Brockley Park, County Laois drawing room ceiling c. 1944, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 48. “(Jocelyn, Roden, E/PB; Young/LGI1912) A house built 1768 for 2nd Viscount Jocelyn, afterwards 1st Earl of Roden, Auditor-General of Ireland, to the design of Davis Duckart. Of three storeys over basement; seven bay entrance front with breakfront centre; garden front of four bays with a projection at one side ending in a three-sided bow. Two storey wing. Good interior plasterwork. By 1825 the Rodens had ceased to live at Brockley, which afterwards became the seat of the Young family; it was demolished 1944.”
Listed in Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
p. 97. “A large three storey house built in 1768…Superb interior plasterwork and staircase. Dismanteld in 1944, some ruins remain.”
Kinlough House, County Leitrim entrance front 1974, photograph: William Garner, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 177. (Johnston/LGI1912) A two storey five bay early C19 house. Pedimented central bay wiht Wyatt window; ground floor windows set in shallow arched recess; Doric portico with wreathes on frieze. 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.
Detached T-plan five-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c.1800 by Robert Johnston. Now in ruins. Roof has been removed. Two ashlar chimneystacks with string courses. Sandstone walls with ruled-and-lined render and tooled limestone quoins and string course. Window openings with tooled limestone surrounds and sills. Those to ground floor are set within round-headed recesses. Scar of removed Doric portico to facade with tripartite window and pediment above. Segmental-arched openings to basement with cast-iron railings. Kinlough House was formerly the home of the Johnston family.
Appraisal
Although this impressive former country house now lies in ruins, the grandeur and elegance of the building still survives. Detailing such as the flower motif to the tripartite window contributes to the artistic quality of the house. Set back from the town, the house’s outstanding architectural quality enhances the surrounding countryside.
THE JOHNSTONS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LEITRIM, WITH 14,395 ACRES
ROBERT JOHNSTON (1768-1843), of Kinlough House, County Leitrim, and 23 Mountjoy Square, Dublin, married Florence, daughter of Henry Rathborne, of Dunsinea, County Dublin, and had, with other issue,
WILLIAM, of whom presently; Henry (Ven.), Archdeacon of Elphin; St George Robert.
The eldest son,
WILLIAM JOHNSTON JP (1814-88), of Kinlough House, and Mountjoy Square, Dublin, High Sheriff of County Leitrim, 1850, wedded, in 1856, Sarah Jane, daughter of the Rev William Percy, Rector of Carrick-on-Shannon, and had issue,
JAMES, his heir; Florence Elizabeth; Sophia Mary; Emma Caroline; Lucy Katherine.
Mr Johnston was succeeded by his son,
JAMES JOHNSTON JP DL (1858-), of Kinlough House, High Sheriff of County Leitrim, 1884, who married, in 1890, Rebecca Ceely, daughter of Maurice Ceely Maude, of Lenaghan Park, County Fermanagh, and had issue,
William James, 1891-3; ROBERT CHRISTOPHER, b 1896.
I have been unable to find much information relating to the Johnstons of Kinlough.
KINLOUGH HOUSE, originally known as Oakfield House, was the seat of the Johnston family in the early 18th century.
It was remodelled in the 1820s by Robert Johnston, who renamed it Kinlough House.
In 1943 the Irish Tourist Association Survey recorded that the house had been destroyed by fire twenty years earlier, but that the gardens were still open to the public.
Housing development is occurring on the site, adjacent to the walled garden.
It was a five-bay, two-storey over basement house, built ca1800 by Robert Johnston; now ruinous.
Its roof has been removed.
There were two ashlar chimney-stacks with string courses; sandstone walls with ruled-and-lined render; and tooled limestone quoins and string course.
It had a Doric portico to the façade, with tripartite window and pediment above.
Segmental-arched openings to basement with cast-iron railings.
Although this impressive former country house now lies in ruins, the grandeur and elegance of the building still survives.
Detailing such as the flower motif to the tripartite window contributes to the artistic quality of the house.
First published in March, 2012. Sir James (Jim) Kilfedder MP (1928-1995) was born at Kinlough, County Leitrim.
From Chapter 8 of A Man May Fish by T C Kingsmill Moore, first edition published 1960, copyright Estate of T C Kingsmill Moore 1979.
“… My son tells me that you are an ardent fisherman. We have a house on the shore of Lough Melvin which fishes well in April, and there will be some salmon in the Bundrowse. If you could spare a week or a fortnight of your Easter vacation to stay with us my wife and I would be very pleased”.
This letter, the first of many phrased with the same careful courtesy, introduced me to the big lakes of the west and to a feature of Irish country life then rapidly passing away.
At Bundoran a wizened coachman met me with an outside car which soon covered the hilly miles to where the Big House stood, surrounded on three sides by woodland and open on the fourth, where lawns and fields sloped to the water’s edge.
In spring, the daffodils spread themselves in golden drifts down to the lake, in autumn the scarlet lobelia blazed a flare of colour between house and shrubberies.
The house itself, built when the Georgian style was yielding to the Victorian, was large but architecturally undistinguished.
Originally the walls of all the main rooms had been covered with French cartoons in grisaille, illustrating scenes from classical mythology.
The many life-sized nudes were a little too explicit for Victorian taste, and pictures and furniture had been arranged to hide the more compromising details.
When a later generation, bracing itself to acknowledge the facts of anatomy, removed the obstructions, it was too late.
The discolouration was permanent.
Already the house was an anachronism, a manor house without an estate.
For nearly a century, when Irish country life had been built on a structure of landlord and tenant, it had been the centre of interest for a barony, its stables full of carriages and horses, its garden a model, its owners men of learning and public spirit.
Politics and literature have dealt harshly with the Irish landlord.
Sad and mad they may have been; too often they were absentees.
But many of them were men of culture, bravery, and a high sense of public duty.
Their libraries were good and sometimes remarkable.
They planted world-famous gardens.
They organised and endowed innumerable Irish charities, relieved distress, and helped and advised such tenants as were willing to accept their advice.
Much of their time was spent in hunting and field sports, but these provided employment of the type that the Irish countryman likes, and made the big house a centre of interest and society.
Above all, they supplied a personal relationship which made up for many abuses.
A good landlord was united to his tenantry by bonds part patriarchal, part feudal, and entirely human, which formed a not unsatisfactory pattern of life.
Now all of this has been changed, shattered irretrievably by a great reform which had enabled the tenants to become freeholders.
The landlords lived on, financially not much worse off, still doing their duty on bench and synod, and spending much of their leisure in sport; but the ties which bound them and their families to the countryside were snapped.
Old retainers still remained.
The coachman who had met me was serving his fourth generation, the parlour maid had been nurse to my host, the gardener had been trained by his grandfather.
But the dust was settling; the Big House was dying at its roots.
My host, who had for some years been living a life of use and wont in which sport had ceased to play a part, his guns licensed but unfired, his rods idle in their cases, now roused himself to put his son and myself on the road to true orthodoxy.
He was orthodox to a fault, his fishing methods not so much dated as out-dated, but I owe him a grounding in caution, in boat-craft, and in etiquette which was to help me in difficult times and places…
For four years my fishing centred around the Big House, ten days in spring and the same in August.
The old retainers were dropping away. “I’ve seen what I’ve seen and I’ll not see much more,” said the coachman, now nearly ninety on the last occasion that he drove me to the station.
On my next visit he was gone.
Kate, the parlour maid, found her rheumatism too crippling, and the gardener retired on a pension to a cottage.
The squire had ceased to come to the lake with us, and he was intellectually less alert.
Over the port he had been eager to cross-question me on all the vexed problems of the day, with his unvaried courtesy treating my undergraduate opinions as if they were worth listening to.
Now he avoided discussion.
When things puzzled him he no longer sought an answer.
He lived more and more in the past.
A weary, slightly despairing look often came over his kindly face.
I was too young to recognise the significance of these changes, signs that the organism could no longer adapt itself to its environment, the first, faint, far-borne notes of the trumpet of Azrael.
Then at one stride came disaster.
Father and mother were dead; the son, always delicate, became incurably ill.
The Big House had fallen.
Another old Irish family had come to an end.
Of the Big House itself only a few ruins now remain.’
T.C. Kingsmill Moore was born in Dublin in March 1893 and he died there in February, 1979, at the age of 85. He went to school in Marlborough, England, and returned to Dublin to take a degree at Trinity College.
During the First World War, from 1917-18, he was in the Royal Flying Corps in France and Flanders. He became a barrister on his return to Dublin and during the Civil War from 1922-23 was also the War Correspondent for the Irish Times.
In 1947 he was appointed a judge of the High Court and in 1961 a judge of the Supreme Court, retiring in 1965. His visits to the Big House at Kinlough took place between 1914 and 1917 when he was an undergraduate in Trinity.
From Chapter 8 of A Man May Fish by T C Kingsmill Moore, first edition published 1960, copyright Estate of T C Kingsmill Moore 1979.
“… My son tells me that you are an ardent fisherman. We have a house on the shore of Lough Melvin which fishes well in April, and there will be some salmon in the Bundrowse. If you could spare a week or a fortnight of your Easter vacation to stay with us my wife and I would be very pleased”.
This letter, the first of many phrased with the same careful courtesy, introduced me to the big lakes of the west and to a feature of Irish country life then rapidly passing away.
At Bundoran a wizened coachman met me with an outside car which soon covered the hilly miles to where the Big House stood, surrounded on three sides by woodland and open on the fourth, where lawns and fields sloped to the water’s edge.
In spring, the daffodils spread themselves in golden drifts down to the lake, in autumn the scarlet lobelia blazed a flare of colour between house and shrubberies.
The house itself, built when the Georgian style was yielding to the Victorian, was large but architecturally undistinguished.
Originally the walls of all the main rooms had been covered with French cartoons in grisaille, illustrating scenes from classical mythology.
The many life-sized nudes were a little too explicit for Victorian taste, and pictures and furniture had been arranged to hide the more compromising details.
When a later generation, bracing itself to acknowledge the facts of anatomy, removed the obstructions, it was too late.
The discolouration was permanent.
Already the house was an anachronism, a manor house without an estate.
For nearly a century, when Irish country life had been built on a structure of landlord and tenant, it had been the centre of interest for a barony, its stables full of carriages and horses, its garden a model, its owners men of learning and public spirit.
Politics and literature have dealt harshly with the Irish landlord.
Sad and mad they may have been; too often they were absentees.
But many of them were men of culture, bravery, and a high sense of public duty.
Their libraries were good and sometimes remarkable.
They planted world-famous gardens.
They organised and endowed innumerable Irish charities, relieved distress, and helped and advised such tenants as were willing to accept their advice.
Much of their time was spent in hunting and field sports, but these provided employment of the type that the Irish countryman likes, and made the big house a centre of interest and society.
Above all, they supplied a personal relationship which made up for many abuses.
A good landlord was united to his tenantry by bonds part patriarchal, part feudal, and entirely human, which formed a not unsatisfactory pattern of life.
Now all of this has been changed, shattered irretrievably by a great reform which had enabled the tenants to become freeholders.
The landlords lived on, financially not much worse off, still doing their duty on bench and synod, and spending much of their leisure in sport; but the ties which bound them and their families to the countryside were snapped.
Old retainers still remained.
The coachman who had met me was serving his fourth generation, the parlour maid had been nurse to my host, the gardener had been trained by his grandfather.
But the dust was settling; the Big House was dying at its roots.
My host, who had for some years been living a life of use and wont in which sport had ceased to play a part, his guns licensed but unfired, his rods idle in their cases, now roused himself to put his son and myself on the road to true orthodoxy.
He was orthodox to a fault, his fishing methods not so much dated as out-dated, but I owe him a grounding in caution, in boat-craft, and in etiquette which was to help me in difficult times and places…
For four years my fishing centred around the Big House, ten days in spring and the same in August.
The old retainers were dropping away. “I’ve seen what I’ve seen and I’ll not see much more,” said the coachman, now nearly ninety on the last occasion that he drove me to the station.
On my next visit he was gone.
Kate, the parlour maid, found her rheumatism too crippling, and the gardener retired on a pension to a cottage.
The squire had ceased to come to the lake with us, and he was intellectually less alert.
Over the port he had been eager to cross-question me on all the vexed problems of the day, with his unvaried courtesy treating my undergraduate opinions as if they were worth listening to.
Now he avoided discussion.
When things puzzled him he no longer sought an answer.
He lived more and more in the past.
A weary, slightly despairing look often came over his kindly face.
I was too young to recognise the significance of these changes, signs that the organism could no longer adapt itself to its environment, the first, faint, far-borne notes of the trumpet of Azrael.
Then at one stride came disaster.
Father and mother were dead; the son, always delicate, became incurably ill.
The Big House had fallen.
Another old Irish family had come to an end.
Of the Big House itself only a few ruins now remain.’
T.C. Kingsmill Moore was born in Dublin in March 1893 and he died there in February, 1979, at the age of 85. He went to school in Marlborough, England, and returned to Dublin to take a degree at Trinity College.
During the First World War, from 1917-18, he was in the Royal Flying Corps in France and Flanders. He became a barrister on his return to Dublin and during the Civil War from 1922-23 was also the War Correspondent for the Irish Times.
In 1947 he was appointed a judge of the High Court and in 1961 a judge of the Supreme Court, retiring in 1965. His visits to the Big House at Kinlough took place between 1914 and 1917 when he was an undergraduate in Trinity.
Woodsgift, County Kilkenny, property defence expedition encampted near house September 1881, photograph: Lawrence Studio, Dublin. Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 286. (St. George, Bt/PB; Keatings/IFR) A large three storey Georgian block with a lower wing. Seven bay front with breakfront centre; later porch. Roof parapet with finials. Five bay side elevation. Burnt ante 1914 and ruin later demolished.”
Richard St. George (1670-1755) of Woodsgift and Kilrush, County Kilkenny and 8 Henrietta Street by Francis Bindon.
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. A large three storey mid to late 18C house. Porch added in 19C. In 1814 the seat of Sir Richard St. George. Burnt c. 1914. Ruin now demolished.
New Park (or Newpark) House, Co Kilkenny – burnt in 1932
Newpark House, County Kilkenny entrance front 1898 photograph: J.W. Lapham, collection: Maj. R.J.H. Carew on loan to Irish Architectural Archive, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 225. “(Newport, Bt/PB1862; Bloomfield/LGI1912) A late C18 house with rounded ends, on the opposite bank of the River Suir to the City of Waterford. Built by the rich and powerful C18 Waterford banking family of Newport, in whose day the house was noted for its picture collection. Subsequently passed on to the Boomfield family. Burnt 1932.”
John Newport (1756-1843) 1st Bt, c. 1828 by James Ramsay courtesy of Fonsie Mealy Summer Fine Art sale 2025.
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.
From an old photograph album, a view of New Park, County Kilkenny. Situated high above the river Suir on the opposite bank to the City of Waterford and with parkland running down to the water, the house was built in the second half of the 18th century by Simon Newport, who established the region’s largest and most important bank, Simon Newport and Sons: at the time there was a common expression in Waterford, ‘as good as Newport’s notes.’ Unfortunately in 1820 the bank failed and the founder’s younger son William Newport who was then responsible for its affairs committed suicide. Although he repudiated any personal liability Simon Newport’s elder son, Sir John Newport, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer who was then an M.P. in London, contributed at least £5,000 towards numerous local compensation claims. On his death in 1843, New Park was inherited by Sir John’s only surviving nephew, the Rev. John Newport and when he died sixteen years later, the estate was sold to Fitzmaurice Gustavus Bloomfield whose mother had been heiress to the Castle Caldwell estate in County Fermanagh. New Park remained with the Bloomfield family until the house was destroyed by fire in 1932: below is a photograph of its appearance after the conflagration.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
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. 166. “(Evans, Bt/EDB; De Montmorency, Bt/PB; Smithwick/IFR) A very important late C17 house. Of two storeys over basement; “U”-shaped, the two wings projecting on either side of the entrance front and each having two bays in its end. High, sprocketed roof on bracket cornice. Brick chimney stacks with recessed panels. Front prolonged by screen walls with niches and large rusticated arches. Good quoins. Later pilastered porch. Six bay garden front, the two outer bays on either side breaking forward. Single storey entrance hall, with stairs in separate room at side of hall. Very fine chimneypieces, notably one of grey Kilkenny marble with a scroll pediment. The house was demolished in fairly recent years; some of the chimneypieces are at Bonnettstown Hall and one is at Kilcreene Lodge.”
Kilcreene Lodge:
(Smithwick/IFR) A pleasant two storey stucco faced Victorian house, built ca 1860 by J.W. [John William] Smithwick, incorporating an older, smaller house. Four bay front with triangular pediments on console brackets over ground floor windows, and gabled wing at one end. Roof of main block on bracket cornice. Irregular adjoining garden front, with single-storey curved and balustraded bow; decorative ironwork cresting on ridge of roof. Ornate overdoors in the hall and drawing room, the latter being large and handsome room in Louis Quinze style. Good late C17 or early C18 chimneypiece brought from Kilcreene House in billiard room. Attractive garden with lake spanned by bridge.”
Edmond Smithwick (1800-1876), courtesy of Sheppards auction.
The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy: Kilkenny. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2004.
Smithwick of Kilcreene.
p. 193. Kilcreene House, the home of the Smithwick family for many generations and now a hospital, was first built, according to Peter Smithwick, in 1660. The lands of Kilcreene were originally owned by the Rothe family and then after the Cromwellian war it was acquired by Sir Henry Bayley Meredith [he was married to one of the Butlers of Lanesborough]. This Smithwick family bought the lands from the Merediths.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
Detached four-bay two-storey house, redeveloped 1863, incorporating fabric of earlier house, c.1675, with two-bay two-storey recessed wing to right having single-bay single-storey lean-to advanced glazed porch leading to full-height gabled canted projecting bay, and three-bay two-storey higher return to west having bowed bay window to left ground floor. Completed, 1884-90. Hipped slate roofs (lean-to to porch; half-polygonal to projecting bay incorporating gable) with terracotta ridge tiles, rolled lead ridges having wrought iron finials to apexes, decorative timber bargeboards, and cast-iron rainwater goods on overhanging timber eaves having carved timber consoles. Painted rendered walls with panelled piers to bow bay window supporting frieze, moulded cornice on consoles, and balustraded parapet having moulded coping. Square-headed window openings (paired round-headed window openings to projecting bay) with painted sills, moulded rendered surrounds having triangular pediments to ground floor on consoles (entablature to ground floor projecting bay on consoles), and one-over-one timber sash windows having timber casement windows to return. Square-headed openings to bowed bay window with panelled pilaster surrounds having entablatures on consoles, and French doors having overlights. Square-headed door opening with timber panelled door having sidelights, and overlight. Interior with carved timber architraves to door openings (some with moulded friezes supporting entablatures; some with foliate consoles flanking friezes supporting entablatures) having timber panelled doors, decorative plasterwork cornices to ceilings, and carved Kilkenny limestone fireplace, c.1800, incorporating scroll pediment. Set back from road in own grounds with landscaped grounds to site.
Appraisal
Having origins in a mid to late seventeenth-century range intended as a flax (linen) miller’s house a middle-size lodge redeveloped by Charles Geoghegan (1820-1908) for John William Smithwick (1833-94) represents a pleasant Victorian merchant’s villa forming an important element of the domestic architectural legacy of County Kilkenny. Displaying characteristic robust detailing the various rendered and timber accents enhance the Italianate theme identifying the architectural design significance of the composition. Having been well maintained the historic fabric survives substantially intact both to the exterior and to the interior where features including Victorian joinery, decorative plasterwork, an early fireplace salvaged from nearby Kilcreene House (c.1675; demolished, post-1950), and so on all exhibit high quality traditional craftsmanship. Set in mature grounds the house together with the outlying estate makes an appealing visual impression on the road leading into Kilkenny City from the west.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
WONDERFULLY SPACIOUS, RICH WITH HISTORY AND SURROUNDED BY GLORIOUS GROUNDS OF SOME 4HA (10ACRES), KILCREENE LODGE IS A RARE AND EXTRAORDINARY GEM. SPECIAL FEATURES – Fully restored and maintained 17th Century Italianate Mansion with Jacobean and Victorian features. – 5 exquisite flowing reception rooms, ideal for entertaining – Notable and beautiful period detailing – 8 bedrooms – Rich history former residence of Walter Smithwick – Private setting in lush grounds in the heart of Kilkenny city – c. 4ha(10acres) of grounds on own private Lake DESCRIPTION Set overlooking a weir on a private lake which runs into the River Breagagh and downtown to meet the Nore, Kilcreene Lodge occupies an extraordinary location. Secluded on its private almost ten-acre estate, it is just a short walk to the Medieval core of Kilkenny City. Lovingly maintained and presented as a signature historic home, it has also been beautifully modernised to add the luxury and comforts of contemporary living. Find beautiful and graceful formal rooms, across which film stars and aristocracy have danced. Throughout the years, luminaries including Tyrone Power and James Cagney, Lord Iveagh and Miranda Guinness have enjoyed the beautiful hospitality Kilcreene Lodge has to offer. Further back, Daniel O’Connell, known as the Irish Liberator, was a beloved and frequent guest. A bright and welcoming home, with graceful proportions throughout, you will find space to entertain, places to work and ample family accommodation to relax. History is elegantly layered, as the earliest Jacobean parts of the house, dating from 1690, meet Victorian spaces with wonderful stained glass, as contemporary additions are seamlessly incorporated. These are all held together by an Italianate theme, based on the timeless Classical principals of architecture. Kilcreene is noted by the Inventory of Architectural Heritage, most particularly for the preservation of its original features, and for the quality of its craftsmanship. Yet this is not a museum piece of a house, rather an extraordinary and stunningly beautiful home, in which you can fully enjoy all the wonderful qualities it has to offer.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
HISTORY Originally built in 1690, the year King William triumphed at the Battle of the Boyne, Kilcreene Lodge was once a peaceful miller’s house. There is still a small water wheel on the river, as a memory of this time. A quiet spot, surrounded by mature woodlands and forestry and acres of rolling fields, it would have been a short horse ride to the markets of Kilkenny City. Almost two hundred years later, John William Smithwick spotted the opportunity of this wonderful location, and employed Charles Geoghegan to almost quadruple the size of the house. Geoghegan also worked on Annagh’s Castle in Kilkenny, and was responsible for some of the beautifully Italianate bank buildings at Foster Place and Dame Street in Dublin. He was also passionate about water supply, and Kilcreene is said to have been the first house in County Kilkenny with running water in the bathroom. The building followed the fortunes of the famous Smithwick brewing family, growing as they grew in prosperity, and increasingly hosting the famous and notable of each passing era: from Daniel O’Connell to Tyrone Power, and James Cagney to the Guinnesses. Successive generations have added their own stamp, all the while preserving what was best about the house they inherited. In 1999 Kilcreene was purchased by Gerry and Christine Byrne who lovingly restored the original house and sympathetically extended by building on the Lake room and a Master suite. This means that, today, there is still running water in the eight bathrooms, but they are now exceptionally lavish ensuites. The property has a host of reception rooms as well as a fully fitted Kitchen which features original ceramic brick wall tiles, painted units and Aga cooker. The house is complemented by all the modern conveniences you could need for catering the kind of parties this house so richly deserves. As Kilkenny City has grown to the thriving and cultural spot it is today, Kilcreene retains a beautiful sense of timelessness and tranquillity. It is a rare and quiet gem, at peace with itself and its extraordinary place in the world. KILCREENE LODGE Layers of time blend beautifully at Kilcreene Lodge. Fronting onto the private Lake, the entrance hall, with its warm tiled floor and stunning sweeping staircase is actually a newer addition, created to knit the Period elements of the house together.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
From here, 5 exquisite reception rooms, ideal for entertaining. Firstly an exceptionally large and graceful triple aspect Lake room, opens to a sun terrace looking on to the weir and tranquil waters, and is the most wonderful space for entertaining. This graceful reception room leads to the dining room, while to the right, there is an equally beautiful and spacious drawing room, music room and living room. The Lake room, dining room and drawing room all have commanding fireplaces and interconnect. The second hall is currently a jewel box of a music room, with particularly wonderful plasterwork.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
The dining room is notable for its rich and deeply polished parquet floor and timber ceiling, while the other reception rooms display ornate plasterwork. To the rear of the house there is a bright kitchen, large study, from which you can hear the sounds of birdsong, and the trickling waters. The office leads to a charming sunroom, with double doors out onto a decked area for al fresco dining, a peaceful retreat with planted sloping bank with watercourse which gives a fantastic backdrop. There are also storerooms, utility rooms, a boot room and cloakroom.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
Upstairs, there is a very elegant gallery landing with arching columns, skylights and ornate plasterwork. The master suite is triple aspect, with a balcony. It has a walk-in wardrobe, and the ensuite is a beautiful open space with a gorgeous free-standing bath that has its own delicious garden and lake views. There are eight bedrooms which are all ensuite, and a gym. The second main bedroom has its own balcony and its fitted ensuite also has balcony access. These are bedrooms to savour and truly enjoy.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
GARDENS AND GROUNDS A winding lime tree-lined drive leads to Kilcreene Lodge, where the house is beautifully surrounded by lawns and sheltered by mature trees. There is c.4ha (10 acres) in all, including a gravelled parking area, and stone patios at the front, overlooking the Lake and weir. The gardens have been designed to enjoy lovely private spots, classic lighting, decks, sheltered lawns, a small water wheel and feature fountain. There are little bridges, places to walk in peace, and a hard tennis court. Also find a separate garage building with an upper floor and plenty of storage for all your gardening needs.
Kilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ieKilcreene Lodge, County Kilkenny, courtesy myhome.ie
See Ancestry.co.uk John William Smithwick
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. 92. A very important late 17C house. It had an “H” shaped plan. Flanking screen walls were added to the entrance front in the 18C and a single storey porch was added in 19C. Very fine interior with interesting 18 C chimneypieces. The house was sold in 1947 and has since been delmolished. Seat of General Drummond in 1814.
Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny Irish Tourist Association Photographer 1942 NLI Ref NPA ITA 1214 (Box VI).
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. 64. “(Wandesford, E/DEP; Butler, sub Ormonde, M/PB; Prior-Wandesford/LGI1958) A very large C18 and C19 house, consisting of a square two storey main block with fronts of five bays, and a slightly lower three storey wing of great length, recessed for its first six bays and then stepped forward. Battlemented parapet on main block and wing; rectangular Georgian sash-windows, mostly with astragals; pointed Georgian-Gothic windows on ground floor of entrance front of main block; hood mouldings over windows of main block. John Johnston, who worked at Birr Castle, was also employed here. Enclosed Gothic porch. Largely demolished in recent years.”
Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, photograph: Gillman Collection, 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.
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. 89. A very large 18C house with 19C additions. Battlemented parapet. Burnt in 1965 and now largely demolished.
John Wandesford (1725-1784) 1st Earl of Wandesford and Viscount Castlecomer. Picture after Joshua Reynolds.
Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.Castlecomer House, County Kilkenny, courtesy Archiseek.
The original Castlecomer House, the family seat of the Wandesfordes, was built in 1638. It was burned down during the battle of Castlecomer in 1798. A replacement and larger house was constructed on the site in 1802. This house was on a far grander scale than the original, and was testament to the success of the Wandesforde enterprise in Ireland. It was a large 19th century mansion consisting of a square, two-storey main block with fronts of five bays; a slightly lower three-storey wing of great length.There was a battlemented parapet on the main wing and block; rectangular sash windows, mostly astragals. Also an enclosed Gothic porch.
Lying largely empty during the 1960s and 70s, most of the building was demolished in 1975. Nothing now remains of the house. The entrance and lodge can still be seen today, designed by G.F. Beckett in 1913.
The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy: Kilkenny. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2004.
THE WANDESFORDES WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY KILKENNY, WITH 22,232 ACRES
This family was of great antiquity in Yorkshire.
JOHN DE WANDESFORDE, of Westwick, near Ripon, married, in 1368, Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir Henry de Musters, Knight, of Kirklington, Yorkshire, and widow of Alexander Mowbray.
He died in 1396, and was direct ancestor of
THOMAS WANDESFORDE, of Kirklington, in 1503, who wedded Margaret, daughter of Henry Pudsey.
He died in 1518, having had four sons and two daughters,
CHRISTOPHER, his heir; William; Michael; John (Rev); Ellen; Elizabeth.
The eldest son,
CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD, of Kirklington, espoused Anne, daughter of John Norton, and died in 1540, having had issue,
FRANCIS, his heir; Christopher.
The elder son,
FRANCIS WANDESFORD, of Kirklington, married Anne, elder daughter and co-heir of John Fulthorpe, of Hipswell, and had by her (who wedded secondly, Christopher, younger son of Ralph, Earl of Westmorland),
CHRISTOPHER (Sir); John; Jane.
Mr Wandesford died in 1559, and was succeeded by his elder son,
SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD, Knight, of Kirklington, who received the honour of knighthood, 1586, and served as Sheriff of Yorkshire, 1578.
He espoused Elizabeth, daughter of Sir George Bowes, of Streatlam, and dying in 1590, was succeeded by his elder son,
SIR GEORGE WANDESFORD, Knight (1573-1612), of Kirklington, knighted by JAMES I, 1607, who wedded firstly, Catherine, daughter and co-heir of Ralph Hansby, of Beverley, and had issue,
CHRISTOPHER, his successor; John; Michael (Very Rev); Anne.
Sir George espoused secondly, Mary, daughter of Robert Pamplin, and had a daughter, Margaret, and a son, WILLIAM WANDESFORDE, Citizen of London, to whom, and his heirs, his eldest brother, in 1637, gave £20 per annum, issuing out of the manor of Castlecomer, and payable upon Strongbow’s tomb in Christ Church, Dublin.
Sir George was succeeded by his eldest son,
THE RT HON CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1592-1640), being upon close habits of intimacy and friendship with Sir Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, accompanied that eminent and ill-fated nobleman into Ireland when he was constituted Chief Governor of that kingdom, was sworn of the Privy Council, and was appointed Master of the Rolls.
Mr Wandesford was one of the Lords Justices in 1636 and 1639; and was appointed, in 1640, Lord Deputy; but the fate of his friend Lord Strafford had so deep an effect upon him, that he died in that year.
[Kavanagh, p. 218. He appears to have brought over some of his relatives to Ireland also, as his brother Nicholas was MP for Thomastown and his eldest son, George, was MP for Clogher in 1639. – see Burke’s Landed Gentry.
Christopher bought the lease of Kildare castle and manor from Sir Charles Coote shortly after his arrival in Ireland and intended livign there. He did in fact live in the castle for a year with his familoy but the Earl of Wentworth took a fancy to the place and two years later it was sold to him. In July 1637 Christopher Wandesford bought Castlecomer Castle and an estate of some 20,000 acres. These lands were formerly owned by the Gaelic Brennan clan from the barony of Odough, of which Castlecomer is the focal point.
The Brennans, in common with other Gaelic families of Leinster such as the O’Moores of Laois, Kavanaghs of Crlow and the O’Byrnes of Wicklow and Fitzpatricks of Ossory, saw their lands pilfered from them under the governments of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. …An inquisition held in Kilkenny in 1635 found that the Brennans had no title in the area as they were “mere Irish” and held only the territory by force of arms. In 1636 Christopher W. commenced negotiations to buy the Brennan lands from Ormonde and Ridgeway. The sale included the castle of Castlecomer, which was in the possession of Richard Butler, 3rd Viscount Mountgarret… By 1638 W.had still not succeeded in obtaining possessionso Straford sent a body of soldiers to Castlecomer where they seized the parents of about 100 families of Brennans, took them to Dublin and imprisoned them. They took possession of the castle.
Christopher’s conscience must have been causing him some trouble, as in his will he made in 1640, he made provision for the payment of some money to some of the Brennan families to the value of a 21 year lease on whatever lands they occupied at the time. He also secured the release of one of the Brennans who had been sentenced to death for sheep stealing, and installed his half-brother William as his agent. William and his wife took up residence in the castle.
He married, in 1614, Alice, daughter of Sir Hewet Osborne, of Kiveton, Yorkshire, and had issue,
GEORGE, his heir; CHRISTOPHER, successor to his brother; John; Catherine; Alice.
Mr Wandesford was succeeded by his eldest son,
GEORGE WANDESFORD (1623-51), of Kirklington, who dsp and was succeeded by his brother,
SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1628-87), of Kirklington, who was created a baronet in 1662, denominated of Kirklington, Yorkshire.
He married, in 1651, Eleanor, daughter of Sir John Lowther Bt, of Lowther Hall, Westmorland, and had issue,
Sir Christopher, MP for Ripon, was succeeded by his eldest son,
THE RT HON SIR CHRISTOPHER WANDESFORD (1656-1707), who was sworn of the Privy Council by WILLIAM III, and again, in 1702, by Queen ANNE, who elevated him to the peerage, in 1706, as Baron Wandesforde and VISCOUNT CASTLECOMER.
He wedded, in 1683, Elizabeth, daughter of George Montagu, of Horton, Northamptonshire, and had issue,
The 1st EARL OF WANDESFORD died in 1784, and his son having predeceased him, all his honours, including the baronetcy, became extinct, and his estates upon his only daughter,
THE LADY ANNE WANDESFORDE, who espoused, in 1769, John Butler, to whom the EARLDOM OF ORMONDE was restored by the House of Lords, 1791, as 17th Earl of Ormonde and 10th Earl of Ossory.
Her fourth, but second surviving son,
THE HON CHARLES HARWARD BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE(1780-1860), of Castlecomer and Kirklington, inherited his mother’s estates, and assumed, in 1820, the additional surname of CLARKE after Butler; and, in 1830, the additional surnames of SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE after Butler-Clarke.
He espoused, in 1812, the Lady Sarah Butler, daughter of Henry Thomas, 2nd Earl of Carrick, and had issue,
John, dspvp; HENRY BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE, died unmarried; Walter, father of CHARLES; SARAH, of Castlecomer and Kirklington.
The Hon Charles Harward Butler C S Wandesforde was succeeded by his grandson,
CHARLES BUTLER-CLARKE-SOUTHWELL-WANDESFORDE, of Castlecomer and Kirklington, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1879, who died unmarried, 1881, and was succeeded by his aunt,
SARAH PRIOR-WANDESFORDE (1814-92), of Castlecomer, Kirklington, Hipswell, and Hudswell, Yorkshire, who married, in 1836, the Rev John Prior, of Mount Dillon, County Dublin, Rector of Kirklington, Yorkshire, son of the Rev Dr Thomas Prior, Vice-Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and had issue,
Charles Butler, father of RICHARD HENRY PRIOR-WANDESFORDE; Henry Wallis; Sarah Butler; Sophia Elizabeth.
Mrs Prior-Wandesforde succeeded to the Castlecomer and Kirklington estates on the death of her nephew, 1881, and in accordance with the provisions contained in her father’s will, assumed, in 1882, for herself and her issue the additional surname and arms of WANDESFORDE.
She was succeeded by her grandson,
RICHARD HENRY PRIOR-WANDESFORDE JP DL (1870-), of Castlecomer and Kirklington Hall, Hipswell, and Hudswell, Yorkshire, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1894, who wedded, in 1896, Florence Jackson von Schwartz, daughter of the Rev Ferdinand Pryor, Rector of Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and had issue,
CHRISTOPHER BUTLER, b 1896; Ferdinand Charles Richard, b 1897; Richard Cambridge, b 1902; Vera; Florence Doreen.
*****
During Lady Ormonde’s time on the estate, the coal mines were mainly run by master miners who leased the land and employed teams of about fifty men to operate them.
Her son, Charles Harward Butler-Clarke-Southwell-Wandesforde, took a great interest in the running of the estate and in the welfare of his tenants and attempted to reduce the role of “middle men” by reducing rents and providing assistance.
He even helped some of his tenants to emigrate.
He was succeeded by his daughter Sarah, who married John Prior.
She outlived all her children and was succeeded by her grandson Richard Henry who inherited the estates and assumed the Wandesforde name in 1892.
When Captain Richard Henry Prior-Wandesforde inherited the estate in the late 19th Century, the family owned thousands of acres of woodland in the area.
In previous years, the mines had been operated by master miners who leased the mines from the Wandesforde family, but ‘the Captain’ took personal control of the mines.
He introduced many improvements in the mine workings including overhead ropeways to transport the coal to the Deerpark railway depot.
He also established the Castlecomer Basket Factory, the Castlecomer Agricultural Bank and the Colliery Co-operative Society and built a number of housing schemes for the mine workers.
Captain Prior-Wandesforde took personal control of the coal mines and invested his own money in upgrading and modernising the mine workings.
CASTLECOMER HOUSE in County Kilkenny, the family seat, was originally built in 1638.
It was burned down during the battle of Castlecomer in 1798.
A larger house was built in its place, in 1802, during the time of Lady Ormonde.
It was a very large 18th and 19th century mansion consisting of a square, two-storey main block with fronts of five bays; a slightly lower three-storey wing of great length.
There was a battlemented parapet on the main wing and block; rectangular sash windows, mostly astragals; and an enclosed Gothic porch.
Most of the building was demolished in 1975 as it was no longer in use and had fallen into disrepair.
Nothing now remains of the house.
Castlecomer Discovery Park is situated on grounds that once formed part of the Wandesforde family estate.
The Visitor Centre is located in what was originally the farm yard and kitchen gardens of the estate.
The stables and many of the farm buildings have been restored and now house the craft units and the education facilities.
The original walled garden is now home to a small herd of Fallow and Sika Deer and a flock of Jacob Sheep.
Castle Morres, County Kilkenny, entrance front c. 1900, photograph collection Mrs. de Montmorency, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 73. “de Montmorency, Bt/PB; De Montmorency/IFR) a magnificent mid-18C house by Francis Bindon. Of two storeys over basement, nine by front…sold post world War I, partially demolished ca 1940; ruin recently demolished.
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. 89. “A large mid18C house designed by Francis Bindon for the Morres family. Very fine interior with good plasterwork. Altered in the early 19C by Daniel Robertson of Kilkenny. Partially demolished following a demolition sale in 1940. Ruin recently demolished.
Castle Morres, County Kilkenny entrance hall chimneypiece c. 1912, photograph: G.D. Croker, 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.Castle Morres, County Kilkenny, entrance hall chimneypiece 1977, photograph: William Garner, 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.
The first Viscount Mountmorris commissioned Castle Morres as one of the largest stately homes in the country and it was built in approximately 1751. Sold in the 1920s to the Land Commission, it was deroofed in the 1930s, and the ruin finally demolished in 1978. Only a gatelodge attributed to Daniel Robertson remains.
A gate lodge at the entrance to the former Castle Morres estate in County Kilkenny. The main house here, built for the de Montmorency family, dated from the mid-18th century, its design attributed to Francis Bindon: the remains of the building were demolished in 1978. This lodge was constructed later, at some point in the second quarter of the 19th century and is presumed to have been the work of Daniel Robertson.
The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy: Kilkenny. Volume 1. Art Kavanagh, 2004.
De Montmorency.
p. 116. According to Lodge the family descended from Hervey de Monte Marisco, who accompanied Strongbow to Ireland in 1170. They received grants of land in Wexford, Tipperary and Kerry. Many of these lands were later conveyed to the Ormondes through marriage connections.
p. 117. The family seems to have persisted in Tipperary wher the name became Morres. The Kilkenny family descended from Herny the secodn son of John Morres of Knockagh in co Tipperary. This John was the grandson of Sir John Morres who was created a baronet in 1632. Hervey was born in 1625 and saw few prospects at home and probably in a spirit of adventure left and joined Cromwell’s army.
THE DE MONTMORENCYS OWNED 4,808 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY KILKENNY
MAJOR HERVEY RANDALL SAVILLE PRATT DL (1782-1859), third son of the Rev Joseph Pratt, of Cabra Castle, County Cavan, by the Hon Sarah de Montmorency his wife, daughter of Harvey, 1st Viscount Mountmorres, of Castle Morres, County Kilkenny, wedded, in 1811, Rose Lloyd, daughter of the Rt Rev John Kearney, Lord Bishop of Ossory, and had issue,
JOHN, his heir; Joseph; Hervey Mervyn; Raymond; Anne Sarah; Letitia; Elizabeth; Sarah; Fanny.
Mr Pratt, who, upon the death of his father, succeeded his mother in the Kilkenny estates, which she and her sister, the Marchioness of Antrim, had jointly inherited as co-heirs of their brother Hervey Redmond, 2nd Viscount Mountmorres.
He assumed, in 1831, the surname and arms of DE MONTMORENCY.
Mr de Montmorency was succeeded by his eldest son,
JOHN PRATT DE MONTMORENCY (1815-68), of Castle Morres, who married, in 1838, Henrietta O’Grady, daughter of Standish, 1st Viscount Guillamore, and had issue,
HERVEY JOHN, his heir; WALLER, successor to his brother; Mervyn Standish, barrister; Raymond Oliver; Katherine Maria; Rose Emily.
Mr de Montmorency was succeeded by his eldest son,
HERVEY JOHN DE MONTMORENCY JP (1840-73), of Castle Morres, High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1872, late 2nd Dragoon Guards, who espoused, in 1867, Grace, daughter of Sir Thomas Fraser Grove Bt, of Ferne, Wiltshire, leaving issue, a daughter, Henrietta Kathleen.
He was succeeded by his brother,
THE VEN WALLER DE MONTMORENCY JP (1841-1924), of Castle Morres, Archdeacon of Ossory, who wedded, in 1872, Mary, daughter of the Rt Rev James Thomas O’Brien, Lord Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, and had issue,
JOHN PRATT, his heir; Geoffey FitzHervey, b 1876.
The Archdeacon was succeeded by his elder son,
CAPTAIN JOHN PRATT DE MONTMORENCY CMG DL RN (1873-1960), High Sheriff of County Kilkenny, 1921, who espoused firstly, in 1908, Margaret Elinor, eldest daughter of Colonel Samuel Pym; and secondly, in 1934, Norah, daughter of Colonel Mervyn de Montmorency, by whom he had issue,
Jane Avril, b 1936; Sarah Anne, 1943-97.
CASTLE MORRES, Kilmaganny, County Kilkenny, was a splendid mid-18th century mansion by Francis Binden.
It comprised three storeys over a basement, with a nine-bay front.
There were single wings on either side of the centre block.
There was a three-bay central break-front with quoins and a rusticated ground floor.
The roof parapet had balustrades.
A balustraded perron and double stairway led to the doorway, which had Ionic columns and pediment.
There was a magnificent black marble chimney-piece in the hall, resplendent with a military trophy under a scroll pediment; and an eagle spreading its wings above.
Captain John Pratt de Montmorency sold Castle Morres to the Irish Land Commission in 1926.
In the 1930s its roof was removed; and the once great mansion house suffered its ultimate fate in 1978 when it was demolished.
Bellevue, County Kilkenny, Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland by The Knight of Glin, David J. Griffin and Nicholas K. Robinson, published by The Irish Architectural Archive and The Irish Georgian Society, 1988.
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 38. “(Power/IFR) A three storey Georgian house with a top storey almost as high as those below, creating an unusal effect. Eight bay front; entrance doorway with recessed columns fitted in between two narrower windows, under an unusual 19C two storey canted portico, almost like an Indian verandah, wiht four widely spaced polygonal columns of no recognisable order in each storey, the upper storey forming a covered balcony with a wrought-iron balustrade; the upper entablature being adorned with St. Hubert’s Stag, the crest of the Power family. Prominent moulded string courses; parapeted roof. Entirely plain four bay side elevation. Owned in early C19 by the politician, Richard Lawlor Shiel, MP, from whom it was bought by Patrick Power, MP. Sold 1940 by A.R. Power; afterwards dismantled, the ruin standing for some years until it collapsed.”
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. 89. A three storey late Georgian house with good Doric doorcase. A strange two storey canted portico was added in the late 19C by the Power family. Dismanteld c. 1940. The ruin has since collapsed.
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. 16. “(Knox/IFR; Gabbett/IFR) A Georgian house, built by a descendent of William Baker, who was granted the estate, which had originally belonged to the Tobin family, 1660; subsequently reduced in size and inherited towards the end of C19 by a branch of the Knox family, from whom it passed by inheritance to the present owner, Lt-Col R.E. Gabbett. In 1953, finding the house ‘ugly and awkward’ Col Gabbett demolished the greater part of it, and built a two storey modern house in the Georgian style, incorporating what remained. The architect of the new house was Donald A. Tyndall.”
Detached four-bay two-storey house, rebuilt 1953, incorporating fabric of earlier house, c.1750, on site with single-bay two-storey side elevations, and two-bay two-storey return to north-east leading to four-bay three-storey end block to east having two-bay three-storey side elevations. Now in use as guesthouse. Hipped slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks, rooflight, and cast-iron rainwater goods on slightly overhanging rendered eaves. Ivy-clad unpainted roughcast walls with inscribed cut-limestone date stone/plaque, and unpainted rendered walls to rear (north) elevation. Square-headed window openings (some in tripartite arrangement) with cut-limestone sills, six-over-six timber sash windows having two-over-two sidelights to tripartite openings, and three-over-six timber sash windows to top floor end block. Elliptical-headed door opening with two cut-limestone steps, carved cut-limestone surround, timber panelled pilaster doorcase, timber panelled double doors having sidelights on panelled risers, and fanlight. Elliptical-headed door opening to house with timber panelled pilaster doorcase, glazed timber panelled door having sidelights on panelled risers, and fanlight. Interior with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set back from road in own grounds with gravel forecourt, and landscaped grounds to site.
A substantial house of two periods of construction resulting from the mid twentieth-century redevelopment of a mid eighteenth-century range for R.E. Gabbett (n. d.) to designs prepared by Donald Alfred Tyndall (d. 1975). Classically-derived details including the Wyatt-style tripartite arrangement to some window openings, the elegant treatment of the doorcase, and so on all serve to enhance the formal architectural design value of the composition. Having historic connections with the Tobin, the Whyte Baker, the Johnston, the Knox and the Gabbett families the house remains an important element of the built heritage of the locality.
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. 254. “(Cramer-Roberts/LCI 1958; Close/LG1937 supp) A Georgian block of three storeys over basement, six bays long and five bays deep, with a parapeted roof and a strong-course under the top storey windows giving htem the effect of an attic. In the Victorian period, two single-storey three sided pilastered bows were added on one front, with a pilastered rectangular projection between them; and single-storey pilastered rectangular projections were added on the adjoining fronts, one of them having a pierced parapet and running the full depth of the house. Stylistically, these additions seem likely to have been to the design of George Ashlin. On the death of M.W.C. Cramer-Roberts 1939, Sallymount passed to his daughter, Mrs Maxwell Close, by whom it was sold. Now demolished.”
Family tree see Rev John (ne Cramer) Roberts.
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. 86. A large plain late 18C house with Victorian additions, built by the Cramer Roberts family. Demolished.
Sherlockstown, Sallins, Co Kildare
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.
Stacumny House, Celbridge, Co Kildare
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.
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.
Yeomanstown, Naas, Co Kildare
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.
Yeomanstown Lodge, Naas, Co Kildare
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
Irish Historic Houses 