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.
“Shaen-Carter/IFR; Thompson/LGI1958) A two storey early C18 house built for Rt Hon Thomas Carter, MP, Master of the Rolls and Secretary of State; attributed to Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, though somewhat altered. Three sided bow, blocking round windows; high-pitched roof. Room with good cornice of mutules and pedimented doorcase.”
Thomas Carter (1694-1763) by Charles Jervas courtesy Adams’s Irish Old Masters November 2024 Mary Carter née Claxton by Charles Jervas courtesy Adam’s Irish Old Masters Nov 2024
Not in national inventory
Record of Protected Structures:
Rathnally House, townland: Rathnally, town: Trim
Reputedly by E.L.Pearse, early 18thC, altered 19thC. Modest country House on the gently sloping West bank of the river Boyne. It is a tall 3 storey, 3 bay blockhouse, cement rendered with a hipped roof, Italianite chimneys and a square rusticated porch.
Rathnally house is downstream from Trim on the north bank of the Boyne. Constructed in the early eighteenth century for Thomas Carter, Master of the Rolls, the house was much altered in the nineteenth century.
The eighteenth century character can be seen in the garden front and river elevation. The three storey house was designed by Edward Lovett Pearce. Thomas Carter married a first cousin of Edward Lovett Pearce, the architect. Pearce was MP for Ratoath and designed the Houses of Parliament in Dublin, now the Bank of Ireland. There was a four storey block in existence at Rathnally and Pearce designed a block to the rear. Pearce captured a view of the Boyne in the four windows of the drawing room. Below the drawing room is a vaulted kitchen and above a coved bedroom. Carter’s town house on Henrietta Street was designed by Edward Lovett Pearce. The architecture of Edward Lovett Pearce and his connection to Rathnally is explored in an article by Jeremy Williams in the Irish Arts Review Yearbook 2001.
Thomas Carter served with distinction at Derry and the Boyne. He managed to capture the books and writings of James II at the Battle of the Boyne. Thomas Carter acquired a large estate of confiscated lands at Robertstown, Ashbourne, after the Battle of the Boyne. Thomas married secondly, Isabella, the dowager Countess Roscommon in 1702 by which marriage he acquired the extensive Roscommon estates in and around Trim. Thomas acquired an estate at Castle Martin, Co. Kildare.
His son Rt. Hon. Thomas Carter was born about 1690 was a very active parliamentarian and became Master of the Rolls. He was a major political figure in the mid eighteenth century in Ireland. He was MP for Trim, Co. Meath (1719–27), and was then returned for Hillsborough, Dungarvan, and Lismore, choosing to sit for Hillsborough (1727–61). Thomas Carter was made Master of the Rolls in Ireland in 1731, a position he held until 1754. Thomas Carter was noted for his rudeness and his loathing of English interference in Irish affairs and his satirical lampooning of political opponents earned him the nickname “Vicious Carter”. He opposed Wood’s Halfpence. In 1729 he was a leading figure in one of the early road acts. He was a founder member of the Dublin Society, later the RDS. In 1763 the Dublin Journal recorded that ‘he built some very useful mills.” A mill house stands close to Rathnally House. Thomas Carter married Mary Claxton in 1719 at St Anne’s, Dublin. She was the first-cousin of Edward Lovett Pearce. Carter’s son-in-law, Philip Twisden, Bishop of Raphoe, was shot dead allegedly masquerading as a highwayman in London. Twisden’s daughter, Frances, Carter’s grand-daughter, became countess of Jersey and mistress to King George IV of England. Thomas Carter died at Rathnally in 1763 and was buried at St Patrick’s cathedral, Trim.
Carter’s eldest son, Thomas, married Anna Armytage, twelve days after his father’s death. They had only one child, a daughter, Anna Maria who married Skeffington Thompson in 1779. Skeffington was the son of Thomas Thompson of Muckamore, Co. Antrim. Their son, Robert, joined the church and was rector of Navan and Athlumney for a period. In 1802 Skeffington Thompson unsuccessfully stood for parliament in the county Meath constituency. Skeffington Thompson of Rathnally died in 1810 and was succeeded by his son, John. John Thompson was High Sheriff of Meath in 1824. In the 1830s Rathnally was described as the seat of J. Thompson, Esq., and pleasantly situated in a well-planted demesne on the banks of the Boyne. John Thompson died unmarried in 1858 and was succeeded by his brother William. William was recorded as holding 2154 acres in county Meath in 1876. William was High Sheriff of Meath in 1896 and died in 1901. Francis D’Arcy Thompson was born in 1865 and educated at Cambridge. He was a descendant of the Rev. Skeffington Thompson, son of Skeffington of Rathnally, who had married a D’Arcy of Westmeath. In 1908 Francis married his cousin, Annie Eleanor, only daughter of William Thompson of Rathnally and came to live at Rathnally. In 1911 Frances D’Arcy Thompson and his family lived at Rathnally. Mrs A.E. D’Arcy Thompson was a noted breeder of poodles and exhibited at Crufts. Major D’Arcy Perceval Pelham Thompson served in the Second World War. He inherited Rathnally from his aunt in 1952. His wife founded a flower show at Rathnally. Major Thomson died in 1973. At that stage the estate amounted to 200 acres.
Summerhill, County Meath, etnrance front, photograph: Maurice Craig, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
“(Langford, Bt/EDB; Rowley, Langford, B/PB) The most dramatic of the Irish Palladian houses, probably by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in collaboration with Richard Castle. Built 1731 for Hercules Rowley, MP, who inherited the estate from his mother, the daughter of Sir Hercules Langford. Crowning a hill, on the lower slopes of which stood the C17 house of the Langfords, the house consisted of two storey seven bay main block, with a central feature of four giant recessed Corinthian columns, joined by two storey curving wings to end pavilions with towers and shallow domes. The skyline was further diversified by two massive square towers rising boldly at either end of the main block; one of several features reminiscent of Vanbrugh, who was, incidentally, Pearce’s first cousin once removed. The front was prolonged by walls of rusticated stonework ending in rusticated arches. All the stonework of the front was beautifully crisp and sharp. The garden front was less spectacular, but elegant, with two storeys of engaged columns as its central feature; it faced along a tree-lined gorge. Large two storey hall. Staircase hall with plasterwork on its walls. Fine rococo ceiling in drawing room, with busts in circular frames and putti in clouds. Small dining room ceiling also rococo, with putti in clouds in centre. Adjoining room with coved ceiling springing from Doric order; this room and the small dining room were eventually thrown together to make a larger dining room. The house was damaged by fire in nineteenth century; it was restored, but the original decoration of the hall was lost, as well as the original staircase. In 1879 and 1880, the Empress Elizabeth of Austria took Summerhill for the hunting season; it is said that her unquiet spirit found more happiness here than in any of the other numerous palaces and houses which she inhabited. After being burnt ca 1922, the house stood for 35 years or so as a ruin. Even in its ruinous state, Summer hill was one of the wonders of Ireland; in fact like Vanbrugh’s Seaton Delaval, it gained added drama from being a burnt out shell. The calcining of the central feature of the garden front looked like more fantastic rustication; the stonework of the side arches was more beautiful than ever mottled with red lichen; and as the entrance front came into sight, one first became aware that it was a ruin by noticing daylight showing through the front door. But ca 1957, the ruin was demolished; an act of destruction, which, at the time, passed almost unnoticed.”
Summerhill, County Meath, courtesy Mark Bence-Jones.Summerhill, County Meath, courtesy Mark Bence-Jones.
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 115. “A superb house probably designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in collaboration with Richard Castle who carried it out after Pearce’s death. The house was built in 1731 for Hercules Rowley M.P. The arched chimneystacks of the main block show the influence of John Vanburgh. The house was damaged by two fires in the 19C but some plasterwork by the Francini brothers survived. The house was burnt in 1922. Having stood as a magnificent ruin for many years, the stonework was sold and the ruin demolished c. 1962. Only the flanking pedimented arches and screen walls survive.”
The Landed Gentry and Aristocracy: County Meath. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2005.
Langford of Summerhill (Barons Langford)
p. 126. The Rowleys settled in Ireland in the early part of the 17th century. Three brothers, John, Nathaniel and William were the first of that family to arrive on the island. It is most likely hey came to Ireland with Chichester the Lord Deputy. They probaby benefited from the distribution of lands in the Plantation of Ulster. They appear to have been granted some lands in Derry and Edward, John’s son, was based in Castle Roe near Londonderry where he was elected an MP.
John made a very good match with the daughter of an up and coming landlord, Sir Hugh Clotworthy, from neighbouring County Antrim [fn. Hugh’s son John was created Earl of Massareene by King Charles II). Sir John Rowley was John’s son and heir.
The Rowley connection with Meath began in 1671 when Sir John Rowley, MP, married Mary the only child and heir of Sir Hercules Langford of Summerhill and his wife Mary Upton.
…The only son, Hercules Rowley, married his cousin Frances Upton of Castle Upton, co Antrim, in 1705. It must have been he who inherited from Sir Hercules Langford as that man’s will was proved in 1683.
…[their son, Hercules] At the time of his death in 1794 his estate was considerable and was worth £18,000 p.a. The Langfords owned almost 10,000 acres in three different counties, 2,231 in Meath, 3,855 in Limerick and 3,659 in Dublin.
p. 127. He married his cousin the Hon. Elizabeth Ormsby Upton the daughter and heir of Clotworthy Upton who died the same year. Elizabeth also inherited the Ormsby lands in Limerick [Athlacca, Co Limerick]. In 1766 Elizabeth was created Baroness Summerhill and Viscountess Langford of Langford Lodge, Antrim with remainder to her male heirs. …
p. 128. After the death of Elizabeth the Baroness in 1791, her eldest son Hercules succeeded to become 2nd Viscount. Her husband survived three years longer and died in 1794.
Hercules (1737-96) was MP for Co Antrim until he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1791, the year his mother died. …He never married and was succeeded by his niece Frances. In the same year that her grandfather died (1794) she married her cousin, the Hon. Clotworthy Taylour. Born in 1763 he was the 4th son of Lord Headfort. He was MP for Trim and also for Meath during the later decades of the century until his elevation to the Peerage as Baron Langford in 1800. He was high Sheriff of Meath in 1796. [p. 129] After his marriage to Frances in 1794 Clotworthy assumed the name and arms of Rowley.
The second son Richard Thomas was a career Army officer….married and English lady, Charlotte Shipley..The newlyweds decided to honeymoon travelling in Egypt and the Sudan in 1835-36. From diaries and sketches recording their experience an article “A Honeymoon in Egypt and the Sudan” was written by Peter Rowley-Conwy c. 2002. …Charlotte was thought to be the first European woman ever to have visited Petra.
[a descendant of theirs became 9th Baron Langford].
p. 130. The eldest son of 1st Baron Hercules Langford the 2nd Baron (1795-1839), a DL for counties Meath and Dublin was married in 1818 to Louisa Rhodes….
Hercules the second son (1828-1904) settled on the Dublin property of Marlay Park, which thankfully has not entirely disappeared. He was a part-time Army officer, a JP and a DL for Co Meath and honorary Colonel in teh 5th Battalion of the Leinster Regiment. Like many wealthy men of his time he had a pad in London and was a member of the Kildare Club on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin and the Carlton in London.
p. 133. Clotworthy (1825-1854) the eldest son of the 2nd Baron succeeded his father in 1839 when that man died at the relatively young age of 44. Clotworthy was only 14. In 1846 when he was just 21 years old, Clothworthy, now 3rd Baron Langford, married Louisa Conolly from Castletown, the daughter of Col Michael Edward Conolly who was MP for Kildare….They had three sons. The youngest boy was just one year old when tragedy struck the family. Louisa was drowned in a tragic accident.
p. 133. Hercules Edward (4th Baron) had to oversee the dismantling of the Langford empire in Ireland following the various land acts…Although on paper at least the family seemed to be very wealthy, the fact that they were compelled to rent the house [to Empress Sisi of Austria] meant that their annual outgoings were extremely high. It is probably that the repayment of borrowings was the biggest drain on family finances.
p. 134. WWI took a heavy toll on the families of the gentry and aristocracy. Lord Langford lost his son which was all the more poignant since his other son was mentally unstable. [see Bence-Jones Twilight of the Ascendancy.] He now had no immediate heir as his brother was old and had no family but he had a nephew in New Zealand, Clotworthy Wellington. His brother Col William Chambre looked after the estate during the last years of the 4th Baron’s life.
…In 1923 Summerhill was burned by the IRA.
p. 135. The 5th Baron died in 1922 ages only 28. The 5th Baron was succeeded by his uncle, William Chambre Rowley, 2nd son of the 3rd Baron. …
The 6th Baron sought compensation from the Free State Government for Summerhill and its contents. After three years of wrangling the Compensation Board finally agreed that a sum of £43,500 would be paid. This was less than one third of the estimated value of the house and contancts…He accepted and invested in gilt-edged stocks… moved to Middlesex…He consulted his New Zealand relatives about the possibility of rebuilding but none were overly anxious to live in Ireland….
Record ofProtected Structures
Detached four-bay two-storey house, built 1878, with gabled
central bay. Pitched slate roof with rendered chimneystacks
and timber bargeboards. Roughcast rendered walls. Squareheaded
Summerhill, County Meath, photograph courtesy Archiseek.Summerhill, County Meath, photograph courtesy Archiseek.Summerhill, County Meath, photograph courtesy Archiseek.
Summerhill House was a 100 roomed country house which was the ancestral seat of the Langford Rowley family. They owned large amounts of land in counties Meath, Westmeath, Cork, Derry, Antrim, and Dublin as well as in Devon and Cornwall.
Designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and completed by Richard Cassels in the Palladian style, it consisted of a centre block and two wings, built of limestone. Four semi-columns with Corinthian capitals ornamented the front; the main order was carried up the full height of the house. A broad flight of stairs led to the entrance of the mansion. There was a large and very lofty hall, which was similar to Leinster House in Dublin, also by Cassels. The hall contained plaques and oil portraits. To the right on entering was the library. The drawing room had a southern aspect, and contained several portraits of the Rowley family. The state dining room was detached from the main block and had beautifully covered ceilings. The grand stairs led to the bedrooms.
Summerhill, County Meath, photograph courtesy Archiseek.
Destroyed by arson in the early 1920s and the ruins demolished by the 1970s. In 1922 Colonel Rowley, the 6th Baron Langford, sought compensation from the Free State Government and after three years of negotiation with the Compensation Board a sum of £43,500 was paid to the Colonel, approximately one third of the value of the house and contents destroyed in the fire. Nothing remains of the house.
Summerhill House 100 room mansion, baroque palace, built in 1731, the ancestral seat of The Baronets, Barons, and Viscounts Langford – Summerhill Castle. Lynch’s Castle, (above), was already a residence in the immediate vicinity, the ruins of which survive to the present. Constructed for the The Hon. Hercules Langford Rowley, 2nd Baron Langford who in 1732 married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Clotworthy Upton. In 1781 Hercules Langford Rowley built a large gothic mausoleum not far from the house, which fell into a ruinous state; some of its exterior walls survive, along with a handful of their curious arched niches. It originally contained a large memorial carved by Thomas Banks and commemorating the death of a beloved granddaughter, the Hon Mary Pakenham (Rowley’s daughter had married Lord Longford, another of whose children Catherine would in turn marry the Hon Arthur Wellesley, future Duke of Wellington). The Banks memorial was rescued from the mausoleum and moved into the main house at Summerhill. Summerhill House was damaged by fire on a number of occasions and then on 4 February 1922, it was set on fire by the Irish Republican Army and completely destroyed. In 1922 Colonel Rowley, the 6th Baron Langford, sought compensation from the Free State Government and after three years of negotiation with the Compensation Board a sum of £43,500 was paid to the Colonel, approximately one third of the value of the house and contents destroyed in the fire. Colonel Rowley invested the money in gilt-edged stocks and moved to Middlesex, England. Summerhill House stood as a ruin until it was totally demolished in 1970. Summerhill House was listed in “Forgotten Houses of Ireland”, as the most beautiful house in Ireland.
Summerhill House was considered to be one of the most dramatic of the Irish palladian houses. Crowning a hill to the south of Summerhill village, the house consisted of a main block with curved wings ending in a tower and pavilion. Summerhill House was designed by Edward Lovett Pearce and completed by Richard Castle, two of the greatest architects working in Ireland in the eighteenth century. Two of the ceilings were attributed to the Lafranchini brothers. Summerhill House, described by Mulligan as a ‘great palatial mansion,’ was erected about 1730 for Hercules Rowley. Bence–Jones described Summerhill as “the most dramatic of the great Irish palladian houses”. The house was burned accidentally about 1800, remodelled in the nineteenth century and burned again in 1921. The ruins were demolished in the middle of the twentieth century and some of the stones from the ruins were used at Dalgan Park, Navan, to construct a loggia. To the north of the house site stands Lynch’s castle which was converted to a folly on the estate. Near the house stood the family mausoleum.
Summerhill House
A mile long avenue to the south of the house was planned. The architect asked to design the gate houses was also working on two gate lodges for a military barracks in India and the two plans became mixed up. Those intended for India arrived in Summerhill and were erected. The houses because of their unusual roofs became known as the “Balloon Houses”. The avenue was never completed as the last third of it stood on public road and so the gate houses were not even part of the demesne.
Though Summerhill House has been demolished, the entrance and tree-lined avenue are reminders of the demesne. The curved wall and gate piers was clearly executed by skilled masons. The entrance acts as a focal point within the village of Summerhill. The village of Summerhill is based on a classical layout, associated with the development of the Summerhill House and demesne. The village consists of a long wide street with a narrow tree-lined green running down the centre. The village green, laid out c.1830 includes a medieval cross.
The ancient seat of the Lynch family had been granted to Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath, for his services provided as Scoutmaster General to Cromwell’s Army. In 1661 Bishop Jones sold the lands to Sir Hercules Langford. The name was changed from Lynch’s Knock to Summerhill.
Sir Hercules Langford died in 1683 leaving a son, Arthur, and a daughter, Mary. He died in 1716. Arthur died without an heir and the estate went to his sister Mary who had married Sir John Rowley in 1671. Sir John Rowley was one of the biggest landowners in County Londonderry.
Sir John was succeeded by his son, Hercules Rowley, MP for Co. Londonderry 1703-42 and heir to Sir Hercules Langford of Summerhill. Hercules Rowley commissioned Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in collaboration with Richard Castle to build one of the greatest and most dramatic of all the Irish Georgian houses in 1731. The house was probably erected in preparation for his marriage in 1732 to Elizabeth Upton. Hercules Rowley died in 1742 when he was succeeded by his son.
Sir Hercules Langford Rowley was M.P. for Co. Londonderry 1743-1760 and for Co. Meath 1761-94. He was a founder member of the Dublin Society in 1731, later the RDS. He was High Sheriff of Meath in 1738. In 1766 Hercules Langford Rowley was elevated to the peerage as Lord Summerhill. Hercules Langford Rowley was known as ‘the incorruptible representative for the County of Meath.’ He served in the Irish parliament for a period of fifty-one years. In 1787 he was appointed as one of the commissioners for the making of a canal from Drogheda to Trim. Johnston-Liik recorded that he died in 1794 having been an MP for over 50 years. In 1776 his wife was made Viscountess Langford and Baroness of Summerhill in her own right. Their eldest son, Hercules Rowley, became 2nd Viscount Langford in 1791 on the death of his mother. When he died unmarried about 1795 the estate went to his grand nephew, Hon Clothsworthy Taylour who was M.P. for Trim 1791-5 and for Co. Meath 1795-1800. He was created Baron Langford in 1800 having assumed the name Rowley in 1796 in order to inherit Summerhill. While he was M.P. for Trim the other M.P. for Trim was Arthur Wesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Clothsworthy voted against the Union in 1799 and for it in 1800 – the title might have had something to do with the change of mind, according to one commentator – ‘he had got his price.’
Baron Langford died in 1825 and his grandson, Clothworthy Wellington William Robert, became third Baron Langford. His son, Hercules Edward, became fourth baron in 1854 when he was just six years old. Educated at Eton he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the army.
He leased Summerhill to the Empress of Austria for hunting in 1879 and 1880 and was her guest for these periods. Elizabeth married the Emperor of Austria when she was sixteen years old. Travelling and her passion for horse riding became the principle activities by which she could escape the court. Arriving in February 1879 a room was converted to a private chapel, a gymnasium was set up and a direct telegraph line installed to Europe. She was loaned a horse and joined the local hunt. The stag they had been chasing jumped through a space into the Maynooth Seminary with the hounds, and the Empress, in pursuit. The President, Dr Walsh, came out to meet the group and on being introduced to the Empress of Austria lent her his coat or gown, invited them in for refreshment and she promised to return. The Empress managed to hunt nearly every day. In the early spring of 1880 the Empress went straight to Summerhill. On the first Sunday she went to Mass at the seminary in Maynooth and took a gift of a three foot high model of St George slaying the dragon. She was unaware that St George was the patron saint of England and when she was told of its significance she ordered shamrock covered vestments from Dublin. She spent some happy time hunting in Meath. The Empress of Austria was assassinated in 1897 by an anarchist in Geneva.
In 1883 Lord Langford held 2231 acres in Meath, 3659 in Dublin and 3855 in Limerick giving a total estate of 9745 acres.
Hercules Edward fourth baron oversaw the disposal of the Summerhill estate. He died on 29th October 1919 and was interred in Agher cemetery. He lost his son and heir in the First World War and his second son was mentally unstable. His brother, William Chambre, took charge of the estate during his last years and after his death. William became 6th baron when his nephew died in 1922.
In 1921 the house was burned to prevent it falling into the hands of the Black and Tans. Beryl Moore recorded that a large four side clock was the only thing left undamaged and it was donated to Kilmessan Church of Ireland church. On the 4th February 1921 Summerhill House was set on fire by the IRA and completely destroyed. Colonel and Mrs Rowley were away. The five servants who lived in the house were sitting together in the kitchen when they heard a knock on the back door. The English butler did not open the door and some minutes later a whistle was blown and the back door battered in. The servants escaped through a door into the basement and made there way out into the darkness. As they walked down the avenue the house was dowsed in petrol and the fire started in a number of places.
In 1922 Colonel Rowley, the 6th Baron Langford, sought compensation from the Free State Government and after three years of negotiation with the Compensation Board a sum of £43,500 was paid to the Colonel, approximately one third of the value of the house and contents destroyed in the fire. Colonel Rowley invested the money in gilt-edged stocks and moved to Middlesex, England.
In the early twenty first century the eighth holder of the title was constable of Rhuddlan castle and lord of Rhuddlan, Wales. The family reside at Bodrhyddan Hall.
In February 1879 Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, popularly known then and since as Sisi, arrived in County Meath. Unhappily married, restless and inclined to melancholy, she found distraction in hunting and it was this sport which brought her to Ireland. Throughout her six-week stay in the country she followed the hounds almost daily with the Ward Union, the Meath and the Kildare Hunts, always accompanied by the most proficient horseman of his generation Captain William ‘Bay’ Middleton, widely rumoured to be her lover. Her own animals not proving suitable for the Irish terrain, local owners lent or sold the Empress their mounts although the Master of the Meath Hunt Captain Robert Fowler of Rahinstown was heard to expostulate ‘I’m not going to have any damned Empress buying my daughter’s horse.’ Nevertheless before her departure, Elisabeth presented a riding crop to Fowler: it was sold by Adam’s of Dublin in September 2010 for €28,000. During her 1879 visit and on a second occasion the following year the Empress stayed in an immense baroque palace that would not have looked out of place among the foothills outside Vienna. This was Summerhill, one of Ireland’s most remarkable houses the loss of which, as the Knight of Glin once wrote, ‘is probably the greatest tragedy in the history of Irish domestic architecture.’
Summerhill was constructed for the Hon. Hercules Langford Rowley who in 1732 married his cousin Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Clotworthy Upton. It is generally agreed that work on the house began around this date, perhaps to commemorate the union. Also, although impossible to prove absolutely, the most widespread supposition is that Summerhill’s architect was Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. There are echoes in its design of Vanbrugh in whose office Pearce is thought to have trained. Indeed writing of the building in 1752 the Anglican clergyman and future Bishop of Meath Richard Pococke specifically described it as ‘a commanding Eminence, the house is like a Grand Palace, but in the Vanbrugh Style.’ There was already a residence in the immediate vicinity, the ruins of which survive to the present. Known as Lynch’s Castle, it is a late 16th century tower house probably occupied up to the time of Summerhill’s construction. The position selected for Rowley’s new house could scarcely have been better – the 19th century English architect C.R. Cockerell thought ‘few sites more magnificently chosen – the close of a long incline so that the gradual approach along a tree-lined avenue created the impression of impending drama. Finally one reached the entrance front, a massive two-storey, seven-bay block the central feature of which were four towering Corinthian columns, the whole executed in crisply cut limestone. On either side two-storey quadrants swept away from the house towards equally vast pavilions topped by towers and shallow domes.
We must imagine the original interiors of Summerhill to have been as superb as its exterior since little record of them survive. The house was seriously damaged by fire in the early 19th century and thereafter successive generations of the Rowley owners – it had passed to a branch of the Taylours of Headfort, the first of whom was elevated to the peerage as Baron Langford in 1800 after voting in favour of the Act of Union – never seem to have had sufficient funds to oversee a comprehensive refurbishment. In fact in 1851 the estate was offered for sale. However, some work was done on the house, including a new main staircase, in the 1870s, not long before Summerhill was taken by the Empress Elisabeth. A handful of photographs, reproduced in the invaluable Irish Georgian Society Records of 1913 and shown above give us an idea of the house’s decoration, not least that of the double-height entrance hall with its then-compulsory potted palms (just as the wall above the stairs carries an equally inevitable reproduction of Raphael’s Sistine Madonna). We know the drawing room and small dining room both contained elaborate plasterwork and there were clearly some splendid chimneypieces. The IGS Records also lists many significant paintings in the main rooms. Before the end of the 19th century the large gothic mausoleum likewise built by Hercules Langford Rowley in 1781 not far from the house had fallen into a ruinous state; some of its exterior walls survive, along with a handful of their curious arched niches. Originally it contained a large memorial carved by Thomas Banks and commemorating the death of a beloved granddaughter, the Hon Mary Pakenham (Rowley’s daughter had married Lord Longford, another of whose children Catherine would in turn marry the Hon Arthur Wellesley, future Duke of Wellington). The Banks memorial was rescued from the mausoleum and moved into the main house at Summerhill, there seemingly safe from any damage.
On the night of 4th February 1922 the Rowleys were away but five staff remained in the house. When a knock came on the back door, the butler refused to open it but shortly afterwards he heard the door being knocked down. He and the others escaped through an exit in the basement and walked towards the farm; turning around, they saw flames rapidly spreading through the house which by morning was left a smoking shell. It has never been ascertained who was responsible for the burning of Summerhill or why it was attacked in this way, but most likely as elsewhere during the same period it was perceived as representing the old regime and therefore a target for republicans. Afterwards, like other house owners whose property had suffered a similar fate, the Rowleys applied to the new Free State government for compensation, asking for £100,000 to rebuild Summerhill; initially they were offered £65,000 but by April 1923 this had been cut to £16,775 with the condition that at least £12,000 of the sum had to be spent on building some kind of residence on the site, otherwise only £2,000 would be given. The compensation figure was later raised to £27,500 with no obligation to build but by then the Rowleys left the country (one member of the family had already declared ‘Nothing would induce me to live in Ireland if I was paid to do so…’). For the next thirty-five years Summerhill stood an empty shell. The late Mark Bence-Jones who saw the house during this period later wrote, ‘Even in its ruinous state, Summerhill was one of the wonders of Ireland; in fact like Vanbrugh’s Seaton Delaval, it gained added drama from being a burnt-out shell. The calcining of the central feature of the garden front looked like more fantastic rustication; the stonework of the side arches was more beautiful than ever mottled with red lichen; and as the entrance front came into sight, one first became aware that it was a ruin by noticing daylight showing through the front door.’ In 1947 Maurice Craig visited the site. His wonderfully atmospheric photographs from that time corroborate Bence-Jones’ description.
Seaton Delaval still stands, but Summerhill is no more. In 1957 the house was demolished, apparently without any objection. Today the site is occupied by a bungalow of the most diminutive proportions surrounded by evergreens which thereby obscure the view which made this spot so special. The difference in scale and style between the original house and its replacement would be hilarious was the loss of Summerhill not so tragic. The village at its former entrance gates gives visitors no indication that close by stood one of Ireland’s greatest architectural beauties. Indeed one suspects local residents themselves are mostly unaware of what they have lost since there is scant evidence of concern for the welfare of other old buildings in the vicinity. If Summerhill still stood it could be a significant tourist attraction, bringing visitors to this part of the country, not least from Austria and surrounding countries where the Empress Elisabeth enjoys near-cult status. In other words, what went with the house was not just an important piece of Ireland’s architectural heritage but also the opportunity for local employment and income. It is typical, if perhaps the worst instance, of Ireland’s failure to appreciate the potential of her historic buildings, as well as their inherent aesthetic qualities. I think it was Bence-Jones who once called Summerhill Ireland’s Versailles but a more apt comparison would be with Marly, another vanished treasure now known only through a handful of images. As Shelley wrote in 1818, ‘”Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare…’
Now providing access to Dolly’s Grove, County Meath, this limestone triumphal arch seemingly once stood at the entrance to Summerhill in the same county. Among Ireland’s very finest country houses Summerhill was built in the 1730s but is no more, having been burnt in February 1922, after which its dramatic shell survived another thirty-five years before being demolished (for more on the house, see My Name is Ozymandias, April 1st 2013). Summerhill’s design has traditionally been attributed to Sir Edward Lovett Pearce and some of his stylistic tics, such as blind niches and oculi, can be seen here in the Dolly’s Grove arch suggesting the architect was responsible for this piece of work also.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 286. “A square early C18 house of brick, of two storeys over high basement, with a pyramidal roof from the centre of which rises a gazebo or lantern. Regarded by Dr Craig as “perhaps the most interesting small house of the early C18 in the whole of Ireland” and attributed by him to Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. Built ante 1735 by Rev John Jackson, Vicar of Santry, a friend of Swift. The house has four regular fronts and four sturdy, regularly disposed chimneystacks; the five bay entrance front how having a slightly discordant late C18 fanlighted doorway. Dr Craig considers the gazebo here to be the precursor of the central attic-towers of Gola, Co Monaghan and other houses; but the Woodlands gazebo has none of the freakishness of those other towers; it is the natural termination of the roof. The interior is divided by a long vaulted corridor-hall running from front to back. In 1837, the residence of Col A Thomson.”
Stillorgan House, Stillorgan, Co Dublin – demolished 1860, new house built 1887
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 265. “(Allen, V/DEP) A house begun in 1695 by John Allen MP, afterwards 1st Viscount Allen.
It comprised a two-storey, seven-bay centre block, and single storey, seven-bay wings.
The house had dormered attics and high-pitched roofs.
The centre block had lofty, slender chimneys, two at each end.
The demesne had formal gardens, an obelisk, and a grotto by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce.
The mansion was demolished in 1860 and only the grotto and obelisk remain.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988. p. 67. “…Sir Edward Lovett Pearce prepared plans for alterations and additions which were not carried out….”
JOHN ALLEN, the founder of this family in Ireland, settled there some time towards the close of ELIZABETH I’s reign.
He came from Holland to Dublin as factor for the Dutch merchants (the family had emigrated from England to Holland in 1580), and beside amassing a very large fortune, distinguished himself by a refined taste in architecture.
Mr Allen was greatly esteemed, and consulted by the most eminent of the nobility and gentry in their buildings; particularly by the Earl of Strafford, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in his large, intended edifice near Naas, County Kildare.
He laid out the plan of his own house at Mullynahack, near Dublin, leaving it to be executed by his son.
Mr Allen died ca 1641, and was father of
SIR JOSHUA ALLEN, an eminent and opulent merchant of Dublin, who served the office of Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1673, and received the honour of knighthood.
Sir Joshua completed the house at Mullynahack begun by his father, called “Allen’s Court.”
He married Mary, daughter of John Wybrow, of Cheshire, and had issue,
JOHN, his heir; Eleanor; Elizabeth; Mary.
Sir Joshua died in 1691, and was succeeded by his son,
THE RT HON JOHN ALLEN (1660-1726), Privy Counsellor, High Sheriff of County Dublin, 1691, MP for County Dublin, 1692-3, County Carlow, 1695-9, County Dublin, 1703-13, County Wicklow, 1713-14, County Dublin, 1715-17.
Mr Allen wedded, in 1684, Mary, daughter of the Rt Hon Robert FitzGerald, and sister of Robert, 19th Earl of Kildare, and had issue,
JOSHUA, his successor; Robert; Richard, father of the 4th and 5th Viscounts.
He was elevated to the peerage, in 1717, as Baron Allen, of Stillorgan, County Dublin, and VISCOUNT ALLEN, County Kildare.
His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son,
JOSHUA, 2nd Viscount (1685-1742), MP for County Kildare, 1709-26, who espoused, in 1707, Margaret, daughter of Samuel du Pass, of Epsom, Surrey, and had issue,
JOHN, his successor; Frances; Elizabeth.
His lordship was succeeded by his son and heir,
JOHN, 3rd Viscount (1713-45), MP for Carysfort, 1733-42.
This nobleman being insulted in the public streets by some disorderly dragoons, in 1742, received a wound in the hand, which occasioned a fever and caused his death soon afterwards.
As he died unmarried, his sisters became his heirs, and the title devolved upon his first cousin (refer to the children of the Hon Richard Allen, youngest son of the 1st Viscount),
JOHN, 4th Viscount, MP for County Wicklow, 1742-5, at whose decease unmarried, in 1753, the honours passed to his next brother,
JOSHUA, 5th Viscount (1728-1816), MP for Eye, 1762-70, who married, in 1781, Frances, daughter of Gaynor Barry, and had issue,
JOSHUA WILLIAM, his successor; Letitia Dorothea; Frances Elizabeth.
His lordship was succeeded by his son and heir,
JOSHUA WILLIAM, 6th Viscount (c1782-1845), a military officer, who served under the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular Wars.
His lordship died unmarried, when the title expired.
STILLORGAN HOUSE, Stillorgan, County Dublin, was begun in 1695 by John Allen MP, afterwards 1st Viscount Allen.
It comprised a two-storey, seven-bay centre block, and single storey, seven-bay wings.
The house had dormered attics and high-pitched roofs.
The centre block had lofty, slender chimneys, two at each end.
The demesne had formal gardens, an obelisk, and a grotto by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce.
The mansion was demolished in 1860 and only the grotto and obelisk remain.
Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Military Road, Dublin 8.
Since the 2025 Revenue Section 482 list has not yet been published, today’s entry is about the Royal Hospital Kilmainham: not a Historic House, but of relevance since designed by several important architects: William Robinson, Thomas Burgh and Francis Johnson.
The most decorative rooms have been closed to the public for years for renovation, but I am writing now as I had an opportunity to enter the magnificently baroque chapel in order to see a film. Excuse the poor quality of my photographs in the chapel – I didn’t want to disturb the other film viewers.
“Since 2018, The North Range has been closed due to remedial works and essential upgrades, including fire safety improvements, mechanical and electrical system replacements, and the meticulous restoration of the Baroque Chapel ceiling, historic timber panelling, and stained glass. This extensive project, operated by the Office of Public Works (OPW), was completed in July 2024, and it was announced the reopening after 6.5 years. We are more than proud to share the news that we are preparing to host events in The North Range.“
Aww, events? But what about access to the wonderful dining room with its portraits? We shall have to see if it is open…
“Kilmainham” is named after St. Maighneann who established a church and monastery in the area around AD 606. In 1174 the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic order that focussed on aiding the sick and the poor, founded a Priory in Kilmainham, with the aid of Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, better known as Strongbow. The Priory was destroyed in 1530s with the dissolution of the monasteries by King Henry VIII.
With this history, it seemed appropriate to locate the Royal Hospital here when Arthur Forbes, later Earl of Granard, proposed the idea of building an institution to accommodate veteran soldiers, similar to Les Invalides in Paris. The building was founded by King Charles II in 1679 to accommodate 300 soldiers and construction was overseen by the King’s representative in Ireland, known as the viceroy or Lord Lieutenant, James Butler 1st Duke of Ormond. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1661-1669 then again 1677-1684.
Over the next 247 years, thousands of army pensioners lived out their final days within its walls.
The information board from the Royal Hospital tells us that it was hoped that care for injured and elderly soldiers would promote recruitment. After the Civil War between Cromwellian Parliamentarians and Royalists, Charles II was naturally concerned to have a strong military force.
The building was designed by the Chief Engineer and Surveyor General for Fortifications, Buildings, Works, Mines and Plantations for Ireland, William Robinson (1645-1712).
The information board tells us: “Born in England, Robinson went on to hold a great number of public positions. When he resigned as Surveyor General in 1700 due to ill health, he was knighted and given the position of Deputy Receiver-General at the Privy Council of Ireland. However, he was implicated in a financial scandal and following a period of imprisonment at Dublin Castle, he fled to England. He died in 1712 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.”
He must have been forgiven if buried in the Abbey! The notice board also tells us that he personally acquired the portion of the original site near Islandbridge, and built himself a house with a view of the Royal Hospital, but it no longer stands.
Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.
The next Surveyor General, Thomas Burgh (1670-1730), added more to the building. In 1704 he added the tower and steeple over the north range, and designed the infirmary.
In the fourth wing, not generally open to the public, is the splendid Robinson’s Chapel with a baroque plaster ceiling, carved oak and beautiful stained glass window, and the Geat Hall. You can see an online tour at https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=ce2pG4J1huc&mls=1
The chapel is dedicated to the memory of King Charles I and its ceiling is beautifully Baroque, a profusion of cherubs’ heads, geometrical shapes, borders, garlands and flowers. Amazingly, the ceiling is a papier-maché replica of the original. The original was too heavy, and the replica was installed in 1901. The artist of the original is unknown. The room is panelled in Baltic pine with ornate oak carving and Corinthian pilasters.
The oak carving of the altar is by Huguenot refugee from Paris, James Tabary. The carvings above the south, east and west Hospital entrances, which are made of wood but painted to look like stone, may also be by Tabary.
The stained glass in the Chapel’s large east window mostly dates to the 19th century, although some of it is said to come from the medieval Priory of St. John the Hospitaller.
In 1849 young Queen Victoria visited the hospital and bestowed a gift of stained glass which shows the coats of arms of the various Masters of the Hospital, which was made c. 1852 in London by Irish artist Michael O’Connor.
The Great Hall contains portraits that have hung here since 1713, and splendidly carved trophies over the doors remind me of those at Beaulieu in County Louth. The portaits include Queen Anne, Queen Mary, William III, Narcissus Marsh, Charles II, James 1st Duke of Ormond and the Richard Butler Earl of Arran and Earl of Ossory (sons of the Duke of Ormond), amongst others. A library which belonged to the original hospital is also cared by the OPW. The northern wing also contains the Master’s Lodgings, made for the Master of the Royal Hospital.
Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.The Great Hall, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, photograph taken 1987, from Dublin City Library and Archives. [see 2]Royal Hospital Kilmainham dining hall by Robert French, Lawrence Photographic Collection NLI, flickr constant commons.Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.Richard Butler (1639-1686) 1st Earl of Arran, son of the Duke of Ormonde, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 15th October 2023.Thomas Butler (1634-1680) 6th Earl of Ossory, studio of Sir Peter Lely, circa 1678, courtesy of National Portrait Gallery NPG 371. Second son of the Duke and Duchess of Ormond and father of 2nd Duke of Ormonde.
In 1805, Francis Johnston carried out restoration work, and in the 1820s remodelled the Master’s Quarters in the northwest corner. He also designed the Adjutant General’s office and the Richmond Tower which stands at the west entrance to the hospital grounds.
The garden, known as the Master’s Garden, has been restored to its formal glory under the suprvision of architect Elizabeth Morgan. In 1693 Chambré Brabazon 5th Earl of Meath was Master of the Hospital and a Minute of the Royal Hospital Committee notes that he was asked to prepare an account for an estimate of works necessary to put some order on the garden. The work was not carried out at the time.
The Garden house is included in a painting by Joseph Tudor in 1750. It was probably designed as a small dining pavilion or banqueting house, with a high coved ceiling on the first floor, and it is attributed to Edward Lovett Pearce circa 1734.
The house was extended in the late 19th century into ahouse for the head gardener.
Lismore, County Cavan, entrance front c. 1880. Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988, Constable and Company Ltd, London
p. 186. “(Nesbitt, sub Burrowes/LGI1912; Burrowes;IFR; Lucas-Clements/IFR) A house of probably ca. 1730 and very likely by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. The main block was of two storeys over a high basement, with a pediment breakfront centre and a widely spaced Venetian window in both storeys. There were two bays either side of the centre. Overlapping “tower” wings of one storey over basement and one bay. Detached two storey six bay office wings, joined to house by screen walls. These wings have gable-ends with curvilinear gables facing the sides of the house; the outermost bay of each, in the front elevation is also gabled; the gables here are probably originally curvilinear also, though they are now straight. Round headed windows in lower storey and basement of house and in lower storey of office wings.The house had a solid roof parapet with urns and oculi in the upper storey of the office wings. Originally the seat of the Nesbitts, passed to the Burrowes through the marriage of Mary Nesbitt [Mary Anne, born 1826, daughter of John Nesbitt and Elizabeth Tatam] to James Burrowes [1820-1860, of Stradone House, County Cavan] in 1854; Lismore passed to the Lucas-Clements family through the marriage of Miss Rosamund Burrowes to the late Major Shuckburgh Lucas-Clements in 1922.
“Having stood empty for many years, the house fell into ruin and was demolished ca 1952, with the exception of the “tower” wings. The office wings are now used as farm buildings, and the family now live in the former agent’s house, an early house with a Victorian wing and other additions.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 39. A house dating from c. 1730 and attributed to Edward Lovett Pearce. This house was very much in the style of Sir John Vanburgh, his cousin. the house became a ruin in this century and the central block except for one tower was demolished c. 1952. The flanking pavillions still remain.“
Of the original Lismore House, attributed to Edward Lovett Pearce (1699-1733), only the two wings and tower survive. The house was restored by Richard and Sonya Beer. [1]
It was probably built for Thomas Nesbitt, (c1672-1750), of Grangemore, County Westmeath, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1720, MP for Cavan Borough, 1715-50 [2].
Photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.The Inventory tells us it is: “Symmetrical pair of detached six-bay two-storey flanking wings to former Lismore House, built c.1730, having advanced outermost end bays to each block, single-bay two-stage flanking tower formerly attached to south corner of house having single-bay extension to north…Rubble stone walls having red brick quoins, eaves course, and string course. Red brick surrounds to oculi at first floor over round-headed ground-floor windows and central segmental-headed door.“Photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage: “Blind lunette and oculus to gables facing former house.”Photograph from National Inventory of Architectural Heritage: “Tower having mansard slate roof, rubble stone walls with cut-stone platbands, cut-stone surrounds to window openings, round-headed openings with raised keystone and impost blocks to former ground floor, and segmental-headed openings to former basement level.”
Ancestry: See Cosby Nesbitt (1718-1786) and descendants.
Lismore Lodge is a very attractive early c1800 period house and gate lodge. The main house with six bays and two storey extends to 9,680 sq ft and is bound by a large stone wall. The property is believed to be a Stewarts house which was once part of The Lismore estate.
THE NESBITTS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY CAVAN, WITH 9,735 ACRES
ANDREW NESBITT, of Brenter (presumed to be son of Thomas Nesbitt, of Newbottle, and grandson of George Nesbitt, who died in 1590), assignee from the Earl of Annandale, of the estates of Brenter and Malmusock, County Donegal, was father of
ANDREW NESBITT, who served in the army of CHARLES I in Ireland; whose eldest son,
THOMAS NESBITT (c1672-1750), of Grangemore, County Westmeath, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1720, MP for Cavan Borough, 1715-50, married twice, and was father of
COSBY NESBITT (1718-91), of Lismore, MP for Cavan Borough, 1750-68, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1764, who succeeded to the Cavan estates on the death of his father.
His eldest son,
COLONEL THOMAS NESBITT (c1744-1820), of Lismore, MP for Cavan Borough, 1768-1800, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1769, married and was father of
COSBY NESBITT JP DL, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1798, Major, Cavan Militia, whose second son,
ALEXANDER NESBITT DL (1817-86), of Lismore House, County Cavan, and Old Lands, Sussex, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1862, died without issue and was succeeded by his sister,
MARY ANNE BURROWES, who espoused, in 1854, James Edward Burrowes, and had issue, an only child,
THOMAS COSBY BURROWES JP DL (1856-1925), of Lismore, County Cavan, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1888, married, in 1885, Anna Frances Maxwell, sister of 10th Baron Farnham, and had issue,
Eleanor Mary (1886-1962); Rosamund Charlotte, b 1891.
Rosamund Charlotte Cosby Burrowes, of Lismore, married, in 1922, Major Shuckburgh Upton Lucas-Clements in 1922, and had issue,
Elizabeth Anne, b 1922; Thomas, b 1925; John, b 1930; Robert Henry, b 1930.
LISMORE HOUSE, near Crossdoney, County Cavan, was built ca 1730.
The main block was of two storeys over a high basement, with a pediment breakfront centre and a widely spaced Venetian window in both storeys.
There were two bays either side of the centre, overlapping tower wings of one storey each.
The house had a solid roof parapet with urns and oculi in the upper storey of the office wings.
Lismore passed to the Lucas-Clements family through the marriage of Miss R Burrowes to Major Shuckburgh Lucas-Clements in 1922.
Having stood empty for many years, the house fell into ruin and was demolished ca 1952, with the exception of a tower wing.
The estate is three miles from the Farnham estate and hotel.
The office wings were used as farm buildings and appear to have been converted to modern living accomodation.
You know the expression, ’All to one side like Crossdoney’? Well the reason that the modest little village is all to one side is largely due to a house built it in the late 1700s by the Nesbitt family. An old stone wall, the like of which the landed gentry would erect to keep poachers and commoners at bay hides the enormous Georgian home from motorists stopped at the village’s T-junction, deciding whether to head for Ballinagh or Killeshandra. From the 1980s that stone grey edifice hid the true extent to which the proud old home had fallen into dereliction. Likewise, for the last four years it has also hidden its incredible revival under the ownership of Richard and Sonya Beer since 2014. The transformation over the last four years is worthy of TV shows Grand Designs or The Great House Revival. It’s stunning.
Over the course of two years they had viewed maybe 30 to 40 different houses around Ireland. They had even searched abroad. “We had notions at one stage of maybe moving to France, we actually went and had a look at a few places, but we decided very quickly it wasn’t for us – you have three kids living in Dublin, what’s the point of moving to France?” A professional photographer for auctioneering agents, Richard happened upon Lismore Lodge on the way to a job in Killeshandra, back in 2013. He stopped outside the wall to take a swift peek, and as there was no ’for sale’ sign, he didn’t pay it much heed. The listed building had fallen into ruin since Dr Hannah – a surgeon in the hospital – had lived in it in the 1980s. Two owners, but no homemakers had followed. “We had been looking for two years probably for ’a project’ – I mean a project that needed maybe a couple of bathrooms and a new kitchen or something,” recalls Richard with a laugh. With that first glance he decided the derelict property was “too far gone”. It was only when he saw the property online and he and his wife Sonya travelled up from their County Clare home to see it first-hand that Richard realised he’d been here before. This time he was smitten. “I had a vision of what it would look like when it was done – and that was always the goal,” says Richard. “But you didn’t share it,” quips Sonya, who has clearly invested just as much of herself in the project. Did it not seem like it would be just too much work? “Well it was too much, but the thing that sold it to us was the site, and the mature trees and all. You couldn’t buy anything like this in Germany.” It’s understandable that Sonya was dubious considering the state the property was in. They got an architect to give it a once over from a structural point of view, but having photographed homes all his working life, and with two renovation jobs under his belt with their Victorian period home in Dublin and cottage in County Clare, Richard was determined to proceed. The Beers eventually bought the house for €140,000, which sounds like a steel for the stately property it is now – it seems foolhardy when you consider the state of the property back when the sale went through in late summer 2014. At least it came with 14 acres. To finance the purchase and renovation works they sold up their Dublin property, but sadly at the bottom of the market. “We got a fraction of what we thought we’d get,” laments Richard. Lying derelict for 30 years or more, scavengers had taken what they could – copper cylinder from upstairs, lead from windows. One of the fireplaces was found amongst overgrown grass having been dumped in the garden. “There wasn’t one sheet of glass left in the whole house. And what happened was the rain was coming in [through leaks/holes in the roof] and it had nowhere to evaporate because all the windows and doors were sealed, so it was like an incubator for wet rot, dry rot, fungus and whatever you want.” Did you not think Lismore was too far gone? “The walls were two foot thick and were straight, so I mean a two foot wall is not going to go anywhere,” said Richard. “Well we thought that,” offers Sonya, as we peer into a room which is now beautiful and airy with a view of the garden’s mature trees and the village beyond. They had intended inserting a steel support in an upstairs bedroom wall which had a major crack running across it. However it collapsed as a builder tested the reliability of a supporting beam, with 50-60 tonnes of stone coming crashing down. Photos of the scene are truly eye-popping. “That wall could easily have killed somebody,” he accurately recalls.
Nuclear explosion
Separately a relatively modern brick chimney breast in the same room later collapsed and smashed through a section of a newly refurbished floor downstairs. “It was like a nuclear explosion when that thing came down,” remarked Richard. They swiftly realised that the work couldn’t be done within budget by a contractor. “The place was atrocious,” summarises Richard. It got worse. “You could squeeze the water out of some of them with your bare hands,” he says of the timber supporting the roof,” says Richard. He adds: “The roof was still on it when we got here and then about two weeks after we arrived there was an unmerciful bang at one stage.” They discovered the roof in the downstairs dining room. They had hoped they could salvage more of the roof, but they finally retained approximately 15%. Original floors of only two rooms upstairs remain. Lismore Lodge was literally caving in around them. “We couldn’t go into the building upstairs for the first nine months or something like that – there was a carpet upstairs and that was holding everything up basically,” he says with a laugh, that suggests he’s only slightly exaggerating. “It was just ridiculous, and all the plaster was off the walls.” Such perilous support structures where common place: a central heating pipe alone was holding up a collapsed support beam for the floor above the kitchen. “Until you clear everything, you don’t know what’s underneath,” adds Sonya. In the ’Morning Room’, the plaster was still up on the walls, it still had fantastic cornice going around. We came in one day and the whole thing had slid down onto the floor – in one piece!” It quickly emerged that they would be unable to afford a contractor to carry out all of the necessary works within their budget, which they prefer to keep to themselves. Richard took on the role of project leader and employed what tradesmen their endless to-do list demanded first. The couple eagerly took a hands-on role in the work they could manage themselves. While the crash undermined the value they got for their previous home, it helped in that under-employed builders were available. “I wouldn’t want to start it now because you could be waiting months for some people – we were lucky with the plumber, the electrician – the fella who did the roof – they were all really good, and they didn’t mind that I mucked in as well,” says Richard. Whilst he who modestly thinks of himself as “an amateur”, he came up with the solution to supporting upstairs floors when you already have standing walls. They cemented in re-bars where the old joists were, and welded angle iron on top of that to provide a ledge and laid the new floor on the ledge rather than trying to bore huge holes into stone walls. “They were all very doubtful about that, but touch wood, that all worked out really well, because the floors are absolutely level upstairs. “It’s the only thing that’s straight,” add Sonya.
Challenge
Life on a building site was especially difficult in the first winter. “It was a bit of a challenge,” says Sonya, who admits to having been “fed up” at times. “The first nine months we were living in a caravan. It was very cold that winter.” They were constantly removing plaster, which is a particularly messy job, and could only wash up in a basin. “We used to drive to Dublin to one of our kids and have a shower in their house,” recalls Richard. They first concentrated on renovating a secondary home on the property, a little ‘Peacock House’, so called because Dr Hannah kept the flamboyant birds there. That gave them a “very cosy” base from which to attack the main home. Eventually the rebuild started to come together. “About a year ago, once we were fairly sure that we would be able to finish the house and not fall flat on our faces, we started to call the whole enterprise the Lazarus Project – back from the dead,” quips Richard. Walking around the Lismore on one of the most glorious days of the year confirms that all the Beers’ efforts in resuscitating this great house were rewarded. Entering each of the nine bedrooms, you have expect to hear the crescendo of the big reveal music you hear on TV renovation shows. The dining room, where they celebrated their first Christmas dinner having moved in last December, is truly amazing. The rustic kitchen is the Celt’s favourite. Stoves and ovens of varying sizes dominates an entire red brick wall of the kitchen. The internal walls of no less than seven flue had all collapsed, and had to be rebuilt by craftsmen. Richard shows the Celt a beehive bread oven behind an industrial metal door, before his excitement overtakes him as he brings us to the other end of the kitchen. “There’s a three quarter inch steel plate there so you can actually cook on that if you want to,” he enthuses. “Not that we’re going to,” adds Sonya. As the couple have blown their savings on restoring the home, some of the rooms are sparsely decorated, so there’s not quite the opulence you might expect of rooms of such proportions. They are no less stylish for their modesty of furnishings. Richard estimates that they are 97% finished the restoration, with painting and priming certain areas, and carrying out work in the woodland gardens, amongst the few jobs on the dwindling to-do list. Asked if he has any advice for someone thinking of taking on a renovation project, without hesitation, Richard replies: “Do it – its definitely worthwhile. If you can see – that you can come out the other end without either killing yourself or financially destroying yourself altogether, then I would certainly say do it because you get great satisfaction when you see it finished.”
Bellamont Forest, Cootehill, Co Cavan – maybe gardens open
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988, Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 37. “(Coote, Bellamont, E/DEP; O’Gowan/IFR) One of the most perfect examples in the British Isles of a Palladian villa; built ca 1730 for Thomas Coote, Lord Justice of the King’s Bench in Ireland, to the design of his nephew, Sir Edward Lovett Pearce; inspired in particular by Palladio’s Rotunda at Vincenze and his Villa Pisani at Montagnana. Of red brick, with ashlar facings; two storeys over a rusticated basement, with a mezzanine fitted in at the sides. The upper storey treated as an attic, above the cornice. Five bay front with pedimented Doric portico; side elevations with central Venetian windows, the centre light of each being blind; one of them having entablatures and recessed columns, the other more simply treated. The hall has a high coved ceiling with a modillion cornice and a moulding in the keyhole pattern; the walls are decorated with rondels containing busts, some of which are said to represent members of the Coote family. The saloon has a richly ornamented coffered ceiling and a pedimented doorcase. The dining room has a deeply coved coffered ceiling (described by Dr. Craig as ‘eminently characteristic of Pearce’); and a screen of engaged fluted Ionic columns at one end. The bedrooms are arranged around a central upper hall, lit by an oval lantern enriched by plasterwork. The coved and coffered ceiling of the library dates from 1775, and was put in by Thomas Coote’s grandson, Charles, who succeeded his cousin as 5th Lord Colooney 1766 and was made Earl of Bellamont of 2nd creation 1767. In honour of this, he changed the name of the house, which had formerly been Coote Hill, to Bellamont Forest. Lord Bellamont was a somewhat absurd figure, ultra-sophisticated and ardently Francophile – he insisted on making his maiden speech in the Irish House of Lords in French – pompous and an inveterate womaniser. He left several illegitimate sons, to one of whom he bequested Bellamont, his only legitimate son having predeceased him. In 1874, Bellamont was sold to the Dorman-Smith (now O’Gowan) family, of which the politician Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, Governor of Burma at the time of the Japanese invasion, was a younger son. Bought recently by Mr. John Coote.”
Built between 1725 and 1730 for Thomas Coote, once Lord Justice of Ireland, and designed by Coote’s gifted nephew, architect Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. Bellamont Forest is one of Ireland’s finest 18th-century palladian villas. The house is four bays square, built over two storeys, with a basement. The house is built of red brick with ashlar facings, and has a Doric limestone portico, with pediments over the windows.
Detached Palladian-style square-plan four-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c.1730, with central Doric entrance portico raised above flight of steps, three-storey over basement side elevations, three recessed central bays to rear elevation. Hipped slate roof behind parapet wall with central valley, and cast-iron rainwater goods, some with decorative detailing. Two pairs of symmetrically arranged red brick chimneystacks with connecting arches. Profiled carved stone cornice to parapet coping. Red brick Flemish bond walls with moulded limestone stringcourse below upper floor continuing around sides of the building treating upper level as attic storey, stone quoins to ground floor only. Carved limestone plinth with torus moulding above finely-cut V-jointed rustication to top half of basement having random coursed stone finish below ground level. Prostylar tetrasytle pedimented Roman Doric portico to centre entrance level with enriched entablature having metopes with musical instruments, standing on ashlar stone plinth approached by steps with ashlar side walls having cornice and plinth. Door opening within portico in carved sandstone lugged architrave surround with carved swag to door head, projecting cornice, and carved stone round-headed arched detail above. Panelled timber double-leaf door with fixed overpanel. Three-over-three timber sash windows in architrave surrounds to first floor. Six-over-six sash windows to ground floor having pedimented surrounds in outer bays with carved stone architrave surrounds and decorative floral motifs to upper angles, ashlar stone apron and carved brackets supporting moulded sills. Windows to inner bays within portico having lugged architraves and moulded sills on carved brackets without pediment or apron. Segmental-headed windows to basement level having two-over-two timber sash windows. Windows having stone cills without architraves to upper floor, side elevations. Three-over-three mezzanine windows to side elevations, to north side all as functioning openings, to south only west bays functional. Central windows at ground floor to south side paired as Venetian window with central blind arch having entablature and central arch on Doric columns, simpler version to north side with plain stone surrounds. Central ground floor window to rear elevation having lugged and kneed architrave with hood on scrolled console brackets and ashlar apron, advanced outer bays having ground floor Venetian windows with blind side lights and ashlar entablature and archivolt . Small side lights to corresponding basement windows below. Tunnel connecting to outbuildings to north-east.
Bellamont House is an iconic building of national importance set in a dramatic demesne landscape. It is considered the best and earliest example of a Palladian villa in Ireland. The house was designed the Coote family by their cousin, Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (d.1733), who was the leading exponent of Palladian architecture in Ireland. Having trained under the English Baroque architect Sir John Vanburgh (1664-1726) Pearce’s short but successful career included the former Parliament House on College Green, Dublin and many town and country houses including Summerhill House in Co. Meath and two houses on Henrietta Street in Dublin. Bellamont Forest is his most important house design to have been built and the association with this very important architect makes it one of the most significant country houses in this country. Pearce used architectural motifs derived from Palladio’s Italian villa designs, including the Venetian window arrangements with continuous sills, pedimented window surrounds, and Doric portico. The portico had originally been proposed in antis as an open loggia within the plan at the expense of the entrance hall. Instead, placed prostyle it aims to affirms a kind of moral dignity about the architecture and its patron. More prosaically, additional space was gained for the entrance hall, and the external portico was better suited to the Irish climate than an open loggia. The plan has all the compactness of a Palladian villa. The simple treatment of the main stairs may seem surprising, tightly compressed as it is in a narrow space off the hall with none of the gravitas of theatre that has come to be associated with the country house staircase. However the modesty of the main stair does not anticipate the impressive columnar bedroom lobby, the encircling effect of its Tuscan order and oval lantern, an oblique reference perhaps to the centralised plan of Palladio’s Villa Rotonda. It was a theme to be revived later at Russborough and Bellinter by Richard Castle. Bellamont is one of the few houses in Ireland with a mezzanine storey as expressed in the north and south elevations. The interior displays elements of artistic importance, in particular the finely tooled decorative plasterwork, but also in the carvings of the marble and stone fireplaces in the principal rooms and marble busts of the Coote family. Though a modestly sized country house, Bellamont uses symmetrical design and use of red brick to promote a sense of solidity for a house perched on an exposed elevated site enjoying spectacular views of the surrounding lakes and Dromore River. The farm and stable yards located to the north-west of the main house would once have been necessary to support the running of a large country house and together with the entrance gates and gate lodges form an important group of demesne related structures.
Archaeological research would appear to indicate that Richard Coote had a fortified house at Collooney sometimes referred to as Bellamont House or Collooney Castle. A later structure in the town, also known as Bellamont House, is not associated with the Coote family. A possible site for Collooney Castle has been identified by Timoney drawing on earlier sources such as Terence O’Rorke
featured in Great Irish Houses. Forewards by Desmond FitgGerald, Desmond Guinness. IMAGE Publications, 2008.
p. 94. “ The owner, John Coote, bought Bellamont in 1987, thus restoring the estate to the Coote family after it had been gambled away by an ancestor, Captain Richard Coote, and sold to the Smith family in the 19th century. John Coote grew up in Australia, after the Coote family emigrated in 1906, and became involved in sheep farming. The first he knew of Bellamont Forest was from an article in Country Life in 1962. Later, he learned more from his aunt and uncle, Muriel and John Coote, who had visited Bellamont’s then owner, Eric Dorman-Smith, a general in the British army. Four generations of Smiths had lived at Bellamont when Coote, an interior designer, paid a visit and found the property was for sale. He could not resist and bought the house and estate.
“The estate was very run down at the time,” Coote recalls. “The house was structurally sound, but it was in a sorry state. For the last two decades I have restored the house and parklands. The drive has been re-routed so that when you arrive – and this is the beauty of Pearce – the house doesn’t look like a huge villa. When you view it from the back, however, it’s a totally different house and it looks quite large indeed.”
The approach has been to return the estate, where possible, to its 1729 appearance. A painting currently hanging at Leixlip Castle shows the estate as it was at the this time, and Coote has used it as his guide. The façade of the house has been left largely untouched, with the main work done to the windows, some of which have been repaired and glass paneling restored.
Entering the house through the portico, you notice musical instruments are a feature of the exterior engravings. Inside the entrance hall scrapes have been taken and the original colouring has been returned with the assistance of Dr Ian Bristow, a UK painting expert. A very fine Irish table, a copy from a drawing by Pearce, is a hugely impressive feature of this room. The busts have always been present and were bought most likely on the Grand Tour. The flooring is Portland stone and layers of floor polish have been removed to return it to its natural state. Peat buckets and lanterns are all from Coote and Co [p. 97] while the Earl of Bellamont may have introduced the fireplace.
The saloon has a fine example of an early baroque ceiling and a new chandelier has been installed based on the Pearce chandelier in the House of Lords. Portraits of the Earl of Bellamont and the Countess of Bellamont by Reynolds have been copied and hung on the wall. The original of the Earl of Bellamont is hanging in the National Gallery in Dublin, while the portrait of the Countess of Bellamont is owned by the Duchess of Abercorn’s family.
Double doors lead into the dining room with its wall colouring taken from the colouring of the frieze in the fireplace. Gib and dummy doors maintain Pearce’s symmetry while contemporary artworks hang on the walls….
The family sitting room contains a fireplace with shield motif and acanthus leaf. The chair linen was woven according to an 18th century sample found on the estate. Originally, this room was a series of rooms, but after a fire in the 1760s the Earl of Bellamont had a new ceiling installed and made this a companion room to the dining room. At some point, the dining room would probably have served as the state bedroom.
Like all Palladian houses, the staircase at Bellamont is to the side. The small library, which is first left off the entrance hall, is used a great deal as it attracts winter sunshine. As with many of the smaller rooms, the original Pearce fireplace remains. The fringes for the curtains were handmade in London using 18th century looms, while the bookcases were made in Australia.
Upstairs, on the first floor landing, a new floor made of 150 year old Baltic pine salvaged from a nearby bridge has been laid. In addition to the dummy doors, all the bedrooms lead from the hall. The tables are copies of some fine examples at Powerscourt and family portraits adorn the walls.
John Coote’s latest phase of work at Bellamont is to renovate the outbuildings and to create additional bedroom suites, the headquarters of his successful furniture design company, Coote and Co, and a new concert hall. “These estates need to work,” he says.
John Coote has restored Bellamont Forest and ensured it has risen from the landscape of Cootehill to retake its place at the forefront of Palladian design.”
Irish Castles and Historic Houses. ed. by Brendan O’Neill, intro. by James Stevens Curl. Caxton Editions, London. 2002:
Bellamont Forest was designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce for the Cootes, Earls of Bellamont, around 1730. The family were descended from a brilliant soldier, Sir Thomas Coote, who was killed in 1642 ‘in a skirmish with the Irish.’ His four sons were given land in different parts of Ireland – Sligo, Laois, Monaghan and Cavan – giving rise to the legend that. you could walk across the country from one coast to the other without leaving Coote land.
Designed around 1730 by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, the house is one of the finest examples of Palladian architecture in Ireland. Loosely based on Palladio’s Villa Pisani, the house stands four-square on rising ground. It is constructed in red brick with a Doric limestone portico and pediments over the windows to either side. The entrance hall is particularly striking, with the simplicity of its black and white paved floor and marble busts of Roman emperors.
The house is private, but the grounds are accessible from the town and offer some pleasant walks. The town gets its name from the marriage of Thomas Coote, a colonel in the Crown forces, to Frances Hill of Hillsborough.
Bellamont House completed in 1730 by Judge Thomas Coote and designed by the architect Edward Lovett Pearce. In 1800 it passed to an illegitimate son of Earl Charles Coote, who is reported to have fathered up to 18 children by five women. Charles, variously described as a tyrant, a madman, and a person of “disgusting pomposity”, was tried in 1764 for murdering a man during the ‘Oakboy’ rebellion which he helped to repress brutally. He got off and is immortalised in a camp portrait by Joshua Reynolds in the National Gallery. The estate was gambled away by descendant John Coote in 1874 and bought by the Dorman-Smiths, whose most famous member, Eric ‘Chink’ Dorman-Smith, served in the British army in both world wars before being sacked in 1942. He was a good friend of Ernest Hemingway, went home to Bellamont, changed his name to O’Gowan and turned republican, allowing the IRA to use the estate as a training ground, and advised its executive during the Border Campaign. He died in 1969. The most recent owner, John Coote was brought up on a sheep station in the Australian outback, his family having emigrated in the early 1900s. Coote died suddenly in 2012, and the house is now for sale (March 2015).
Here is Bellamont Forest, County Cavan which can lay claim to being the most beautiful house in Ireland. Certainly its situation is unparalleled, since the building sits on a rise at the end of a mile-long drive, the ground to either side dropping to lakes, the world beyond screened by dense woodland. Bellamont is an unexpected delight, hidden from view until one rounds the last turn of the drive and sees the house ahead. In purest Palladian style and looking like a villa in the Veneto, Bellamont is believed to have been designed c.1725-30 by the pre-eminent architect then working in Ireland, Sir Edward Lovett Pearce who was also responsible for the Houses of Parliament in Dublin (now the Bank of Ireland), and a number of since-lost country houses such as Desart Court, County Kilkenny and Summerhill, County Meath. Pearce was a cousin of Bellamont’s builder Thomas Coote, a Lord Justice of the King’s Bench. The Cootes had come to Ireland at the start of the 17th century and prospered so well that within 100 years their various descendants owned estates throughout the country. Ballyfin, County Laois which has recently undergone a superlative restoration was another Coote property.
The appeal of Bellamont lies in its exquisite simplicity, beginning with an exterior which is of mellow red brick with stone window dressings. Of two storeys over a raised rusticated basement, the front is dominated by a full-height limestone portico reached by a broad flight of steps. The imposing effect is achieved by the most effortless means and using the plainest materials, but there can be no doubt that Bellamont was always intended to impress. The Portland stone-flagged entrance hall, with its coved ceiling and pairs of flanking doors, sets the tone for what is follow. While there are small rooms immediately to right and left, the latter traditionally used as a cosy winter library, the main reception areas lie to the rear of the building, a sequence of drawing room, saloon and dining room which retain their 18th century decoration including the chimneypieces. The first of these is believed to have once been a series of rooms, but following a fire in 1760 acquired its present form including the elaborate recessed ceiling which was probably intended to complement that in the dining room on the other side of the saloon. The walls of this central room contain contain stucco panels once filled with family portraits, the best-known of which – painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds in 1773 and showing the Charles Coote, Earl of Bellamont resplendent in his robes as a Knight of Bath – now hangs in the National Gallery of Ireland.
The aforementioned Earldom of Bellamont was a second creation of the title for a member of the family. Evidently an ostentatious and pompous man – seemingly he insisted on making his maiden speech in the House of Lords in French, to the bemusement of his fellow peers – Lord Bellamont can at least be credited with having the good taste to enhance the house built by his grandfather. He married a daughter of the first Duke of Leinster and by her had four daughters and just one son who died in Toulouse at the age of 12, his body being brought back to Bellamont to lie for three days on the upper landing before burial in the family vault. As a result of there being no legitimate heir, the earldom again lapsed on Lord Bellamont’s death in 1800. However, despite being seriously wounded in the groin during a duel with Lord Townshend, he managed to have at least 16 offsring out of wedlock by four different women, and one of these sons, also called Charles Coote, inherited Bellamont Forest. Ultimately it was sold out of the family in the middle of the 19th century and bought by the Smiths (later Dorman-Smiths), one of whom Major-General Eric Dorman-Smith served in the British army during both the First and Second World Wars after which, having changed his surname to O’Gowan, he became involved with the IRA.
In 1987 Bellamont Forest was bought by John Coote, an Australian interior designer whose family had emigrated from Ireland at the start of the last century. John dearly loved the house and undertook to restore it to a pristine condition, keeping the decoration spare so that the beauty of the rooms’ architecture would be more apparent. There was never a great deal of furniture, just a few large pieces he had specifically made and which were inspired by Georgian workmanship. In revealing the building’s purity he not only demonstrated the splendid taste of Pearce but his own also, since it would have been tempting to intervene in the interiors. Those interiors served wonderfully for entertaining, which John did frequently. I have been to a great many terrific parties at Bellamont, and even hosted a few there, one of which – a birthday dinner for 30 – is thankfully uncommemorated by any photographs. But there are ample souvenirs and joyous memories of John’s own sundry social gatherings, such as the thé dansants he loved to throw, when a 16-piece orchestra would play in the saloon and Jack Leslie would demonstrate how to dance the Black Bottom. The last great party at Bellamont took place during the summer of 2009 to mark John’s 60th birthday and was spectacular even by his standards, with drinks in the lower gardens followed by dinner and dancing outdoors in the balmy air. The following year John was obliged to put Bellamont Forest up for sale, and thereafter he rarely visited the place. Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of his death, which happened unexpectedly while he was working in Indonesia. He is still sorely mourned by all of us who knew him in Ireland. Meanwhile Bellamont slumbers, awaiting a new owner who will kiss the place back to life; there is talk now of an auction in March. One prays that whoever next assumes responsibility for Bellamont will bring to the house the same flair and fun as did John Coote for so many years.
Since first writing of Bellamont Forest (La Belle au Bois Dormant, January 21st), I have heard from a number of readers concerned about a set of 18th century marble busts formerly in the house. Although none can be verified with absolute certainty, various tales exist concerning the origin of these busts. It is said, for example, that they represent different members of the Coote family responsible for building Bellamont. It has also been proposed that they were brought back from mainland Europe after a Grand Tour and installed in niches in the entrance hall and first-floor landing specifically created to accommodate them. What can be confirmed is that the busts were already in the house more than two centuries ago. Sir Charles Coote, an illegitimate son of the last Earl of Bellamont, produced a Statistical Survey of Cavan in 1802 in which he wrote of the house, ‘The entrance from the portico is a lofty hall, thirty feet by thirty, which is ornamented with statuary in regular niches…’ Likewise in 1835 Lieutenant P. Taylor’s statistical report on the parish of Drumgoon includes a description of Bellamont with the observation, ‘The portico enters into a lofty hall 30 feet square, tastefully ornamented with statuary…’ I am grateful to Kevin Mulligan for bringing these two references to my attention.
The earliest known visual evidence of the busts’ presence in the house comes from a photograph album presented by Richard Coote to his neighbour Lady Dartrey in September 1870. Now in the possession of the National Library of Ireland, it includes a view of the entrance hall (then serving as a billiard room), which with that institution’s permission I reproduce above; one can assume the picture was taken at some date prior to 1870 (and incidentally, how fascinating to see the hall decorated in such high-Victorian style). A photograph in Volume V of the Irish Georgian Society’s Records (see top of this piece) which was published in 1913 and shows the busts in their niches appears to be a section of the earlier picture. Thereafter it would seem the busts remained within the house through changes of ownership – until last year. Following the death of John Coote in January 2012, the busts were removed from Bellamont. After representations from the Irish Georgian Society, in September Cavan County Council issued notice to a number of parties requiring the busts’ return. To date this has not happened. I do not intend to become immersed in legal niceties, not least because the matter could yet go to litigation. On the other hand, the busts’ removal does raise a number of significant questions about what constitutes a permanent fixture within a historic building and what should be deemed a transitory decorative feature. In the case of the busts no violence was done to the house during their removal, for which nothing other than a step ladder was required. In other words, unlike say when a chimneypiece is taken out, the structure suffered no damage. The Government’s 2011 Architectural Heritage Protection Guidelines for Planning Authories proposes: ‘free-standing objects may be regarded as fixtures where they were placed in positions as part of an overall architectural design.’ It also states that ‘Works of art, such as paintings or pieces of sculpture, placed as objects in their own right within a building, are unlikely to be considered as fixtures unless it can be proved that they were placed in particular positions as part of an overall architectural design.’ It is worth noting first that these are only guidelines; the document’s opening page counsels that what follows ‘does not purport to be a legal interpretation of any of the Conventions, Acts, Regulations or procedures mentioned. The aim is to assist planners and others in understanding the guiding principles of conservation and restoration.’ In addition, the advice offered is that works of art can only be deemed fixtures provided there is proof ‘they were placed in particular positions as part of an overall architectural design.’ In the case of the Bellamont busts the lack of such conclusive documentary evidence is an obvious problem for anyone championing their return. We do not know the artist responsible, or the date of their creation. Were they commissioned or bought ‘off the shelf’? Can it be conclusively demonstrated the niches were designed to accommodate them? The next photograph shows the entrance hall in the mid-1980s not long before Bellamont Forest was bought by John Coote; over the intervening century every aspect of the room’s decoration has changed except for the busts.
I am unaware of any similar case to the Bellamont busts in this country at the moment or indeed in the past but it has to be said that recent precedents in Britain are not encouraging. In 1990, for example, Canova’s marble statue of The Three Graces, which had been commissioned by sixth Duke of Bedford in 1814 and installed in a purpose-built temple at Woburn, was removed after it had been judged not to constitute a part or fixture of the building. Only following four years of intense negotiation was the statue jointly bought by the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland. More recently in 2007 Dumfries House and contents were offered for sale by the Marquess of Bute. Those contents included the only fully documented suites of furniture made by Thomas Chippendale. If anything could be deemed a fitting, albeit free-standing, it was surely these Chippendale pieces. Yet they would have been dispersed at auction (for which catalogues were printed by Christie’s) but for the intervention of the Prince of Wales who subsequently helped to establish a charitable trust preserving Dumfries and its furnishings. Alas in Ireland we have no such well-connected champions of the country’s architectural heritage, nor have we shown much concern for preserving the historic contents of our houses. For this reason, the issue of the Bellamont busts is important and could set a precedent. But it is essential that sentiment does not cloud any discussion relating to their removal. Over centuries an inordinate number of works of art have been taken from their original or long-term settings and placed elsewhere, as a visit to any state gallery or museum will demonstrate. To insist that proprietors of historic buildings may not dispose of certain items which have remained in the same location beyond a certain period of time is to trespass dangerously on the rights of private ownership. It could also hinder rather than help the cause of heritage preservation by inspiring antagonism among the very people we are trying to encourage and support. Having seen the busts in place over many years, my ardent wish is that they will be restored to the niches they occupied for so long. But I am also sufficiently aware of the complexities of the case to appreciate this might not happen.
Having been once to Bellamont (see La Belle au Bois Dormant, January 21st), it is impossible not to return. Here is the upper floor of the house’s main cantilevered staircase. The relative want of ornamentation – only plasterwork curlicues embellishing each sprung arch – forms a striking yet sublime contrast to the elaborate workmanship found on the floor below.
THE EARLS OF BELLAMONT OWNED 5,321 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY CAVAN
This is the parent stock whence the noble houses of COOTE, Earls of Mountrath, and COOTE, Lords Castlecoote, both now extinct, emanated.
This noble family derives its origin from
SIR JOHN COOTE, a native of France, who married Isabella, the daughter and heir of the Seigneur Du Bois, of that kingdom, and had issue,
SIR JOHN COOTE, Knight, who coming into England, settled in Devon, and married a daughter of Sir John Fortescue, of that county.
His lineal descendant,
JOHN COOTE, heir to his uncle, 28th Abbot of Bury St Edmund’s, wedded Margaret, daughter of Mr Drury, by whom he had four sons,
Richard; FRANCIS, of whom we treat; Christopher; Nicholas.
Mr Coote’s second son,
FRANCIS COOTE, of Eaton, in Norfolk, served ELIZABETH I; and by Anne, his wife, had issue,
SIR NICHOLAS COOTE, living in 1636, who had two sons,
CHARLES, his heir; William (Very Rev), Dean of Down, 1635.
Sir Nicholas’s elder son,
SIR CHARLES COOTE (1581-1642), Knight, of Castle Cuffe, in the Queen’s County, served in the wars against O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, at the head, as Captain of the 100th Foot Regiment, with which corps he was at the siege of Kinsale, and was appointed, by JAMES I (in consequence of the good and faithful services he had rendered to ELIZABETH I), provost-marshal of the province of Connaught for life.
In 1620, he was constituted vice-president of the same province; and created, in 1621, a baronet, denominated of Castle Cuffe, Queen’s County.
Sir Charles distinguished himself, subsequently, by many gallant exploits; but the most celebrated was the relief of Birr, in 1642.
Being dispatched, with Sir Thomas Lucas and six troops of horse, to relieve that garrison, and some other fortresses, it was necessary, in order to effect the objective, to pass the causeway broken by the rebels, who had thrown up a ditch at the end of it.
Sir Charles, leading thirty dismounted dragoons, beat the enemy, with the loss of their captain and twenty men; relieved the castles of Birr, Borris, and Knocknamase; and having continued almost forty hours on horseback, returned to the camp with the loss of only one man.
This is the surprising passage through Mountrath woods which justly caused the title of MOUNTRATH to be entailed upon his son.
Sir Charles married Dorothea, youngest daughter and co-heir of Hugh Cuffe, of Cuffe’s Wood, County Cork, and had issue,
Charles, his heir; Chidley, of Killester, Co Dublin; RICHARD, ancestor of the EARL OF BELLAMONT; Thomas, of Coote Hill; Letitia.
The younger son,
RICHARD (1620-83), for his hearty concurrence with his brother, SIR CHARLES, 2nd Baronet, in promoting the restoration of CHARLES II, was rewarded with the dignity of a peer of the realm.
Being the same day that his brother was created Earl of Mountrath, Richard Coote was created Baron Coote, of Coloony, in 1660.
In 1660, Lord Coote was appointed Major to the Duke of Albemarle’s regiment of horse; and the same year he was appointed one of the commissioners for executing His Majesty’s declaration for the settlement of Ireland.
His lordship was, in 1675, appointed one of the commissioners entrusted for the 49 Officers.
In 1676, this nobleman resided at Moore Park, County Meath; and at Piercetown, County Westmeath.
He married Mary, second daughter of George, Lord St George.
Following Lord Coote’s decease, in 1683, he was interred at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
His second son,
RICHARD, 2nd Baron (1636-1701), Governor of County Leitrim, 1689, Treasurer to the Queen, 1689-93, MP for Droitwich, 1689-95, was, in 1688, one on the first to join the Prince of Orange.
In 1689, he was attainted in his absence by the Irish Parliament of JAMES II.
His lordship was created, in 1689, EARL OF BELLAMONT, along with a grant of 77,000 acres of forfeited lands.
His lordship was Governor of Massachusetts, 1695;,and Governor of New York, 1697-1701.
The King had sent Lord Bellamont to New York to put down the “freebooting“.
Unfortunately he was responsible for outfitting the veteran mariner William Kidd, who turned into ‘Captain Kidd’, who terrorised the merchants until his capture in 1698.
According to Cokayne ”he was a man of eminently fair character, upright, courageous and endependent. Though a decided Whig he had distinguished himself by bringing before the Parliament at Westminster some tyrannical acts done by Whigs at Dublin.”
His lordship wedded, in 1680, Catharine, daughter and heir of Bridges Nanfan, of Worcestershire, and had issue,
NANFAN, his successor; RICHARD, succeeded his brother.
His lordship was succeeded by his elder son,
NANFAN, 2nd Earl (1681-1708), who married Lucia Anna van Nassau (1684-1744), daughter of Henry de Nassau, Lord Overkirk, in 1705/6 at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, London.
He died at Bath, Somerset, from palsy, without male issue, when the family honours devolved upon his brother,
RICHARD, 3rd Earl (1682-1766), who, in 1729, sold the family estate of Coloony, County Sligo, for nearly £17,000.
In 1737, he succeeded his mother to the estates of Birtsmorton, Worcestershire.
Macaulay described him as “of eminently fair character, upright, courageous and independent.”
On his death, the earldom expired.
The last Earl was succeeded in the barony of Coote by his first cousin once removed,
THE RT HON CHARLES, 5th Baron, KB, PC (1738-1800), son of Charles Coote, MP for County Cavan, son of the Hon Thomas Coote, a Justice of the Court of the King’s Bench of Ireland, younger son of the 1st Baron.
In 1767, the earldom of Bellamont was created again when Charles, Lord Coote, was created EARL OF BELLAMONT (3rd creation).
In 1774, Lord Bellamont was created a baronet, of Donnybrooke in the County of Dublin, with remainder to his illegitimate son, Charles.
Following his death in 1800, the titles became extinct as he left no surviving legitimate male issue, though he was succeeded in the baronetcy according to the special remainder by his illegitimate son Charles, 2nd Baronet.
BELLAMONT FOREST, near Cootehill, County Cavan, now sits amid approximately one thousand acres of parkland and lakes.
It is one of Ireland’s finest 18th-century Palladian villas.
The house is four bays square, built over two storeys, with a basement, built of red brick with ashlar facings, and has a Doric limestone portico, with pediments over the windows.
The main house has been re-roofed and the chimneys rebuilt; the current owner has also rewired the house.
A new heating system has been installed on the ground floor with concealed radiators and the entire house re-plumbed.
There are both excellent formal reception rooms and beautiful entertaining rooms, coupled with a comfortable family atmosphere.
It provides extensive bedroom accommodation for both family, guests and staff, and in addition boasts the former linen hall.
The gardens have also been developed and greatly enhanced and act as further entertaining space.
As I’m sure you may be aware I’ve already featured Bellamont Forest in Co Cavan on this page. Due to the generosity of Charles Dorman O Gowan ( and friend ) I’ve got some photos previously never seen publicly , (along with some other very old ones which I’ve recently come across – the 1870s ones ). Charlie’s great great grand father bought the estate in 1874 for £145,000 . The family sold it circa 1980. There have been 3 owners since . As per my previous posts on Bellamont , the renovation of the house continues unabated.
8/8/2016
Bellamont Forest, ,near Cootehill,originally the Cavan seat of the Coote family , whose other branches included Ballyfin . Subsequently the Smith ( O Gowan) family paid about £145,000 in 1874 for the estate and they had many interesting members over the years including ” The Brigadier “, Eric Dorman O Gowan – he changed his name from Smith after a wrangle with Winston Churchill and the British government of the time -they owned it for over 100 years . Then the Mills family for a few years , John Coote an Australian designer and now John Morehart. Designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in the style of Villa Capra /Rotonda by Andrea Palladio ( the Villa Pisani at Montagnana is very similar)for his uncle Thomas Coote in the mid 1720s. It really is exquisite in the trueness of its form . Despite a huge fire about 12/15 years after completion which destroyed much of the house and roof , the “rebuild ” was extensive and it retains its true form . Many timbers/joists after recent refurbishment works displayed evidence of burning and scorching from that fire. It was circa 1775 one of the main reception rooms , the library,had its flat ceiling replaced by the splendid vaulted one that exists today .Evidence of 18th century wallpaper still exists in the space above it where there was once a room ( in pictures section). Sitting overlooking 2 lakes( anyone can have one ) ,the house is quite simply breathtaking . My bias towards the beauty of this house , I’m rarely lost for words , requires me to state , show me another as pure and elegant .This is of National, if not international importance. Lovett Pearce also was responsible for amongst other buildings the former Irish Parliament on College Green and Castletown House. The house is ,as seen in the pictures ,undergoing extensive renovation work after a period of some neglect and possible inept or at least ill advised refurbishment works, but also the ravages of time, standing for not far off 300 years might take its toll on any building .I’m positive all owners tried their best during their time .
One of Ireland’s most architecturally important houses, Bellamont Forest in Cootehill, Co Cavan has sold
Wed, Jun 3, 2015
by Madeleine Lyons
One of Ireland’s most architecturally important houses, Bellamont Forest in Cootehill, Co Cavan has sold for around €2million. The substantial Palladian villa on 1000 acres has been purchased by a US couple with Irish interests and a number of international properties. The 18th century property had been on the market by a liquidator for €1.35million, until three weeks ago when final offers of more than €1.5million were invited by selling agent Ganly Walters. It’s understood the new owners, who currently own a holiday property in Ireland, plan to refurbish Bellamont for private use in a restoration project that will cost upwards of €2million.
According to Robert Ganly most of the bidding took place over a 48 hour period between the US couple and two other interested parties from the UK and Ireland. There had been a lot of interest in the property both for its historical significance as one of the finest examples in the British Isles of a Palladian villa and its role at the centre of a 1991 divorce action between the late owner John Coote and his wife Andrea (an Australian politician)….
Built between 1725 and 1730 for Thomas Coote, the Lord Justice of Ireland and designed by Coote’s gifted nephew, architect Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. Pearce’s other works include the former Houses of Parliament in College Green, now The Bank of Ireland. He later became Surveyor General of Ireland, a post which he held until his death in 1733.
The house is four bays square, built over two storeys, with a basement. The house is built of red brick with ashlar facings, and has a Doric limestone portico, with pediments over the windows.
Considered one of the most perfect Palladian villa ever built in Ireland, Bellamont House is not well known, but the Coote family who built it are. The first was Sir Charles Coote who died in battle at Trim in 1642, leaving his four estates to his four sons.
His youngest son Col. Thomas Coote was granted the lands in County Cavan after the Act of Settlement in 1662 and was the founder of the town known as Cootehill.
After his death in 1671 the estate was passed to his nephew Thomas Coote, who later became a Lord Justice of the Kings Bench in Ireland and was made a Knight of the Bath ‘in testimony of his good and laudable service in suppressing tumultuous and illegal insurrection in the northern parts of Ireland’.
After Thomas married his third wife Ann Lovett in 1697, Coote became the uncle-in-law of Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, a cousin who was the most important architect in Ireland during the early 18th century. It was Pearce who built Thomas Coote’s new house in 1730, the design based on Palladio’s Villa Rotonda at Vicenza.
The name was changed to Bellamont Forest by Coote’s grandson Charles, who inherited the estate in 1764 and became the Earl of Bellamont in 1767. Lord Bellamont was a interesting figure, described by some as a man of ‘the highest refinement’, but also a ‘tyrant’, ‘madman’ and ‘a person of disgusting pomposity’.
An consumate womaniser, he sired at least six illegitimate children, with six different women, including 5 from his wife. After his death the estate passed to these descendants who became less than prosperous.
In 1874 Edward Smith, a coal tycoon bought the Bellamont house and lands for £145,000. Following his death in 1880, the estate was continuously passed down until 1984 when the Irish ‘troubles’ persuaded the family to sell the estate.
Three years later John Coote a descendant whose family immigrated to Australia in the early 1900s, visited Ireland and discovered the derelict estate was for sale and seized the chance to buy it.
After 23 years of renovation, Coote completed the work of his lifetime at his family home, Bellamont Forest. It is truly an extraordinary achievement and the house is virtually unaltered since Pearce’s day. The 11,350 square foot, two-storey main house was re-roofed, rewired and replumbed, with underfloor heating installed on the ground floor.
Double doors lead into the 25ft by 29ft ballroom, the most ornate room in the house that showcase an exceptional coffered ceiling. The main reception room is the library, whose original flat ceiling was replaced by Lord Bellamont in 1775 with a more elaborate coved one to match the dining room. This was the only major alteration made to the house in 238 years.
The stone staircase leads to the mezzanine floor, which leads to a large bedroom with ensuite bath and an office, both with vaulted ceilings.
The staircase continues up to the first-floor bedroom hall, top-lit by a decorative elliptical lantern that later became a typical feature of Irish houses.
A second staircase leads to the basement, where much of the original stone-flag flooring and vaulted brick ceiling has been restored. There’s an apartment, large orignial kitchen, dining room, media room and wine cellar.
The servants’ tunnel links the basement with the landscaped walled garden to the rear of the house.
The vast former linen hall has also been restored to provide five reception rooms and five bedrooms with bathrooms.
John Coote died in 2012 and the property sits empty and quietly awaits someone with the financial ability to make the needed repairs and love this ancient family seat once again.
Ballyhaise House, Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan – agricultural college
Ballyhaise House, County Cavan, photograph by Robert French, Lawrence Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland.
Bence-Jones, Mark. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988, Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 22. “[Humphryes] An important house by Richard Castle, built ca 1733 for Brockhill Newburgh. Of 2 storeys over basement, and 7 bays, faced in brick, with ashlar dressings. Entrance front with pedimented central feature of 4 Ionic pilasters superimposed on a Doric entablature and 4 Doric pilasters. Garden front with central curved bow, which has round headed windows and a doorway under a consoled pediment. The bow contains an oval saloon which Dr. Craig considers may well be the earliest surviving oval room in the British Isles; it keeps its original plasterwork on the ceiling, which, surprisingly, is a brick vault; the groun dfloor as well as the basement being vaulted over, as in the King House in Boyle, Co Roscommon. The doors and chimneypiece in the saloon are all curved. Sold ca 1800 to William Humphreys, who extended the house by adding 2 storey wings of the same height as the original block and also of brick with stone facings; but with a neo-Classical flavour; the slightly projecting end bays on the entrance front being framed by broad corner strip pilasters, supporting entablatures with dies. The windows in these bays are tripartite, with entablatures over them on console brackets. Sold by the Humphrys family in the present century, now an agricultural college.”
Ballyhaise House was built for the Newburghs, a local landowning family, in the 1730s. Richard Cassels (1690-1751) was of German origin and also known as Richard Castle. He settled in Ireland around 1728 and worked with Edward Lovett Pearce on the Houses of Parliament before becoming the leading country house architect of his day in Ireland. Ballyhaise House has been used as an agricultural college since the beginning of the 20th century and has been much altered.
Detached eleven-bay two-storey over basement former country house, built c.1735, possibly with core of c.1700, comprising seven-bay central block having pedimented centre bays with superimposed orders and a three-bay semi-circular bow to rear elevation. Lower outer bays added c.1820 with recessed intermediate bays and advanced end bays having tripartite windows, southern bay forming end of four-bay side elevation. Now in use as college. Hipped and slated roofs with lead ridges and rendered chimneystacks of simplified Vanbrughesque design, having clay chimneypots with lotus-flower decoration. Parapet to central block as stone entablature with central pediment retaining trace of tympanum sculpture, similar entablature over bow to rear, lower stone cornices to outer bays and south wing. Red brick walls with architectural detailing of ashlar sandstone to front of main block and to later end wings, ashlar stone to centre three bays. Centre bays articulated with pilasters in superimposed Doric and Ionic orders, upper Ionic order having pulvinated frieze and cornice extending across higher central block. Doric order having blank metope frieze, cornice carried across central block and intermediate bays with plain ashlar band above and plain frieze below. Plain raised ashlar bands flanking end bays over both storeys carried round to the side elevations. Ruled-and-lined rendered walls to basement below string course at window head level and ashlar outer bays. Side elevation to south with simplified banding courses at mid height and a continuous string course under the upper storey sills. Side elevation to north of rubble stone with brick surrounds to openings and large quoins to the north-west corner. The rear elevation of roughcast render, smooth ruled-and-lined render to bow. Shouldered architraves to ground and first floor windows with ashlar sill course at ground floor and six-over-six timber sash windows. Tripartite windows to outer bays with ashlar mullions and cornice hoods on scrolled brackets, six-over-nine timber sash windows to centre section at ground floor windows. Segmental-headed windows to basement with plain architraves and six-over-six timber sashes. Square-headed door opening to central bay with recent glazed double-leaf entrance doors in shouldered architrave surround topped by a segmental pediment with shell motif over carved floral garland. Rear elevation with round-headed windows to basement and ground floors, segmental-headed to first floor, both types having plain reveals to bow and brick surrounds elsewhere. Square-headed door opening to bow with shouldered architrave surmounted by corbelled canopy with carved sandstone swag motif, round-headed blind door opening to main ground level above with Gibbs surround and open-bed pediment on scroll brackets. Entrance hall with plastered brick-vaulted ceiling with deep severies and coffered centre. Black and white stone floor tiles and tall Kilkenny limestone open-bed pedimented chimneypiece. Four main reception rooms off hall, Bishop’s Room having marble chimneypiece, running mould cornice and decorative centrepiece. Peacock Room having plastered brick-vaulted ceiling with elliptical-headed formerets, modillion cornice and heavy foliate centrepiece. Walls having hand-painted wallpaper with dado rail and deep skirting, panelled window joinery and panelled door with flanking pilaster architraves and plain entablature over-door and replacement marble fireplace. Oval Room in bow opens off hall to rear with compartmentalised oval ceiling having dentil cornice and foliate centrepiece, stucco panelled walls with dado rail and round-headed windows with panelled window joinery, curved Kilkenny limestone chimneypiece having central corbel with fish-scale design. Ballroom now in use as a lecture room with decorative modillion cornice and centrepiece with decorative feather motifs, dado rail and deep skirting boards, Carrara marble chimneypiece with fluted Corinthian columns supporting mantle having decorative Greek key and palmette motif to lintel. Panelled window shutters, soffits and window backs with fan detail to reveals, timber panelled doors with similar fan details to panels and overdoor with floral garlands. Stair hall off entrance hall to south with service stair beyond lobby room to the north. Dogleg stair from basement to first floor with sandstone steps from ground floor to basement. Turned balusters set on pears and blocks and scrolled tread ends with decorative fretwork detail. Door openings in stair hall have round-headed overdoors with decorative spider-web motif emulating fanlight and flanking pilaster architraves. Dining room in end bay now used as a boardroom with decorative cornice having palmette motifs, grey marble chimneypiece having flanking Ionic columns, timber panelled window and doors with fan details to panels and decorative floral garland to overdoor. Arched recess to west-end wall. Offices to basement all with brick vaulted ceilings, stone flags in parts with black and red quarry tiles to entrance hall, plain rendered window embrasures with simple historic timber shutters to some windows and some cast-iron fireplaces. Ground floor raised above surrounding area opening onto steps flanked by balustrade at raised level enclosing basement area across front and south elevation, further steps lead down to driveway. Situated within an extensive designed landscape on rising ground in a meander of Annalee River. Extensive stable and farmyard complex extends up hill to west, large south-facing walled garden to north-west, gates and lodge to south-east.
Ballyhaise House is architecturally one of the most significant houses in Cavan. A multiple phased building set in an early designed landscape, the core of house, vaulted over basement and ground floor, date from c.1705. A historic watercolour painted before 1730 depicts the earlier house with related buildings and bridge in the wider landscape setting. The house was remodelled after this date for Brockhill Newburgh MP, and the work has traditionally been attributed to Richard Castle (1690-1751), one of Ireland’s foremost Palladian architects. However, it is now thought to be the work of Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. The demesne landscape was described in Rev Henry’s ‘Upper Lough Erne’ in 1739. The advanced outer bays were added c.1820, possibly by the Dublin architect William Farrell (d. 1851), and are similar in detail to his work at nearby Rathkenny House and Kilmore See House. The interior is well preserved, the architectural detail reflecting the historic evolution of the house, with classical detailing added to earlier vaulted ceilings being a notable feature. The demesne constitutes an ensemble of structures and designed landscape features of high quality, including a largely intact stable yard, a walled garden, and entrance gates, and adds to its setting and context.
Built by Brockhill Newburgh and originally composed with wings in the classic Palladian manner (removed when the house was extended in the early nineteenth century), Ballyhaise was deemed by Jonathan Swift, ‘not only the best, but the only house he had seen in Ireland’.
Like Bellamont, the house at Ballyhaise is distinguished as a building predominantly built of brick with its classical detail perfectly mediated, cleanly and precisely, in contrasting stone trim. Instead of a freestanding portico, the idea of the temple front is addressed in the frontispiece, a pedimented breakfront formed with two tiers of pilasters – Ionic over Doric – which observed the strict hierarchy that applies to the classical orders. Ballyhaise was further innovative for its introduction to Irish domestic architecture of the central bowed projection, distinctive here in its accommodation of a complete oval form within the plan, a shape that derives from French baroque architecture of the seventeenth
century. Though difficult to conceive now, Ballyhaise was even more remarkable in that its original form had been conceived with the classic expanded Palladian layout, its central block set between curved wings in a manner that enjoyed an enduring popularity in Ireland, having begun with houses like Carton and Castletown in County Kildare. At Ballyhaise, this grand composition with its low arcaded wings terminating in polygonal pavilions, equal to the most ambitious of Palladio’s villa designs, was swept away when new wings were formed in the early nineteenth century. The massing of the central block at Ballyhaise between lower square subsidiary towers and a series of small pyramid roofs recurred at Lismore (fig.14), where the surviving wings rather more grandly reaffirm the Palladian idea of closely integrating the agricultural practicalities of the farm with the house.
Ballyhaise House As part of James I’s plantation of Ulster, in 1609 John Taylor of Cambridge received a grant of 1,500 acres in an area of County Cavan called Aghieduff. Here he established the town of Ballyhaise and, according to a mid-19th century report, ‘built a strong Bawn of lime and stone for his own residence, on the site of the present castle, which, from it position, commanded the ford over the river.’ John Taylor married Ann the daughter and heiress of Henry Brockhill of Allington, Kent – their elder son was Brockhill Taylor who served as Member of Parliament for the borough of Cavan in the 1630s. On his death he left no son but two daughters one of whom, Mary inherited the Cavan estate. She married Thomas Newburgh - their second son, Colonel Brockhill Newburgh, (c.1659 – 1741) was the next owner of Ballyhaise since his elder brother died in 1701 without heirs. During the Williamite Wars, Colonel Newburgh had raised a company of soldiers and participated in several battles in support of what would prove to be the winning side.
In 1704 he was appointed High Sheriff of Cavan and served as an M.P. from 1715 to 1727, as well as acting as chairman of the local linen board. Ballyhaise remained in the possession of the Newburgh family until around 1800 when it was sold to William Humphreys, a Dublin merchant who had made his fortune in the wood trade. In 1905 the state bought the property and has run it as an agricultural college every since.
‘It were also to be wished that even our gentlemen would in their country-seats imitate Colonel Newburgh, a great improver in the Co. of Cavan, who as well as several others, does not only use stucco work, instead of wainscot, but has arched his fine dwelling-house, and all his large office-houses, story over story, and even all their roofs in the most beautiful manner without any timber.’ Samuel Madden, Reflections and Resolutions Proper for the Gentlemen of Ireland, Etc.1738. ‘This seat, for beauty and magnificence, may vie with any in Ireland. There is an ascent to it by several terraces from the river, which are adorned with ponds, jets d’eau, fruit and flowers. The house is about 140 feet in front – it is made to last for ever – the roofs and all the apartments being vaulted, and curiously finished with stucco work; and yet scarce any house in Ireland has so brisk and lively an aspect – the just mixture of the brick and hewn stone, and the proportion of the parts adding life to one another; the large court and offices also behind it are all vaulted. It is not easy to pass by this fine seat without delaying at it, but to do justice to the house, its various apartments, gardens, vistas, avenues, circular walks, roads and plantations rising to the tops of all the hills around, would require a description that would draw me too far from my present design.’ Rev. William Henry, Upper Lough Erne, 1739. ‘The affairs of Ireland being sometime happily settled, the gentlemen of the country now began to quit their cottages, and build mansion houses, suitable to their estates and fortunes. The arts hitherto unknown in Ireland, architecture in particular, began to receive encouragement; of which no gentleman of private fortune gave juster and more useful specimens than Mr Newburgh. His dwelling house as well as offices being arched throughout, in the upper as well as lower stories are thereby of course, free from the danger and power of fire. The compliment that the late Dean Swift paid to Mr Newburgh on the planning such a singular but useful edifice, was as uncommon, as there is reason to believe it sincere, viz. That it was not only the best, but the only house he had seen in Ireland.’ Particulars relating to the Life and Character of the Late Brockhill Newburgh Esq. ,1761.
As part of James I’s plantation of Ulster, in 1609 John Taylor of Cambridge received a grant of 1,500 acres in an area of County Cavan called Aghieduff. Here he established the town of Ballyhaise and, according to a mid-19th century report, ‘built a strong Bawn of lime and stone for his own residence, on the site of the present castle, which, from it position, commanded the ford over the river.’ Further English and Scottish settlers were encouraged to move into the area and when Nicholas Pynner undertook his government-commissioned survey of the province’s plantation in 1618-19 he found eighteen such families living at Ballyhaise ‘and everything around the infant colony appeared in the most prosperous condition.’ The disturbances of the 1640s were a setback to the enterprise but by the time of Charles II’s restoration to the throne in 1660, Ballyhaise’s settlement was once more progressing. John Taylor had married the daughter and heiress of Henry Brockhill of Allington, Kent and their elder son was duly christened Brockhill Taylor; he served as Member of Parliament for the borough of Cavan in the 1630s. On his death he left no son but two daughters one of whom, Mary inherited the Cavan estate. She married Thomas Newburgh and the couple had several sons, the second of which, Colonel Brockhill Newburgh, was the next owner of Ballyhaise since his elder brother died in 1701 without heirs. During the Williamite Wars, Colonel Newburgh had raised a company of soldiers and participated in several battles in support of what would prove to be the winning side. In 1704 he was appointed High Sheriff of Cavan and served as an M.P. from 1715 to 1727, as well as acting as chairman of the local linen board. However it is for the building projects he undertook on his Ballyhaise estate that Colonel Newburgh is best remembered. In 1703 he and another local landowner rebuilt the bridge here as an eight-arched stone structure, and during the same period he also embarked on a grand scheme to lay out a new town, described after his death as being ‘in the form of a Circus, the houses all arched, with a large circular market house in the center; a building, in the opinion of some good judges, not unworthy the plan of Vitruvius or Palladio; and which (if we may be allowed to compare small things with great) bears no distant resemblance to the Pantheon at Rome, but with this difference, without the opening of the convex roof at the summit, contrived to give light to the latter.’ Unfortunately in 1736 the market house collapsed and had to be rebuilt; in 1837 it was reported to be ‘an arched edifice built of brick and of singular appearance.’ It has since gone and the present market house, with ill-considered uPVC windows, does little to improve what remains of Colonel Newburgh’s once-elegant and innovative programme of urban planning.
The near-contemporaneous accounts carried above give us an idea of Colonel Newburgh’s ambitious developments of his own house and grounds at Ballyhaise, and the impact these made on visitors to the area. The gardens, it is clear, were an elaborate baroque arrangement of ‘ponds, jets d’eau, fruit and flowers’ spread across a sequence of terraces that descended to the river before the land rose up once more on its far side. As for the house, its architect has long been the subject of speculation. It used to be attributed to Castle, but given that Colonel Newburgh is believed to have been born c.1659 (and died in 1741) and that certain elements of the building, not least the red brick used in its construction, are associated with Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, he now seems more likely to have been responsible. Ballyhaise was probably constructed on the site and incorporated parts of an earlier dwelling dating back a century to around the time of John Taylor’s arrival; one imagines this to have been defensive in character. Colonel Newburgh’s house, on the other hand, projects its owner’s assurance and the more tranquil character of the time. The core of the building was of two storeys over half-basement, and of seven bays. As already mentioned red brick was used except for the three centre bays which are of limestone with Ionic over Doric pilasters below a full entablature supporting a pediment. The narrow entrance is reached at the top of a flight of steps, a garland of carved flowers fitted beneath the door case’s segmental pediment containing a scallop shell. In 1746 the architect and designer Thomas Wright who was then visiting Ireland as a guest of Lord Limerick (see Do the Wright Thing, July 28th 2014) made a sketch of the front of Ballyhaise as it then was. This can be seen above and indicates the house was the centrepiece of a Palladian scheme extended on either side by quadrants before terminating in pavilion wings. None of this remains today and the interior has likewise undergone changes since first completed when it was vaulted throughout, allegedly as a precaution against fire. What remain largely unaltered are the entrance hall and rooms immediately on either side; one of these, the so-called Peacock Room, contains wall paper from the first half of the 19th century, covered in varnish at some later date but otherwise in good condition. To the rear of the entrance hall is the room which best evokes Colonel Newburgh’s house, a small oval saloon. Its walls covered in plaster panelling beneath a shallow coffered dome, the saloon contains a simple Kilkenny marble chimneypiece and two windows on either side of what surely must once have been an opening onto a balcony at the centre of the projecting bow.
Ballyhaise remained in the possession of the Newburgh family until around 1800 when it was sold to William Humphreys, a Dublin merchant who had made his fortune in the wood trade. By then the house must have looked very old-fashioned and it was therefore subjected to a complete overhaul. The quadrants and wings were demolished and the main block extended on either side to hold drawing and dining room respectively, both lit by generous tripartite windows. The contrast between these and the original early 18thcentury windows is only one of a number of incongruities, accentuated on the exterior by the unmistakable difference in tone of brick. Inside rather narrow passages provide access to the main reception rooms which are large and mostly plain although the overdoors carry floral friezes. The main staircase, squeezed into too tight a space, leads to the first floor former bedrooms which are also simple although some, such as that immediately above the oval saloon, retain their Georgian decoration and chimney piece. Mr Humprheys’ heirs enjoyed the advantages of his wealth for barely a century before it ran out and the house was once more sold, this time to the state which in 1905 bought the estate to run as an agricultural college. Ballyhaise has served this purpose every since, a mixed blessing for the place. Inevitably there have been losses, not least to the surrounding parkland where no evidence of Colonel Newburgh’s fantastical gardens survive; of course, these may well have been swept away when the property was modernised by Mr Humphreys. Recent additions to the building stock in the grounds are pedestrian in design, but the old stable blocks remain and have suffered relatively little compromise. And most importantly the house itself survives and has of late benefitted from remedial works, particularly to the roof. Not all is as was when Colonel Newburgh embarked on his improvements but the words of the Rev. William Henry written in 1739 still ring true: Ballyhaise appears to have been ‘made to last for ever.’
THE HUMPHRYS’ OWNED 5,146 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY CAVAN
WILLIAM HUMPHRYS, of Ballyhaise, County Cavan, younger brother of Christopher Humphrys, of Dromard, married Letitia Kennedy, and had issue,
Christopher, b 1786; WILLIAM, of whom we treat; John, 1809-18; Anne; Matilda; Letitia; Amelia; Caroline; Sophia.
Mr Humphrys, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1822, was succeeded by his second son,
WILLIAM HUMPHRYS JP DL (1798-1872), of Ballyhaise House, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1832, who wedded firstly, in 1826, Anna Maria, daughter of John Pratt Winter, of Agher, County Meath, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir; JOHN WINTER, succeeded his brother; Mervyn Archdall; Anne Elizabeth.
He espoused secondly, in 1838, Maria Clarissa, daughter of Hugh Moore, of Eglantine House, County Down, and had issue,
WILLIAM HUMPHRYS (1827-77), High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1877, who died unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother,
JOHN WINTER HUMPHRYS (1829-84), of Ballyhaise House, High Sheriff of County Cavan, 1879, who married, in 1854, Priscilla Cecilia, daughter of the Rev J P Garrett, of Killgaron, County Carlow, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir; John Mervyn; James Winter; Charles Vesey; Mervyn Archdall; Francis Edward; Arthur Armitage; Llewellyn Winter; Percy Raymond; Caroline Elizabeth; Priscilla Cecilia; Clara Christina; Anna Maria; Emily May.
Mr Humphrys was succeeded by his eldest son,
WILLIAM HUMPHRYS JP (1855-97), of Ballyhaise House, Lieutenant RN, who wedded, in 1879, Alice, daughter of James Stannard JP, of Bricketstown House, County Wexford, and had issue,
WILLIAM, his heir; NUGENT WINTER, succeeded his brother; Ethel Elizabeth; Evelyn Alice.
Mr Humphrys was succeeded by his eldest son,
WILLIAM HUMPHRYS (1883-1906), of Ballyhaise House, Lieutenant, 17th Lancers, who died unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother,
NUGENT WINTER HUMPHRYS (1885-1931), of Ballyhaise House, Lieutenant, Manchester Regiment, who espoused, in 1911, Blanche Ada de Vivefay, daughter of William Edward Wilson, of Daramona.
BALLYHAISE HOUSE, Ballyhaise, County Cavan, is one of the most notable mansions in County Cavan.
The house comprises two storeys over a basement, with seven bays; with ashlar dressings, faced in brick.
The entrance front has a pedimented feature with four Ionic pilasters.
The garden front has a central carved bow with round-headed windows.
The bow contains an oval saloon, which has been considered one of the earliest of its kind in the British Isles.
Ballyhaise was sold in 1800 to William Humphrys, who enlarged the house considerably by adding two storey wings of the same height as the original block.
The estate was sold by the Humprys family in 1906 and now serves as an agricultural college.
Arch Hall, County Meath, courtesy Colin Colleran photographer facebook page.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 7. “(Garnett/LGI1912) A three storey early C18 house attributed, as is the arch in the garden, to Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. Curved bow in centre of front, doorway with pediment and blocking; curved ends, with round-headed windows. Top storey treated as an attic. In the C19, the house was given a high-pitched roof on a bracket cornice, the curved ends being given conical roofs, so that they looked like the round towers of a French chateau. Also in C19, the windows in the attic storey were replaced by rather strange Romanesque windows in pairs. Now a ruin.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 113. “A very interesting early 18C house attributed to Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. The house is in fact a smaller version of Wardtown, County Donegal. The top floor was altered during the first half of the 19C. In 1814 the seat of J. N. Payne Garnett. Now a ruin.”
A large early Georgian house. Three-storey, nine-bay
entrance front with cylindrical turret surviving. Incl.
Outbuildings
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
p. 109. “The fragmentary shell of a large early Georgian house whose design has been attributed to Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. All that survives is a three-storey, nine bay entrance front with cylindrical turret-like bows at each end and a broader three-bay semicircular bow at the centre of the façade. Thoroughly reworked in the c19, the façade, formerly of brick, is now drably rendered in cement. It has curious paired Romanesque windows and Italianate sills to the attic storey. Thus an early Georgian castle idiom was here transformed into a hybrid Victorian chateau; conical slated roofs added to the end bows completed the Chambord effect.
“The destruction of Arch Hall is unfortunate as it was one of a small group of Irish buildings – Wardtown in Co Donegal (also now in ruins) is another – which may be considered as descendants of Vanbrugh’s castle style and his geometrical designs, making rare use of bow windows and circular rooms at an early date. Behind the façade the house is only one room deep, built over a brick-vaulted basement. The hall, originally a large space with curved ends, was flanked by a reception room on each side. The room to the r. maintains its original dimensions of roughly 18 ft (5.5m) square. Throughout the fabric, fragments of plaster panels cling to the brickwork, and in one of the corner towers a shallow saucer dome is ornamented with plaster coffering and egg-and-dart mouldings.”
Arch Hall, County Meath, the house shown above, is a tantalising mystery. Who was the architect? When was it built? And for whom? Answers to all these questions, and others, have been proposed and while convincing they cannot be absolutely verified. Today what remains of Arch Hall stands on flat ground in the middle of open fields, and the greater part of the ornamental park with which it was once surrounded has been lost. A painting from 1854 by the Yorkshire-born artist James Walsham Baldock depicts the wife of Arch Hall’s then-owner Samuel Garnett and the couple’s two young sons on horseback with the house visible behind. Evidently at the time it was surrounded by a belt of mature trees but most of these have now gone leaving the building isolated and even more exposed to the elements than would otherwise be the case. At some date obviously it was abandoned and left to fall into ruin but – another question – when?
Arch Hall appears to derive its name from the rustic arch lying some distance to the south of the house and serving as point of access to the original avenue. Placed on an axis and intended to offer an unexpected vista of the property, the arch is composed of a single broad entrance with pinnacle above and flanking buttresses. From this point Arch Hall looks like a very substantial building, but the impression is deceptive because despite rising three storeys over basement the house was only one room deep. Its most striking feature is the nine-bay facade which on either side concludes in cylindrical bows and is centred on a larger, three-bay semi-circular bow. This has a handsome stone pedimented Gibbsian doorcase but the rest of the building was constructed of locally-produced red brick. At some – also unknown – date in the 19th century, the exterior was covered in cement render marked out to imitate cut stone. Presumably at the same time the topmost storey windows were paired in Romanesque style and Italianate sills added, while the end bows were capped with conical roofs presumably in an effort to make the place resemble a French château. Inside the front door was a large hall with curved ends and reception rooms on either side, each measuring some five and a half metres square. These in turn gave access to small circular rooms in the front corners. Despite long exposure, the two end rooms retain traces of their decorative plasterwork, that on the western flank somehow still having a shallow saucer dome with plaster coffering and egg-and-dart moulding. Almost all the rear of the house has been lost, as well as part of the front wall, making Arch Hall’s long-term survival unlikely.
For a number of reasons the design of Arch Hall is usually ascribed to Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. Believed to have been born at some date in the late 1690s in County Meath, Pearce was the son of an English general and an Irish mother (her father was Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1676-77). Most importantly for his son’s future career, General Edward Pearce’s first cousin was Sir John Vanbrugh. The latter appears to have had an influence on the young architect, if only stylistically, but Pearce’s work in Ireland was also shaped by time spent in mainland Europe in 1723-24 during which he studied Palladio’s buildings in the Veneto. Thus while essentially a classicist, he sometimes liked to feature elements of the baroque. Such is the case with Arch Hall if indeed it was designed by Pearce. Another Irish house, alas now also a ruin, with which it has strong similarities is Wardtown Castle, County Donegal. Built for John Folliott, Wardtown is deeper than Arch Hall but, as Maurice Craig noted in 1996, it shares ‘the Vanbrughian feature of cylindrical towers and semi-circular projections.’ In fact the design of the two houses is so alike, the inevitable conclusion is that either they were by the same hand or one was a copy of the other.
So when was Arch Hall built, and for whom? Sir Edward Lovett Pearce died in 1733 so if he were the house’s architect, work on its construction would most likely have begun before that date. At the time, the townland of which it is part, Newtown-Clongill was owned part-owned by the Payne or Pain(e) family: a deed of 1714 records the transfer of 510 acres in the area from John Raphson to William Paine. In 1737 his granddaughter Anne Paine married Benjamin Woodward of Drumbarrow, near Kells, County Meath. Her settlement included the town and lands of Clongill and Newtown-Clongill. Somehow by the early 19thcentury the property had transferred into the ownership of another local family, the Garnetts who were associated with a number of houses in the county, not least Williamstown and Summerseat. The first of them to live at Arch Hall was John Pain Garnett, second son of Samuel Garnett of Summerseat. John Pain Garnett’s middle name would imply some kind of connection with the previous residents but there appears to be none: the Garnetts tended to marry cousins, or else members of the Rothwell and Wade families. Arch Hall was subsequently inherited by John Pain’s son, another Samuel Garnett who in 1841 married Marianne Tandy: it is she and the couple’s two sons who appear in the 1854 painting by James Walsham Baldock. Burke’s 1871 Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland list the family as still in residence, but at some date thereafter they must have left and the place began its slide into dereliction. But when and why was Arch Hall permitted this most untriumphant end? So many unanswered questions…
The rustic arch flanked by obelisks to the south of the house on the original avenue provided the name of the house. The arch contains a decorated stone from Neolitic times. Other follies included two bridges over a narrow canal that is diverted from the Yellow River. There was a large lake to the south-west of the house. With a lodge at the entrance gates there was a walled garden and extensive outbuildings.
A local story says that there were two Chilean pine trees planted, one each side of the arch to celebrate the birth of two boys to the Gilliat family. Captain Glennie Gilliat died of wounds in October 1914 while his brother, Captain Reginald Gilliat was killed in action at Neuve Chapelle in April 1915.
Arch Hall is associated with the Payne and Garnett families. The lands at Newtown-Clongill were in the hands of the Payne family from the time of the Cromwellian confiscations. William Paine acquired a lease of 510 acres at Arch Hall in 1714. William had two sons, Lawrence and John. Anne, daughter of John Paine, married Benjamin Woodward of Drumbarrow in 1737.
The house was probably constructed in the 1730s and designed by Edward Lovett Pearce. Arch Hall is one of a small group of Irish buildings in Vanbrugh’s castle style making use of bows and circular rooms at an early date.
In 1835 John Payne Garnett retained the townland of Arch Hall in his hands and had most of the townland under pasture, raising sheep and black cattle. Mr. Garnett’s house was described as a beautiful old-style residence with a fine garden and offices, an artificial pond with a number of islands on which ducks and widgeon feed. On the western boundary was a beautiful decoy. The well-wooded demesne comprised about 350 statute acres. Garnett also kept the townland of Fletecherstown in his hands raising sheep and cattle. The sheep were mostly of the Galway breed and the cattle chiefly the long-horned Irish breed. John Payne Garnett was High Sheriff of Meath in 1821.
John Paine Garnett died 1846 and was succeeded by his son, Samuel. Samuel Garnett of Arch Hall married Mary Anne Tandy in 1841. In 1845 Samuel Garnett, Esq., J. P., was a member of a company promoting the construction of a railway from the south of Ireland to the north, from Limerick to Clones. In the 1850s Samuel Garnett held lands at Arch Hall, Fletcherstown, Oristown and Clongill. Samuel was High Sheriff of Meath in 1858. In 1876 Samuel Garnett of Arch Hall owned 1,336 acres in county Meath. Samuel’s son, John, married Edith Singleton of Aclare but died in 1872 leaving an only son, John, born in 1866, who succeeded to the estates of his grand-father in the 1880s. A Justice of the Peace John died unmarried in 1894.
The property then came into the hands of the Gilliat family who were involved in banking in London and trade in Liverpool. In the 1901 and 1911 censuses Edith Gilliat and her daughter, Constance, resided at the house with their servants.
Arch Hall, the property of the late Mrs. Gilliat, was burned in April 1923. The house was unoccupied at the time. Before it was destroyed, one of the rooms was reputed to be made entirely in gold, from the paint on the walls to the furniture and picture frames. All that survives today is the facade and some remains of the front rooms. Mulligan described it as a “romantic decaying shell.”
Gaulstown House, Ballynagall, County Westmeath courtesy National Inventory.Gaulstown entrance front, County Westmeath, photograph: Maurice Craig, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Detached three-bay single-storey Palladian-style villa with attic level, built c.1730, over a high basement. Now in use as a private house. Single-bay pedimented breakfront to centre of front façade (south) and gable-fronted projection to centre of north façade creating cruciform plan. Pitched natural slate roof having projecting cut stone bracketed eaves course (to main roof and pediment), cast-iron rainwater goods and a tall chimneystack to either gable end (east and west). Cut stone acroterion blocks to either end and to apex of eaves pediment to entrance front. Roughcast rendered walls over projecting basement with cut stone eaves course continued around pedimented breakfront as a string course. Square-headed window openings to ground floor having cut stone sills, lugged ashlar surrounds and one-over-one pane timber sliding sash windows. Diocletian window to pediment having ashlar surround with projecting keystone over. Segmental-headed openings to the basement having cast-iron security bars. Venetian window to central bay at ground floor level to rear (north). Central round-headed doorcase with sidelights (set in ashlar panels with moulded ashlar cornices over), creating Venetian arrangement, with fanlight over having ashlar block-and-start surround. Timber panelled door. Doorcase reached up splayed flight of cut limestone steps flanked by iron railings to either side. Set back from road in extensive grounds with main entrance gates to the south, at start of long approach avenue. Located to the northwest of Castlepollard.
Appraisal
An impressive and well-executed small-scale Palladian house/villa, of early eighteenth-century appearance. It is very well detailed in good quality ashlar limestone and retains most of its early fabric despite recent works after years of dereliction. The form of this house is quite unusual for a building of this type and date in that the ground floor is built over a high basement. This appealing structure was designed with obvious architectural aspirations and is extremely well-proportioned, having instant visual appeal. It is strangely imposing for a structure built on such a small scale and this is down to the quality of the massing. Gaulstown House must have been designed by an architect of some pedigree and Casey and Rowan (1993) suggest that perhaps even Sir Edward Lovett Pearce or his assistant William Halfpenny were responsible for its designs. Gaulstown House was the home of the Lill Family, c.1780. The good quality entrance gates to the south complete the setting of this fine composition, which is an important element of the architectural heritage of Westmeath.
Gaulstown House, Ballynagall, County Westmeath courtesy National Inventory.
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 141. “A very interesting and attractive early to mid 18C single storey gable-ended house. Pedimented breakfront with Venetian doorcase, interesting plan. In the 18C the seat of the Hill family. Derelict.”
Gaulstown House, Ballynagall, County Westmeath courtesy National Inventory.Gaulstown House, Ballynagall, County Westmeath courtesy National Inventory.Gaulstown House, Ballynagall, County Westmeath courtesy National Inventory.Gaulstown House, Ballynagall, County Westmeath courtesy National Inventory.
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
In a book of his photographs published the year he died (2011) architectural historian Maurice Craig included the image above of Gaulstown, County Westmeath which he had taken in 1975. He recalled seeing the house then for the first time and commented, ‘It looked a bit neglected, but it seemed to be all there, especially the roof. I saw a new house only a few yards away (out of frame on the left) and drew the obvious conclusion: that my pet would soon be bundled away. I was wrong.’ In fact Maurice was wrong on two counts. Firstly there never was a new house only a few yards away, it is actually hundreds of yards away and completely invisible from Gaulstown. And of course its construction did not mean the loss of the old house which continues to stand almost four decades after it was noted by Maurice.
Gaulston House, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.Gaulston House, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
As is unfortunately all too often the case, we know little about the origins of Gaulstown. It bears similarities to a pair of similarly miniature Irish villas, Whitewood Lodge, County Meath (1735) and Ledwithstown, County Longford (1746) both of which are attributed to Richard Castle. Both are also larger and more refined in their details, and one has a sense that Gaulstown, the earliest of the trio (dating from c.1730) was something of a trial run for the other two. Casey and Rowan propose that it might have been designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce or perhaps his associate William Halfpenny. Maurice Craig was inclined to agree with this assessment but it seems too grand an attribution for such a modest dwelling. Might not Gaulstown instead have been the work of an amateur, perhaps even the original owner, a member of the Lill family generations of which lived here in the 18th and 19th centuries (although they would change their name to de Burgh for the sake of an inheritance)? Without wishing to disparage its considerable charms and its importance Gaulstown has the appearance of a building containing a variety of architectural motifs borrowed from books but, as the interior layout reveals, without these being necessarily completely understood or interpreted.
Casey and Rowan describe Gaulstown as being of only one storey over raised basement and with an attic, but this is not really the case since it possesses a trio of reasonably substantial floors. The roughcast rendered exterior is rigorously plain of three bays, that in the centre of the south-facing facade projecting forward. A long flight of steps leads to the substantial cut-limestone doorframe, which is an adapted Venetian window above which floats a small Diocletian window beneath the pediment: the only other openings on the front are windows on either side of the entrance, so that the building has an ascetic rigour that is most appealing. Inside the main floor was originally divided (just like ancient Gaul) into three parts. The centre space formed one room running south to north for the full, albeit not terribly considerable, depth of the house. However at some date, probably for reasons of greater comfort and warmth, a partition wall was inserted dividing it into entrance hall with drawing room behind: the latter has a Venetian window mirroring that used for the entrance. To the east is a dining room, to the west the staircase and, behind it, a small boudoir or office. The stairs are lit by a large window on the return and they lead to a surprising number of bedrooms. Meanwhile the basement is also more generously spacious than would superficially appear to be the case.
Gaulston House, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
‘This appealing structure,’ comments the author of Gaulstown’s assessment in http://www.buildingsofireland.ie ‘was designed with obvious architectural aspirations and is extremely well-proportioned, having instant visual appeal. It is strangely imposing for a structure built on such a small scale and this is down to the quality of the massing.’ This is an admirable summary of the house, which further benefits from its setting, being reached at the end of a long straight drive and surrounded by open countryside. To the immediate west are the remains of the old brick-walled garden, behind is a still-working farmyard. These elements enhance the impression that Gaulstown was always intended as the residence of a gentleman farmer even though Casey and Rowan rightly refer to it possessing ‘an aristocratic or cultivated rusticity.’
Gaulston House, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
Gaulstown apparently changed hands on a number of occasions before being acquired by the current owner’s grandfather. Today it is a family home, the present generation of occupants keenly aware of the building’s need for some remedial work: damp is something of a problem on the gable walls and, as these pictures make clear, the fenestration could be improved. Yet these issues are not insuperable, and one of the pleasures of the house is that it looks to have retained so many of its original features such as the panelled doors and shutters with their chunky lugging, the plain but deep cornicing, the understated stair balustrades and so forth. It could, and ought to, be restored to better condition and the aspiration is that this will happen before too long. A little gem like Gaulstown deserves to be preserved, not least because today there are too few of its kind left in Ireland.
Gaulston House, County Westmeath, photograph by Robert O’Byrne.
Irish Historic Houses 