Kilballyowen, Bruff, Co Limerick – ‘lost’ 

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. 164. “O’Grady/IFR) A two storey house of late-Georgian appearance, but with an old castle built into it. Five bay front, with fanlighted doorway, prolonged by a two bay projecting wing at one end. Solid roof parapet. Three bay side elevation with Wyatt windows under relieving arches in the two outer bays of the lower storey. Long garden front with three bay breakfront. Recently demolished and new house built.” 

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. 101. “A two storey late 18C early 19C house incorporating an old castle. Fine entrance hall wiht screen of columns at one end. Superb drawing room which retained its early 19C curtains and wallpaper. Seat of the O’Gradys. The house was still standing in 1968. This was demolished, and a new house has been built.“

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21903215/kilballyowen-kilballyowen-co-limerick

Detached multiple-bay two-storey range of outbuildings, built c. 1800, set around a courtyard. North range comprising pitched slate roof and rendered chimneystacks. Render over rubble limestone walls with blind oculus having brick surround to south elevation. Square-headed openings to first floor, some with remains of six-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows and limestone sills. Square-headed window openings to ground floor having limestone sills. Round-headed openings with dressed limestone voussoirs and spoked fanlights over timber battened doors. Elliptical-headed carriage arch to north range, north elevation having dressed limestone surround and double-leaf timber battened doors. East range comprising pitched slate roof. Render over rubble limestone walls. Diocletian style windows to first floor with timber fittings and limestone sills. Round-headed openings with spoked fanlights over timber battened doors. Elliptical-headed carriage arches having dressed limestone voussoirs. West range comprising remains of pitched slate roof. Render over rubble limestone walls. Square-headed window openings to first floor with limestone sills. Square-headed window openings to ground floor having dressed limestone voussoirs and limestone sills. Round-headed openings with spoked fanlights over timber battened doors. Timber stalls to interior having carved timber columns. South range comprising pitched slate roof. Render over rubble limestone walls. Square-headed window openings to first floor with timber fittings and limestone sills. Square-headed openings having timber battened double-leaf doors. Round-headed door opening with spoked fanlight over timber battened door. Rubble limestone walled garden to north. 

Appraisal 

These outbuildings, formally arranged around a courtyard, constitute a fine example of Georgian demesne architecture. They were formerly part of the Kilballyowen demesne, whose house which had an early castle built into it, was demolished in the 1970s. The ranges are well composed and constructed of high quality materials; features such as the cut limestone voussoirs and walls to the carriage arch attest to skilful craftsmanship. The outbuildings retain their original form and character and remain an important element of the architectural heritage of the area. 

A Great House that had Lost its Pride

Half a century ago, in 1968, the big house at Kilballyowen, County Limerick was demolished. As its then-owner Lt.-Col. Gerald Vigors de Courcy O’Grady – whose family have been based there for hundreds of years – recalled some time later, ‘The huge rooms were too big to live in; it was impossible to live in a house of that nature. If you could live there in warm conditions – yes. It was just a necessity. No I didn’t just want to leave it empty, so there are no remains. I do not like living near ruins; there are too many around here.’ His wife commented that by the late 1960s the house ‘was in a terrifying state of repair and we did not have the money to fix it. We had thought of selling just the house, but then we were afraid we might lose the land as well. It was a great house that had lost its pride.’ There was no support for the owners and no state interest in the preservation of such properties. And so, like very many others, Kilballyowen came down. 

The surname O’Grady derives from the Irish Ó Grádaigh or Ó Gráda, meaning ‘noble’. The O’Grady family originally lived in East County Clare where they were based in the area around Tuamgraney (where they built a tower house adjacent to what is now the oldest centre of continuous religious worship in Ireland, St Cronan’s which dates from the 10th century). During the Middle Ages various O’Gradys frequently held high positions in the Roman Catholic Church. It helped that clerical celibacy was then not much enforced. Thus in 1332 Eoin (or John) O’Grady became Archbishop of Cashel and, in 1366 his son, also called John, became Archbishop of Tuam. In turn, the latter’s son, another John O’Grady, was made Bishop of Elphin in 1405. At the same time they were frequently at war with other families in the area, not least their distant cousins and former allies, the O’Briens who eventually drove the O’Gradys out of Clare. One of the family, a younger son called Hugh O’Grady had in the early 14th century married a daughter of the head of the O Ciarmhaic family in Knockainy in east Limerick and this would lead their descendants to settle at Kilballyowen. There successive male heirs became the head of the family and were known as The O’Grady. 

The core of the now-demolished Kilballyowen was a tower house dating from c.1500, around which a house had been built in the first half of the 18th century, and then further extended by a new wing in 1810: in 1837 Samuel Lewis described the property as ‘a handsome modern building in a richly planted demesne.’ The building had a five-bay façade with a two-bay projecting extension to one side: the garden front featured a three-bay breakfront. Nothing of the house remains but the stableyard to the immediate north-west remains. Set around an open court, the four blocks are of almost equal dimensions and contain carriage houses, stalls and accommodation for the employees who would formerly have worked here. Although in poor repair, the buildings still bear testimony to the character of the old house. Had times been different, had it survived even a decade or two longer, might Kilballyowen be standing yet? What happened here also happened right across the country during the 1950s and ‘60s. While better support mechanisms are now in place to provide some assistance, they are relatively modest, thereby leaving much of our stock of historic houses at risk. The story of Kilballyowen, a great house that had lost its pride, is a too-frequent story in Ireland.