Ballyorney House, Enniskerry, Wicklow
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. 291. “(Monck, V/PB; Riall/LGI1958) A two storey Regency house with a three bay front ending in three sided bow, and a long return. Originally a dower house of the Monck family of Charleville, subsequently acquired by the Rialls, who made an Italian garden, aligned on the Sugarloaf Mountain. Acquired 1975 by Mr and Mrs Peter Blake who remodelled the interior, introducing plasterwork ceilings and panelling salvaged from destroyed buildings by Mr Jeremy Williams, the architect, who added a new wiing at the end of the existing return containing large drawing room rising through the full height of the house; with screens of fluted Corinthian columns and a magnificent coved ceiling of rococo plasterwork rescued from The Grove, Milltown. The new drawing, which is entered through a vaulted hall intended to convey the impression of being part of an old tower house engulfed by Georgian additions, forms the climax of an impressive sequence of rooms stretching back from the entrance ahll; its end wall is curved, with a Venetian window aligned onto the Italian gardens.”
Was section 482 in 2000, Denise Dowling, 01 6683791
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Detached three-bay two-storey house with large two-storey wing to rear, built c.1810 but possibly incorporating the fabric of an earlier dwelling. The property has a sprawling irregular plan with the main section to the north-west and the long rear wing (which has differing roof levels and appears to have been built in stages) to the south-east. The walls are finished in roughcast with quoins and a moulded eaves course to the main front. The various sections of the roof are all hipped and slated and there are rendered chimneystacks of various sizes. The entrance consists of a panelled timber double door, Ionic three-quarter column jambs, reeded entablature with ram’s skull mouldings, (all in painted sandstone), and a semi-circular fanlight with decorative leaded ‘petal’ tracery. The window openings are generally flat-headedand filled with eight over eight, six over six, four over four and two over two timber sash frames. Cast-iron rainwater goods. The interior was restored in the 1970s-80s. The house is set within its own spacious grounds.
Well preserved late small late Georgian country house which possesses the added interest of having been built around an earlier dwelling.
https://www.independent.ie/regionals/braypeople/news/ballyorney-house-goes-on-market-27647535.html
November 17 2011
By Mary Fogarty
THE ENNISKERRY house which was home to Priscilla Clarke, who vanished 23 years ago in an apparent drowning, has been put on the market at €3.6 million.
The founder of Captain America’s restauraunt Mark Kavanagh, whose wife Lynda was found dead days after she disappeared with their live- in nanny Priscilla (25), is to sell BallyorneyHouse.
Both women are believed to have drowned after being overwhelmed by flash floods. It is believed that Ardee native Priscilla drowned on May 3, 1988. She and Lynda went horse riding that day. Lynda’s remains were discovered on the banks of the Dargle within days of their disappearance.
Priscilla’s father Paddy died in 2008 at the age of 90 without any further clues as to what happened to his daughter.
The Louth man drove to Wicklow every day until his health failed him, with a flask of tea and a packed lunch, to look for Priscilla.
Her sister Claire Keane has called for a central database for DNA samples.
‘You really like to know the last movements of someone on their last day, to put all the pieces together,’ said Claire, for whom the sale of the Georgian mansion is a stark reminder of the tragedy of May 1988.
‘When a person is missing, it’s an ambiguous loss. You are always asking questions. When there is a funeral there is closure for the family. She added that her parents never got over the fact that they had no grave to visit.
Following a Cold Case review of the investigation that was undertaken at the time of the disappearance a report outlining a number of recommendations to follow was sent to Detective Inspector Frank Keeneghan of Bray Garda Station who was to lead the new investigation. He said that they would apply a modern day strategy to the case, then 20 years old.
There were 87 recommendations followed up, surviving witnesses were interviewed and leads chased. However no significant new information was uncovered.
The Georgian property just outside Enniskerry is on six acres. Priscilla had her own room there and was said to be ‘much loved’ by the Kavanagh children.
Irish Historic Houses 