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. 100. “Bayly/IFR) Original house demolished during war of 1939-45. New house built in its place 1955, in the manner of a two storey three bay Georgian house, with a slightly lower two storey one bay wings set slightly back; but with modern windows.”
The newly constructed Kilboy, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of Country Life.Kilboy, County Tipperary, courtesy of Archiseek.The newly constructed Kilboy, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of Country Life.
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. “(Prittie, Dunally, B/PB) A middle to late 18th century house built for Henry Prittie MP, afterwards 1st Lord Dunalley, to the design of William Leeson.
Henry Prittie, 1st Baron Dunalley (1743-1801), Irish school, courtesy of Christie’s.
It had three storeys over a basement; a five-bay entrance front with a central feature of a pediment and four giant engaged Doric columns; Doric entablature running the full length of the front, supported at the sides by giant Doric pilasters; top storey was treated as an attic above the cornice. Ground floor windows with rusticated surrounds and alternat triangular and segmental pediments; rusticated basement; broad flight of steps up to entrance door. Side elevation almost plain, with no entablature or cornice, of five-bays with central Venetian window; keystones over windows and some simple blocking in the window surrounds. Large square hall, with heavy frieze of rather unusual plasterwork, combining putti and foliage with husk ornament and neo-Classical motifs; niche with entablature on console brackets; marble chimneypiece with swags of drapery, plasterwork panel over. Bifurcating staircase in back hall.
Henry Prittie, 3rd Baron Dunalley (1807-1885) by Stephen Catterson Smith courtesy of Christie’s 2013.
House was burnt 1922 and afterwards rebuilt without the top storey. The principal rooms, as rebuilt, had oak panelling in early C18 style; the bifurcating staircase was replaced by a simple oak stairs. Ca 1955 the house was demolished and a single storey house in a vaguely Georgian style was built on the original basement.”
The newly constructed Kilboy, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of Country Life.The newly constructed Kilboy, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of Country Life.The newly constructed Kilboy, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of Country Life.
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. 134. “The most important house designed by William Leeson c. 1780 for Henry Prittie M.P. 1st Lord Dunally. Superb entrance front with engaged Doric portico. Very fine interior with good plasterwork and imperial main staircase. The house was burnt in 1922 and well restored but without the attic storey. In the mid 1950s it was demolished and a single storey house was built on top of the basement storey; reached by the original steps.”
The newly constructed Kilboy, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of Country Life.The newly constructed Kilboy, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of Country Life.
Detached five-bay single-storey house over basement, built c. 1775, destroyed in 1922 and rebuilt c. 1955 with portico to entrance. Three-bay two-storey side elevations, with large two-storey extension to south-west. Hipped slate roofs with recent cut limestone chimneystacks. Rendered walls with decorative render pilasters. Replacement windows to front. Mainly timber sash elsewhere, with raised cut limestone surrounds with keystones and sills. Segmental- and round-headed openings to extension, with one-over-one pane timber sash windows to south elevation, and doorway with spoked fanlight. Timber panelled double doors under portico, flanked by windows. Two flights of limestone steps to front elevation. Sandstone walls to site boundary with thatched gate lodge and ornate gateway to main, south, entrance and gate lodge with ornate gateway to north-east.
Appraisal
The original house to this site was designed by William Leeson, but only the steps and base of the original building remain. The grounds, demesne walls, entrances and gate lodges are perhaps more interesting than the house, forming an interesting group of demesne structures. The imposing triple-arched entrances set in high demesne walls with their ashlar dressings and gate lodges on both the south and east boundaries create a sense of heightened anticipation before seeing the house.
Kilboy House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.Kilboy House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.Kilboy House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
Detached L-plan four-bay single-storey gate lodge with dormer storey, built c. 1850. Hipped reed thatched roof with blocked ridges and recent rendered chimneystack. Sandstone rubble walls. Square-headed double one-over-one pane timber sash windows with sandstone voussoirs to ground floor, segmental-headed spoked lunette windows to roof, and segmental-headed door openings with sandstone voussoirs, having glazed timber doors and sidelights.
Gate Lodge, Kilboy House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
Appraisal
Apparently informed by the cottage ornée type of demesne building, this gate lodge has a number of appealing features such as its lunette dormer windows set in thick curved thatched roofs, its timber sash windows, and its L-plan which allows for a number of complementary views. It is one of a group of demesne structures including the elaborate entrance gates, high demesne walls and single-arch bridge under the avenue nearby.
Kilboy House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
Entrance gateway, built c.1775, comprising advanced central round-arched carriage opening with portico, flanked by round-arched pedestrian entrances, in turn flanked by pilasters and roughly-coursed rubble limestone boundary walls. Snecked rubble limestone walling, with cut limestone portico with scrolls, archivolts and imposts and dressed quoins and surrounds to pedestrian openings.
Appraisal
This finely-built stone gateway is of apparent architectural design and executed by skilled craftsmen. It presents an impressive entrance to the rebuilt Kilboy House and is a conspicuous landmark on the Dolla to Silvermines road.
Entrance gateway, built c.1775, comprising central round-arched carriage opening, flanked by similar round-arched pedestrian entrances, separated by wrought-iron railings and in turn flanked low rubble limestone walls. Ashlar sandstone masonry with imposts, carved modillions to central archway and with wrought-iron railings to and separating openings.
Appraisal
A finely-executed ashlar composition of apparent architectural design and quality, forming subsidiary entrance to rebuilt Kilboy House.
Kilboy House, County Tipperary, photograph courtesy of National Inventory.
The Tipperary Gentry. Volume 1. By William Hayes and Art Kavanagh. Published by Irish Family Names, c/o Eneclann, Unit 1, The Trinity Enterprise Centre, Pearse St, Dublin 2, 11 Emerald Cottages, Grand Canal St, Dublin 4 and Market Square, Bunclody, Co Wexford, Ireland. 2003.
Prittie of Kilboy
p. 195. The Prittie dynasty in Kilboy began with Colonel Henry Prittie, one of Cromwell’s more trusted commanders. He was a Captin in Cromwell’s New Regiment of Horse. Druing the war in Ireland he was made Sheriff of Carlow (1650) and later Governor of Carlow. After the successful campaign Prittie was given about 1000 acres in the area in lieu of pay. Like many of his brother officers he immediately began buying up lands that had been awarded to his fellow soldiers who had no wish to remain in Ireland. This, combined with his descendants fortuitious marriages to heiresses, meant that the estate grew over the next 200 years, so that by the middle of 19C the Pritties owned about 16,000 acres of land in Co Tipperary most of which was centred around Kilboy.
p. 196. Henry was marrid to Honor Foley of Stourbridge and he had one son, also called Henry.
Henry was besieged for 21 days in his castle of Dunally by the Jacobites after the Battle of the Boyne. They eventually gained entrance and seized Henry and threw him from the battlements. Henry, quite extraordinarily, survived the fall unhurt and managed to escape. Henry was married to an Allcock and they had two sons and five daughters. The second son, Richard, married an heiress, Barbara Bourchier from Wexford in 1714. One of the daughters married Captain John Bayley of Ballynaclogh, another Cromwellian grantee.
p. 197. It was through marriages to heiresses that estates were extended. The outstanding example of this at the outset of the century is the marriage in 1702 of Henry Prittie (the Colonel’s grandson) to Elizabeth daughter and heiress to James Harrison of Cloghjordan. This alliance added to the sizeable Prittie estate of 3,600 acres a further 900 acres centring on Cloghjordan which had the advantage of being in the same region as the home estate.
p. 197. IN the next two generations each of the heirs to the Prittie estate married heiresses: Deborah Bayley in 1736 and Catherine Sadleir in 1766, thereby further consolidating the family’s interest, landed and political.
p. 197. On the death of Colonel Harrison the estates of Cloughjordan came into the possession of the Pritties of Kilboy. Henry and Elizabeth had one son, Henry…
p. 198. The son, Henry (b. 1708) was active politically and was an MP for Tipperary from 1761-8. A magistrate, he was firmly in the forefront of promoting law and order. He was married to an heiress, the daughter of Venerable Benjamin Neale of Leighlin and widow of John Bayly of Debsborough. This Henry was the man who successfully launched the family into mainstream politics.
…He also made attempts to use the natural resources on his lands. In the 1720s and 30s the Pritties revived interest in mining in the Silvermines. Lead was the mineral being mined at the time. After 1730 the mining was left in abeyance until 1802 when the Dunally Mining Company was formed with the intention of exploiting the ore there and also at a number of other locations.
p. 199. 1st Baron Dunally [as MP] was not in favour of granting any relief to Catholics and like his father he was ardent supporter of the rule of law.
p. 200. In contrast with his public stand, Prittie got on well with his Catholic neighbours and a great friendship existed between the Catholic Carrol family of Lissenhall in North Tipperary and the Pritties.
p. 201. There was a general electin held in 1806. Due to clerical manipulation the Catholic vote secured the election of Montague Mathew and Francis A. Prittie, the brother of 1stLord Dunally, who had moved into the House of Lords. From this period on the Pritties, allied with the Mathew interest continued to be pro Catholic and more liberal in outlook.
p. 202. The Pritties’ liberal views may have been influenced by a tutor who was engaged to teach Francis Aldborough Prittie at Kilboy. He was Rev Henry Fulton, the C of I curate to their parish, who was transported as a convicted United Irishman in 1798.
2nd Lord Dunally was very active in politics and worked with O’Connell to achieve Catholic emancipation.
In 1786, Kilboy was described by Wilson as the fine seat of Henry Prittie. Lord Dunalley is recording as resident at Dunally Castle, Nenagh, in 1814. In 1837 Lewis writes that Kilboy, the seat of Lord Dunalley, “was erected about 60 years since”. In the mid 19th century it was valued at £76+ and held in fee. This house, which the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage describes as a “detached five-bay single-storey house over basement, built c. 1775” and designed by William Leeson, was destroyed in 1922. A similar house was erected on the site but was demolished in 1955. A smaller house is now located on the site.
THE BARONS DUNALLEY WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY TIPPERARY, WITH 21,081 ACRES
The founder of this noble family in Ireland was
COLONEL HENRY PRITTIE who, for his loyalty and eminent services to the crown during the civil wars, had a grant or confirmation, from CHARLES II, of Dunalley Castle and other estates in County Tipperary, by patent, in 1678.
The grandson of this gentleman,
HENRY PRITTIE, sustained a siege of twenty-one days, in his castle of Dunalley, against the disbanded soldiers of of the royal army ofJAMES II after the battle of the Boyne.
The besiegers, however, at length entering, Mr Prittie was flung headlong from the top of the castle, though miraculously escaped unhurt.
He married Elizabeth, sister of Charles Alcock, and had issue,
HENRY, his successor; Richard; Priscilla; Elizabeth; Honora; Catherine; Judith.
The elder son,
HENRY PRITTIE, of Dunalley Castle, MP for County Tipperary, wedded, in 1736, Deborah, daughter of the Ven Benjamin O’Neale, Archdeacon of Leighlin, and had issue,
HENRY, his successor; Deborah; Elizabeth; Catherine; Martha; Margaret; Hannah.
Mr Prittie was succeeded by his son,
HENRY PRITTIE, of Dunalley, who espoused, in 1766, Catherine, second daughter and co-heir of Francis Sadleir, of Sopwell Hall, County Tipperary, widow of John Bury, and mother, by him, of Charles William, Earl of Charleville, and had issue,
HENRY, his successor; Francis Aldborough, MP; Catherine; Deborah; Mary; Martha; Elizabeth.
Mr Prittie was returned to parliament for County Tipperary in 1768; and elevated to the peerage, in 1800, by the title of BARON DUNALLEY, of Kilboy, County Tipperary.
The heir apparent is the present holder’s son, the Hon Joel Henry Prittie.
The 4th Baron was the last Lord-Lieutenant of County Tipperary, from 1905 until 1922.
Henry Francis Cornelius Prittie, 7th and present Lord Dunalley, lives in Oxfordshire.
A note in the Dunalley Papers records the sale of the Kerry estate of this family to the Crosbies in 1742 for £1,500.
KILBOY HOUSE, near Nenagh, County Tipperary, was a middle to late 18th century house built for Henry Prittie MP, afterwards 1st Lord Dunalley, to the design of William Leeson.
It had three storeys over a basement; a five-bay entrance front with a central pediment; and four large, engaged Doric columns.
The top storey was treated as an attic above the cornice.
There was a five-bay side elevation.
The mansion was burnt in 1922 and afterwards rebuilt minus the top storey.
About 1955, the house was demolished and a single-storey house in the Georgian style was built over the original basement.
More recently permission was granted for the reconstruction of a new Kilboy House, by the prominent businessman and philanthropist, Tony Ryan.
The project followed a fire that destroyed a large part of the property in 2005.
The local council granted planning permission for the partial demolition of the existing fire-damaged, listed, single-storey dwelling.
The former three-storey period residence over basement, based on the Georgian mansion house, has been built.
The application, in the name of Tony Ryan’s son, Shane, and his wife, stated that the aim was to rebuild the house as it was originally constructed in 1780.
Before reconstruction began, the Ryans paid €60,964 to the council as a contribution to providing public infrastructure such as roads and water.
Irish Historic Houses 