Millpark House, Kilbridge, Co Carlow – private
not in Bence-Jones
Detached three-bay two-storey farmhouse with dormer attic, c. 1710, on a T-shaped plan with gable ends. Renovated with rusticated stone doorcase added. Renovated, c. 1985. Group of detached stone built outbuildings to rear.
Record of Protected Structures:
Mill Park, Aghade, Tullow
Townland: Carrickslaney
A three-bay, two-storey, gable-ended house said to date from 1650. It has a T plan with the return added at a later date. It has remarkably thick walls which suggests a seventeenth century date. The walls are rough cast and there is a square-headed, granite, blocked-architrave doorcase dating from the eighteenth century flanked by wide sidelights. The roof is slightly high pitched and there are substantial, granite stacks. The 19th century glazing has been replaced with modern windows during recent renovations.
Importance: regional, architectural, interior, social
http://www.igp-web.com/Carlow/Millpark.htm
The first Echlin home in Carlow was at Millpark, Kilbride, built in the 17th century for one of the four daughters of the Rev. Henry Echlin, Bishop of Down and Connor, from 1613, who came to Ireland from Scotland during the reign of King James I. It was his great-grandson, Henry Echlin, second Baron of the Court of Exchequer, who was created a Baronet in October 1712. His eldest son [Robert], who was an M.P., first for Downpatrick, and later for Newry, married Penelope Eustace, daughter of Sir Maurice Eustace of Harristown, County Kildare.
Millpark House was either leased or bought by the Tomlinsons around 1670, and remained in the ownership of this family until the death, in 1958, of Harriet Tomlinson. The estate, which comprised 452 acres in 1839, was sold to the Land Commission by William Tomlinson, and after the division of the land, the house was purchased by Sheila Eustace Harvey, a member of the Eustace family of Newstown. It is now the home of her son. Robin Harvey, and his wife Carole Joan.
The present drawing-room at Millpark. originally the kitchen, still retains some of its original features, including the wooden rafters, now well darkened by turf smoke The arch of the old fireplace is of local cut granite, and inside is a rounded fire-bricked oven for bread making. The large chimney had a crane fitted halfway up. enabling sides of bacon to be pulled into the flue and cured to perfection. Hooks are still in place on the rafters of the room where meat and other food items were hung. The drawing room ceiling is very unusual for a farmhouse. In 1720, Italian students who had been befriended by the Tomlinsons, returned the hospitality by completing elaborate Rococo plasterwork in the form of a hub and circle of wheat cars and stalks. The cornice was completed in the “small egg and dart” style.
May 18, 2006
Co Carlow/€1.2m: Why would you brave airports in your hunt for la vraie campagne when just down the road from Dublin is this 17th century farmhouse on 4.5 acres for €1.2m, asks Michael Parsons
Driving south through Co Carlow is not unlike cruising down an autoroute from Paris and being unaware of la France profonde on either side.
Okay, admittedly Serge does not shunt his camion at 120 km an hour, causing freshly quarried gravel to fall like brimstone and shatter Nicole and Papa’s windscreen.
The perils of the N9, therefore, allow only the occasional glimpse of a foaming weir on the lordly Barrow or the purple grandeur of the Blackstairs.
And so, the little county – Leinster’s pearl-drop earring – is quickly traversed. That’s a pity, because within minutes of the main roads lies some of Ireland’s loveliest and most unspoilt scenery with possibly the best-value property in the country.
Mill Park, Kilbride, Carlow, a 17th century farmhouse on 4.5 acres, with frontage onto the River Slaney (the county’s other major river), is to be auctioned by Dawson Real Estate Alliance at Tullow on June 22nd and carries an advised minimum value of €1.2 million.
Folks, it’s a steal.
The 232sq m (2,500sq ft) house has two reception rooms and a traditional kitchen. A diningroom, formerly the kitchen, retains turf-stained pine beams, an original bread oven and a nook where the goose once cared for its goslings.
There are three bedrooms on the first floor (two doubles and a single) and a bathroom which weekending Dortsiders might find a tad ancien régime.
On the second floor, two further bedrooms are suitable only for the vertically challenged due to won’t-forget-that-in-a-hurry low door lintels.
Outside, the farm has long gone but 4.5 magical acres remain. There’s a quarter-acre sheltered sloping lawn leading to a walled fruit and vegetable garden yielding organic treats from asparagus to Turkish brown figs.
A proper, old-fashioned chicken run (yes, children, the film was based on a true story) and a glasshouse of Black Hamburg grapevines. And a “rambling rector” rose – named, one hopes, to honour the reverend’s sermons, and not his wandering eye.
A separate garden area features a large spring-fed pond – potentially a perfect natural swimming pool (en vogue) beneath a grove of Rhodesian Oak.
There is a profusion of granite outbuildings at least two of which – a 70-ft long re-roofed store and a former milking parlour – could be converted into quaint cottage residences without damaging the character of the main house.
There is a tennis court and then a large paddock leading to a secluded stretch of pristine riverbank where a canopy of beech and ash provide shade “o’er the pleasant Slaney”.
Amid a carpet of bluebells, close to a little waterfall, a natural picnic spot created by a granite outcrop known as the Tea Rock overlooks a languid scene to rival a river valley in Dordogne.
Still determined to endure the unspeakable indignity of Dublin airport this summer and budget-airline misery to an out-of-the-way airstrip and your secret little gateway?
To what? La “vraie” campagne? Une fermette idéale? It’s on the doorstep. Just 54 miles from the city centre.
As the old song says: Suivez-moi à Carlow.
Irish Historic Houses 