Rathbeale Hall, Swords, Co Dublin

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. 238. “Gorges/LG1965; Meredith, Bt of St. Catherine’s Grove/EDB; Somerville, Bt/PB; Corbally/LGI1912) A house of late 1680s, incorporating an old tower-house, given a Palladian front, curved sweeps and wings ca 1751. The house was originally built by Sir Walter Plunkett, son in law of Moyses Hill, MP, of Hillsborough; the subsequent additions and remodelling were carried out for Hamilton Gorges, who bought it 1751 and who was the son, by her and husband, of Nichola Beresford (nee Hamilton), the subject of the famous ghost story [see Gill Hall]. They are in the manner of Richard Castle, who died 1751, so would be by one of his followers. The main block is of three storeys over basement, with a five bay front; segmental headed doorcase; balustraded roof parapet. The curved sweeps are very wide and have pedimented doorways between niches. The front elevations of the wings are two storey; but in their ends, facing each other across the forecourt, are simple Venetian windows. The main block is of brick, but the façade was plastered over in mid-C18 remodelling; at some period it was painted Venetian red, of which only a suggestion remains; so that, in the words of Mr Cornforth, “the house has a marvellously faded, weathered look,” reminiscent of the villas of the Veneto. The hall, which keeps its old colouring of faded blue, which Mr Guinness describes as “magic,” has a chimneypiece and overmantel and a Doric frieze dating from mid-C18; but the staircase, which rises at the back of the hall, and is of wood, with pear-shaped balusters, rather like those at Leixlip Castle, Co Kildare, appears to be late C17, as is the woodwork in the boudoir and the bedroom above it, which are among the very few surviving C17 interiors in Ireland. both rooms are panelled; the boudoir has an elaborately carved Baroque chimneypiece and overmantel, with pairs of fluted Corinthian columns supporting an entablature ormanented with foliage, and a monumental doorcase with more carved foliage; the bedroom has panelling with scrolled mouldings and a chimneypiece framed by two tiers of carved pilasters. The drawing room has a ceiling of simple rococo plasterwork which would have been put in during mid-C18 remodelling. Hamilton Gorge’s son married the heiress of the Meredith family of Dollardstown and assumed the name of Meredith, being subsequently created a Bt; through his daughter, Rathbeale passed to the Somerville family, by whom it was sold in 1832 to the Corbally family, who sold it 1958. After that, it became almost derelict; but was then bought by Mr and Mrs Julian Peck, who restored and furnished it most sympathetically. A few years later, however, it was sold again.”