Scregg, Knockcroghery, Co Roscommon
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. 255. “A three storey five bay mid-C18 house. Blocked Diocletian window in centre of front above Venetian window above pedimented tripartite doorway with columns standing forward from the entablature and carrying nothing. Rusticated window surrounds. The seat of the Kelly family.”
https://www.igs.ie/conservation/project/scregg-house-co-roscommon
In celebrating National Heritage Week 2022, the Irish Georgian Society is reflecting on projects it has assisted over the last 20 years through its Conservation Grants Programme. Funded through IGS London and IGS Inc (USA), over €1.6m has been awarded during this time.
Day 9: Scregg House, Co. Roscommon
Built in 1767 by the Kelly family, Scregg House has an impressive façade, characterised by a careful spatial relationship between wall and windows. Above a stone doorcase with triangular temple pediment and sidelights, a round-headed Venetian window gives light to the first floor landing. This, in turn, is surmounted by a large semi-circular Diocletian ‘thermal’ window—named after the thermae, or bathhouses, of ancient Rome. This central spine of doorcase and windows is flanked on either side by eight windows, set two by two and ascending through three stories over basement. The windows are surrounded by cut-stone frames—referred to as ‘Gibbsian’, with keystones and squared blocks of stone projecting at intervals. Located near Mote, in Co. Roscommon, Scregg House is something of a rural palazzo. It may have been designed by the same architect who worked on Ledwithstown House, on the other side of Lough Ree—less than thirty kilometres distant. Although much altered over the years, nearby Newpark House, also has a Diocletian window, but Scregg House is remarkable in that so much of its original architectural quality has been retained.
IGS Grants — 2007: roof and rainwater goods repairs; 2009: window repairs
The work of the Irish Georgian Society is supported through the Heritage Council’s ‘Heritage Capacity Fund 2022’.
Detached five-bay three-storey over basement with attic storey former country house, built c.1765, no longer in use. Pitched slate roof with stone chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast-rendered walls with limestone quoins and tooled limestone cornice. Square-headed window openings with timber sash windows, tooled limestone sills and block-and-start limestone surrounds. Diocletian window to second floor and Venetian window to first floor. Tooled limestone pedimented door surround with engaged Ionic columns with timber panelled door flanked by side lights. Door accessed up limestone steps. Two-storey stone outbuildings to west. Gabled coach house to west with copies of the original Sheela-na-gigs inserted to gable.
Appraisal
Scregg House was an exceptional country residence of the Kelly family until c.1980. The alternating treatment of the entrance bay fenestration is characteristic of early to mid eighteenth-century Irish Georgian architecture. Architectural quality is apparent in the decorative treatment of the limestone door surround. The Sheela-na-gigs add an archaeological and artistic significance to the site.
http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-list.jsp?letter=S
A Kelly home built in 1767, occupied by J.E. Kelly in 1837 and Eliza Kelly in the 1850s. In the sale rental of 1856 the house is described as a respectable mansion, 3 stories high with basement and attic stories and a view of the Shannon River. Occupied in 1906 by the representatives of Henry Potts. The house is extant but no longer lived in. It is currently (2009) being restored with support from the Irish Georgian Society, see http://www.igs.ie/Programmes/Conservation-Grants/Scregg-House.aspx
https://theirishaesthete.com/2020/12/21/scregg/
How long past were the Glories
‘Inver House embodied one of those large gestures of the minds of the earlier Irish architects, some of which still stand to justify Ireland’s claim to be a civilised country. It was a big, solemn, square house of three stories, built of cut stone, grandly planned, facing west in two immense sweeping curves, with a high-pillared portico between them and stone balustrades around the roof.’
‘The high windows of the great room were bare of blinds and curtains, and the hot afternoon sun beat in unchecked. It was a corner room, looking south towards the demesne, and its longer western side was built out in a wide, shallow curve, with two massive pillars of green Galway marble marking at either end the spring of the curve, and supporting a heavy gilt cornice above the broad window.’
‘Everything that had survived of the original conception of the room, the heavy, tall teak doors, with their carved architraves and brass furniture, the huge, brass-mounted fireplace, the high mantelpiece of many coloured marbles, chipped and defaced, but still beautiful, the gorgeous deep-moulded ceiling that Lady Isabella’s Italian workmen had made for her, from the centre of which the wreck of a cut-glass chandelier still hung, all told of the happy conjunction of art and wealth, and of a generous taste that would make the best of both. But a cursory glance would show how long past were the glories of a great room.’
The above passages are taken from Somerville & Ross’s The Big House of Inver, published in 1925, and while their descriptions of Inver are not an exact match, nonetheless in spirit they seem to capture what one can see, and feel, at Scregg, County Roscommon. Dating from the mid-18th century, the house and surrounding land has for hundreds of years belonged to a branch of the ancient Irish Kelly family and was occupied until the 1980s but has since stood empty. How little in some ways has Ireland changed since the time of Somerville & Ross.
Irish Historic Houses 