is solidly impressive from the outside, although the interior was simply built, containing only a hall at first-floor level and dark storerooms below.
“Despite the simplicity of the layout, fine carvings bear witness to the hall’s eminence. The doorway and two of the window openings are decorated with floral motifs in the remarkable local School of the West style. The battlements, through whose tall arrow-loops the castle was defended against various attackers across the centuries, are original.
“Visitors come to Athenry Castle to soak up the authentic atmosphere of medieval power that the mighty fortress still exudes”. [2]
“The castle Keep was built in 1253 by Meiler de Bermingham [ancestor of the Lords of Athenry] and after an attack in 1316 the large town wall were added [in 1316 Richard “of the Battles” 4th Lord of Athenry defeated Felim O’Connor in the Battle of Athenry]. Not long after the completion of the walls, one of Ireland’s bloodiest battles was fought outside the town between the King of Connaught and the Normans. Until that time the area and castle were of great importance but the story changed after the battle.
“Meiler’s son raised the height of the first floor; he also embellished the entrance with a fine arched door at the south east end of the castle which was reached by a wooden staircase. During the reordering the banqueting hall was also enhanced with narrow trefoil headed windows; very rare in Irish castles.
“In the 15th century the tower was raised by two floors to include an attic and two gable ends and battlements were added. The basement only previously accessible by a trap door and ladder also benefited from having a new entrance.
“In 1596 the castle fell into the hands of the O’Donnell clan and never recovered from the great damage it sustained during the battle for its title and it wasn’t until the late 1980s that the National Monuments branch of the Office of Public Works in Ireland started work on its restoration.” [3]
I found a wonderful history on the website The Standing Stone by Dr. Thomas P. Nelligan:
“The area had been conquered by the Normans in the early 13th century and following the death of the King of Connacht, Cathal Crovderg O’Conor, the province was granted to Richard de Burgo by the King of England who invaded and area and subdued it. He, in turn, granted the area around Athenry to Peter de Bermingham. The castle was subsequently built between 1235 and 1240 by Meiler de Bermingham, Peter’s son. It is often called King John’s Castle, despite being built some 20 years after his death. Meiler was granted, in 1244, the right to hold a market at the town, and an annual 8-day fair. He is also responsible for the founding of the nearby Dominican Friary in 1241. As the Connacht region didn’t receive a large influx of Norman settlers at this time, there was resistance to the de Bermingham’s rule. In 1249, an Irish army was defeated by the de Berminghams at Athenry.
“The castle was attacked in 1316 and following this the town walls were constructed. This attack was led by the Irish Felim O’Conor, the Gaelic king of Connacht. He fought the Lord of Connacht, William Liath de Burgo, and the 4th Lord of Athenry, Richard de Bermingham. The Irish king was killed during the battle and thousands of Irish were killed owing their custom of not wearing armor and the Normans heavy use of the bow.
“The de Berminghams stopped using the castle as their primary residence in the 15th century and moved elsewhere in the town [Richard de Bermingham who died in 1580 moved to Dunmore, County Galway]. In 1574 the town was burned to the ground by the sons of the Earl of Clanricarde, Ulick and John Burke, who rebelled. The town was rebuilt in 1576 only for it to be attacked again a year later by the Burkes. Further rebuilding works were carried out in 1584, but during the Nine Years’ War the town was captured and burnt by Red Hugh O’Donnel, and the castle fell into his hands.” [4]
2. Aughnanure Castle, Oughterard, County Galway:
Aughnanure Castle, County Galway, photograph by Brian Morrison, 2014 for Tourism Ireland, Ireland’s Content Pool. [5]
General information: 091 552214, aughnanurecastle@opw.ie
“The fearsome O’Flaherty family, whose motto was ‘Fortune favours the strong’, ruled west Connacht for 300 years from this fine six-storey tower on the shores of Lough Corrib.
“In 1546 the O’Flahertys joined forces with the Mayo O’Malleys when Donal an Chogaidh O’Flaherty married Grace O’Malley, later known as Granuaile, the formidable pirate queen. The O’Malley motto, ‘Powerful by land and by sea,’ showed the awe in which that family, too, was held.
“At Aughanure today you can inspect the remains of a banqueting hall, a watch tower, an unusual double bawn and bastions and a dry harbour. Keep your eyes peeled for glimpses of the three species of bat that now live in the castle.“
Grace O’Malley, 18th century Irish school, courtesy of Fonsie Mealy auction.
It was captured in 1572 by Sir Edward Fitton, then president of Connacht, but later reclaimed by the O’Flahertys. In 1618 King James I granted the castle to Hugh O’Flaherty but shortly after it fell into the hands of the Marquis of Clanrickarde who used it as a base against Cromwell’s forces. In 1687 the castle was back in the hands of the O’Flaherty clan for a rent of 76 per annum. In 1719 Bryan O’Flaherty bought the castle with the help of a mortgage of 1,600 which he borrowed from Lord Saint George but was unable to keep up the repayments and so the castle was lost again. [6] The Commissioners of Public Works obtained the castle in 1952 before declaring it a National Monument and undertaking restoration of the parapet, chimney and roof in 1963.
Aughnanure Castle, County Galway, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland.
3. Dun Aonghasa, County Galway:
Dun Aengus, Inishmore, Aran Islands, County Galway, by Gareth McCormack, 2019 for Tourism Ireland, Ireland’s Content Pool. [see 5]
General information: 099 61008, dunaonghasa@opw.ie
“Dún Aonghasa is about 1km from the Visitor Centre and is approached over rising ground. The last section of the path is over rough, natural rock and care is needed, especially when descending. Boots or strong walking shoes are recommended. There is no fence or barrier at the edge of the cliff.
“Perilously perched on a sheer sea-cliff, Dún Aonghasa defiantly faces the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest of the prehistoric stone forts of the Aran Islands.
“The fort consists of three massive drystone defence walls. Outside them is a chevaux-de-frise – that is, a dense band of jagged, upright stones, thousands in number. A devastatingly effective way to impede intruders, the chevaux-de-frise surrounds the entire fort from cliff to cliff.
“Dún Aonghasa is over 3,000 years old. Excavations have revealed significant evidence of prehistoric metalworking, as well as several houses and burials. The whole complex was refortified in AD 700–800.
“The visit involves a short hike over rising ground and rough, natural rock, so come prepared with boots or strong walking shoes. Be careful, too, when walking near the cliff – there is no fence or barrier at the edge of the 87-metre drop.“
4. Ionad Culturtha an Phiarsaigh (Pearse’s Cottage), County Galway:
Ionad Culturtha an Phiarsaigh (Pearse’s Cottage), County Galway, photograph by Christian McLeod, 2016 for Failte Ireland, Ireland’s Content Pool. [see 5]
general information: 091 574292, icpconamara@opw.ie
“Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh is located in Ros Muc, in the heart of the Connemara Gaeltacht. It was here that Patrick Pearse, leader of the 1916 rebellion against British rule, built a summer cottage for himself.
“In the state-of-the-art visitor centre you can explore the things that drew Pearse to Connemara – the area’s unique landscape and the ancient Gaelic culture and language which is still alive today. You will get a warm welcome from our local guides, who are steeped in the local culture and take great pride in it.
“A short stroll across the bog will take you to the cottage itself. You will find it just as it was when Pearse left for the last time in 1915.“
Ionad Culturtha an Phiarsaigh (Pearse’s Cottage), County Galway, photograph by Stephen Duffy, 2019 for Failte Ireland, Ireland’s Content Pool. [see 5]
“Built by [Richard Bourke 1572-1635] the fourth earl of Clanricarde, Portumna Castle was the de Burgo family power base for centuries.
“The castle is a unique example of the transitional Irish architecture of the early 1600s. Its bold design combines elements of medieval and Renaissance style that complement each other perfectly.
“A major fire in 1826 left the castle a roofless shell, but the state began to bring it back from ruin in the 1960s. Restoration work continues to this day.
“The dramatic walk up to the building includes charming formal gardens, which create an enchanting sense of the original seventeenth-century setting. The walled kitchen garden is particularly memorable.
“The castle enjoys a sensational view of Lough Derg. The ground floor is open to the public and houses an exhibition that brings the story of the castle and the de Burgo family to life. It is right beside the River Shannon and Portumna Forest Park, which makes it a great choice for a delightful day out.“
Munster’s counties are Clare, Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford.
I have noticed that an inordinate amount of OPW sites are closed ever since Covid restrictions, if not even before that (as in Emo, which seems to be perpetually closed).
Cork:
1. Annes Grove, County Cork
2. Barryscourt Castle, County Cork – currently closed (June 2022)
3. Charles Fort, County Cork
4. Desmond Castle, Kinsale, County Cork
5. Doneraile Court, County Cork
6. Fota House Arboretum and Gardens, County Cork (Fota House itself is maintained by the Heritage Trust)
7. Ilnacullin, Garanish Island, County Cork
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Help me to pay the entrance fee to one of the houses on this website. This site is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!
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Cork:
1. Annes Grove, Castletownroche, County Cork:
Annes Grove, County Cork, 1981 from Dublin City Library and Archives. [1]
This is due to be open soon by the OPW. It does not have a website yet. In December 2015 Annes Grove House and Garden were donated to the state by the Annesley family.
“Nestled into an eighteenth century ornamental glen, adjacent to the River Awbeg, the demesne of Annes Grove in north County Cork is the setting for the most exquisite Robinsonian-style gardens in Ireland….
The Gardens at Annes Grove were largely the creation of Richard Grove Annesley in the first half of the twentieth century.” [2]
Annes Grove, County Cork, 1981 from Dublin City Library and Archives. [see 1]
The estate was previously known as Ballyhimmock, and it was acquired by William Grove around 1626.
In 1792 it was inherited by Arthur Grove Annesley (1774-1849) from an aunt by marriage, heiress to the Grove family, after which it was renamed by merging the two family names. [3] Arthur Grove Annesley’s uncle Francis Charles Annesley, 1st Earl Annesley of Castlewellan, County Down, married Mary Grove who inherited the estate from her father.
At the centre of the garden is a restored Gothic style summerhouse. The main house is of Queen Anne design, from the 18th century. Pergolas, a lily pond, Victorian stone fernery, a woodland walk and river garden, a rockery and wild water garden create an atmospheric setting.
From “In Harmony with Nature, The Irish Country House Garden 1600-1900” in the Irish Georgian Society, July 2022, curated by Robert O’Byrne.
2. Barryscourt Castle, County Cork:
Barryscourt Castle by Julia Delio, flickr constant commons, August 2009.
“Barryscourt Castle was the seat of the great Anglo-Norman Barry family and is one of the finest examples of a restored Irish Tower House. Dating from between 1392 and 1420, the Castle has an outer bawn wall and largely intact corner towers. The ground floor of the Tower House contains a dungeon into which prisoners were dropped via the ‘drop-hole’ located on the second floor.
“The Barrys supported the Fitzgeralds of Desmond during the Irish rebellions of the late sixteenth century. To prevent it being captured by Sir Walter Raleigh and his army, the Barrys [David Barry, 5th Viscount Barry (1550-1617)] partially destroyed the Castle.
Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) by Unknown English artist 1588, National Portrait Gallery of London ref. 7.
“During the Irish Confederate War of the seventeenth century Barryscourt Castle was once again successfully attacked. Cannon balls lodged in the wall above the Castle entrance bear witness to this conflict. The last head of the Barry family was Lord David Barry.
“Barryscourt Castle has been extensively restored. The Main Hall and Great Hall have been completed and fittings and furnishings reinstated. Within the Castle grounds, the herb and knot garden and the charming orchard have been restored to their original sixteenth century design.“
After David Barry’s death in 1617 the family made Castlelyons their principal seat (now a ruin). The castle was restored by the OPW and the Barryscourt Trust between 1987-1993, with reproduction furniture made by Victor Chinnery. [4]
An article in the Irish Examiner by Padraig Hoare published 22nd May 2021 tells us that the site is closed and will be for some time:
“A reopening date must be established for one of East Cork’s most historic landmarks after languishing in the midst of safety works for five years.
“That is according to Cork East TD Séan Sherlock, who said Barryscourt Castle in Carrigtwohill has to be a priority for the Government body in charge of the facility, the Office of Public Works (OPW).
“History enthusiasts and families alike were disappointed in the summer of 2020, when it emerged that Barryscourt Castle would remain closed for another 18 months.
“The latest update from the OPW given in response to a parliamentary question from Mr Sherlock suggests it may be even longer than the date anticipated a year ago.
“The Department of Public Expenditure said restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic “has disrupted the good progress” of works being done to make the facility safe.
“It is not possible at this time to give a precise date for reopening to the public,” the department said.“
3. Charles Fort, Summer Cove, Kinsale, County Cork:
The Soldiers Quarters, the Hospital ward, the Lighthouse (by Robert Reading) and Magazine of the 17th Century Charles Fort, Kinsale, Co. Cork, Munster, Ireland. Photograph from Ireland’s Content Pool, photograph by Cahir Davitt, 2016, for Failte Ireland. [5]
General Enquiries: 021 477 2263, charlesfort@opw.ie
“As one of the country’s largest military installations, Charles Fort has been part of some of the most momentous events of Irish history. During the Williamite Wars, for example, it withstood a 13-day siege before it fell. Later, in the Civil War of the early 1920s, anti-Treaty forces on the retreat burned it out.
“Charles Fort is a massive star-shaped structure of the late seventeenth century, well preserved despite its history. William Robinson, architect of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin, is credited with designing it. Its dimensions are awe-inspiring – some of the outer defences are 16 metres high.
“The view from the ramparts looking out over Kinsale Harbour is spectacular.“
The Soldiers Quarters, and Magazine of the 17th Century Charles Fort, Kinsale, Co. Cork, Munster, Ireland.Photograph from Ireland’s Content Pool, photograph by Cahir Davitt, 2016, for Failte Ireland. [see 5]The seaward Devils Bastion and lighthouse of the 17th Century Charles Fort, with Kinsale boatyard in the background, Kinsale, Co. Cork, Munster, Ireland; Photograph from Ireland’s Content Pool, photograph by Cahir Davitt, 2016, for Failte Ireland. [see 5]
4. Desmond Castle (also known as the French Prison), Kinsale, County Cork:
Desmond Castle Kinsale 1941, photograph from Dublin City Library archives. [see 1]
General Enquiries: 021 477 4855, desmondcastle@opw.ie
“Desmond Castle in Kinsale dates from around 1500. It is a classic urban tower house, consisting of a three-storey keep with storehouses to the rear.
“Maurice Bacach Fitzgerald, the earl of Desmond, originally built the castle as the customs house for the town. [I think this must be the 9th Earl of Desmond – JWB] It served as a prison in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Because it usually held French inmates, as well as Spaniards, Portuguese, Dutch and Americans, it became known locally as the French Prison and carries that name to this day. The building was co-opted as an ordnance store during the momentous Battle of Kinsale (1601) and served as a workhouse during the Great Famine.
“Desmond Castle certainly had a colourful history and this continued into the twentieth century. In the early 1900s it was used as a venue to host local Gaelic League meetings. Finally, in the 1930s, a thriving undertaking business operated from within the National Monument.“
The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage tells us:
“Freestanding three-bay three-storey tower house, commenced c.1500, abutting earthen terrace to rear. Attached cell blocks and exercise yards to rear (north-west) and platform to side (north-east). Historically used as magazine (1600-1601), as prison for foreign prisoners (1601-1790) and as borough jail (1791-1846). Restored in 1938 currently in use as museum.“
“Fota House was designed by 19th century architects Richard and William Morrison. From the beautifully proportioned rooms with exquisite plasterwork, to the preserved service wing and kitchens, Fota House offers visitors an intimate look at how life was lived in the past, for the cooks, butlers, footmen and maids who supported the lavish lifestyle of the gentry. Our painting collection is considered to be one of the finest collections of landscape painting outside the National Gallery of Ireland and includes works by William Ashford PRHA, Robert Carver, Jonathan Fisher and Thomas Roberts.” [9]
The arboretum and gardens on Fota Island, just 16 kilometres from Cork city centre, are an essential destination for any one of a horticultural bent.
The arboretum extends over 11 hectares and contains one of the finest collections of rare, tender trees and shrubs grown outdoors in Europe. The unique conditions at Fota – its warm soil and sheltered location – enable many excellent examples of exotics from the southern hemisphere to flourish.
The gardens include such stunning features as the ornamental pond, formal pleasure gardens, orangery and sun temple. James Hugh Smith-Barry laid them out in the first half of the nineteenth century. Fota House, the Smith-Barrys’ ancestral home, still stands. The house, arboretum and gardens share the island with a hotel and golf resort and a wildlife park. [10]
7. Ilnacullin, Garanish Island, Glengarriff, Bantry, County Cork:
Italian garden, Garnish Island, Glengarriff, Beara, Co. Cork, Photograph by Chris Hill 2014, Ireland’s Content Pool. [see 5]
general enquiries: (027) 63040
garanishisland@opw.ie
Ilnacullin is an island in the coastal harbour at Glengariff in Bantry Bay. It has an almost sub-tropical climate with mild winters and high levels of rainfall and humidity. These conditions favour the growth of exotic plants. The gardens were set out in the Arts and Crafts style and contain Italianate pavilions and follies, framed against a backdrop of beautiful views.
“Ilnacullin is an island garden of diminutive size and rare beauty. Nestled in the sheltered coastal harbour at Glengarriff in Bantry Bay, the gardens display a wealth of unique horticultural and architectural gems. Bryce House is a fitting memorial to the visionary creators of this unique place.
“The gardens of Ilnacullin owe their existence to the early twentieth-century creative partnership of John Annan and Violet Bryce, the island’s owners, and Harold Peto, an architect and garden designer. The area enjoys a mild and humid micro-climate that makes for spectacular and flourishing plant life all year round.
“Small ferry boats and 60-seater waterbuses take visitors to Ilnacullin regularly. The short crossing usually includes an extra treat – a visit to the nearby seal colony and an opportunity to glimpse majestic sea eagles.“
The Island was bequeathed to the Irish people by the Bryce’s son, Roland, in 1953 and is cared for by the OPW. Bryce House contains material from the Bryces’s lives, including John Annan Bryce’s collection of Burmese statues, Chinese ceramics, Japanese woodblock prints, metal works and rare exotic objects. There are also Old Master drawings by Salvator Rosa, Mauro Antonio Tesi and Giambattista Tiepolo. Over the years the Bryces hosted prominent cultural figures such as George (AE) Russell, George Bernard Shaw and Agatha Christie. [11] You can see a tour of the house and gardens on the website.
From “In Harmony with Nature, The Irish Country House Garden 1600-1900” in the Irish Georgian Society, July 2022, curated by Robert O’Byrne.From “In Harmony with Nature, The Irish Country House Garden 1600-1900” in the Irish Georgian Society, July 2022, curated by Robert O’Byrne.
[7] p. 377. Keohane, Frank. Buildings of Ireland: Cork City and County, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2020.
Another work Keohane identifies as being by Benjamin Crawley is Castle Bernard, now a ruin in County Cork:
Castle Bernard, County Cork, photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
[8] p. 105. 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.
Castle – April 30, May 1-2, 7-9, 14-16, 21-23, 28-30, June 4-6, 11-13, 18-20, 25-27, July 2-4, 9-11, 16-18, 23-25, 30-31, Aug 1, 13-23, 27-29, Sept 3-5, 10-12, 17-19, 11am-3pm
Garden – Mar 19-22, 26-29, Apr 2-6, 9-12, 16-19, 23-26, 30, May 1-4, 7-10, 14-17, 21-24, 28-31, June 1, 4-7, 1-14, 18-21, 25-28, July 2-5, 9-12, 16-19, 23-26, 30-31, Aug 1-3, 6-9, 13-23, 27-30, Sept 3-6, 10-13, 17-20, 24-27,9am-5pm
Fee: castle fee – adult €17, child entry allowed for over 8 years €9, garden fee – adult €9, child €4, family ticket (2 adults + 2 children) €24, adult season ticket €60, family season ticket €73.50, special needs visitor with support carer €4, child 5 years or under is free
2026 Diary of Irish Historic Houses (section 482 properties)
To purchase an A5 size 2026 Diary of Historic Houses (opening times and days are not listed so the calendar is for use for recording appointments and not as a reference for opening times) send your postal address to jennifer.baggot@gmail.com along with €20 via this payment button. The calendar of 84 pages includes space for writing your appointments as well as photographs of the historic houses. The price includes postage within Ireland. Postage to U.S. is a further €10 for the A5 size calendar, so I would appreciate a donation toward the postage – you can click on the donation link.
€20.00
donation
Help me to pay the entrance fee to one of the houses on this website. This site is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!
We visited Tullynally Castle and Gardens when we were staying near Castlepollard with friends for the August bank holiday weekend in 2020. Unfortunately the house tour is only given during Heritage Week, but we were able to go on the Below Stairs tour, which is really excellent and well worth the price.
In 2021 I prioritised seeing Tullynally during Heritage Week, and we went on the upstairs tour!
According to Irish Historic Houses, by Kevin O’Connor, Tullynally Castle stretches for nearly a quarter of a mile: “a forest of towers and turrets pierced by a multitude of windows,” and is the largest castle still lived in by a family in Ireland [1]. It has nearly an acre of roof! It has been the seat of the Pakenham family since 1655. I love that it has stayed within the same family, and that they still live there. I was sad to hear of Valerie Pakenham’s death recently – she wrote wonderful books of history and on Irish historic houses.
The current incarnation of the Castle is in the romantic Gothic Revival style, and it stands in a large wooded demesne near Lake Derravaragh in County Westmeath.
We stayed for the weekend even closer to Lake Derravaragh, and I swam in it!
The lands of Tullynally, along with land in County Wexford, were granted to Henry Pakenham in 1655 in lieu of pay for his position as Captain of a troop of horse for Oliver Cromwell. [2] [3] His grandfather, Edward (or Edmund) Pakenham, had accompanied Sir Henry Sidney from England to Ireland when Sir Sidney, a cousin of Edward Pakenham, was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland. [4]
A house existed on the site at the time and parts still exist in the current castle. It was originally a semi-fortified Plantation house. When Henry Pakenham moved to Tullynally the house became known as Pakenham Hall. It is only relatively recently that it reverted to its former name, Tullynally, which means “hill of the swans.”
Henry was an MP for Navan in 1667. He settled at Tullynally. He married Mary Lill, the daughter of a Justice of the Peace in County Meath and left the property to his oldest son by this marriage, Thomas (1649-1706) who became a member of Parliament and an eminent lawyer. Henry remarried after his first wife died, this time to Anne Pigot and he had at least two more children with her.
Thomas, who held the office of Prime Sergeant-at-law in 1695, married first Mary Nelmes, daughter of an alderman in London. Thomas married a second time in 1696 after his first wife died, Mary Bellingham, daughter of Daniel, 1st Baronet Bellingham, of Dubber, Co. Dublin. His oldest son, by his first wife, Edward (1683-1721), became an MP for County Westmeath between 1714 and 1721. A younger son, Thomas (d. 1722) lived at Craddenstown, County Westmeath.
Edward (1683-1721) married Margaret Bradeston and was succeeded by his son, Thomas Pakenham (1713-1766) [see 3]. After her husband died in 1721, Margaret married Reverend Ossory Medlicott. Edward’s younger son George Edward (1717-1768) became a merchant in Hamburg.
Thomas (1713-1766) married Elizabeth Cuffe (1719-1794), the daughter of Michael Cuffe (1694-1744) of Ballinrobe, County Mayo. Her father was heir to Ambrose Aungier (d. 1704), 2nd and last Earl of Longford (1st creation). Michael Cuffe sat as a Member of Parliament for County Mayo and the Borough of Longford. In 1756 the Longford title held by his wife’s ancestors was revived when Thomas was raised to the peerage as Baron Longford. After his death, his wife Elizabeth was created Countess of Longford in her own right, or “suo jure,” in 1785.
Michael Cuffe had another daughter, Catherine Anne Cuffe, by the way, who married a Bagot, Captain John Lloyd Bagot (d. 1798). I haven’t found whether my Baggots are related to these Bagots but it would be nice to have such ancestry! Even nicer because his mother, Mary Herbert, came from Durrow Abbey near Tullamore, a very interesting looking house currently standing empty and unloved.
Thomas’s son, Edward Michael Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford (1743-92) had Pakenham Hall enlarged in 1780 to designs by Graham Myers who in 1789 was appointed architect to Trinity College, Dublin. Myers created a Georgian house. The Buildings of Ireland website tells us that the original five bay house had a third floor added at this time. [5]
The oldest parts still surviving from the improvements carried out around 1780 are some doorcases in the upper rooms and a small study in the northwest corner of the house. We did not see these rooms, but Christine Casey and Alistair Rowan tell us that the study has a dentil cornice and a marble chimneypiece with a keystone of around 1740. [see 2] The oldest part of the castle is at the south end, and still holds the principal rooms.
Edward Michael Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford, married Catherine Rowley, daughter of Hercules Langford Rowley of Summerhill, County Kilkenny, in 1768. He was in the Royal Navy but retired from the military in 1766, when he succeeded as 2nd Baron Longford. He was appointed Privy Counsellor in Ireland in 1777.
Admiral Thomas Pakenham (1757-1836), a younger brother of Edward Michael Pakenham, the 2nd Baron Longford, built another house on the Tullynally estate, Coolure House, around 1775, when he married Louisa Anne Staples, daughter of John Staples (1736-1820), MP for County Tyrone and owner of Lissan House in County Tyrone – which can now be visited, https://www.lissanhouse.com/ . Their son Edward Michael Pakenham (1786-1848) inherited Castletown in County Kildare and he legally changed his name to Edward Michael Conolly. Louisa Anne Staples’s mother was Harriet Conolly, daughter of William Conolly (1712-1754) of Castletown, County Kildare.
Coolure House, on the Tullynally estate, built for Admiral Thomas Pakenham around 1775. Photograph from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.Edward Michael Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford (1743-1792) by Robert Hunter, auctioned Sotheby’s June 2008.The catalogue tells us that the sitter was the son and heir of Thomas Pakenham, 1st Baron Longford of Pakenham Hall, County Westmeath and his wife Elizabeth Cuffe who was created Baroness of Longford in 1785. He served in the Royal Navy from 1765 to 1766 and served as M.P. for County Longford in Ireland. On the 25th June 1768 he married Catherine, daughter of Hercules Rowley of Summerhill, County Meath. He was a popular political figure and Lord Harcourt wrote on 17th October 1774: “My Lord Longford is a man of ability, an able speaker in the House of Lords and greatly respected in this County.”
Edward Michael Pakenham 2nd Baron Longford and his wife Catherine née Rowley had many children. Their daughter Catherine (1773-1831) married Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, but it was an unhappy marriage. The daughter of the current occupant of Tullynally Thomas Pakenham and his wife Valerie, Eliza Pakenham, published Tom, Ned and Kitty: An Intimate History of an Irish Family, about the Duke of Wellington and the family’s relation to him. Kitty fell for the local naval man, Arthur Wellesley, but the family refused to let her marry him. He promised her that he would return and marry her. He went off to sea, and she was brokenhearted. He returned as the Duke of Wellington and did indeed marry her. He, however, was not a very nice man, and is reported to have said loudly as she walked up the aisle of the church to marry him, “Goodness, the years have not been kind.”
When Edward died in 1792 his son Thomas (1774-1835) inherited, and became the 3rd Baron Longford. When his grandmother Elizabeth née Cuffe, who had been made the Countess of Longford in her own right, died in 1794, Thomas became 2nd Earl of Longford.
Tullynally was gothicized by Francis Johnston to become a castle.
We came across Francis Johnson (1760-1829) the architect when I learned that he had been a pupil of Thomas Cooley, the architect for Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh (who had Rokeby Hall in County Louth built as his home). Johnston took over Cooley’s projects when Cooley died and went on to become an illustrious architect, who designed the beautiful Townley Hall in County Louth which we visited recently. He also enlarged and gothicized Markree Castle for the Coopers, and Slane Castle for the Conynghams. His best known building is the General Post Office on O’Connell Street in Dublin. We recently saw his house in Dublin on Eccles Street, on a tour with Aaran Henderson of Dublin Decoded.
Thomas the 2nd Earl sat in the British House of Lords as one of the 28 original Irish Representative Peers. Casey and Rowan call Francis Johnston’s work on the house “little more than a Gothic face-lift for the earlier house.” He produced designs for the house from 1794 until 1806. On the south front he added two round towers projecting from the corners of the main block, and battlemented parapets. He added the central porch. To the north, he built a rectangular stable court, behind low battlemented walls. He added thin mouldings over the windows, and added the arched windows on either side of the entrance porch.
Terence Reeves-Smyth details the enlargement of Tullynally in his Big Irish Houses:
“Johnson designed battlements and label mouldings over the windows, but as work progressed it was felt this treatment was too tame, so between 1805 and 1806 more dramatic features were added, notably round corner turrets and a portcullis entrance, transforming the house with characteristic Irish nomenclature from Pakenham Hall House to Pakenham Hall Castle.”
“During the early nineteenth century, a craze for building sham castles spread across Ireland with remarkable speed, undoubtedly provoked by a sense of unease in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion. Security was certainly a factor in Johnson’s 1801 to 1806 remodelling of Tullynally, otherwise known as Pakenham Hall, where practical defensive features such as a portcullis entrance were included in addition to romantic looking battlements and turrets. Later enlargements during the 1820s and 1830s were also fashioned in the castle style and made Tullynally into one of the largest castellated houses in Ireland – so vast, indeed, that it has been compared to a small fortified town.”
Thomas married Georgiana Emma Charlotte Lygon, daughter of William Lygon, 1st Earl Beauchamp (UK) in 1817. He was created 1st Baron Silchester, County Southampton [U.K.] on 17 July 1821, which gave him and his descendants an automatic seat in the House of Lords.
According to Rowan and Casey it may have been his wife Georgiana Lygon’s “advanced tastes” that led to the decision to make further enlargements in 1820. They chose James Sheil, a former clerk of Francis Johnston, who also did similar work at Killua Castle in County Westmeath, Knockdrin Castle (near Mullingar) and Killeen Castle (near Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath).
At Tullynally Sheil added a broad canted bay window (a bay with a straight front and angled sides) towards the north end of the east front, with bartizan turrets (round or square turrets that are corbelled out from a wall or tower), and wide mullioned windows under label mouldings (or hoodmouldings) in the new bay.
One enters into a large double height hall. It is, Terence Reeves-Smyth tells us, 40 feet square and 30 feet high. I found it impossible to capture in a photograph. It has a Gothic fan vaulted ceiling, and is wood panelled all around, with a fireplace on one side and an organ in place of a fireplace on the other side.
The hall, Casey and Rowan tell us, has a ceiling of “prismatic fan-vaults, angular and overscaled, with the same dowel-like mouldings marking the intersection of the different planes…The hall is indeed in a very curious taste, theatrical like an Italian Gothick stage set, and rendered especially strange by the smooth wooden wainscot which completely encloses the space and originally masked all the doors which opened off it.” [6] As this smooth wainscot and Gothic panelled doors are used throughout the other main rooms of the house and are unusual for Sheil, this is probably a later treatment.
“Visitors entering the castle will first arrive in the great hall – an enormous room forty-feet square and thirty feet high with no gallery to take away from its impressive sense of space. A central-heating system was designed for this room by Richard Lovell Edgeworth, who earlier in 1794 had fitted up the first semaphore telegraph system in Ireland between Edgeworthstown and Pakenham Hall, a distance of twelve miles. In a letter written in December 1807, his daughter Maria Edgeworth, a frequent visitor to Pakenham Hall, wrote that “the immense hall is so well warmed by hot air that the children play in it from morning to night. Lord L. seemed to take great pleasure in repeating twenty times that he was to thank Mr. Edgeworth for this.” Edgeworth’s heating system was, in fact, so effective that when Sheil remodelled the hall in 1820 he replaced one of the two fireplaces with a built-in organ that visitors can still see. James Sheil was also responsible for the Gothic vaulting of the ceiling, the Gothic niches containing the family crests, the high wood panelling around the base of the walls and the massive cast-iron Gothic fireplace. Other features of the room include a number of attractive early nineteenth century drawings of the castle, a collection of old weapons, family portraits and an Irish elk’s head dug up out of a bog once a familiar feature of Irish country house halls.” [see 1]
There is a long vaulted corridor that runs through the house at first-floor level which Rowan and Casey write is probably attributable to Sheil.
The ground floor of the main house contains Lord Longford’s study, the dining room, library, drawing room, Great Hall, Lady Longford’s sitting room, Plate room and Servant’s Library.
From the Great Hall we entered the dining room, which used to be the staircase room.
The dining room, drawing room and library were all decorated in Sheil’s favoured simple geometrical shaped plasterwork of squares and octagons on the ceiling. [6]
We can see that the windows in the dining room are in the canted bow which was added by James Shiel. The room is hung with portraits of family members. The ceiling drops at the walls into Gothic decoration ofprismatic fan-vaults with dowels similar to those in the Hall, though less detailed.
Tullynally Castle, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, photograph by Thomas Pakenham for Failte Ireland, 2015.
Georgina née Lygon, wife of the 2nd Earl, was well-read and wealthy. She and her husband were friendly with the Edgeworths of nearby Edgeworthstown. She was responsible for developing the gardens, planting the trees which are now mature, and creating a formal garden. Her husband died in 1835 but she lived another forty-five years, until 1880. She and her husband had at least eight children. Their son Edward Michael Pakenham (1817-1860) succeeded to become 3rd Earl of Longford in 1835 while still a minor.
We then went to the library. The library was started by Elizabeth Cuffe, wife of the the 1st Baron Longford, and continued by Georgiana, wife if the 2nd Earl. Again, it’s hard to capture in a photograph, while also being on a tour.
The portrait over the fireplace in the library is Major General Edward Michael Pakenham (1778-1815), brother of the 2nd Earl of Longford. Major General Pakenham (whose sword in the red sheath is in the front Hall) was killed in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, between Britain and the United States of America, in the “War of 1812.”
Another brother of the 2nd Earl of Longford was Lieutenant General Hercules Pakenham (1781-1850). He married Emily Stapleton, daughter of Thomas Stapleton, 13th Lord le Despenser, 6th Baronet Stapleton, of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. Hercules inherited Langford Lodge in County Antrim, from his mother Catherine Rowley (it no longer exists). Hercules served as MP for Westmeath.
When he reached his majority, the third Earl, Edward Michael, who was called “Fluffy,” along with his mother, made further enlargements from 1839-45 with two enormous wings and a central tower by another fashionable Irish architect, Sir Richard Morrison. The wings linked the house to the stable court which had been built by Francis Johnston. The addition included the large telescoping octagonal tower.
“Fluffy” Edward Michael Pakenham, 3rd Earl of Longford (1817-1860).A description of the castle, at Tullynally.
Terence Reeves-Smyth writes:
“More substantial additions followed between 1839 and 1846 when Richard Morrison, that other stalwart of the Irish architectural scene, was employed by the Dowager Countess to bring the house up to improved Victorian standards of convenience. Under Morrison’s direction the main house and Johnson’s stable court were linked by two parallel wings both of which were elaborately castellated and faced externally with grey limestone. Following the fashion recently made popular by the great Scottish architect William Burn, one of the new wings contained a private apartment for the family, while the other on the east side of the courtyard contained larger and more exactly differentiated servants’ quarters with elaborate laundries and a splendid kitchen.”
Casey and Rowan describe Morrison’s work: “On the entrance front the new work appears as a Tudoresque family wing, six bays by two storeys, marked off by tall octagonal turrets, with a lower section ending in an octagonal stair tower which joins the stable court. This was refaced and gained a battlemented gateway in the manner of the towers that Morrison had previously built as gatehouses at Borris House, County Carlow [see my entry on Borris House] and Glenarm Castle, County Antrim. The entrance porch, a wide archway in ashlar stonework, with miniature bartizans rising from the corners, was also rebuilt at this time. Though Morrison provided a link between the old house and the family wing by building a tall octagonal tower, very much in the manner of Johnston’s work at Charleville Forest, County Offaly [see my entry Places to visit and stay in County Offaly], the succession of facades from south to north hardly adds up to a coherent whole. The kitchen wing, which forms an extension of the east front, is much more convincingly massed, with a variety of stepped and pointed gables breaking the skyline and a large triple-light, round-headed window to light the kitchen in the middle of the facade.“
On the tour, our guide told us of the various additions. She told us that “Fluffy” lived with his mother and chose to follow the fashion of living in an apartment in a wing of the house.
On the “downstairs tour” we toured the wings of the castle that had been added by Fluffy and his mother. A wing was built for the staff, and it was state of the art in the 1840s when Richard Morrison built these additions. Fluffy never married, and unfortunately died in “mysterious circumstances” in a hotel in London.
When Fluffy died his brother William (1819-1887), an army general in the Crimean War and long-serving military man, became the 4th Earl of Longford.
Terence Reeves-Smyth continues:“After the third Earl’s death in 1860 his brother succeeded to the title and property and proceeded to modernise the castle with all the latest equipment for supplying water, heat and lighting. Except for a water tower erected in the stable court by the Dublin architect J. Rawson Carroll in the 1860s, these modifications did not involve altering the fabric of the building, which has remained remarkably unchanged to the present day.”
The further additions in 1860 are by James Rawson Carroll (d.1911), architect of Classiebawn, Co Sligo, built for Lord Palmerston and eventually Lord Mountbatten’s Irish holiday home in the 1860s.
The 4th Earl married Selina Rice-Trevor from Wales in 1862. Her family, our guide told us, “owned most of Wales.” His letters and a copy of his diary from when he arrived home from the Crimean War are all kept in Tullynally.
Tullynally, County Westmeath.Tullynally, County Westmeath.
We can even read his proposal to Selina:
Tullynally, County Westmeath.Tullynally, County Westmeath.
William the 4th Earl installed a new plumbing system. He also developed a gas system, generating gas to light the main hall. The gas was limited, so the rest of the light was provided by candles, and coal and peat fires. His neighbour Richard Lovell Edgeworth provided the heating system.
The next generation was the 5th Earl, son of the 4th Earl, Thomas Pakenham (1864-1915). He was also a military man. He married Mary Julia Child-Villiers, daughter of Victor Albert George Child-Villiers, 7th Earl of Island of Jersey and they had six children.
The family are lucky to have wonderful archives and diaries. Mary Julia Child-Villiers was left a widow with six children when her husband died during World War I in Gallipoli. The downstairs tour shows extracts from the Memoir of Mary Clive, daughter of the 5th Earl of Longford.
Tullynally, County Westmeath.Tullynally, County Westmeath.
Since 1915 the family have been writers (before that, they were mostly military). Edward the 6th Earl (1902-1961) was a prolific playwright who restored the Gate Theatre in Dublin and taught himself Irish, and with his wife Christine, created the Longford Players theatrical company which toured Ireland in the 30s and 40s. He served as a Senator for the Irish state between 1946 and 1948.
His sister Violet Georgiana, who married Anthony Dymoke Powell, wrote many books, and her husband was a published writer as well. Another sister, Mary Katherine, who married Major Meysey George Dallas Clive, also wrote and published. Their sister Margaret Pansy Felicia married a painter, Henry Taylor Lamb, and she wrote a biography of King Charles I.
A brother of Edward, Frank (1905-2001), who became the 7th Earl after Edward died in 1961, and his wife Elizabeth née Harman, wrote biographies, as did their children, Antonia Fraser, Rachel Billington and Thomas Pakenham the 8th Earl of Longford. Antonia Fraser, who wrote amongst other things a terrific biography of Marie Antoinette and another wonderful one of King Charles II of England, is one of my favourite writers. She is a sister of the current Earl of Longford, Thomas, who lives in the house. They did not grow up in Tullynally, but in England. Thomas’s wife Valerie has published amongst other books, The Big House in Ireland.
There was a handy chart of the recent family on the wall in the courtyard café:
Tullynally, County Westmeath.
Stephen noted with satisfaction that Thomas Pakenham does not use his title, the 8th Earl of Longford. That makes sense of course since such titles are not recognised in the Republic of Ireland! In fact Stephen’s almost sure that it is against the Irish Constitution to use such titles. This fact corresponds well with the castle’s change in name – it was renamed Tullynally in 1963 to sound more Irish.
When we visited in 2020 we purchased our tickets in the café and had time for some coffee and cake and then a small wander around the courtyard and front of the Castle. One enters the stable courtyard, designed by Francis Johnston, to find the café and ticket office.
The coach was passed down to Olive Pakenham-Mahon of Strokestown, Roscommon (another section 482 property, see my entry), who was Dean Henry’s great granddaughter. Olive sold it to her cousin Thomas Pakenham, the present owner of Tullynally. It was restored by Eugene Larkin of Lisburn, and in July 1991 took its first drive in Tullynally for over a hundred years. Family legend has it that the coach would sometimes disappear from the coachhouse for a ghostly drive without horses or coachman! It was most recently used in 1993 for the wedding of Eliza Pakenham, Thomas’s daughter, to Alexander Chisholm.
Tullynally, County Westmeath.
The tour brought us through the arch from the first courtyard containing the café, into a smaller, Morrison courtyard.
Richard Morrison spent more time working on the laundry room than on any other part of the house.
Our guide described the life of a laundress. After the installation of the new laundry, water was collected in a large watertank, and water was piped into the sinks into the laundry.
A laundry girl would earn, in the 1840s (which is during famine time), €12/year for a six day week, and start at about fourteen years of age. A governess would teach those who wanted to learn, to read and write, so that the girls could progress up in the hierarchy of household staff. There was even a servants’ library. This was separate of course from the Pakenham’s library, which is one of the oldest in Ireland. There was status in the village to be working for Lord Longford, as he was considered to be a good employer. His employees were fed, clothed in a uniform, housed, and if they remained long enough, even their funeral was funded. There was a full time carpenter employed on the estate and he made the coffins.
The laundry girls lived in a world apart from household staff. They ate in the laundry. Their first job in the morning would be to light the fire – you can see the brick fireplace in the first laundry picture above. A massive copper pot would be filled with water, heated, and soap flakes would be grated into the pot. The laundry girls would do the washing not only for their employers but also for all of the household staff – there were about forty staff in 1840. As well as soap they would use lemon juice, boiled milk and ivy leaf to clean – ivy leaves made clothes more black. The Countess managed the staff, with the head housekeeper and butler serving as go-between.
William, the 4th Earl of Longford, had a hunting lodge in England and since he had installed such a modern laundry in Tullynally, he would ship his laundry home to Pakenham Hall be washed!
Next, the washing would be put through the mangle.
The girls might have to bring laundry out to the bleaching green. A tunnel was installed so that the girls avoided the looks and chat of the stable boys, or being seen by the gentry. William also developed a drying room. Hot water ran through pipes to heat the room to dry the clothes.
The next room was a small museum with more information about the castle and family, and included a receipt for the iron end of a mangle, purchased from Ardee Street Foundry, Brass and Iron Works, Dublin. We live near Ardee Street!
Tullynally, County Westmeath.
This information board tells us details about the staff, as well as giving the layout of the basement:
The basement contained the Bake room, boot room, beer cellar, servant’s hall, brushing room, butler’s pantry, footman’s bedroom, and across the courtyard, the bacon room.
By 1860 Pakenham Castle was run in the high Victorian manner. The Butler and Housekeeper managed a team of footmen, valets, housemaids and laundry maids, whilst Cook controlled kitchen maids, stillroom maid and scullery maids. A stillroom maid was in a distillery room, which was used for distilling potions and medicines, and where she also made jams, chutneys etc. There was also a dairy, brewery and wine cellar. The Coachman supervised grooms and stable boys, while a carpenter worked in the outer yard and a blacksmith in the farmyard. Further information contains extracts from Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management (1859), detailed duties of a housemaid, a laundry-maid, and treatment of servants. The estate was self-sufficient. Staff lived across the courtyard, with separate areas for men and women. There were also farm cottages on the estate. Servants for the higher positions were often recruited by word of mouth, from other gentry houses, and often servants came from Scotland or England, and chefs from France.
Tullynally, County Westmeath.Tullynally, County Westmeath.Tullynally, County Westmeath.Tullynally, County Westmeath.Tullynally, County Westmeath.
We are also given the figures for servants’ wages in 1860.
Tullynally, County Westmeath.
Next, we headed over toward the kitchen. On the way we passed a water filter system, which was a ceramic jar containing an asbestos and charcoal filter system. However, staff were given beer to drink as it was safer at the time than water. We saw a container used to bring food out to staff in the fields – the food would be wrapped in hay inside the container, which would hold in the heat and even continue to cook the food. We stopped to learn about an ice chest:
The ice chest would be filled with ice from the icehouse. We were also shown the coat of a serving boy, which our tour guide had a boy on the tour don – which just goes to show how young the serving boys were:
A serving boy wearing this uniform would carry dishes from the kitchen to the dining room, which was as far from the kitchen as possible to prevent the various smells emanating from the kitchen from reaching the delicate nostrils of the gentry. The serving boy would turn his back to the table, and watch mirrors to see when his service was needed at the table, under the management of the butler. Later, when the ladies had withdrawn to the Drawing Room, to leave the men to drink their port and talk politics, the serving boy would produce “pee pots” from a sideboard cupboard, and place a pot under each gentleman! Our guide told us that perhaps, though she is not sure about this, men used their cane to direct the stream of urine into the pot. The poor serving boy would then have to collect the used pots to empty them. Women would relieve themselves behind a screen in the Drawing Room.
In the large impressively stocked kitchen, we saw many tools and implements used by the cooks. Richard Morrison ensured that the kitchen was filled with light from a large window.
This kitchen was used until around 1965. The yellow colour on the walls is meant to deter flies. Often a kitchen is painted in blue either, called “Cook’s blue,” also reputed to deter flies. Because this kitchen remained in continuous use its huge 1875 range was replaced by an Aga in the 1940s.
Candles were made from whale blubber. Candles made from blubber closer to the whale’s head were of better quality.
The housekeeper would have her own room, which our guide told us, was called the “pug room” due to the, apparently, sour face of of the housekeeper, but also because she often kept a pug dog!
Next we were taken to see Taylor’s room. Taylor was the last Butler of the house. We passed an interesting fire-quenching system on the way.
This would normally be the end of the tour, but since we were such a fascinated, attentive group, the guide took us into the basement to see the old servants’ dining hall.
The gardens, covering nearly 30 acres, were laid out in the early 19th century and have been restored. They include a walled flower garden, a grotto and two ornamental lakes.
Here is the description of the gardens, from the Irish Historic Houses website:“The gardens, illustrated by a younger son in the early eighteenth century, originally consisted of a series of cascades and formal avenues to the south of the house. These were later romanticised in the Loudonesque style, with lakes, grottoes and winding paths, by the second Earl and his wife [Thomas (1774-1835) and Georgiana Lygon (1774-1880)]. They have been extensively restored and adapted by the present owners, Thomas and Valerie Pakenham, with flower borders in the old walled gardens and new plantings of magnolias, rhododendron and giant lilies in the woodland gardens, many collected as seed by Thomas while travelling in China and Tibet. He has recently added a Chinese garden, complete with pagoda, while the surrounding park contains a huge collection of fine specimen trees.” [7]
Open dates in 2026: Jan 12-14, Feb 9-13, Mar 9-11, 25-27, June 10-13, 22-24, 29-30, July 1-4, 13-18, 27-30, Aug 15-23, Sept 7-12, 19, 26, Oct 5-7, 12-14, 9am-1pm
Fee: adult €8.50, OAP/student €6.50, child €5
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Wicklow is full of stunning gems of houses, unfortunately nearly all are private [1]. We are lucky to be able to visit Castle Howard as it is on the revenue 482 list. Stephen and I went to Castle Howard on Saturday September 14th 2019. Don’t be confused with the Castle Howard in the UK, setting for the original filmed version of Brideshead Revisited (the one with Jeremy Irons, not the excellent more recent version starring Ben Whishaw).
Photograph taken from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage [2].
The house was built around the fabric of an earlier house in 1811 for Lieutenant Colonel Robert Howard to the design of Richard Morrison. It is designed to combine two archaic styles: a castle and an abbey [3].
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Howard was the son of William Howard (1759-1818) 3rd Earl of Wicklow. The 3rd Earl of Wicklow was the son of Ralph Howard (d. 1789) 1st Viscount Wicklow.
Ralph Howard, later 1st Viscount Wicklow (1726 ‑ 1786) by Pompeo Batoni, courtesy of Speed Art Museum.
After the 1st Viscount died his widow, Alice née Forward, was created Countess of Wicklow in 1793 in the Peerage of Ireland with remainder to her male heirs. Her son Robert Howard became 2nd Viscount Wicklow and 2nd Baron Clonmore, of Clonmore Castle, County Carlow in 1789 when his father died. Before his father’s death he served in the Irish House of Commons. When his father died in 1789 he had to resign from the Irish House of Commons and to join the British House of Lords. When his mother died in 1815 he inherited her title to become the 2nd Earl of Wicklow. He died unmarried in 1815 and the titles passed to his brother, William Howard (1759-1818), who became 3rd Earl of Wicklow.
In 1780 William Howard took the surname of Forward after succeeding to the estates of his mother’s family, Castle Forward in County Donegal, and 6,000 acres in the barony of Raphoe, County Donegal. When William became the 3rd Viscount Wicklow, and later 3rd Earl of Wicklow, he resumed the name of William Howard.
William Howard married Eleanor Caulfeild, daughter of Francis Caulfeild and granddaughter of James Caulfeild, 3rd Viscount Charlemont. His son William became the 4th Earl of Wicklow, and John, who purchased the land at Castle Howard, was a younger son.
“In 1811 Col Robert Howard purchased a house then called Cronebane Lodge, romantically perched above the Meeting of the Waters, a spot made famous thanks to a poem written by Thomas Moore four years before. Its location, combined with the desire to build a residence evoking an ancient past, encouraged Col Howard to commission a design from architect Richard Morrison that would appear part-castle and part-abbey. The interiors owe much to the English Perpendicular style, not least the splendid staircase. Lit by a large arched Gothic window, the cantilevered Portland stone steps with brass banisters spiral up to the first floor below a plasterwork ceiling replete with coats of arms featuring families associated with the Howards. Although no longer with descendants of the original owners, Castle Howard remains in private hands and in excellent condition.” [5]
The “English Perpendicular” style is a style of Gothic architecture developed in England in the 14th to 17th century.
The earlier house on the site, Cronebane Lodge, belonged to the director of the Avoca Copper Mines. [6] The mines had their own coinage: one can find halfpenny coins stating “payable at Cronebeg Lodge or in Dublin” for sale on the internet! The coins picture St. Patrick in his Bishop’s Mitre on one side and a shield on the other. The Associated Irish Mine Company was founded in 1787 by Abraham Mills, William Roe, Thomas Weaver, Thomas Smith, Charles Caldwell and Brabazon Noble and its head office at 184 Great Britain Street, Dublin. It existed until 1798. [7]
Richard Morrison (b. 1767) studied under William Gandon. He became an architect and often collaborated with his son, William Vitruvius Morrison.
Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison also remodelled Shelton Abbey in County Wicklow, in 1819, for the Howard family. [8] Shelton Abbey was owned for nearly three hundred years by the Howard family, the Earls of Wicklow, into which Robert Howard was born.
Shelton Abbey in County Wicklow, remodelled by Richard Morrison in 1819. Photo from the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. It is now an open prison, sold by the 8th Earl of Wicklow, William Howard, to the Irish state in 1951.Shelton Abbey, photograph courtesy of National Library of Ireland NLI Ref: EAS_3838 Eason Photographic Collection Date: c.1900-1939.
Among Richard Morrison’s public works include the court-house and gaol at Galway, court-houses in Carlow, Clonmel, Roscommon, Wexford and elsewhere, and St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. He built or altered very many mansions of the nobility and gentry in Ireland, and was knighted by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1841. [9]
He and his son also designed renovations for Killruddery House, near Bray in County Wicklow, which is another section 482 house; Ballyfin House in County Laois (now a five star hotel); and Fota, in County Cork, which Stephen and I visited this year (October 2020). Richard Morrison also designed Knockdrin Castle, just north of Mullingar in County Westmeath.
There is a wonderful pyramid mausoleum of the Howard family in Old Kilbride Cemetery in Arklow, County Wicklow, built in 1785.
A mausoleum erected by Ralph Howard (1726-86), first Viscount Wicklow of Shelton Abbey, attributed to Simon Vierpyl (c.1725-1810) of Dublin and London. Photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.
I rang the house beforehand and made a time for our visit in order to have a tour. We had a lovely drive out to Wicklow, and rang when we reached the gates. Someone drove up in a tractor to open them for us.
We drove past a lovely gate lodge, and through some gorgeous scenery.
We crossed a small stone bridge to reach the castle. This bridge used to be topped by a lion, the symbol of the Howard family. Unfortunately the lion stands no longer.
One cannot see the whole house as one drives up, and it becomes even more impressive as it is when one walks around it.
We parked, and knocked on the front door, which was picturesque in its Gothic pointed arched stone setting, with roses growing over the top of the door. The medieval-style studded door with ancient looking pull handle and Georgian door knocker is in the castellated two storey wing.
Mark Bence-Jones describes the abbey-like section of the house as a two-storey wing ending in a gable with pinnacles and a Perpendicular window. A gable is a peaked end wall, often triangular, at the end of a double pitched roof, or sometimes just refers to an end wall.
The “castle” side of the house has two turreted towers, and two bows. There is a conservatory at the south-east side. The building is finished with render with stone dressing.
As the Lieutenant Colonel Howard and his wife Letitia Deborah Brooke had no children, the house passed to a nephew, Richard Brooke, the son of Letitia Deborah’s brother, Henry Brooke (1770-1834), who was created the 1st Baronet Brooke of Colebrook, County Fermanagh, in 1822. Richard (1801-1877) took the surname Howard-Brooke in 1835. His son and heir was also a Lieutenant Colonel, Robert Howard-Brooke (1840-1902). Robert married Florence Elizabeth Johnston of Kinlough House, Co Leitrim but they had no children. Robert held the office of High Sheriff of County Wicklow in 1880. Florence died in 1893.
Langlois Massy Lefroy (1886-1957) and his wife Sheelah, who was the daughter of Benjamin Bloomfield Trench who lived in Loughton, County Offaly, the subject of last week’s blog, purchased Castle Howard in 1924. Lefroy sold it in 1954 when he inherited Carriglas Manor (he was a descendant of Tom Lefroy, a suitor of Jane Austen, who lived in Carriglas Manor, County Longford). When he died his wife Sheelagh moved back to Loughton to live with her unmarried sister Thora. [13].
The house is currently owned by Ivor Fitzpatrick, a prominent Dublin solicitor and property developer, and his wife, Susan Stapleton.
There were visitors leaving as we were coming, so the tour guide was kept busy! Mark Sinnott, who was listed as the contact person, is not the owner, but works on the estate. The estate has an Equestrian centre and the house occasionally hosts shooting, and our tour guide helps with that. He has been working there for eighteen years, so knows the house and estate intimately.
In the front hall, our guide Mark told us the history of the house. He explained that the front hall had been renovated by previous owners and the ceiling lowered so it is less impressive than the original entry hall would have been.
There is a beautiful curved brass-banistered spiral stairway, which is pictured in a book of photographs (simply called Photographs) by Paddy Rossmore, edited by the Irish Aesthete Robert O’Byrne, published this year by Lilliput Press and reviewed in January in the Irish Times. [see 5]
Photograph by Paddy Rossmore from Photographs, taken from Irish Times article. [see 5]
The library has terrific plasterwork on the ceiling, especially in the round towers – very intricate work. The round towers form little rooms off the main room. We only saw one storey so didn’t get to see the tower room sections on the upper floors. Impressive antlers adorned one wall, of the Giant Irish Elk. Most antlers found in Ireland are about 11,000 years old! These “elk” were not unique to Ireland; they lived across Eurasia all the way into China. The most recent remains discovered date back 7,700 years, and were found in Siberia. They are called “Irish” as they are most commonly found in Ireland, preserved in bogs. They are not near relations of “elk” found today, such as moose, and are more properly called deer. Irish Elk are the largest species of deer that ever lived. The antlers in Castle Howard were attached to a skull. Not all sets of antlers found are attached to a skull, as Giant Elk, just like deer today, shed their horns regularly, and regrew them during mating season. [11]
In the records of children in Duchas.ie, Winnie Doyle writes in 1928 that there is an underground tunnel from the kitchen to the garden. [12]
A straight path leads through formal gardens including a maze and an orchard, alongside a tall wall which appeared to lead into woodland and to a walled garden – it was rainy so we didn’t explore as much as I might have liked. At the end of this path are stables and outbuildings. To one side of the path is a clock tower folly and a bricked terraced area and small temple area with a water fountain – it is extremely romantic. The house itself backs onto a large tree filled lawn.
A wall extends from the folly tower, to frame a courtyard on the far side of the wall from the house. On the house side of the wall is a picturesque pond area.
[3] Mark Bence-Jones A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
www.borrishouse.com Open dates in 2026: Open: Apr 1, 2, 7-12, 14-26, 28-30, May 5-10, 19-24, June 12-14, 16-18, 23-25, 30, Aug 5, 12-23, 25, 26, Sept 1, 2, 8, 9, 22, 23, 29 12pm-4pm Fee: adult €12, OAP/student €10, child under 12 free
Borris House, Carlow, photograph by Suzanne Clarke, 2016 for Tourism Ireland, Ireland’s Content Pool.
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I had been particularly looking forward to visiting Borris House. It feels like I have a personal link to it, because my great great grandmother’s name is Harriet Cavanagh, from Carlow, and Borris House is the home of the family of Kavanaghs of Carlow, and the most famous resident of the house, Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh, was the son of a Harriet Kavanagh! Unfortunately I don’t think there’s a connection.
We were able to park right outside on the main street of Borris, across from the entrance. My fond familial feelings immediately faded when faced with the grandeur of the entrance to Borris House. I shrank into a awestruck tourist and meekly followed instructions at the Gate Lodge to make my way across the sweep of grass to the front entrance of the huge castle of a house.
Unlike other section 482 houses – with the few exceptions such as Birr Castle and Tullynally – Borris House has a very professional set-up to welcome visitors as one goes through the gate lodge. The website does not convey this, as it emphasises the house’s potential as a wedding venue, but the property is in fact fully set up for daily guided tours, and has a small gift shop in the gate lodge, through which one enters to the demesne. Borris House is still a family home and is inhabited by descendants of the original owners.
Originally a castle would have been located here on the River Barrow to guard the area. From the house one can see Mount Leinster and the Blackstairs Mountains.
The current owner Morgan Kavanagh can trace his ancestry back to the notorious Dermot MacMurrough (Diarmait mac Murchadha in Irish), who “invited the British in to Ireland” or rather, asked for help in protecting his Kingship. The MacMurroughs, or Murchadhas, were Celtic kings of Leinster. “MacMurrough” was the title of an elected Lord. Dermot pledged an oath of allegiance to King Henry II of Britain. The Norman “Strongbow,” or Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, came to Ireland to fight alongside Dermot MacMurrough against Dermot’s enemies. As a reward, Dermot MacMurrough offered Strongbow the hand of his daughter Aoife. This was less a love match than a chance to become the next King of Leinster. Succeeding generations of MacMurrough family controlled the area, maintaining their Gaelic traditions.
The Marriage of Aoife and Strongbow, Richard de Clare 2nd Earl of Pembroke at Waterford in 1170, by Daniel Maclise, in National Gallery of Ireland. Conceived for the decoration of the Palace of Westminster, a note tells us, the painting is an ambiguous representation of the victorious Normans and the vanquished Irish. Strongbow places his foot upon a fallen Celtic cross, King Dermot looks on in alarm, and an elderly musician slumps of his harp.
Timothy William Ferres tells us that in 1171, the name Kavanagh was given to Donell, son of Dermot MacMorrough. [1*]
In the late 14th century, Art mac Murchadha (d. around 1417) was one of the Irish kings who was offered a knighthood by King Richard II of England. In the 1500s, King Henry VIII sought to reduce the power of the Irish kings and to have them swear loyalty to him. In 1550 Charles MacMurrough Kavanagh (the Anglicised version of the name ‘Cahir MacArt’ MacMurrough Kavanagh) “submitted himself, and publicly renounced the title and dignity of MacMorrough, as borne by his ancestors.” [2] (note the various spellings of MacMorrough/MacMurrough). The head of the family was still however referred to as “the MacMorrough.”
We gathered with a few others to wait outside the front of the house for our tour guide on a gloriously sunny day in July 2019. Some of the others seemed to be staying at the house. For weddings there is accommodation in the house and also five Victorian cottages. We did not get to see these in the tour but you can see them on the website. Unfortunately our tour guide was not a member of the family but she was knowledgeable about the house and its history.
The current house was built originally as a three storey square house in 1731, incorporating part of a fifteenth century castle. We can gather that this was the date of completion of the house from a carved date stone.
According to the Borris House website, the 1731 house was built for Morgan Kavanagh, a descendant of Charles MacMurrough Kavanagh. However, I have the date of 1720 as the death for Morgan Kavanagh. Irish Aesthete Robert O’Byrne writes that the 1731 house was built by Brian Kavanagh. [3] Morgan Kavanagh has a son named Brian (d. 1741), so it could be the case that the house was commissioned by Morgan and completed by his son.
The house was damaged in the 1798 Rebellion and rebuilt and altered by Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison around 1813 into what one sees today. According to Edmund Joyce in his book Borris House, Co. Carlow, and elite regency patronage, it was Walter Kavanagh, grandson of the aforementioned Brian (d. 1741) who commissioned the work, which was taken over by brother Thomas (1767-1837) when Walter died in 1818. [4]. The Morrisons gave it a Tudor exterior although as Mark Bence-Jones points out in his Guide to Irish Country Houses, the interiors by the Morrisons are mostly Classical.
The Morrisons kept the original square three storey building symmetrical. Edmund Joyce references McCullough, Irish Building Traditions, writing that “The Anglo-Irish landlords at the beginning of the 19th century who wanted to establish a strong family history with positive Irish associations were beginning to use the castle form – which had long been a status of power both in Ireland and further afield – to embed the notion of a long and powerful lineage into the mindset of the audience.”
In keeping with this castle ideal, the Morrisons added battlemented parapets with finials, the crenellated arcaded porch on the entrance, as well as four square corner turrets to the house, topped with cupolas (which are no longer there). The porch has slightly pointed arches, and is unusual with its bricklike rustication, and elongated mini towers on top with tawny detailing in between, reflected in the roof parapet.
They also created rather fantastical Tudor Gothic curvilinear hood mouldings over the windows, some “ogee” shaped (convex and concave curves; found in Gothic and Gothic-Revival architecture) [5].
These mouldings drop down from the top of the windows to finish with sculptured of heads of kings and queens. These are not representations of anyone in particular, the guide told us, but are idealised sculptures representing royalty to remind one of the Celtic kingship of the Kavanaghs.
As well as illustrating their heritage in architecture, Walter Kavanagh (d. 1718) commissioned an illustrated book of the family pedigree, titled “The pedigree of the ancient illustrious noble and princely house of Kavanagh in ancient times monarchs of Ireland and at the period of the invasion by Henry the second, kings of Leinster,” which traces the family tree back to 1670 BC! The connections to the prominent families of Butlers, Fitzjohns, De Mariscos and FitzGeralds are highlighted, which are also illustrated in the stained glass window in the main stairwell at Borris.
The guide pointed to the many configurations of windows on the front facade of the house. They were made different deliberately, she told us, to create the illusion that the different types of windows are from different periods, even though they are not! This was to reflect the fact that various parts of the building were built at different times.
The crest of the family on the front of the house on the portico features a crescent moon for peace, sheaf of wheat for plenty and a lion passant for royalty. The motto is written in Irish, to show the Celtic heredity of the Kavanaghs, and means “peace and plenty.”
Charles MacMurrough Kavanagh married Cecilia, daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald, 9th Earl of Kildare. Charles’s son Brian (c. 1526-1576) converted to Protestantism and sent his children to be educated in England. One of them, Sir Morgan Kavanagh, acquired the estate of Borris when he was granted the forfeited estates of the O’Ryans of Idrone in County Carlow.
When Protestants were attacked in 1641 by a Catholic rebellion, when Morgan’s son Brian (1595-1662) was “The MacMorrough,” the MacMurrough Kavanaghs were spared due to their ancient Irish lineage. Later, when Cromwell rampaged through Ireland, they were spared since they were Protestant, so they had the best of both worlds during those turbulent times.
Brian Kavanagh (1595-1662) married twice. His first wife was Elinor, daughter of Thomas Colclough of Tintern Abbey in County Wexford. His second wife was Elinor Blancheville of Blanchevillestown in County Kilkenny.
The tour guide took us first towards the chapel. She explained the structure of the house as we trooped across the lawn. She pointed out the partially demolished stretch between the square part of the house and the chapel. All that remains of this demolished section is a wall. The octagonal towerlike structures built into the wall were chimneys and the demolished part was the kitchen.
The square tower that joins the house to the demolished kitchen contained the nursery. The wing was demolished to reduce the amount of rates to be paid. The house was reoriented during rebuilding, the guide told us, and a walled garden was built with a gap between the walls which could be filled with coal and heated! I love learning of novel mechanisms in homes and gardens, techniques which are no longer used but which may be useful to resurrect as we try to develop more sustainable ways of living (not that we’d want to go back to using coal).
It is worth outlining some of the genealogy of this ancient family, as they intermarried with many prominent families of their day. Morgan Kavanagh (1668-1720) who probably commissioned the building of the 1730s house married Frances Esmonde, daughter of Laurence Esmonde (1634-1688) 2nd Baronet of Ballynastragh, County Wexford, who lived at Huntington Castle (another section 482 property I visited). After her death, he married Margaret Morres of Castle Morres in County Kilkenny.
Morgan and Frances née Esmonde’s son Brian (1699-1741) married Mary Butler, daughter of Thomas Butler (d. 1738) of Kilcash. Their son Thomas (1727-1790) married another Butler, Susanna, daughter of the 16th Earl of Ormonde.
It was the following generation, another Thomas (1767-1837), who is relevant to our visit to the chapel.
This Thomas (1767-1837) was originally a Catholic. He married yet another Butler, Elizabeth, daughter of the 17th Earl of Ormonde, in 1799. At some time he converted to Protestantism. It must have been before 1798 because in that year he represented Kilkenny City in Parliament and at that time only members of the Established Church could serve in Parliament.
As I mentioned, the house was badly damaged in 1798, when the United Irishmen rose up in an attempt to create an independent Ireland. Although the Kavanaghs are of Irish descent and are not a Norman or English family, this did not save them from the 1798 raids. The house was not badly damaged in a siege but outbuildings were. The invaders were looking for weapons inside the house, the guide told us. Robert O’Byrne the Irish Aesthete writes tells us: “Walter MacMurrough Kavanagh wrote to his brother-in-law that although a turf and coal house were set on fire and efforts made to bring ‘fire up to the front door under cover of a car on which were raised feather beds and mattresses’ [their efforts] were unsuccessful.” [6]
Edmund Joyce describes the raid in his book on Borris House (pg. 21-22):
“The rebels who had marched overnight from Vinegar Hill in Wexford…arrived at Borris House on the morning of 12 June. They were met by a strong opposing group of Donegal militia, who had taken up their quarters in the house. It seems that the MacMurrough Kavanaghs had expected such unrest and in anticipation had the lower windows…lately built up with strong masonry work. Despite the energetic battle, those defending the house appear to have been indefatigable, and the rebels, ‘whose cannons were too small to have any effect on the castle…’ the mob retreated back to their camps in Wexford.”
The estate was 30,000 acres at one point, but the Land Acts reduced it in the 1930s to 750 acres, which the present owner farms organically. The outbuildings which were built originally to house the workings of the house – abbatoir, blacksmith, dairy etc, were burnt in one of the sieges and so all the outbuildings now to be seen, the guide told us, were built in the nineteenth century.
Walter Kavanagh (1766-1813), brother of Thomas (1767-1837) (M.P.) and Morgan Kavanagh (who married Alicia Grace of Gracefield, Queens County). Courtesy Fonsie Mealy March 2019.
Thomas’s second wife, Harriet Le Poer Trench, daughter of the 2nd Earl of Clancarty, was of staunch Scottish Protestant persuasion [7]. When he converted, the chapel had to be reconsecrated as a Protestant chapel. According to legend, Lady Harriet had a statue of the Virgin Mary removed from the chapel and asked the workmen to get rid of it. The workmen, staunch Catholics, buried the statue in the garden. People believed that for this act, Lady Harriet was cursed, and it was said that one day her family would be “led by a cripple.”
The story probably came about because Harriet’s third son, Arthur, was born without arms or legs. As she had given birth to two older sons, and he had another half-brother, Walter, son of Thomas’s first wife, it seemed unlikely that Arthur would be the heir. However, the three older brothers all died before Arthur and Arthur did indeed become the heir to Borris House.
Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh, M.P., (1831-1839), Politician and Sportsman Date after 1889 Engraver Morris & Co. Photograph courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland.
The plasterwork in the chapel, which is called the Chapel of St. Molin, is by Michael Stapleton.
In Jimmy O’Toole’s book The Carlow Gentry: What will the neighbours say! (published by Jimmy O’Toole, Carlow, Ireland, 1993. Printed by Leinster Leader Ltd, Naas, Kildare), he tells us of a rather miraculous finding of a Bible giving evidence of Thomas’s early Catholicism:
p. 130. “In the early 1950s, Borris House needed an electrical rewire. It was the kind of job in this rambling mansion that would take tradesmen into all sorts of unused nooks and crannies, attics untouched since the last electricians were there, and of course, there was the necessary task, dreaded by owners, the lifting of floor boards…What the electricians turned up from underneath the floor boards in the library of borris House was an 18C missal, which had been carefully wrapped and placed there by the Catholic Thomas Kavanagh either when he conformed to the Established Church, or when he married for the second time in 1825. The missal was a gift from his mother, the former Lady Suzanna Butler, bearing the hopeful inscription that he would remain faithful to the Catholic religion practised for centuries by his forebears, who could trace their ancestry back to early Christian times.”
Jimmy O’Toole also tells us that Borris House stands on 9th century dungeons!
While we sat in the chapel, our guide told us about the amazing Arthur MacMurrough Kavanagh. When her husband Walter died, Harriet and her children went travelling. They travelled broadly, and she painted, and collected objects which she brought back to Ireland, including a collection of artefacts from Egypt now in the National Museum of Ireland. When Arthur was 17 years old his mother sent him travelling again, to get him away from his high jinks with the local girls. Arthur kept diaries, which are available for perusal in the National Library. I must have a look! I have a special interest in diaries, since I have been keeping my own since I was twelve years old. Some of Arthur’s adventures include being captured and being cruelly put on display by a tribe. He also fell ill and found himself being nursed back to health in a harem – little did the Sultan or head of the harem realise that Arthur was perfectly capable of impregnating the ladies!
Arthur’s brother and tutor died on their travels and Arthur found himself alone in India. He joined the East India Company as a dispatch rider – he was an excellent horseman, as he could be strapped in to a special saddle, which we saw inside the house, now mounted on a children’s riding horse! I was also thrilled to see his wheelchair, in the Dining Room, which is now converted into a dining chair.
Arthur MacMurrough’s saddle in mounted on the rocking horse. Photograph by Paul Barker, 2011, for Country Life.
When Arthur came home as heir, he found his mother had set up a school of lacemaking, now called Borris Lace, to help the local women to earn money during the difficult Famine years. The lace became famous and was sold to Russian and English royalty. The rest of the estate, however, was in poor shape. Arthur set about making it profitable, bringing the railway to Borris, building a nearby viaduct, which cost €20,000 to build. He also built cottages in the town, winning a design medal from the Royal Dublin Society, and he set up a sawmill, from which tenants were given free timber to roof their houses. He set up limekilns for building material, and also experimented (unsuccessfully) with “water gas” to power the crane used to built the viaduct. His mother built a fever house, dower house and a Protestant school, and Arthur’s sisters built a Catholic school. There is a little schoolhouse (with bell) behind the chapel.
Arthur seems to have had a great sense of humour. On one of his visits to Abbeyleix, he remarked to Lady De Vesci, “It’s an extraordinary thing – I haven’t been here for five years but the stationmaster recognised me.”
Arthur married Mary Frances Forde-Leathley and fathered six children. He became an MP for Carlow and Kilkenny, and sat in the House of Commons in England, which he reached by sailing as far as London, where he was then carried in to the houses of Parliament.
He lost when he ran again for Parliament in 1880, beaten by the Home Rule candidates. He returned from London after his defeat and saw bonfires, which were often lit by his tenants to celebrate his return. However, this time, horrifically, he saw his effigy being burned on the bonfires by tenants celebrating the triumph of the Home Rule candidates. He must have been devastated, as he had worked so hard for his tenants and treated them generously. For more about him, see the Irish Aesthete’s entry about him. [8]
Jimmy O’Toole’s book gives a detailed description of politics at the time of Arthur’s defeat and explains why the tenants behaved in such a brutal way. Elections grew heated and dangerous in the days of the Land League and of Charles Stewart Parnell, when tenants hoped to own their own land. In the 1841 election, tenants of the Kavanaghs were forced to vote for the Tory candidate against Daniel O’Connell Jr., despite a visit from Daniel O’Connell Sr, “The Liberator” who fought for Catholic emancipation.
The land agent for the Kavanaghs, Charles Doyne, threatened the tenants with eviction if they did not vote for his favoured candidate. In response to threats of eviction, members of the Land League forced tenants to support their cause by publicly shaming anyone who dared to oppose them. People were locked into buildings to prevent them from voting, or on the other hand, were locked in to protect them from attacks which took place if they planned to support the Tory candidate. Not all Irish Catholics supported the Land League. Labourers realised that landlords provided employment which would be lost if the land was divided for small farmers.
It was Arthur’s grandfather, Thomas (b. 1727), who undertook much of the renovation work at Borris in the 1800s, with money brought into the family by his wife, Susanna Butler. [9] Under her influence, Italian workmen were employed and ceilings were decorated and Scagliola pillars installed. After hearing the stories about amazing Arthur, we returned across the lawn to enter the main house.
The front hall is square but is decorated with a circular ceiling of rich plasterwork, “treated as a rotunda with segmental pointed arches and scagliola columns; eagles in high relief in the spandrels of the arches and festoons above,” as Mark Bence-Jones describes in his inimitable style [see 5, p. 45]. We were not allowed to take photographs but the Irish Aesthete’s site has terrific photographs [see 3]. The eagles represent strength and power. There are also the sheafs of wheat, crescent moons and lion heads, symbols from the family crest. Another common motif in the house is a Grecian key pattern.
Photograph by Paul Barker, 2011, from Country Life picture library.Borris House front hall, photograph from Borris House instagram, @karinalee.studioBorris House front hall, photograph from Borris House instagram, @karinalee.studioPhotograph by Paul Barker, 2011, from Country Life picture library.
The craftwork and furnishings of the house are all built by Irish craftsmen, including mahogany doors. There is a clever vent in the wall that brings hot air from the kitchens to heat the room.
We next went into the music room which has a beautiful domed oval ceiling with intricate plasterwork. It includes the oak leaf for strength and longevity.
The drawing room has another pretty Stapleton ceiling, more feminine, as this was a Ladies’ room. It has lovely pale blue walls, and was originally the front entrance to the house. When it was made into a circular room the leftover bits of the original rectangular room form small triangular spaces, which were used as a room for preparing the tea, a small library with a bookcase, and a bathroom. The curved mahogany doors were also made by Irish craftsmen in Dublin, Mack, Williams and Gibton.
The dining room has more scagliola columns at one end, framing the serving sideboard, commissioned specially by Morrison for Borris House. It was sold in the 1950s but bought back by later owners. [10] The room has more rich plasterwork by Michael Stapleton: a Celtic design on the ceiling, and ox skulls represent the feasting of Chieftains. With the aid of portraits in the dining room, the guide told us more stories about the family. It was sad to hear how Arthur had to put an end to the tradition of the locals standing outside the dining room windows, and gentry inside, to observe the diners. He did not like to be seen eating, as he had to be fed.
The grand dining room, photograph courtesy of Borris House instagram.
We saw the portrait of Lady Susanna’s husband, whom her sister Charlotte Eleanor dubbed “Fat Thomas.” Eleanor formed a relationship with Sarah Ponsonby, and they ran away from their families to be together. As a result, Eleanor was taken to stay with her sister’s family in Borris House, and she must have felt imprisoned by her sister’s husband, hence the insulting moniker. Eleanor managed to escape and to make her way to Woodstock, the house in County Kilkenny where Sarah was staying. Finally their families capitulated and accepted their plans to live together. They set up house in Wales, in Llangollen, and were known as The Ladies of Llangollen They were visited by many famous people, including Anna Seward, William Wordsworth, Sir Walter Scott, Charles and Erasmus Darwin, Sir Arthur Wellesley and Josiah Wedgewood.
The Ladies of Llangollen, Sarah Ponsonby and Charlotte Eleanor Butler, by Richard James Lane, printed by Jérémie Graf, after Lady Mary Leighton (née Parker) courtesy of National Portrait Gallery NPG D32504.
Mark Bence-Jones describes an upstairs library with ceiling of alternate barrel and rib vaults, above a frieze of wreaths that is a hallmark of the Morrisons, which unfortunately we did not get to see. We didn’t get to go upstairs but we saw the grand Bath stone cantilevered staircase. The room was originally an open courtyard.
We then went out to the Ballroom, which was originally built by Arthur as a billiard room, with a gun room at one end and a planned upper level of five bedrooms. The building was not finished as planned as Arthur died. It is now used for weddings and entertainment.
In 1958 the house faced ruin when Joane Kavanagh’s husband Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Macalpine-Downie died, and she decided to move to a smaller house. However, her son, Andrew Macalpine-Downie, returned to Borris after a career as a jockey in England. with his wife Tina Murray. He assumed the name Kavanagh, and set himself the task of preventing the house from becoming a ruin. [11]
[2] p. 33, MacDonnell, Randal. The Lost Houses of Ireland. A chronicle of great houses and the families who lived in them. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London, 2002.
The Borris website claims that the 1731 house was built for Morgan Kavanagh, but the Irish Aesthete Robert O’Byrne writes that the 1731 house was built by Brian Kavanagh, incorporating part of the fifteenth century castle. I have the date of 1720 as the death for Morgan Kavanagh and he has a son, Brian, so it could be the case that the house was commissioned by Morgan and completed by his son Brian.
[4] Joyce, Edmond. Borris House, Co. Carlow, and elite regency patronage. Four Courts Press, Dublin, 2013.
and 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.
This entry also has lovely pictures of the inside of Borris House and more details about the history of the house and family.
[7] p. 130. O’Toole, Jimmy. The Carlow Gentry: What will the neighbours say! Published by Jimmy O’Toole, Carlow, Ireland, 1993. Printed by Leinster Leader Ltd, Naas, Kildare.
[9] for more on the Butlers see John Kirwan’s book, The Chief Butlers of Ireland and the House of Ormond, An Illustrated Genealogical Guide, published by Irish Academic Press, Newbridge, County Kildare, 2018. Stephen and I went to see John Kirwan give a fascinating talk on his book at the Irish Georgian Society’s Assembly House in Dublin.
[10] p. 115. Fitzgerald, Desmond et al. Great Irish Houses. Published by IMAGE Publications Ltd, Dublin, 2008.
[11] p. 134. O’Toole, Jimmy. The Carlow Gentry: What will the neighbours say! Published by Jimmy O’Toole, Carlow, Ireland, 1993. Printed by Leinster Leader Ltd, Naas, Kildare.
Open dates in 2026: Feb 3-6, 9-13, 16-20, 23-27, May 1, 5-29, June 2-5, 8,9, Aug 15-23, Mon-Fri, 1pm-5pm, May and Aug, also open Sat-Sun, 9am-1pm
Fee: house €15, gardens €6
donation
Help me to pay the entrance fee to one of the houses on this website. This site is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!
This was the least personal of our tours to date, when we went on Saturday May 18th 2019, as there was no sign of the owners, the Rohan family, living in the grand reception rooms, although it is their family home. Ken and Brenda Rohan purchased the house in 1981. A visit to a house that is no longer owned by descendants of the early occupiers resonates less history, although in this case one must admit the current owners are probably no less invested than if their ancestors had occupied it for centuries, as they have maintained it to a high standard, and have carried out sensitive restoration to both house and garden. Dublin architect John O’Connell oversaw work on the interiors.
We are told in Great Irish Houses that the demesne is intact, with the original estate walls and entrance gates surviving. [1]
The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage website tells us that Charleville is a detached nine bay two storey Palladian style mansion, built in 1797 to designs by Whitmore Davis, an architect originally from County Antrim, who was then based in Dublin [2]. He also built another Section 482 house, Harristown House in County Kildare [3].
The house has a three-storey pedimented breakfront, the pediment is carried on four Ionic columns at the second and third storey level of the house, the ground floor level of the breakfront being “rusticated” as if it were a basement. [4] The windows on the ground floor level in the breakfront are arched. The Buildings of Ireland website claims that the breakfront facade is inspired by Lucan House in County Dublin, which is indeed very similar. Lucan House was designed by its owner, Agmondisham Vesey, consulting with architect William Chambers, a British architect who also designed the wonderful Casino at Marino in Dublin, as well as Charlemont House in Dublin (now the Hugh Lane Municipal Art Gallery) and the Examination Hall and Chapel in Trinity College Dublin.
It was hard to find, as we were directed to the back entrance, and the gps gave us directions to a different entrance. However the person to whom I’d spoken, from Rohan Holdings, specified where to go. We found someone waiting to let us in. He was very friendly and when I stated my name, for him to write down along with licence plate of car, for security, he asked was I related to the Baggots of Abbeyleix! Indeed, I am the daughter of a Baggot of Abbeyleix! And are they related to the Clara Baggots, he asked? Yes indeed, they are my cousins! So that was a great welcome! He opened the gates for us and said he would see us on the way out, and he directed us down the driveway, toward visitor parking.
Our tour guide came outside to meet us and invited us into the house. We entered a large impressive entry room. The guide told us that George IV was due to visit the house, but never came, as he was “inebriated.” After visiting Slane Castle, we knew all about George IV’s visit, and why he did not get to Charleville – he was too busy with his mistress in Slane Castle! The marquentry wooden flooring (applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures) in the front hall was installed at great expense in preparation for his visit to the house. It’s still in excellent condition.
The well-informed guide told us about the previous owners and shared details about the furniture and paintings. The house is perfectly suitably decorated, sumptuous and beautiful. The main reception rooms lead off the entrance hall and run the length of the facade. The house was built for Charles Stanley Monck (1754-1802), 1st Viscount Monck of Ballytrammon, County Wexford, after his former house on the property was destroyed by fire in 1792.
Charles Stanley Monck succeeded his uncle Henry Monck to the estate when his uncle died in 1787. Henry Monck had inherited from his father, Charles Monck (1678-1752). Charles Monck, a barrister who lived on St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, came into the property of Charleville through his marriage in 1705 to Agneta Hitchcock, the daughter and heiress of Major Walter Hitchcock. [5]
Although Henry Monck had no son to inherit his estate, he had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married George de la Poer Beresford (January 1734/35-1800), 1st Marquess of Waterford, of Curraghmore.
The Honourable George de la Poer Beresford (1735–1800), 2nd Earl of Tyrone, Later 1st Marquis of Waterford by Johann Zoffany, courtesy of National Trust Images.
Charles Stanley Monck was the son of Henry’s brother Thomas Monck (1723-1772) and Judith Mason (1733-1814) from Masonbrook, County Galway. Thomas Monck was a barrister, and served as MP for Old Leighlin in County Carlow.
Charles Stanley Monck married Anne Quin in 1784, daughter of Dr. Henry Quin and Anne Monck (she was a daughter of Charles Monck and Agneta Hitchcock so was a first cousin). He rebuilt the house in the same year that he was raised to the peerage as Baron Monck of Ballytrammon, County Wexford. He served as MP for Gorey, County Wexford from 1790 to 1798. In 1801, as a reward for voting for the Union of Britain and Ireland, he was awarded a Viscountcy.
As well as having Charleville rebuilt, he had a terrace of houses built in Upper Merrion Street in Dublin. Number 22 of this terrace was known as “Monck House,” and number 24 was Mornington House (where some say the Duke of Wellington was born) – the terrace is better known today for housing the Merrion Hotel.
The large entry hall has fluted Ionic columns, a ceiling with coving and central rosette plasterwork, an impressive fireplace and several doors. It is full of portraits, including, over the fireplace, a painting of the family of the Verekers, Viscount Gort. The double-door leading to the staircase hall is topped with a decorative archway, and the passageway between the front hall and the staircase hall is vaulted.
Leading off the hallway were large double doors, “elevator style” (see Salterbridge), the guide pointed out that they are not hinged, and are held in place by the top and bottom instead, swinging on a small bolt from frame into door on top and bottom. They are extremely sturdy, smooth and effective.
The tour is limited to the outer and inner entrance halls, the morning, drawing and dining rooms.
Charles Stanley did not have long to enjoy his house as he died just a few years later in 1802. He was succeeded by his son Henry Stanley Monck (1785-1848), 2nd Viscount, who was also given the title the Earl of Rathdowne. It was this Henry who made the alterations to the house in preparation for the visit of George IV in 1821.
The Earl of Rathdowne married Frances Mary Trench, daughter of William Power Keating Trench, 1st Earl of Clancarty.
William Power Keating Trench (1741-1805) (later first Earl of Clancarty) by Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1739-1808), courtesy Adam’s 28 March 2012. He was the father of Frances Mary, who married Henry Stanley Monck, 2nd Viscount of Ballytrammon, County Wexford and 1st Earl of Rathdowne.
Mark Bence-Jones in his A Guide to Irish Country Houses tells us that the Grecian Revival plasterwork is probably designed by Richard Morrison. There are also floor length Wyatt windows to the side of the house, similar to ones added to Carton in Kildare in 1817 by Richard Morrison.
The staircase hall contains a cantilevered Portland stone staircase and a balustrade of brass banisters. Hanging prominently over the stairs is a huge portrait of George IV’s visit to Ireland, picturing the people saying goodbye to him at the quay of Dun Laoghaire. He stands tall and slim in the middle. The painter flatters the King who in reality was overweight. The other faces were all painted by the artist from life, as each went to pose for him in his studio. The scene never took place, our guide told us, as George IV was too drunk to stand on the quays as pictured!
The sitting room has a barrel-vaulted ceiling and the decorative plasterwork features musical instruments, gardening implements and sheaves of corn. Desmond Guinness pointed out that the plasterwork installed at Powerscourt for the royal visit is similar to decoration found at Charleville. [6] The dining room’s centrepiece of shamrock and foliage is probably earlier than 1820 but the acanthus frieze may have been added. The impressive gilt pelmets were purchased in the sale of the contents after fire destroyed the house at neighbouring Powerscourt. The drawing room also has impressive ceilings. It is furnished beautifully and has magnificent curtains framing views. The trellis-pattern rose-pink and red carpet was woven specially for the room, and the wallpaper replicates a found fragment. In their attention to detail, the Rohans had the wallpaper replicated by Cowtan of London.
The Library and Morning Room sit behind the front reception rooms. The regency plasterwork in Greek-Revival style contains laurel and vine leaves.
An Irish Times article sums up the continuation of the Monck family in Charleville:
“As Henry had no living sons (but 11 daughters), when he died in 1848, the Earldom went with him. His brother became 3rd Viscount for a year until his own death in 1849, and his son, Charles, became 4th Viscount for almost the remainder of the century, until 1894. Charles married his cousin—one of Henry’s 11 daughters who had lost out on their inheritance because of their gender. He was Governor General of Canada from 1861 – 1868. The last Monck to live at Charleville was Charles’ son, Henry, 5th Viscount who died in 1927. As he was pre-deceased by his two sons and his only brother, he was the last Viscount Monck. There are extensive files in the National Library for the Monck family.” [7]
Charles the 4th Viscount entertained Prime Minister Gladstone at some point in Charleville and Gladstone planted a tree near the house to mark the occasion. Later Charles fell out with Gladstone over Home Rule in 1886 as Charles maintained the strongly Unionist views of his family. He married Elizabeth Louise Mary Monck (d. 1892). Charles Monck (1819-1894) 4th Viscount served as Lord-Lieutenant of County Dublin between 1874 and 1892.
Henry Power Charles Stanley Monck, 5th Viscount Monck of Ballytrammon (1849-1927) gained the rank of Captain in the Coldstream Guards. He held the office of Vice-Lord-Lieutenant of County Wicklow, High Sheriff of County Wicklow and Justice of the Peace for County Dublin. He married Edith Caroline Sophia Scott, daughter of John Henry Scott, 3rd Earl of Clonmell.
Henry the 5th Viscount’s widow Edith continued to live in Charleville after his death. She died in 1929. Their daughter married Arthur William de Brito Savile Foljambe, 2nd Earl of Liverpool and lived in England. Their son the 6th Viscount married but predeceased his father, and his children moved away. The house was then purchased by Donald Davies. He established one of his “shirt dress” manufacturing bases in the stables.
Davies and his family lived in the house for forty years. His only daughter, Lucy, married first, Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet of Rotherfield Hall, Rotherfield, County Sussex, but they divorced in 1971 and she married Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, the photographer son of Anne née Messel, Countess of Rosse of Birr Castle. He had been previously married to Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II’s sister. He and Lucy later divorced, but had a daughter together.
According to the article in the Irish Times:
“before the Rohan family became owners, the place was popular for film settings. An American couple called Hawthorne were the previous owners, and filled it in summertime with orphaned children. Before the Hawthornes, it was owned by Donald Davies, famous for his handwoven, fine wool clothes, who had his workshops in the courtyard to the back of the house.”
The gardens are also beautiful. I believe they are open to the public at certain times of the year. [8]
The article goes on to mention the gardens:
“And then there are the gardens….It was wet and lovely, along the hedged walks and bowers, by the Latinate barbeque terrace where a lime tree was in fruit, in the rose garden, and orchard. Old flowers clustered in bursts of colour – lupins and peony roses, forget-me-not and hydrangea, wisteria covering a wall.
One steps out of the house and goes around one side, by the courtyard and stables, through that courtyard to the tennis courts. One passes along the tennis court to reach the central part of the garden.
We liked the sundial especially, which in itself as a pillar was the dial in a way, though there was a proper sundial on the top also, on the sides of the pillar, on two sides.
[1] Great Irish Houses. Forwards by Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin; The Hon Desmond Guinness; photography by Trevor Hart. Image Publications Ltd, Dublin, 2008.
[5] Charles Monck married and came into Charleville. Charles’s sister Rebecca married John Foster and had a daugther who married Bishop George Berkeley, the famous philosopher! My husband Stephen is also distantly related to the Monck family as his third great aunt, Jane Alicia Winder, married William Charles Monck Mason.
Jane Winder
Charles’s older brother, George (1675-1752) married Mary Molesworth and had a daughter, Sarah, who married Robert Mason, and they were parents of Henry Monck Mason who was the father of William Charles Monck Mason.
[6] p. 257. Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh and Christopher Simon Sykes. Great Houses of Ireland. Laurence King Publishing, London, 1999.
Open dates in 2026: Mar 29-31, Apr 1-12, 14-19, 21-26, 28-30, May 1-10, 12-17, 19-24, 26-31, June 1-7, 9-14, 16-21, 23-28, 30, July 1-5, 7-12, 14-19, 21-26, 28-31, Aug 1-2, 3-9, 11-23, 25-30, Sept 1-6, 8-13, 15-20, 22-27, 29-30, Oct 1-4, 6-11, 13-18, 20-31, Nov 1, Mar, Apr, Oct, Nov, 9.30- 5pm, May-Sept 9.30am-6pm
Fee: adult house and garden tour €17.50, garden €10.50, OAP/student house and garden tour €15, garden €9.50, child 4-12 years house and garden €4, concession- youth 12-18 years house and garden €15, garden €9.50
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Help me to pay the entrance fee to one of the houses on this website. This site is created purely out of love for the subject and I receive no payment so any donation is appreciated!
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2026 Diary of Irish Historic Houses (section 482 properties)
To purchase an A5 size 2026 Diary of Historic Houses (opening times and days are not listed so the calendar is for use for recording appointments and not as a reference for opening times) send your postal address to jennifer.baggot@gmail.com along with €20 via this payment button. The calendar of 84 pages includes space for writing your appointments as well as photographs of the historic houses. The price includes postage within Ireland. Postage to U.S. is a further €10 for the A5 size calendar, so I would appreciate a donation toward the postage – you can click on the donation link.
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We have been to this estate several times, but were lucky enough to have a tour of the house when we went with IDFAS, Irish Decorating and Fine Art Society in June 2015. This was before tours were regularly held for visitors, as they are now. I returned in May 2023 for a second tour. The house is still occupied by the family who built it, and three generations occupy it: the current Lord Meath, who is a forester by trade, and his son Anthony who runs the farm and income generating businesses such as the café, markets, and events.
Killruddery House and Gardens, Bray, Co Wicklow, photograph by Sonder Visuals 2014 for Fáilte Ireland [1]Killruddery House and Gardens, Bray, Co Wicklow, photograph by Sonder Visuals 2014 for Fáilte Ireland
The website describes Killruddery: “Killruddery is a living, working House, Gardens and Farm. It has been home to sixteen generations of the Brabazon family and over the centuries many other families have joined this special place as a home and in employment.”
“In 1534, Henry VIII sent Sir William Brabazon of Leicester to Ireland to serve as Vice-Treasurer. Later in 1539, Sir William secured ownership of the Abbey of St. Thomas, which stood between present day Thomas Street and the River Liffey in Dublin. Conflicting reports state that Killruddery was not granted to the Brabazon family until 1618 but it is surely of relevance that the monastic lands of St. Thomas’s included the lands of Kilrotheri (or Killruddery), being the Little Sugar Loaf, Bray Head and the valley running between them. “
Killruddery has a special place in my heart since we live in the Liberty of the Earl of Meath in Dublin, near the former location of the Abbey of St. Thomas. It is called a “liberty” as it lay outside the walls of the city of Dublin and had its own laws – initially, the laws were those of the abbeys and monasteries that owned the land. In 1538, King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, including the Abbey of St. Thomas in Dublin. At that time the abbey owned property also in Counties Meath, Louth, Wicklow and Kildare. The property was divided between William Brabazon and the Lord Deputy, Richard St. Leger. The property in County Wicklow, on which the monks had built a retreat, farm and burial ground, came with a small castle and its outbuildings. [2]
Sir William’s son Edward (d. 1625) was appointed Privy Counsellor of Ireland in 1584. He held the office of Member of Parliament for County Wicklow in 1585. In 1598 he purchased the estate of Nether Whitacre, Warwickshire, and he was High Sheriff of County Stafford from 1606 to 1607. This property was sold by the family in 1630. He was M.P. for Bangor between 1613 and 1615. He was created 1st Lord Brabazon, Baron of Ardee, County Louth in 1616.
His children married very well. His daughter Susannah married Lucas Plunkett, 1st Earl of Fingall, 10th Baron of Killeen. Ursula married James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Claneboy of County Down, and Elizabeth married three times, having a daughter by the Bishop of Meath George Montgomery, who married Nicholas St. Lawrence, 10th Baron Howth. Edward’s son Anthony lived in Tallanstown, County Louth, and his son William (d. 1651) was forty-five years old when he succeeded as 2nd Baron of Ardee. He was created 1st Earl of Meath in 1627, with a special remainder to his brother Anthony. When he was made Earl of Meath, henceforth the Liberty of St Thomas and Donore was called the Earl of Meath Liberties.
The Earl was sent to the Tower of London in 1644, as he fought against Cromwell’s Parliamentary forces. [3] He was exchanged seven months later for another prisoner.
His house in County Wicklow was burned down by Cromwell’s troops. He died in 1651 and his son Edward (1609-1675) became the 2nd Earl of Meath.
The Killruddery website tells us that:
“The 2nd Earl of Meath built a house at Killruddery to replace one burned six years earlier. An illustration from about 1680 shows a building of five bays facing east. In 1666, the 2nd Earl increased the estate with the addition of “the section of Great Bray between Main Street and the sea and between the river and Main Street.”
He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Athlone from 1634 to 1635. He had married Mary Chambré in 1632. She was from Carnew Castle in County Wicklow. He fought in the English Civil War as a Royalist, like his father. He was rewarded by King Charles II when the throne was restored to the Stuart family, and was appointed Privy Counsellor in Ireland between 1660 and 1669.
He died in 1675 as a passenger on the HMV ‘Mary’ which was shipwrecked off Beaumaurice in Anglesey during a voyage to England. His son, Edward, was rescued from the wreck.
His son William succeeded as 4th Lord Brabazon, Baron of Ardee, Co. Louth during his father’s lifetime in 1665 when he was about thirty years old. In 1671 he killed a man in a duel but was pardoned. He succeeded as the 3rd Earl of Meath when his father died in 1675. He had two daughters: Elizabeth married Philips Coote of “Mount Coote” County Limerick, which is now Ash Hill, another section 482 property, where we stayed during Heritage week in 2022, see my entry. She married a second time to the son of the Earl of Lindsay of England.
Elizabeth Brabazon née Lennard, Countess of Meath (1650-1701), Wife of the 3rd Earl of Meath, photograph courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
Since the 3rd Earl of Meath had no sons when he died in 1685, the title passed to his brother Edward. Edward (1635-1707) 4th Earl joined King William’s forces and commanded the garrison at Carrickfergus against James II. He fought in the Siege of Limerick and the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. He complained that that the “Glorious Revolution” had cost him £10,000 and, as a result, he sold a 35 year lease on the property at Killruddery to John Lovett, the uncle of Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. In 1702, the Earl took a house on the north side of St. Stephen’s Green in Dublin, where the family lived during the 18th century. [4] This house is now a school – before that, it was St. Vincent’s Hospital, set up by the nun Sister Aikenhead.
He married twice but had no children. He served as M.P. for County Wicklow in 1666 and Ranger of Phoenix Park in 1675. When he died, the title passed to another brother, Chambré.
It was Edward 4th Earl of Meath who is responsible for the gardens at Killruddery. He built a modest house on the grounds as a summer house, and he lived in the house at St. Thomas’s Abbey in Dublin. The gardens are one of the few remaining 17th century gardens in Ireland or the U.K. The Killruddery website tells us that the gardens were used for the entertainment of a large number of guests and therefore the scale is comparable to that of a park. Edward employed Monsieur Bonet, a French Landscape architect, a pupil of Le Notre, in 1682. André Le Nôtre (12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700) was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV. Most notably he designed the park of the Palace of Versailles. Monsieur Bonet created the surviving French-Baroque gardens, comprising the Angles (a patte d’oie), the Long Ponds, the Sylvan Theatre, Lime Walks and the Beech Hedge Pond. He had already worked in Ireland for twelve years for Sir William Petty before he moved to Killruddery.
In the gardens, The Angles are the middle section of the garden. They consist of a series of walks flanked by the hornbeam, lime or beech hedges which meet at two centre points. The design of the Angles, as seen from The Long Ponds are known as “patte d’oie” or goose feet.
The 4th Earl married twice but had no children, and when he died title and lands passed to his brother Chambré (c. 1645-1715). The 5th Earl of Meath served as a Privy Councillor in Ireland in 1710. He developed the Pleasure Garden and the Cherry Garden. He married Juliana Chaworth, daughter of Patrick Chaworth, 3rd Viscount Chaworth of Armagh. Their son, whom they named Chaworth, succeeded as 6th Earl, and served as MP for County Dublin and Lord Lieutenant for County Wicklow and for County Dublin. The Killruddery website tells us that the 6th Earl was a patron of the Meath Hospital, which was founded by four surgeons to care for the sick and poor of ‘the Liberties’ in Dublin. It was the 6th Earl of Meath who developed the garden “wilderness.” He married twice but had no children and when he died in 1763 he was succeeded by his brother Edward (1691-1772) who became the 7th Earl of Meath.
Opposite the Angles on the far side of the Long Ponds is a wooded area known as the Wilderness.
Killruddery House, May 2013Killruddery House, May 2013Edward Brabazon 7th Earl of Meath (1691-1772)
Edward the 7th Earl of Meath served as MP for County Dublin between 1715 and 1760. He too was a Patron for a hospital: originally called, “The Meath Hospital and County Dublin Infirmary,” it was renamed the Coombe Women’s Hospital in 1993. The story of the foundation of the Coombe is written on the remaining entrance portico to the hospital on the road called The Coombe in Dublin.
“Towards the end of the year 1825 two women, whilst making a vain attempt to reach the Rotunda hospital [which was founded originally by Dr. Mosse, whose wife had died in childbirth], perished, together with their new born babies, in the snow. When this became known, a number of benevolent and well-disposed persons founded “The Coombe Lying-In Hospital” in the year 1826, for the relief of poor lying-in women. Leading this committee was a Mrs Margaret Boyle of Upper Baggot Street, Dublin. The portico surrounding this plaque formed the entrance until the year 1967 when the hospital moved to its new location in Dolphin’s Barn.“
He died in 1772 and was succeeded by his son Anthony as 8th Earl of Meath.
Anthony the 8th Earl served as MP for Wicklow from 1745-1760 and for Dublin in 1761-62. He married Grace Leigh from Rosegarland, County Wexford, in 1758.
Anthony Brabazon 8th Earl of Meath b. 1721
William 9th Earl of Meath died in a fatal duel with Captain Robert Gore of the Mount Kennedy Corps in 1797. He also had served as MP for County Dublin. His brother. John Chambré (1772-1851) succeeded him as the 10th Earl. He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of County Dublin between 1831 and 1851. He was raised to the Peerage of the UK in 1831 as 1st Baron Chaworth of Eaton Hall, Co. Hereford. He was appointed Privy Councillor of Ireland in 1833. He married Melosina Adelaide Meade, daughter of the 1st Earl of Clanwilliam, County Tipperary.
John Chambé Brabazon 10th Earl of Meath (1772-1851)Melosina Adelaide Meade 1780-1866, wife of 10th Earl.
In 1816-17 the 10th Earl and his wife took the Grand Tour and in Italy ordered marbles and chimneypieces, mostly with the help of Gaspare Gabrielli, a painter who had worked in Ireland decorating the drawing room of Lyons, County Kildare. When they returned to Ireland, the 10th Earl of Meath hired Richard Morrison to redesign the house. Sadly, their eldest son, Jacques, died while on tour, of diphtheria, and is buried in Naples.
William Vitruvius Morrison and his father Richard were Irish architectsin the early 1800s. They also designed Baronscourt in County Tyrone, Ballyfin in County Laois and Fota in Cork. William also designed Clontarf Castle in Dublin, Hollybrooke House in Bray and Mount Stewart in County Down. Montgomery-Massingberd and Sykes write that building work went on for nine years around the resident Lord and Lady Meath, and they moved from one part of the house to another to accommodate the construction.
The Morrisons rebuilt the house in Neo-Tudor style. It has multiple gables, balustrades, pepper-pot chimneys and crenellations.
The website tells us: “The 10th Earl carried out an extensive reconstruction of Killruddery House between 1820 and 1830. Architects Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison were instructed to build a Tudor Revival mansion, incorporating the original low-level 17th mansion. The new house took on the shape of an irregular quadrangle, enclosing a central courtyard. The interior still includes elaborate chimney-pieces by Giacinto Micali, crimson silk damask from Spitalfields, stained glass by John Milner, a domed ceiling by Henry Popje and the wonderful drawing room ceiling by Simon Gilligan who worked for Popje. Popje had received an apprenticeship in Stucco work from the Lafranchini brothers.”
In 1852 the 10th Earl added the Conservatory, or Orangerie, to the design of William Burn. According to the website, the Orangerie was designed and built by William Burn after the fashion of the Crystal Palace in England. The design for the parapet is said to have been based on a tiara belonging to Lady Meath. The original glass dome was the work of Richard Turner who designed the curvilinear range at the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin and at Kew Gardens in London, and also the glass house conservatory which we saw in Rokeby Hall in Louth (another Section 482 property, see my entry). This glass dome has now been replaced as it became unsafe. The Orangery houses a collection of marble statues gathered in Italy in the 1830 – 1850 period by the 10th Earl of Meath. Classical sculptures include Ganymede giving water to Zeus disguised as an eagle; Cyparissus with his dying deer (it is because of Cyparissus who so famously mourned his deer that cypress trees are associated with graveyards); Cupid with Pysche and Venus. Other prominent busts include Homer, Socrates, Napoleon, William Pitt and Wellington. The floor of the Orangerie is made of Italian, Carrera and Connemara marble, and has a Celtic Cross decoration inlay. Decorative iron grillwork around the edges of the floor let in warm steam for hothouse plants.
The 10th Earl hired Daniel Robertson to restore the gardens, and to create the parterre, in 1846. A neighbour, George Hodson, designed the ornamental dairy, in the fashionable picturesque style as popularised by Humphrey Repton. The dairy has marble for coolness and stained glass windows to protect from the hot sun.
The 10th Earl’s son William (1803-1887) succeeded as 11th Earl in 1851. He married Harriot Brooke, daughter of 6th Baronet Brooke, of Norton Priory, Co. Chester, England. Her portrait, with two of her children, hangs in the Main Staircase Hall of Killruddery, next to a large portrait of her husband. The 11th Earl held the office of Aide-de-Camp to HM Queen Victoria, and he gained the rank of Honorary Colonel in the 5th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.
William, 11th Earl of Meath (1803-1887).
His son Reginald (1841-1929) became the 12th Earl of Meath. He served abroad in the British Foreign Office until he retired in 1877. The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us that in addition to the Wicklow estate, which encompassed 14,717 acres in 1876, he owned 36 acres in the “dilapidated” Coombe district of Dublin city, as well as residences in London (83 Lancaster Gate), Surrey (Chaworth House, Ottershaw, Chertsey), and Co. Wicklow (The Coppice, Rathdrum). By 1921, however, Kilruddery’s expenses exceeded its owner’s entire Irish income and he was on the verge of bankruptcy. [5]
A committed unionist and leading member of the Irish Land Conference, Lord Meath sat in the house of lords as Baron Chaworth (UK). He was largely responsible for the construction in 1907 of the Boer War memorial arch in St Stephen’s Green. The Dictionary of Irish Biography tells us:
“A staunch imperialist, Meath was chairman of the duty and discipline movement, which had more than 4,000 members in 1917. The objectives of the movement were to combat softness, slackness, indifference, and indiscipline in young people, and to give reasonable support to all legitimate authority. Meath’s encouragement of discipline and physical education meant that he was also a strong supporter of national service and Baden-Powell’s scout movement.…Meath was the first president of the Dublin Philanthropic Reform Association, through which he initiated the police-aided clothing scheme to clothe the ‘ragged youth’ of Dublin, and was a founding member and honorary secretary of the Dublin Hospital Sunday movement, a hospital fund which raised about £200,000 between 1874 and 1922. He also founded the Hospital Saturday Fund in 1873 to help working people meet the real expenses of medical care.…From 1898 he served as lieutenant for the county and city of Dublin, JP for the counties of Dublin and Wicklow, DL for the county of Wicklow, and honorary colonel of the 5th battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers.…Meath wrote two volumes of reminiscences, Memories of the nineteenth century (1923) and Memories of the twentieth century (1924), as well as several works related to his social and philanthropic work. In 1868 he married Lady Mary Jane Maitland, with whom he had six children. More than half of his income was derived from his wife. He died in London after a week’s illness on 11 October 1929, and was succeeded as 13th earl by his eldest son, Reginald Le Normand Brabazon.“
Due to his philanthropy, several streets in the Liberties in Dublin are named in of the 12th Earl: Reginald Street, Reginald Square and Brabazon Square. He set up a children’s playground in Pimlico, our guide told us, and it is thanks (or no thanks, in my case!) to him that physical education is now part of the school curriculum.
His wife Mary Jane Maitland was also a dedicated philanthropist, and she financed a number of initiatives including Dublin Artisans’ Dwellings. She also set up a trust for those who suffered epilepsy, because at that time, people who suffered epilepsy were often put into psychiatric asylums. This trust continues today, the Brabazon Trust.
Normand Brabazon 13th Earl of Meath (1869-1949)
The 13th Earl fought in the Boer War and in World War I. He married Aileen May Wyndham-Quin of Adare Manor in County Limerick. He studied the art of clocks, and created the water-run clock in the clock tower, which was originally the carriage entrance, and the clock that hangs in the staircase hall, charmingly created from a copper bedwarming pan, a copper lid from a ktichen dish, and bicycle chains. The face of the clock is an old table.
The 14th Earl of Meath, John Anthony Brabazon (b. 1941), joined the Grenadier Guards. It was in his time that the house was found to be full of dry rot, and he and his wife made the difficult decision to demolish part of the house, under the guidance of the architect Claude Phillimore. A third of the house was demolished and a new formal entrance was constructed. The same materials were used in the reconstruction – the material was numbered before demolition! Although in the 1950s the house was reduced in size, a great deal of Morrisons’ design remains.
Mark Bence-Jones describes the house reduction in more detail: “…by demolishing the entrance front and all of the adjoining front except for one of the gabled projections. A new and simplified entrance was built on the same axis as its predecessor, but standing further back; the entrance being by way of a vestibule with a curving stone stair directly into the staircase hall, where one of the upper ramps of the staircase was replaced by a gallery providing communication between 1st floor rooms on either side. The library, in the surviving projection of the adjoining front, which has handsome C18 bookcases recessed in alcoves, was given a new ceiling of Caroline style plasterwork. The smaller drawing room became the dining room, the original dining room, along with the entrance hall and great hall, being among the rooms demolished.” [6]
Here is Mark Bence-Jones’s description of Killruddery:
p. 171. “The most successful Elizabethan-Revival mansion in Ireland, and also one of the earliest, having been started 1820; built for 10th Earlof Meath to the design of Sir Richard Morrison; incorporating a C17 house with plain C18 additions. Three principal fronts, with pointed and curvilinear gables, pinnacles and oriels. Symmetrical entrance front with central polygonal battlemented tower; forecourt with wrought-iron gates, flanked by gabled office range...”
Next Bence-Jones discusses the interior: “Entrance hall with segmental-pointed plaster barrel-vaulted ceiling; straight flight of oak stairs up to level of principal rooms.“
The Killruddery website tells us that inside the door on the right hand wall is the coat of arms of Sir Edward Brabazon, dated 1586. Above the door is the coat of arms of the 4th Earl of Meath. This has a five point tiara, which symbolises the status of an Earl, and shamrocks indicate that it is an Irish title. The motto is Vota Vita Mea, meaning “My Life is Service.” The stairs lead to a small domed lobby, which has niches for the china that one of the daughters of the house, Kathleen (1850-1930), who never married, collected, and a huge decorative Roman candle sconce and gilded Viennese ceiling lamp. From there, one enters the impressive staircase hall. Originall the china was held in a specially designed China Room, but this was one of the demolished rooms.
The domed ceiling over the stairs, hall and gallery was designed by Henry Popje, a Bray craftsman. Popje received an apprenticeship in Stucco work from the Lafranchini brothers. In the centre of the white dome is a golden hawk, symbol of the Brabazons. The Killruddery Wyverns stand at the end of the stairs, holding the original Brabazon shield. A wyvern is half serpent, half dragon, and in Heraldry it symbolises bravery and loyalty.
Photograph courtesy of Killruddery website.The Drum is a Grenadier Guard Drum.The Killruddery Wyverns stand at the end of the stairs, holding the original Brabazon shield. Photograph courtesy of Killruddery website.The martlet birds on the shield are said to never rest, so they symbolise tireless service.The domed ceiling over the stairs, hall and gallery was designed by Henry Popje, a Bray craftsman. In the centre of the white dome is a golden hawk, symbol of the Brabazons.Photograph courtesy of Killruddery website.
Mark Bence-Jones continues: “Great hall 40 feet high with arches opening into corridor in upper storey; ceiling of carved beams and braces carried on corbels decorated with the Meath falcon, the spaces between the beams being filled with ornate plasterwork. Staircase hall, lit by stained glass window, with massive bifurcating staircase of oak.”
Photograph courtesy of Killruddery website.The window is a picture of the Battle of Hastings, 1066, and is by Henry Victor Milner, who also made the window in Yorkminster Cathedral.
The large stained glass window is by Henry Victor Milner and dates from 1853 and depicts William the Conquerer accepting surrender from the Saxons after his victory at Hastings in 1066. Jacques de Brabancon is on his right as standard-bearer. As a result of his loyalty, de Brabacon was given lands at Bletchley Castle and Leicestershire, our guide told us.
The staircase hall contains several portraits. One of Reginald, the 12th Earl of Meath, is a reproduction as the original is by William Orpen and hangs in the Portrait Gallery in London. In the portrait he wears his robes of the Order of St. Patrick, an order created by King George III, our guide told us.
Two enormous Himalayan bugles stand on either side of the hall door into the drawing room. These, our guide told us, are meant to sound like singing elephants. and the elephants are supposed to sing you into the air and into the womb.
Mark Bence-Jones continues his description: ” Large and small dining rooms en suite, forming enfilade with Statue Gallery; both drawing rooms having Classical decoration. Large drawing room with ceiling of elaborated coved and coffered plasterwork, grey scagliola Ionic columns and panels on walls framed by scalloped gilt mouldings. Small drawing room with shallow domed ceiling of more delicate plasterwork in a pattern of foliage, flowers and trophies; plaster draperies in lunettes.“
The library is the oldest room in the house, the website tells us. It overlooks the long ponds, the “mirrors of the sky.” The room has a fireplace carved in the manner of Grinling Gibbon, with a hawk on top. A painting of the current Earl’s mother, Elizabeth, hangs by the fireplace. She was called the “DIY woman” as she was very practical. There are also portraits of King James II and Charles II. The room was fire damaged during the making of a film, and when it was repaired, the Chippendale bookshelves were recessed into the walls.
Photograph courtesy of Killruddery website.The library, in the surviving projection of the front has handsome C18 bookcases recessed in alcoves and in 1950s was given a new ceiling of Caroline [ie. in the style of the era of King Charles II] style plasterwork.
Bence-Jones describes the entrance gates as similar to those at Ballyfin, Co Laois and Fota, Co Cork.
[2] p. 137, MacDonnell, Randal. The Lost Houses of Ireland. A chronicle of great houses and the families who lived in them. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London, 2002
[3] Great Houses of Ireland by Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon Sykes. Laurence King Publishing, 1999.
[4] MacDonnell, Randal. The Lost Houses of Ireland: A chronicle of great houses and the families who lived in them. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2002.
[6] Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
Irish Historic Houses 