Ardavilling, Cloyne, Co Cork – burned 2017, rebuilt 

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.

“Litton/LGI1912; Beckford, sub Nutting, Bt/PB) A mildly Tudor-Revival C19 house, gabled and with a mullioned bow. The seat of the Litton family; in the present century, of the Stacpoole famly. Owned for some years after WWII by Lt-Col and Mrs F.J. Beckford.” 

[The Buildings of Ireland. Cork City and County. Frank Keohane. Yale University Press: New Haven and London. 2020. 

p. 36. “Cork-born William Atkins was an early disciple of Pugin, designing in 1845 what is perhaps the earliest Irish church in the Puginian idiom, at Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin: ‘Middle Pointe’ with lower aisles and a pronounced chancel, a tall clerestory on arcades of octagonal columns and an open timber roof. In Cork City, Atkins continued to espouse Pugin’s principles with his work at Our Lady’s Asylum and the Convent of St Maries of the Isle, begun in 1847 and 1850 respectively…. During the 1860s William Atkins also adopted C13 French Gothic forms and a wilful Ruskinian palette, in his churches at East Ferry, Leighmoney, and Rooska (Sheep’s Head.). [He also designed Velvetstown (Buttevant) and Ardavillig (Cloyne).] 

p. 45. Few significant country houses were built during the latter half of the C19. Most are of small to middling size, often with minimal Tudor or Italian trim. Unpretentious Italianate is found as Lissard (1854-5) near Skibbereen, Farran (1866) and Ballyvolane (1872) near Castlelyons. The finest of these Italianate houses is Montenotte House in Cork, with its double height top-lit cortile in the manner of Barry’s clubs in London. Lewis Villamy designed Lisselane (1851-3) near Clonakilty in a loose French-chateau idiom. Gothic houses are much rarer; exceptions include Dunboy (1866-70) near Castletownbere, a virtuoso Tudor Gothic house wiht mullioned-and-transomed windows mingled with Continental motifs in an assured and robust composition.  

p. 46. With its Scots Baronial stepped gables and corbelled tourelles, Blarney Castle House (1871-5) by the Belfast architect John Lanyon, is unique in Cork. The influence of Ruskin in both detailing and materials can be seen in a number of houses designed by William Atkins: Velvetstown, Ardavilling, and Parknamore. Lettercollum (1872) near Timoleague, by William H. Hill, and Thorncliffe (1865) at Monkstown, by Thomas N. Deane, are in a similar vein. After the 1880s major houses are rare, but there are good late C19 Jacobean interiors at Fota and Lota Lodge (Glanmire). 

The Edwardian Domestic Revival or Free Style, which favoured picturesque forms in brick and terracotta with gables, tall chimneys, tile-hanging, and mullioned and leaded windows, is generally confined to lodges, as at Castletownsend and Castle Mary (Cloyne), and to suburban houses in Cork city. Ashlin’s Clonmeen House (Banteer) is a rare country-house example. The Pavilion at Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork, is also Free Style and incorporates some Art Nouveau decorative elements. The last great country house to be built in Cork is Hollybrook Hall near Skibbereen, in a Free Style employing classical and rustic elements, with a wonderfully eclectic range of interiors. The garden buildings by Harold Peto at Ilnacullin were designed in a similar spirit.” 

P. 338. Built in the 1870s for Judge John Litton, most likely to the design of William Atkins. Irregular one and a half storey house with dormered upper windows, many gables, and a lower service wing to the north. The porch has diagonal limestone buttresses and a doorway wiht a polychromatic outer arch and a trefoil-headed inner arch, its tympanum left uncarved. Windows with limestone mullions and transoms, big bay windows to the principal rooms. Gutted by fire in 2017, the house has recently been restored. 

https://www.geni.com/projects/Historic-Buildings-of-County-Cork/29338

Ardavilling Cloyne. Associated names Litton; Beckford, sub Nutting. 19th century, the seat of the Litton family. The first registered owners were the Littons thought to have come from Littondale in Yorkshire, moving to Dublin in 1660. Thomas Litton (1657-1741) and his wife Gertrude Verdoen. Their son Thomas Litton and his wife Hannah Leland] were the next in line. One of their 12 children was Edward Litton served in the American War of Independence. He was wounded in the battle of Bunkers Hill in 1775. After returning he married Esther Letablere on the 23 June 1783 in St Anne’s cathedral, the Granddaughter and heiress to the rich family history of Rene de la Donesque who was lord of the Manor of Letablere in Lower Poitou an ancient family in France. They were a Huguenot family who left France in 1685 and at the age of 22 Rene served in the military in Holland and was involved in the Battle of Boyne after that he settled in Dublin. His son was Daniel Letablere that was Dean of Tuan. He was directly involved in the silk industry in Ireland. The 4th son, John Litton (1792-1877) inherited Ardavilling. He married Vescina Hamilton of co. Donegal. He gave the first water supply to the village of Cloyne. John died in Ardavilling at the age of 85 and had no male children. He left the property to his nephew - Edward Falconer Litton (1827-1890) who was educated at TCD were he studied law. He was called to the bar in 1847 and made a QC in 1874. He served in Cork and Wicklow circuit. He was also elected Liberal MP of Tyrone in 1880/1 and was Judge of the Supreme Court in 1890. 20th century seat of a branch of the Stacpoole family. Owned for a while by Lt.Col F J Beckford after WW2. 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/20907663/ardvilling-sculleen-co-cork

Detached four-bay two-storey country house, built c. 1860, having buttressed gabled breakfront, canted flat-roofed cut limestone bay window and gabled half-dormer windows to front (south) elevation, gabled breakfront, gabled dormer windows and cut limestone bay window to west elevation, gabled breakfront, gable and gabled dormer window to east elevation, gables to rear (north) elevation and lower two-bay two-storey return to east side of north elevation with lean-to extension to west elevation of return, flat-roofed single-bay single-storey extension to east side of rear elevation with water tank to roof, and flat-roofed single-bay single-storey porch extension to rear elevation. Pitched slate roofs with fish scale pattern slates, with paired square-profile red brick chimneystacks with string courses, decorative timber bargeboards and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered walls with cut limestone plinth course, chamfered cut limestone pilaster buttresses to breakfront to front elevation, rubble stone walls to water tank extension. Square-headed window openings throughout, single, paired and in threes, with chamfered cut limestone surrounds and sills to front, east and west elevations, and with timber sliding sash windows having one-over-one pane, paired four-over-four pane to first floor rear elevation and two-over-two panes to rear porch, and with steel casement window to water tank extension. Pointed arch carved limestone door surround with impost course, recessed archivolts, trefoil arched spandrel and square-headed door opening with timber panelled door. Square-headed door opening to interior porch having half-glazed timber panelled door with plain overlight. Square-headed openings to rear elevation with timber battened doors.

Appraisal

Number of porches, gables, and bay windows typical of Victorian architecture, as are steeply pitched roofs and decorative bargeboards. Retention of timber sash windows adding depth and texture to facades. Narrow windows and highly decorative front entrance with recessed archivolts and corner buttresses in cut limestone gives ecclesiastical tone. Demonstrative of highly skilled stonemasonry. Contextualised by, and forms interesting group with outbuildings, gate lodge, and gates. Built for the Litton Family.