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. 71. “(Palmer, Bt, of Castle Lackin/PB1910; Knox/LGI1912) A plain two storey late Georgian house, with a wide curved bow at one end of its garden front; simple entablatures over ground floor windows. A vast complex of outbuildings at rear of the house, partly surrounded by a high battlemented wall with castellated gate piers. “Eyecatcher” folly on hill opposite. Now the house and outbuildings are in ruins and some of the wall has collapsed.”
James Cuffe, 1st Baron Tyrawley, (1748-1821), Barrack-Master General and First Commissioner of the Board of Works in Ireland Date 1802 by Engraver John Raphael Smith, English, 1752-1812 After William Cuming, Irish, 1769-1852, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.
Not in National Inventory
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.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
In December 1661 Roger Palmer was created Baron Limerick and Earl of Castlemaine by Charles II. Palmer’s elevation to the peerage was thanks to his wife – from whom he was by this date already estranged – Barbara Villiers, the king’s maîtresse-en-titre. She had already given birth to one child and over the next dozen years would go on to have another six, none of them by her husband (an indication of their paternity is that they were all given the surname FitzRoy, although the last of them – also called Barbara – is widely thought to have been the result of an affair between her mother and John Churchill, future Duke of Marlborough). Palmer was quiet and studious, devoted to both the Stuart cause and to his Roman Catholic faith; as a result of the latter, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London on several occasions. Beautiful, wilful, promiscuous, Barbara Villiers was temperamentally unsuited to be his wife: before the marriage, Palmer’s father had warned the groom that she would make him one of the most miserable men in the world. The prediction proved correct. Her infidelity – and not just with the king – was widely known and being granted an earldom only had the effect of making Palmer the most famous cuckold of the era; it is notable that he never took his seat in the Irish House of Lords (although he was happy to use the title). Barbara Villiers would go on to be created Duchess of Cleveland in her own right, and to receive many presents from the crown, not least the great Tudor palace of Nonsuch, which she arranged to have pulled down, so that the materials could be sold to pay her gambling debts. She also persuaded Charles II to grant her Dublin’s Phoenix Park, but the Lord Lieutenant of the time, James Butler, Duke of Ormond – with whom she had a long-standing feud – successfully ensured that the land did not pass into her hands.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Why was Roger Palmer given Irish, rather than English, titles? Both his family and that of Barbara Villiers had links with this country. On the latter’s side, the connection began with Sir Edward Villiers, born in Leicestershire and the elder half-brother of the early 17th century’s best-known royal favourite, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. In 1625, James I appointed Edward Villiers as Lord President of Munster: this may have come about because Villiers’ wife Barbara St John was a niece of the Tudor adventurer Oliver St John, who had previously held the same office (he also became Lord Deputy of Ireland), and who in 1620 was created Viscount Grandison of Limerick. Since he had no male heir, it was arranged that William Villiers, eldest son of his niece Barbara (wife of Edward Villiers), should inherit the title. The notorious Barbara Villiers, Countess of Castlemaine and Duchess of Cleveland, was William Villiers’ daughter. In due course, a member of the Villiers family inter-married with the FitzGeralds of County Waterford: their descendants live still at Dromana, County Waterford. The origin of the Palmers’ association with Ireland is less clear. It would appear that around the middle of the 17th century, one Thomas Palmer, son of a Norfolk landowner, came to this country and when he died without issue, his brother Roger inherited the deceased sibling’s property here. A grant of land in County Mayo to this Roger Palmer was confirmed by the crown in 1684 (two years earlier, his name had been included in an address of loyalty to Charles II from the nobility and gentry of the same county). Successive generations, usually with the same name of Roger, followed and in 1777 one of these was granted a baronetcy. Sir Roger, as he now became, had some 25 years earlier married Eleanore Ambrose, daughter of a wealthy Dublin brewer. Miss Ambrose was a Roman Catholic whose good looks and ready wit had previously caught the attention of Lord Chesterfield while he was serving as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. On one occasion, he informed George II that he had found only one ‘dangerous papist’ in the country – Eleanor Ambrose – since ‘the brightness of her eyes and the charms of her conversations are indeed perilous.’ At a ball in Dublin Castle to mark the birthday of William III, Miss Ambrose appeared wearing orange lilies on her bodice. Lord Chesterfield wrote her the following lines: ‘Tell me Ambrose, where’s the jest Of wearing orange on thy breast, When underneath that bosom shows The whiteness of the rebel rose?’ The Palmer baronetcy continued until the death without heirs of Sir Roger Palmer, fifth baronet, in 1910. By that date, through a series of judicious marriages, the family owned some 115,000 acres in Ireland, Wales and England.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
When Roger Palmer was created a baronet in 1777, it was as Sir Roger Palmer of Castle Lackin. This was an estate in County Mayo, some miles north of Killala, the same land the grant of 1684 had confirmed as belonging to his ancestor. It would appear that around the same time Sir Roger received his baronetcy, he embarked on building a fine residence, looking out towards the Atlantic Ocean and known as Castle Lackin. This was a long, two-storey house, its rather plain exterior distinguished by with a wide curved bow at one end and a sequence of yards, some of them surrounded with battlemented walls and accessed through a pair of castellated gate piers. It is difficult to know how much time the Palmers ever spent in this beautiful but remote spot, since they also had a number of properties in which to live, not least Kenure Park on the outskirts of Dublin, Cefn Park in North Wales and Glen Island in Berkshire. Early in the 19th century, the house was occupied by James Cuffe, first Lord Tyrawley, and subsequently by his daughter and son-in-law, Jane and Charles Knox. In 1841, it was leased to Edward Knox and valued at £58. However, by 1911 – a year after the last baronet’s death – the house was listed as vacant, and in 1916 the former Palmer estate in Mayo was sold to the Congested Districts’ Board. Within a couple of decades, the house here had become derelict, and that remains the case.
Castle Lackin, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
For more information on the Palmer estates in County Mayo, readers are encouraged to see The Impact of the Great Famine on Sir William Palmer’s estates in Mayo, 1840-49 by David Byrne (2021).
Lacken Gazebo, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Lacken Gazebo, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Known locally as the Lacken Gazebo, this wonderful folly sits on high ground above the north coast of County Mayo, offering spectacular views over the Atlantic Ocean. Looking like a bastard child of the Conolly Folly, County Kildare, the building similarly features a series of arches and is crowned by a number of obelisks. Constructed of rubble stone, the building is thought to date from the closing decade of the 18th century when it would have been one of the demesne improvements carried out by Sir John Roger Palmer whose residence, Castle Lacken – now a ruin – stood on ground immediately below.
Lacken Gazebo, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Lacken Gazebo, County Mayo, courtesy Robert O’Byrne.
Castle Gore (or Old Castle, Deel Castle), Ballina, Co Mayo – 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. 69. “ (Bourke/LGI1899; Gore, Arran, E/PB; Cuff, Tyrawley, B/DEP) Deel Castle, a C16 tower-house of the Bourkes close to the northern end of Lough Conn, passed, after Col Thomas Bourke has fought on the side of King James in the Williamite War, to the Gore family, afterwards Earls of Arran, who renamed it Castle Gore. The tower-house had a large C18 wing wiht a handsome rusticated doorway added to it; possibly incorporating a C17 range. The front was flanked by a wall and a low office range which probably included parts of the old bawn. In the later C18, the estate somehow became alienated to 1st Earl of Arran’s sister’s son, James Cuff, MP (afterwards 1st and last Lord Tryawley), who built a new house a short distance from the old castle ca 1790; a typical late C18 block of three storeys over basement. Three bay entrance front; tripartite doorway with engaged Tuscan columns and pediment extending over door and sidelights. Plain five bay garden front. Hall with frieze of delicate late-Georgian plasterwork. Long and narrow staircase hall at back of main hall, lit by very tall round-headed window; also with plasterwork frieze. Drawing room with niches on either side of fireplace. Low service wing; office court with stone arcade for coaches; barrel-vaulted underground service tunnel, passing beneath the formal garden. Many-arched bridge over Deel River. The house was severely damaged and the original staircase destroyed during the Rebellion of 1798. Lord Tyrawley left Castle Gore to his illegitimate son, Col James Cuff, who scandalized the County by keeping a French mistress here. After his death, the estate reverted to the Earls of Arran. The house was burnt 1922 and not rebuilt; in recent years the local authority tried to dynamite the ruin, regarding it as unsafe; but it proved so well built that only one corner was blown off. The old castle, which was still intact earlier this century, is now also a ruin.”
Portrait of a gentleman, purported to be Sir Arthur Gore of Newton Gore courtesy of British & Continental Pictures by Bonhams April 28, 2009, painting by Circle of James Latham.Mrs Jane Gore, Countess Of Aran by Isaac Whood 1733 courtesy artory.com. Probaby Jane Saunders(1704-1747), wife of Arthur Gore 1st Earl of Arran.Arthur Saunders Gore, Viscount Sudley, later 2nd Earl of Arran (1734-1809), and his wife Catherine, née Annesley (1739-1770), with their son (?), Arthur Saunders Gore, later 3rd Earl of Arran (1761-1837), as Cupid by Pompeo Batoni 1769.pngElizabeth Gore née Underwood (1761-1829), Countess of Arran by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, sold in Christies 2008. She was the wife of Arthur Saunders Gore 2nd Earl of Arran of the Arran Islands.Anne Jane née Gore daughter of Arthur Saunders Gore, 2nd Earl of Arran of the Arran Islands who married Henry Hatton of Great Clonard in County Wexford and secondly, John James Hamilton, 1st Marquess of Abercorn. Painting by John Opie.
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.
Castle Gore (Old Castle, formerly Deel Castle), Ballina: “A sixteenth century tower house with a wing added in the mid 18C. This wing has a simple rusticated doorcase. Seat of the Gore family, afterwards Earls of Arran. Now a ruin.”
and “Castle Gore, Ballina, County Mayo: A large plain house built c. 1790 for James Cuffe M.P. 1st Lord Tyrawley. The house was severely damaged in the 1798 rebellion. Very fine granite Doric pedimented doorcase. Burnt in 1922. Now a ruin.” \
THE EARLS OF ARRAN WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY MAYO, WITH 29,644 ACRES
This family deduces from
GERARD GORE (c1516-1607), citizen, Merchant Taylor, and Alderman of the City of London at the close of the 16th century, who married Helen, daughter of Ralph Davenant, of Davenant Land, Essex.
He died at the advanced age of 91, having had eight sons, of whom,
RICHARD, the eldest, MP for London, d leaving 7 daughters; JOHN (Sir), 4th son, Lord Mayor of London, 1624; PAUL (Sir), of whom presently.
The youngest son,
SIR PAUL GORE (1567-1629), captain of a troop of horse, went over to Ireland with his regiment in the reign of ELIZABETH I, and obtaining large grants of land, which he condensed into a manor, designated Manor Gore, settled there.
Captain Gore wedded Isabella, daughter of Francis Wickliffe, and niece of Thomas, Earl of Strafford, and had issue,
ARTHUR GORE (c1640-97), of Newtown, County Mayo, was created a baronet in 1662, designated of Newtown, County Mayo.
He wedded Eleanor, daughter of Sir George St George Bt, of Carrick, County Leitrim, and had (with seven daughters) four sons, viz.
PAUL, predeceased his father; Arthur; William, of Woodford, MP for Co Leitrim; George, an eminent lawyer.
Sir Arthur was succeeded by his grandson (son of Paul),
SIR ARTHUR GORE, 2nd Baronet (c1682-1741), MP for Ballynakill, 1703-13, Donegal Borough, 1714-14, County Mayo, 1715-42, who married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Maurice Annesley, of Little Rath, County Kildare, and had four sons and three daughters,
ARTHUR, his heir; Paul Annesley; William; George; Anne; Eleanor; Elizabeth.
Sir Arthur was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR ARTHUR GORE, 3rd Baronet (1703-73), MP for Donegal Borough, 1727-58, who was created, in 1758, Baron Saunders, of Deeps, County Wexford, and Viscount Sudley, of Castle Gore.
His lordship was advanced to an earldom, in 1762, in the dignity of EARL OF ARRAN, of the Arran Islands, County Galway.
He espoused Jane, heiress of Richard Saunders, of Saunders Court, and relict of William Worth.
ARTHUR CHARLES JOCELYN CHARLES [GORE], 6th Earl, KP, PC; Knight of St Patrick, 1909; Privy Counsellor, 1917; Lord-Lieutenant of County Donegal, 1917-20. The 6th Earl is pictured above, wearing the robe, sash and insignia of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick.
Address to 6th Earl and Countess of Arran on their marriage
“We, the Tenants on your Lordship’s Mayo Estate, and their friends, have heard with the utmost pleasure of your Marriage, and in meeting assembled, unanimously and with sincere and cordial feelings have passed the following resolution …”
The Earls of Arran were a “Patrick family”, the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Earls all having been appointed to the Order of St Patrick.
The present Earl and Countess of Arran live at Castle Hill House, near Barnstaple, Devon.
***** CASTLE GORE, or Deel Castle, near Crossmolina, County Mayo, is a 16th century tower house of the Bourkes.
It is close to the northern end of Lough Conn.
After Colonel Thomas Bourke had fought on the side of JAMES II in the Williamite War, the property was forfeited and given to the Gore family, afterwards Earls of Arran, who renamed it Castle Gore.
The tower-house had a large 18th century wing with a handsome rusticated doorway added to it, possibly incorporating a 17th century range.
They also acquired the manor of Belleek from the O’Haras, Barons Tyrawley, and owned estates in County Donegal.
The castle along with other lands was leased to James Cuff, Lord Tyrawley, towards the end of the 18th century; occupied by the Cuffs’ steward for part of the 19th century.
James Cuff, Lord Tyrawley, built a house beside the Old Bourke Castle in 1791.
The house was burnt in 1922 when the Arrans removed to England. It was not rebuilt.
The old castle, which was still intact in the early 20th century, is now a ruin.
The Earls of Arran’s London residence was The Pavilion, Hans Place.
First published in October, 2012. Arran arms courtesy of European Heraldry.
Castle Gore (or Old Deel Castle), County Mayo, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached three-bay (three-bay deep) three-storey over basement country house, built 1789-92, on a symmetrical plan with five-bay full-height rear (west) elevation. Damaged, 1798. Occupied, 1911. Burnt, 1922. In ruins [complete], 1942. In ruins [partial], 1978. Roof now missing with remains of paired limestone ashlar central chimney stacks having corbelled stepped capping supporting yellow terracotta octagonal pots, and no rainwater goods surviving on ivy-covered dragged cut-limestone stepped cornice retaining cast-iron downpipes. Creeper- or ivy-covered fine roughcast walls on benchmark-inscribed dragged cut-limestone chamfered cushion course on rendered plinth. Square-headed central door opening in tripartite arrangement with steps now missing, cut-granite doorcase with engaged Tuscan columns on stepped plinths supporting “Cyma Recta” or “Cyma Reversa” pediment on blind frieze centred on dragged cut-limestone panel. Square-headed window openings (basement) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed drag edged tooled cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds with no fittings surviving. Square-headed window openings (remainder) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed red brick block-and-start surrounds with no fittings surviving. Interior in ruins including (ground floor): central entrance hall retaining decorative plasterwork cornice to ceiling on foliate- or vine-detailed frieze. Set in unkempt grounds. Additional photography by James Fraher
Appraisal
The shell of a country house erected for James Cuff MP (1747-1821), first and last Lord Tyrawley (DIA), representing an important component of the late eighteenth-century domestic built heritage of north County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, ‘a fine modern residence’ recalling the near-contemporary Clogher House (1770), Clogher (see 31310001), confirmed by such attributes as the deliberate alignment maximising on panoramic vistas overlooking gently rolling grounds and the meandering Deel River; the compact near-square plan form centred on a Classically-detailed doorcase ‘similar in style to Enniscoe [see 31303803]’ (Craig and Garner 1976, 35); and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. Although reduced to ruins during “The Troubles” (1919-23), and thereafter unsuccessfully dynamited in the later twentieth century (Bence-Jones 1978, 69-70), the elementary form and massing survive intact together with remnants of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior including, remarkably, some decorative plasterwork enrichments highlighting the now-modest artistic potential of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent outbuildings (extant 1838); a walled garden (see 31303007); an ivy-enveloped icehouse (see 31303008); and a ruined Episcopal church (see 31303010), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a fragmented estate having historic connections with the Cuff family including the hermetic Colonel James Cuff MP (1778-1828) ‘who, aspiring to parliamentary honours, was publically taunted by Daniel “The Liberator” O’Connell [1775-1847)] as to his questionable parentage’ (ITA 1942); and Colonel St. George Cuff (1796-1883), ‘late of Deelcastle County Mayo’ (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1883, 177); the Earls of Arran including Arthur Saunders Gore (1839-1901), fifth Earl of Arran and one-time Lord Lieutenant of County Mayo (fl. 1889-1901); and Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Jocelyn Charles Gore JP DL (1868-1958), sixth Earl of Arran; and a succession of stewards including James Dunbar (1843-1920), ‘Farm Steward’ (NA 1901); and Thomas Vaughan (—-), ‘Steward [and] Caretaker’ (NA 1911).
Castle Gore (or Old Deel Castle), County Mayo, courtesy National Inventory.Castle Gore (or Old Deel Castle), County Mayo, courtesy National Inventory.Castle Gore (or Old Deel Castle), County Mayo, courtesy National Inventory.
‘Many a time I walked for three or four hours without meeting even one human being. Here and there a stately mansion, around it the gate lodge of the serf, the winding avenue, the spreading oaks, and the green fields in which no man was visible. Landlordism, the willing instrument of British rule, had wrought this desolation. I renewed my resolve to do my share in bringing about the change that must come sooner or later.’ Dan Breen, My Fight for Irish Freedom (1924)
The ruins of the late 18th century Deel Castle, otherwise known as Castle Gore, in County Mayo have featured here before (see Sent Up in Flames « The Irish Aesthete) but rather confusingly the remains of a second, older building with the same name stand close by. The original Deel Castle – which might be classified as the real Deel – is a tower house sitting above the river Deel, thought to date from the 16th century when constructed by the Bourke family, then dominant in this part of the country. Like so many other such buildings, it is rectangular but larger than usual, of four storeys and with a substantial bartizan on the south-west corner of the roofline, above which rise tall, narrow chimneystacks. As is also typical of tower houses, there is only one point of access, a modest arched doorcase on the west side. It remained in the possession of the Bourke family until the late 17th century when, after Colonel Thomas Bourke had fought on the side of King James in the Williamite Wars, the property was forfeited and granted to Sir Arthur Gore.
Born in London, Paul Gore (created a baronet in 1622) had come to Ireland in the late 16th century in the service of Elizabeth I as commander of a troop of horse and eventually settled in County Donegal, representing Ballyshannon for a number of years in the Irish House of Commons. Arthur Gore (created a baronet in 1662) was his second son, and likewise both a soldier and politician, becoming High Sheriff of both Mayo and County Galway, and later of Leitrim. Having settled in Mayo, he received the Bourkes‘ former property, Castle Deel and in due course, his son having predeceased him, passed this to his grandson, also called Arthur Gore. When Mrs Delany visited the place in 1732, she noted, ‘tis an old castle patched up and very irregular, but well fitted up and good handsome rooms within. The master of the house, Arthur Gore, a jolly red-faced widower, has one daughter, a quiet thing that lives in the house with him; his dogs and horses are as dear to him as his children, his laugh is hearty, though his jests are course.’ The second baronet’s son, yet another Arthur, was created Earl of Arran in 1762. It would appear that the family continued to live in Deel Castle but towards the end of the 18th century, the estate was leased to James Cuff, first (and last) Lord Tyrawley who built the now-ruined house within sight of the old castle. Cuff’s mother Elizabeth was a sister of Lord Arran, which helps to explain why he should have been granted a lease on the place. Lord Tyrawley had no legitimate heirs, although he had two illegitimate sons by an actress, one of whom, James Duff, lived in the new Deel Castle until his death in 1828, after which that building reverted back to the third Earl of Arran. As for the old castle, it was occupied by Colonel St George Cuff, thought to have been the illegitimate son of James Cuff; the colonel’s wife Louisa Maria Knox Gore, was descended in the maternal line from the second Earl of Arran, making the family connection clearer. It was only after the colonel’s death in 1883 that the old castle likewise returned to the Gores and remained with them until after 1921 when the new house was burnt by the IRA and left the ruin still seen today.
As already mentioned, the original Deel Castle was a substantial tower house. To the east of this, possibly as early as the 17th century, an extension was built which was probably further improved in the 18th century. A bartizan on the south-east corner of the extension certainly suggests an early date, since it would come from a time when the occupants of the building would consider themselves vulnerable to attack. In any case, this section is of three storeys and five bays, with a limestone Gibbsian doorcase on the groundfloor. The outline of a gable on the eastern side of the facade indicates that a further building once stood here, perhaps to match that which still extends forward immediately beyond the tower house to the west, thereby creating a courtyard in front of the building. Little remains inside either the original or the later structure, the roof long gone, along with the various floors, windows and chimneypieces: the external walls alone now survive. This decay has occurred only in the past 100 years since, unlike its neighbour, Deel Castle was not burnt during the early 1920s but still occupied. Only afterwards was it abandoned, and left to fall into the present state of ruin.
Castle Gore is a shell of an eighteenth century building that is located between the towns of Crossmolina and Ballina in County Mayo. While strictly not a castle but a large house, it inherited the moniker of being a castle from the older sixteenth century tower house nearby. While both structures are often confusingly referred to as Castle Gore, for simplicity I shall refer to the sixteenth century tower house as Deel Castle and the eighteenth century mansion as Castle Gore. Deel Castle is situated beside the river from which it took its name and was erected by the Burkes in the sixteenth century. It was occupied by that family up until the seventeenth century after which Sir Arthur Gore was granted possession of Deel castle and its lands. In the following years the castle was enlarged and improved with the addition of a large eighteenth century wing which possibly incorporated a seventeenth century range.
Very few pictures exist of Castle Gore and in this previously unpublished view, the garden front of Castle Gore can be seen which overlooked the gardens and the river beyond. The house was built in 1791 by James Cuff, the first and last Lord Tyrawley and to the left of the picture can be seen the service wing which was accessed by a tunnel from the road below.Accreditation- Photo from Maurice Knox
Near the end of the eighteenth century, the Gore family leased Deel Castle and its lands to James Cuff of Ballinrobe. In 1791, James Cuff, the first and last Lord Tyrawley built a new mansion a short distance from the old Deel Castle, on the opposite side of the road overlooking the river. It was a substantial Georgian block of a house with three stories over a basement. It had a three bay entrance front which contained an impressive tripartite entrance door which had Tuscan columns on either side that supported a large pediment. The five bay garden front of the house faced the river and well tended gardens surrounded the house. The access arrangements for the servants were located on this side of the mansion and a tunnel from the road led under the manicured lawn to a courtyard and servants entrance. Arrangements like this were common, as often the upper-class residents of the house did not like the sight of servants and delivery carriages traipsing across their lawns and interrupting their view of the formal gardens. To the side and rear of the house was a low service wing and office court which housed all the ancillary parts of the household. Kitchens, laundries and areas for administration of the estate such as the Stewart’s office were all located here. James Cuff who built the house was directly related to the Gore Family, from whom he leased the lands, by his mother Elizabeth. She was the sister of Arthur Gore, the first Earl of Arran (1703-1773) and daughter of Sir Arthur Gore, second Baronet Gore of Newtown Gore (1685 -1742). In the peerage, both of these gentlemen are listed as living in Deel Castle during their life times.
Mary Delany visited Deel Castle in 1732 and recorded her impressions, ‘tis an old castle patched up and very irregular, but well fitted up and good handsome rooms within. The master of the house, Arthur Gore, a jolly red-faced widower, has one daughter, a quiet thing that lives in the house with him; his dogs and horses are as dear to him as his children, his laugh is hearty, though his gests are course’. Whether it was James Cuff’s uncle or grandfather living in Deel Castle at this time, I can’t be sure. The Gore family’s occupation of Deel Castle may have been the reason behind the construction of the new mansion in 1791. James Cuff married Mary Levinge in 1770 and he was created first Baron Tyrawley of Ballinrobe on November 7, 1797. In the late eighteenth century, Daniel Beaufort and his wife Mary visited Castle Gore, here they met ‘several gents of the neighbourhood’ and ‘Dinner here was plain & good & well served, but one course & no desert but apples. They kill a beef every fortnight, two sheep per week, feed forty-five people daily and have a French maitre d’hotel’.
Castle Gore was burnt down in September 1922 and has remained a ruin since. In the 1950s the local council dynamited the building in order to demolish it, but they only succeeded in blowing off one corner of the building.Accreditation- Photo by David Hicks
During the rebellion of 1798, the house was severely damaged and the original staircase destroyed. Lord Tyrawley’s wife died in 1808 followed by the death of Lord Tyrawley and his title on June 15, 1821. He is listed as having died without legitimate issue but he left Castle Gore to his illegitimate son, Colonel James Cuff who scandalized the county by keeping a French mistress in the new mansion. Colonel James also left his mark on the estate, as a short distance from the ruins of Deel Castle and Castle Gore are the walls of a small church. According to local tradition it was never fully completed and only one service was ever held there. It is said that Colonel Cuff had his parentage questioned by Daniel O Connell and after this incident he cut himself off from polite society and retired to Castle Gore. The church was erected for his private use and still survives today in a ruined state surrounded by modern houses. The entrance gates to the Castle Gore demesne were located in this area but no traces of them can be found today. Colonel James Cuff died in London on July 29, 1828 and the mansion at Castle Gore returned to the ownership of the Gore family.
The church that was said to have been erected by Colonel James Cuff for his private use in the early 1800’s. The gates to the estate were said to be situated nearby but no trace of them exists today. Only one service was ever thought to have been held in this ruinous building.Accreditation- Photo by David Hicks
In the early 1800s, the sixteenth century Deel Castle was occupied by Colonel St. George Cuff. He was born in 1796 and was said to be the second surviving son of James Cuff. His name does crop up in the national press over the years in connection with Deel Castle; in October 1861, Colonel Knox from Ballinrobe is listed as returning from a visit to Deel Castle the home of Colonel St. George Cuff and in 1876, Colonel St. George Cuff of Deel Castle is recorded as owning 3,205 acres in County Mayo. He was married to Louisa Maria, a daughter of James Knox Gore from Broadlands Park in County Mayo. Louisa Maria’s mother, was the daughter of the second Earl of Arran, thus another union that cemented the ties between the two families of Cuff and Gore. By July 1880, Colonel Cuff who is still living in the castle is described as a ‘feeble old man’ and ‘a most indulgent landlord’. By June 1883 it is recorded in the national press that he passed away in the previous years. Now the lands, Deel Castle and the mansion house were under the control of the Earl of Arran and the Gore Family. One of the people who is most associated with the new mansion at Castle Gore was Arthur Saunders William Charles Fox Gore, fifth Earl of Arran who was born in 1839 in Bath, Somerset England.
This is what remains of the formal landscape that Castle Goreonce overlooked which is situated by the banks of the River DeelAccreditation- Photo by David Hicks
In the years from 1892 to 1894, the architectural partnership of Millar & Symes carried out work for the fifth Earl of Arran at Castle Gore. It is also noted during the same period they were making regular visits to nearby Mount Falcon, a home belonging to a branch of the Knox family. A visitor to Castle Gore in August 1898, at the invitation of the Earl and Countess of Arran, recorded an interesting account of what they seen in the house. The Countess received her guest in the drawing room and afterwards the Earl conducted a tour of Deel Castle. The lawns around the house are described as ‘velvet’ and that they ‘undulate towards the river’. The visitor to Castle Gore describes a rich collection of works of art that were housed in the drawing room. There were two Gainsboroughs, a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds together with a landscape by Constable and many items of interest such as a marble burst of the Countess Sudley. In the dining room there was a painting of ‘A Large Hound’ by Velasquez, set in a carved gilt frame that hung over the mantel piece. There were numerous other paintings hanging in this room including another by Reynolds. The entrance hall of the house had a delicate frieze of late Georgian plasterwork off which there was a long and narrow staircase lit by a very tall round headed window with decorative plasterwork. The drawing room had niches on either side of the fireplace and tall windows overlooked the formal gardens and the River Deel beyond.
The sixteenth century tower house that is named Deel Castle and is located near the ruin of Castle Gore.Copyright- Photo by David Hicks
It was customary for the tenants of the estate to make presentations to the Earl of Arran and his family on various milestones in their lives. In July 1894, Lady Esther Gore, the daughter of the fifth Earl of Arran, married William Frederick Danvers Smith, second Viscount Hambleden. She visited Castle Gore in the autumn to be presented with a wedding gift by the Earl of Arran’s tenants, who all had subscribed to the presentation. In January 1901, the home coming of Lord Dudley, son of the Earl of Arran, from the War in South Africa was also marked with gifts from the tenantry. The tenants presented him with an address of welcome and a silver cup, while the estate workmen and outdoor servants presented a silver inkstand as a mark of their personal esteem. Lord Dudley’s carriage was met at the entrance gate by the tenants and workmen, where a triumphal arch had been erected. The men removed the horses from the carriage and pulled it up to the front of house where it was warmly welcomed by the assembled mass of tenants and those employed on the estate. The Earl of Arran and his son were in the carriage and upon their arrival at the front door of Castle Gore; they were addressed by Rev. Perdue. The clergy man spoke on behalf of the tenants and expressed gratification of being able to welcome Lord Dudley back again. A tenant on the estate by the name of John Mc Givney read an illuminated address decorated in an artistic manner by James McConnell of Sackville Street in Dublin. The silver cup was presented by Christopher Armstrong on behalf of the tenants and both it and the accompanying ink stand were engraved with inscriptions recording the event. In the 1901 census, the mansion at Castle Gore is listed as being inhabited by five people and having thirty-one rooms, ten windows in its entrance front and fifteen outbuildings. Living in Castle Gore at this time is the Dunbar Family from Scotland, with James Dunbar listed as a farm stewart, his wife Jessie, daughter Hannah and two other servants. These persons living in the house at this time were probably acting as caretakers as the Earl and Countess of Arran had other homes in England that they divided their time between.
The entrance tunnel for servants, which used to run under the front lawn of Castle Gore that faced the garden and the river. Servants and goods entered the courtyard to the rear of the house in order not to disturb the beauty of the formal landscape above. Today sections of this tunnel have collapsed and the remainder is used for the storage of farm vehicles.Copyright- Photo by David Hicks
Winifred, Countess of Arran, the wife of the fifth Earl of Arran, spent many months every year in residence at Castle Gore. She was the second wife of the fifth Earl and step mother to the future sixth Earl of Arran. The Countess was a former Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Christian and was in attendance on Her Royal Highness when she had accompanied Queen Victoria on her final visit to Dublin. In 1892, the philanthropic Countess of Arran established a knitting industry with a capital of £3 which provided employment to the women and girls from around the locality of Castle Gore, The work was so good that one hundred girls were kept in employment with orders for knickbockers from both England and abroad. The work was sent from Castle Gore on approval, so people could judge for themselves the merits of the work. In June 1902, an advertisement appeared in The Irish Times informing people that hand knitted socks could be procured from the Knitting Industry, Castle Gore, Ballina. The stockings fetched as much as 4s 6d a pair in London and bales of them were frequently sent to France and Italy where the work commanded very favourable prices. The Countess spent time every year, mainly during summer months, at Castle Gore until she died in November 1921. Arthur Saunders William Charles Fox Gore, fifth Earl of Arran, died on March 14, 1901 aged 62. He had homes in Hertford Street and Mayfair London in addition to his estate at Castle Gore in the west of Ireland. He left £100 to his butler Frederick Bax and his nurse Martha Hill. His diamond star of the Order of St. Patrick he bequeathed to his daughter, Lady Winifred Helena Lettice Gore together with £5000. The residue of his property went to his son Captain Arthur Jocelyn Charles Gore, Viscount Sudley, now the sixth Earl of Arran with a request that he give a keepsake to each of his children. The Earls estate was valued at £44,608 4s 6d and he was buried at Windsor Cemetery, Berkshire, England.
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Jocelyn Charles Gorewho inherited Castle Gore after the death of hisfather in 1901.
Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Jocelyn Charles Gore succeeded his father as the sixth Earl of Arran and in the early 1900s and the new Earl and Countess of Arran divided their time among their homes in Ireland and England. During the years between 1900 and 1906 the house in County Mayo was only occasionally visited and it appears that the new Earl was not as attached to Castle Gore as his father had been. The house was only occupied during the spring and summer months and remained closed the rest of the year. Eventually it was visited less and less, as both the Earl and Countess of Arran seemed to prefer to spend a lot of time at their villa in Cowes, an English seaport town on the Isle of Wight. In the spring of 1905, they closed up Castle Gore and spent the remaining months at the villa in Cowes with the Earl returning to London on occasion for business. Castle Gore was then used for entertaining friends and family on occasion. In January 1908, the Earl of Arran entertained some friends at Castle Gore for a woodcock shoot. The best days shooting was much spoilt by bad weather, but an excellent bag was secured, namely 72 woodcocks, 130 pheasants, 3 wild ducks, 2 snipe, 16 rabbits and 2 hares. In the summer of 1910, the Earl and Countess of Arran stayed at Hyde Hall in Hertfordshire and Castle Gore was let to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and his wife, Lady Walker. By the time of 1911 census, the mansion at Castle Gore was only inhabited by Thomas Vaughan and his wife Mary. Thomas has listed his profession as a steward and caretaker and Mary is described as a house keeper. Unusually at the time, he has listed his religion as Church of England whereas his wife is a Catholic. The mansion of Castle Gore is recorded as having thirty-two rooms, eight windows on its entrance front and fourteen out buildings. At the time of the 1911 census, the ancient sixteenth century Deel Castle was uninhabited and remained so until its roof was removed in the 1930s.
The above map which dates from before 1913 shows the extent of the estate and also the proximity of Deel Castle and Castle Gore
The end for Castle Gore came September 3, 1921, when a band of masked and armed men surrounded the house with the intention of burning it down. The caretaker said that sixteen men arrived at the door of the castle at 2 o’clock in the morning. When he answered the door, he was faced by a number of revolvers and placed under guard. The masked men proceeded to saturate the building with petrol and paraffin oil which ignited quickly. In a few moments the mansion was a mass of flames and by day break was in ruins. A newspaper report from the time said that the castle contained very valuable antiques and oil paintings. There were 350 paintings supposedly lost in the fire and the damage to the house was estimated at £100,000. Later the same month a claim for compensation in the amount of £30,000 was lodged with the Provisional Government by the Earl of Arran for ‘deconstruction of premises’ at Castle Gore. Given the low amount of compensation sought, possibly a lot of paintings and items from Castle Gore had been removed to England for safe keeping. This was a decision taken by many landlords at the time as they were all too well aware of the threat posed of having their houses in Ireland burnt down. As Castle Gore was let out on occasion and with the small amount of time the Earl spent there, I would imagine that the majority of personal effects and valuable items left the mansion in Crossmolina long before the fire occurred in 1921. The house continues to stand in the landscape but its gaunt walls bear little resemblance to the house that existed before 1921. The ancient Deel Castle, the Castle Gore ruins and the estate lands were eventually sold to the Land Commission who divided them up among former tenants of the estate. The Earls of Arran maybe gone from County Mayo but the estate did have a connection with another great house in Ireland. Lady Beit of Russborough House in County Wicklow was the grand daughter of Mabell, Countess of Airlie, who was a daughter of the fifth Earl of Arran, who had grown up at Castle Gore. In more recent times the ruins of the house were to suffer another indignity, when in the 1950s the local authority tried to dynamite the ruin in the interests of public safety. This act of further vandalism on Castle Gore only resulted in one corner being blown off, leaving the truncated hulk that we see today.
Deel Castle is named after the river on whosebanks on which it is situatedCopyright- Photo by David Hicks
This is a four-storey 16th century tower-house which belonged to the Bourkes. It was forfeited after the Williamite Wars and given to the Gore family. In the 18th century the Gores built a large house nearby which the named Castle Gore. This name was eventually applied to the old castle as well. The tower still stands to full height although the roof is missing. There are square bartizans at two adjacent corners. At some time, possibly in the 18th century, a three-storey annex was attached to the opposite wall. This was provided with a similar square bartizan at one of its free corners. It is not clear whether this new bartizan was a fully functional structure or simply a decorative architectural embellishment.
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.
“(Fortescue, sub Hamilton/IFR) A square Georgian house of two storeys over a basement, five bays long and five bays deep, enlarged ca 1820 by the addition of two wings of one storey over a basement, running the full depth of the house and prolinging the front and rear elevations by two bays on either side. One of the wings was demolished ca mid-C19; that which survives has large tripartite fanlighted windows in both its elevations. The entrance front has a fanlighted and rusticated doorway, now obscured by a porch with engaged Doric columns. Some time in the earlier part of C19, the windows were given Tudor-Revival hood mouldings; but late C19 the house was refaced with cement, and the hood-mouldings were replaced by Classical pediments and entablatures. Parapeted roof. Long central axial hall with a pair of columns at far end. Drawing room with broad plasterwork frieze of foliage and C19 decorative plasterwork panels on walls. After the death of Mrs Pyke-Fortescue, 1966, Stephenstown was inherited by her nephew, Major Digby Hamilton, who sold it ca 1974.”
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. 109. “A large late 18C house to which wings were added in the early 19C. Built for the Fortescue family. One wing was later demolished. Good interior. The house is now derelict.”
THE FORTESCUES WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LOUTH, WITH 5,262 ACRES
This is a cadet branch of FORTESCUE of Dromiskin (from whom descended the EARLS OF CLERMONT, and the BARONS CLERMONT and CARLINGFORD).
WILLIAM FORTESCUE, of Newrath, County Louth, younger son of SIR THOMAS FORTESCUE, of Dromiskin, married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Nicholas Gernon, of Milltown, County Louth, and died in 1734, leaving, with other issue, a third son,
CAPTAIN MATTHEW FORTESCUE, Royal Navy, who wedded, in 1757, Catherine Doogh, and had (with a daughter, Catherine) a son,
MATHEW FORTESCUE, of Stephenstown, who espoused Mary Anne, eldest daughter of John McClintock MP, of Drumcar, and had issue,
MATHEW, his heir; Anna Maria; Harriet; Emily.
The only son,
MATHEW FORTESCUE DL (1791-1845), of Stephenstown, married, in 1811, Catherine Eglantine, eldest daughter of Colonel Blair MP, of Blair, and had issue,
Mathew Charles, died in infancy; JOHN CHARLES WILLIAM, his heir; Frederick Richard Norman, father of MATTHEW CHARLES EDWARD; William Hamilton; Clermont Mathew Augustus.
Mr Mathew Fortescue was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
JOHN CHARLES WILLIAM FORTESCUE JP DL (1822-91), of Stephenstown, and Corderry, Lieutenant-Colonel, RA; High Sheriff of County Louth, 1861, Vice Lord-Lieutenant of County Louth, 1868-79, who wedded, in 1857, Geraldine Olivia Mary Anne, daughter of the Rev Frederick Pare, by the Hon Geraldine de Ros his wife.
He dsp in 1891, and was succeeded by his nephew,
MATTHEW CHARLES EDWARD FORTESCUE JP DL (1861-1914), of Stephenstown, High Sheriff of County Louth, 1903, Major, 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, who wedded, in 1894, Edith Magdalen, eldest daughter of Sir Charles Arthur Fairlie-Cunninghame Bt, though the marriage was without issue.
*****
After the death of Mrs Pike-Fortescue in 1966, Stephenstown was inherited by her nephew, Major Digby Hamilton, who sold it about 1974.
STEPHENSTOWN HOUSE, near Dundalk, County Louth, was a square Georgian house of two storeys over a basement, five bays long and five bays deep.
The house was extended in 1820 by the addition of two wings of one storey over the basement. One of these wings was demolished later in the 19th century.
At some time in the earlier part of the 19th Century the windows were given Tudor-Revival hood mouldings, but later the house was refaced with cement and the hood mouldings replaced by classical pediments and entablatures.
Alas, the once-great mansion is now ruinous.
Although neglected in recent years, Stephenstown House continues to play a vital role in its surroundings.
It is located on the highest point in the locality dominating the skyline and providing a point of drama in the landscape.
The outlying buildings are in fair condition and their survival contributes further to Stephenstown’s significance.
Stephenstown, County Louth, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement house, built c. 1790, now in ruinous condition, single-storey addition to south c. 1820, porch to entrance front, c. 1840. Hipped slate roof, partly missing, rendered chimneystacks to main house, red brick north wing. Cast-iron rainwater goods, partly missing. Unpainted cement-rendered walling, limestone trim, continuous eaves cornice, sill course, quoins. Square-headed window openings, rendered surrounds to first floor with flat entablatures, pedimented to ground floor, segmental-headed window openings at wing to north in moulded Gibbsian-style surround, all windows missing. Segmental-headed door opening in Gibbsian-style surround behind porch c. 1840, entablature supported on Tuscan columns. Located on top of elevated position overlooking surrounding countryside, now surrounded by fields. Range of farm buildings to south-east including concrete water tower, single-storey rubble stone farm buildings corrugated fibre-concrete sheeted roofs, red brick surrounds to loop windows. Tower keep in curtilage of south-west, now surrounded by fields.
Appraisal
Although neglected in recent years Stephenstown House continues to play a vital role in its surroundings. Built by the Fortescue family, it is located on the highest point in the locality dominating the skyline and providing a point of drama in the landscape. The outlying buildings are in fair condition and their survival contributes further to Stephenstown’s significance.
Stephenstown, County Louth, courtesy Archiseek.Stephenstown, County Louth, courtesy Archiseek.
Built in 1785 by Matthew Fortescue for his new bride Marian McClintock. A square Georgian house of 2 storeys over a basement 5 bays long and 5 bays deep. Extended in 1820 by the addition of 2 wings of one storey over basement. One of these wings was further demolished later in the 19th century.
Stephenstown, County Louth, courtesy Archiseek.
After the death of Mrs Pyke-Fortescue, Stephenstown was inherited by her nephew who sold it in 1974. Increasingly derelict, the house is now a ruin with portions of the roof collapsing through the structure.
Stephenstown House near Dundalk. On March 19 1735, Mr. Richard Taaffe of Manfieldstown granted a lease of the lands of Stephenstown, Ballyclare and Ballinlough (a later deed confirms that the townland of Knocktavey was also included, together with the dwelling house and demesne of Stephenstown) to Mr. John Taaffe. On 14th February 1740, John Taaffe surrendered the lease of all the above lands to Mr. Page, a money lender from Dublin, who immediately re-leased on the same terms and conditions to Chichester Fortescue, the second son of William Fortescue and Margaret Gernon. Chichester, who lived at Dellin in the parish of Darver, never married and when he died in 1747 he left all his property to his younger brother, Mathew, who continued with the lease on the above named land. Stephenstown House was built in 1785 by Matthew Fortescue (son of the above Mathew), for his bride Marian McClintocka.k.a. Mary Anne. A square Georgian house of 2 storeys house. Extended in 1820. In 1817, William Galt was contracted by Matthew Fortescue to build two ponds, the water being needed for new gardens which had recently been constructed at Stephenstown house and also to drive to the grinding mills in the house farmyard. William Galt who was married to Agnes Burness, the sister of the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns. Galt was retained as manager to Mr. Fortescue after the completion of the ponds with the generous salary of 40 guineas per annum – the post also came with the use of a cottage as well as land for keeping a cow and growing vegetables. William and Agnes had no children but lived comfortably for the rest of their lives. Agnes lived to be 72 years old and died on October 17th 1834, her husband survived her by 13 years and died on March 3, 1847. The couple are buried in St Nicholas Cemetery in Dundalk.
Marianne Fortescue (1767-1849) married to Matthew Fortescue who wrote a diary at the family home on Merrion Street in Dublin where they were staying when the 1798 uprising broke out. Her diary is of significant historical value. In July 1798 she was able to return to Stephenstown House, Country Louth. Stephenstown house remained in the Fortescue family until recent times. When Mrs Pyke-Fortescue died in 1966, Stephenstown was inherited by her nephew Major Digby Hamilton who sold it in 1974. It was let fall into ruin in the 1980’s.
Stephenstown pond is now a nature park and tourist attraction
During the reign of James I the splendidly named Sir Faithful Fortescue whose family originated in Devon came to this country where prior to his death in 1666 he bought an estate in County Louth. From him descended several branches of the Fortescues, one of which eventually acquired the titles of Viscount and Earl of Clermont. Meanwhile the parcel of land first acquired by Sir Faithful was further supplemented by various successors and came to include an estate called Stephenstown close to the village of Knockbridge. Here sometime around 1785-90, Matthew Fortescue built a new house to mark his marriage to Mary-Anne McClintock whose own Louth-based family had, through her mother (a Foster), already inter-married with the Fortescues.
Stephenstown is a large, square house of two storeys over raised basement and with five bays to each side. Around 1820, the next generation of Fortescues added single-storey over basement wings to either side but that to the south was subsequently demolished. At some other date seemingly the building’s windows were given Tudor-revival hood mouldings, probably not unlike the make-over given during the same period to nearby Glyde Court (see The Scattering, April 20th 2015). However later again these openings reverted to a classical model, with classical pediments on the ground floor and entablatures on the first, the whole covered in cement render. A single storey porch on the entrance front was the only other alteration. From what remains, it would appear the interior had delicate neo-classical plasterwork, perhaps on the ceilings (none of which survive) and certainly on friezes below the cornice in diverse rooms.
It is not easy to piece together the history of Stephenstown in the last century. The last direct descendant of the original builder was another Matthew Fortescue who in 1894 married a cousin, Edith Fairlie-Cuninghame. He died twenty years later without a direct heir, after which his widow married an Australian clergyman, the Rev. Henry Pyke who took on the Fortescue surname to become Pyke-Fortescue. Curiously the couple are listed as dying on the same day, 24th September 1936, upon which Stephenstown seemingly passed to another relative, Digby Hamilton. He sold up in the 1970s after which the house stood empty (and the trees in the surrounding parkland were all cut down). When Alistair Rowan and Christine Casey published their volume on the buildings of North Leinster in 1993, they noted that Stephenstown was ‘an elegant house, too large for modern rural life, empty in 1985, and likely to become derelict.’ That likelihood has since become a reality.
Mount Shannon, County Limerick entrance front c. 1900, photograph: William Garner, 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.
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. 216. “(Fitzgibbon/IFR) A two storey C18 house, enlarged and magnificently furnished by John Fitzgibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, Lord Chancellor of Ireland at the time of the Union and one of the most powerful men in the Ireland of his day; remodelled in neo-Classical style post 1813 by Byron’s friend, 2nd Earl, to the design of Lewis Wyatt. James Pain also worked here for second Earl, either supervising the remodelling according to Wyatt’s design, or carrying out subsequent alterations. Seven bay entrance front with pedimented porte-cochere of four giant Ionic columns. Adjoining front of five bays, the end bays breaking forward and having Wyatt windows under relieving arches in their lower storey. Lower service wing. Large rooms, but hardly any internal ornament; fine hall and library; French gilt furniture in the drawing room and morning room. 3rd and last Earl of Clare, who did not have the Government pension which 1st and 2nd Earls had enjoyed, and who was generous in giving financial help to emigrants after the Famine, left the estate impoverished; so that his daughter, who inherited it, was obliged to sell most of the valuable contents of the house 1888. The house itself was sold ca 1893 to the Nevin family; it is now a ruin.”
John Fitzgibbon, 1st Earl of Clare (1749-1802) Date c.1799-1800 by Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Irish, 1740-1808, courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland.John Fitzgibbon (1792–1851), 2nd Earl of Clare by John Jackson, courtesy of National Trust.
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.
THE EARLS OF CLARE WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY LIMERICK, WITH 10,316 ACRES
The Earls of Clare are said to have represented a collateral branch of the Duke of Leinster’s family; the FitzGibbons, the chief of whom was styled “The White Knight“, being descended from the FitzGeralds, Barons Offaly, progenitors of the great houses of KILDARE and DESMOND; as were the Knights of Glin, of the Valley, and of Kerry, titles conferred on junior branches of the house of FitzGerald, by the Earl of Desmond, as Count Palatine.
JOHN FITZGIBBON (c1708-80), of Mount Shannon, County Limerick, fourth son of Thomas FitzGibbon, of Ballyseeda, County Limerick,and his wife, Honor, was an eminent barrister, who published a work entitled “Notes of Cases determined at Westminster”, which was highly spoken of by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke.
He wedded Ellinor, daughter of John Grove, of Ballyhimmock, County Cork, and had issue,
JOHN, his successor; Arabella; Elizabeth; Eleanor.
Mr FitzGibbon was succeeded by his son, THE RT HON JOHN FITZGIBBON (1748-1802), who having been bred to the Bar, was appointed Attorney-General of Ireland, 1784; and, five years later, filled the high office of LORD CHANCELLOR OF IRELAND.
This gentleman was elevated to the peerage, in 1789, in the digniy of Baron FitzGibbon, of Lower Connello, County Limerick.
His lordship was advanced to a viscountcy, in 1793, as Viscount FitzGibbon, of Limerick; and further advanced to the dignity of an earldom, in 1795, as EARL OF CLARE.
He wedded, in 1786, Anne, eldest daughter of Richard Chapel Whaley, of Whaley Abbey, and had issue, JOHN, his successor; RICHARD HOBART, 3rd Earl; Isabella Mary Anne; Louisa; Isabella. His lordship was succeeded by his eldest son, JOHN, 2nd Earl (1792-1851), KP, PC, who espoused, in 1826, Elizabeth Julia Georgiana, daughter of Peter, 1st Baron Gwydyr. The 2nd Earl, Governor of Bombay, 1830-34, Privy Counsellor, 1830, Knight of St Patrick, 1845, Lord-Lieutenant of County Limerick, 1848-51, was succeeded by his brother, RICHARD HOBART, 3rd Earl (1793-1864), who married, in 1825, Diana, daughter of Charles Brydges Woodcock, and had issue, JOHN CHARLES HENRY, styled Viscount FitzGibbon (1829-54); killed in action at the Battle of Balaclava; Eleanor Sophia Diana; Florence; Louisa Isabella Georgina. His lordship, MP for County Limerick, 1818-41, Usher and Registrar of Affidavits in the Irish Court of Chancery 1810-36, Lord Lieutenant of County Limerick, 1831-48 and 1851-64, was pre-deceased by his son, and the titles expired.
On display in the coach-house of Newbridge House is the sumptuous state coach made in London, in 1790, for John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare, Lord Chancellor of Ireland and a relation of the Cobbe family.
The coach had been painted black until restored by the Irish National Museum to its former golden magnificence – even the fresco panels had been painted out, probably for the funeral of Queen Victoria.
MOUNTSHANNON HOUSE, near Castleconnell, County Limerick, was an 18th century mansion, bought from the White family by John FitzGibbon before 1780.
Seven-bay entrance front with pedimented porte-cochere of four massive Ionic columns; adjoining front of five bays.
The rooms were large and spacious, though boasted little internal ornament; a fine hall and library; French gilt furniture in the drawing-room and morning-room.
The 1st Earl was one of the most powerful men in Ireland at the time.
The house was re-modelled in neo-classical style after 1813 to the designs of Lewis Wyatt.
Mount Shannon appears to have been called Ballingown on the Taylor and Skinner map of the late 1770s.
Mark Bence Jones writes that it was enlarged by the 1st Earl of Clare and remodelled by the 2nd Earl.
The contents of the house were sold in 1888 and the house was purchased by the Nevin family ca 1893 (Bence Jones).
The 3rd and last Earl, who didn’t have the government pension that his predecessors enjoyed, and who was most generous in providing financial succour to emigrants after the Irish famine, left the estate impoverished.
As a consequence, his daughter, who inherited the estate, was obliged to sell most of the precious contents of the house in 1888.
Lady Louisa Georgina FitzGibbon, daughter of the 3rd Earl, came into possession of Mountshannon on the death of her father. She was a very extravagant and over-charitable woman who gave lavish banquets and balls at the mansion to which all the aristocracy and landed gentry from Limerick and neighbouring counties were invited…
But the world of reality eventually took control as Lady Louisa frittered away the Fitzgibbon fortune and ran up huge debts in an effort to keep up the grand lifestyle to which she had become accustomed.
She became engaged to a Sicilian nobleman, The Marquis Della Rochella, thinking his wealth would rescue her from financial ruin, only to discover that her betroth was himself almost penniless and was marrying her for the same reason.
During a sumptuous party in the mansion to announce their engagement, the sheriff arrived to seize some of the mansion’s valuable effects.
Two large paintings hanging in the main hall were among the items earmarked for confiscation, but were found to have holes burned through the canvas when the sheriff’s men were removing them. The restored and still very valuable pictures were in later years hung in the hall of Dublin Castle.
It was on this occasion that the Marquis discovered that Lady Louisa, like himself, was bankrupt but, noble gentleman that he was, he went ahead with the marriage – even if it was a misguided union.
The Marquis, unaccustomed to the Irish climate, fell into bad health and died a few years later, still pining for his native sunny Sicily. Still struggling to keep face, Lady Louisa was forced to sell much of the contents of the mansion including the priceless collection of books from the family library.
Soon the lavish entertainment, the sumptuous feasting and the glittering balls were all gone and the magic that once was Mountshannon disappeared. Gone too were Lady Louisa’s wealthy friends, leaving her at the mercy of her creditors who quickly foreclosed on her and she was forced to sell the mansion and the estate.
Lady Louisa left Mountshannon in 1887 and went to live in the Isle of Wight at St. Dominic’s Convent where she spent the rest of her life …. The powerful FitzGibbon line that had stretched across one hundred and twenty years at Mountshannon had finally ended.
The next owner of Mountshannon was an Irishman, Thomas Nevins, who had made a large fortune in America and returned to Ireland with his wife and three daughters and purchased the mansion and estate.
For the Nevins, who were a decent and honest Catholic family, their years at Mountshannon were fraught with trouble and ill-luck, so much so that people said the curse that many believed was on the place must surely have touched on these unfortunate people…
…Tom Nevins, like Lord Clare before him, was thrown from his horse while riding through the estate and died a few months after from his injuries. His body was also placed in the Cooling House, as was his wife’s who died some years later the little building had by then become the family burial chamber …
… So at last the tragic Nevins family rest undisturbed and entombed in what was once the cold storage house for Mountshannon Mansion.
Dermot O’Hannigan was the last owner of Mountshannon and in 1921, during the Troubles, in a spectacular and devastating fire, the flames of which could be seen, it is said, from many parts of Limerick city and county, the beautiful mansion was burned to the ground.
The estate was eventually taken over by the Irish Land Commission and divided up into several farm holdings.
Little remains of Mountshannon Mansion today but the ivy-clad shell of the great house, its four columns at the entrance still stand defiantly against the elements and even time itself, like some battle-scarred warriors still guarding the faded remnants of a grandeur that is no more.
The house was re-modeled in a neo-classical style after 1813 to the designs of Lewis Wyatt. The front 7-bay entrance was adorned by four ionic columns, the rear had a large conservatory. Destroyed by fire in 1920. The rooms were large and spacious, though boasted little internal ornament; a fine hall and library; French gilt furniture in the drawing-room and morning-room.
Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.
Detached seven-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c. 1790, having pedimented Ionic portico to front (north) elevation and multiple-bay two-storey extension to east. Remodelled c. 1813. Now in a ruin. Limestone eaves course and rendered chimneystacks. Lined-and-ruled rendered walls. Ashlar limestone portico comprising Ionic columns and Doric pilasters supporting entablature and pediment with dentil motifs. Square-headed openings with limestone sills, some having remains of six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Round-headed door openings to ground floor with render surrounds. Limestone thresholds to entrances. Remains of rubble stone walled garden to east.
Appraisal
Built by the FitzGibbon family in the late eighteenth century, Mount Shannon was subsequently enlarged c. 1813 to the design of Lewis Wyatt for John FitzGibbon, first Earl of Clare and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The remains of the imposing two-storey Ionic portico, which dates from this period of construction, constitutes a notable example of the neo-classical style. It has also been suggested that James Pain may have carried out this work. High quality design and execution are apparent in the execution of the portico, which forms the focal point of the structure. The house, however, was burnt down in 1921. The site retains demesne related structures such as the walled garden, gate lodges and the icehouse which later became a mausoleum, all of which provide historical and social context to the composition.
Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.Mount Shannon, County Limerick, courtesy National Inventory.
Given the notoriety of its late 18th century resident, the fate of Mount Shannon, County Limerick seems inevitable. One of the country’s more striking ruins, the house formerly stood at the centre of a 900-acre demesne famous for its trees and gardens: in his 1822 Encyclopedia of Gardening the Scottish botanist and landscape designer John Claudius Loudon specifically cited Mount Shannon as an example of improvements in Ireland, and proposed these had been carried out under the direction of the first Earl of Clare, of whom more anon. Five years later Fitzgerald and McGregor in their study of the history and topography of Limerick city and county likewise refer to Mount Shannon: ‘the plantations are laid out with fine taste, and the gardens are extensive and well arranged.’ Aside from a handful of surviving specimen trees, no evidence of the demesne’s former glories now remains, and much of the land is given over to suburban housing, making it difficult to discern what the grounds must have looked like even a century ago. On the other hand it is still possible to gain a sense of the main house’s former appearance. In 1827 Fitzgerald and McGregor described it as being ‘one of the most superb mansions in the South of Ireland’ and although a hollow shell for over ninety years it clings onto a residue of grandeur.
The original Mount Shannon was built c.1750 by the euphoniously-named Silver Oliver whose family’s main estate was elsewhere in the county at Clonodfoy, later Castle Oliver. Oliver appears to have sold the property to a member of the White family but around 1765 it came into the possession of John Fitzgibbon, supposedly a descendant of the mediaeval White Knights, who had been raised a Roman Catholic but converted to Anglicanism so that he could become a lawyer (Penal Laws then barring this profession to everyone not a member of the established church). Highly successful, he amassed a considerable fortune which when he died in 1780 was passed on to his son, also called John and later first Earl of Clare. It would appear from various references that Lord Clare did much to improve and aggrandise Mount Shannon, not just its demesne but also the house. However the latter’s most striking feature was added by his eldest son the second earl in 1813. The immense Ionic portico with Doric pilasters behind was designed by Lewis Wyatt (a member of the prolific English family of architects and a nephew of James Wyatt), and occupies the three centre bays of the seven-bay north entrance front. Behind three round-headed doors gave access to the hall with the drawing room and other main reception rooms behind. The interiors, as a handful of 19th century photographs show, were chillingly neo-classical with scarcely any ornament. The same was true of the exterior which, as can be seen is constructed of brick with cut limestone dressings. The severity of the south, garden facade was relieved by a very large curved conservatory. To the immediate east of the two-storey over sunken basement house is a long, lower extension which would have been used for services and was originally concealed by a curved screen wall that joined the still-extant wall of the old walled garden.
Many stories are told of John ‘Black Jack’ Fitzgibbon, first Earl of Clare, some of them apocryphal, few of them kind. After studying at Trinity College, Dublin and Christchurch, Oxford he became a lawyer like his father before him. He was first elected to the Irish House of Commons in 1778 and five years later was appointed Attorney General. Appointed Lord Chancellor for Ireland in 1789, he was also received his first peerage, as Baron FitzGibbon, of Lower Connello; he was subsequently advanced to a Viscountcy in 1793 and finally received his earldom in 1795. Four years later he was granted an English peerage (entitling him to a seat in the House of Lords at Westminster), becoming Baron FitzGibbon, of Sidbury in the County of Devon. Unquestionably brilliant, Fitzgibbon was also without doubt bigoted. It has often been noted that he was a hardline Protestant and a member of the Protestant Ascendancy who avidly promoted whatever measures he believed would best preserve that group’s political domination in Ireland. He supported harsh measures against members of the 1798 Rebellion and was openly hostile to Roman Catholicism despite or perhaps because of his father had originally been a member of this faith. When it came to the Act of Union in 1800, of which he was firmly in favour, there was widespread understanding that this would be accompanied by concessions made to Roman Catholics with the Penal Laws being ameliorated. FitzGibbon persuaded George III that any such liberalisation of the status quo would be a violation of the king’s Coronation Oath and thus ensured pro-Emancipation measures were not included in the Union legislation. In so doing he delayed Catholic Emancipation by three decades and encouraged the spread of sectarianism. It is said that FitzGibbon once declared he would make the Irish as ‘tame as a dead cat.’ As a result, there are stories of dead cats being thrown into his coach, and of more of the same being flung into his grave when he died in January 1802 following a fall from his horse at Mount Shannon the previous month.
At the time of the Act of Union, Lord Clare arranged for a handsome pension by way of compensation for the loss of his office as Lord Chancellor which was then abolished; this was to be paid both to him and his immediate heir. Thus the second earl, who died in 1851, enjoyed a handsome income not just from his estates which ran to more than 13,000 acres in Counties Limerick and Tipperary but from the munificence of the British Treasury. A close friend of Lord Byron, with whom he was at school, the second earl later became Governor first of Bombay and later of Bengal; he enhanced Mount Shannon by both the addition of the portico and other improvements, but by adding treasures from India and paintings acquired on his travels around Europe. Since he had no children, his property passed to a younger brother, who duly became third earl. He was to suffer a number of disadvantages, among them the absence of the pension enjoyed by his predecessors, a much depleted income in the aftermath of the Great Famine, and the death of his only son during the Charge of the Light Brigage at the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854: Limerick’s Wellesley Bridge used to feature a handsome statue to the youthful Viscount FitzGibbon until it was blown up by the IRA in 1930. On the death of the third earl in 1864 the title became extinct. His estate was left to the two younger of his three daughters (the eldest, who had caused a scandal by abandoning her own spouse and children to run off with the elderly husband of a half-sister, appears to have been disinherited). While the middle sister took possession of the FitzGibbon silver and, it seems, the greater part of the liquidity attached to the estate, the youngest Lady Louisa FitzGibbon assumed responsibility for Mount Shannon.
Lady Louisa was as dogged by bad luck as her father. Her eldest son died at the age of twenty, followed by her first husband and then the Italian Marchese she married in expectation of his money turned out to be as penniless as herself. With the advent of the Land Wars rents ceased to be paid, portions of the estate had to be sold, what remained was mortgaged, and money borrowed at high interest rates. All to no avail: Lady Louisa’s creditors demanded satisfaction, following litigation a receiver was appointed, and in the course of a sale lasting several days during June 1888 Mount Shannon was stripped of its contents including a very valuable library. Here is a small quote from the fascinating catalogue compiled by Limerick auctioneer John Bernal: ‘The Family Paintings are Chef Douvres [sic], by the first artist of the period, when they were taken, some of the Paintings, see page 42, were placed in the house about 1790, and will afford the connoisseur and speculator a good chance of getting a valuable Old Master on good terms. There are also some replicas from the Dresden gallery.’ The first such melancholy event of its kind in Ireland, a prelude to many more to follow over the coming decades, the Mount Shannon excited huge interest, with special trains and catering arrangements being laid on. Lady Louisa FitzGibbon spent the remainder of her days in a Dominican convent on the Isle of Wight, an establishment founded by the Roman Catholic convert wife of her uncle, the second Lord Clare; this was something of an irony given the first earl’s virulent hatred of all Catholics. Five years after the sale, Thomas Nevins, who had been born in Mayo but made a fortune in the United States as a tram and railway contractor, bought Mount Shannon where he died in 1902, just like the first earl following a bad fall from a horse. His widow only survived until 1907 after which the place passed through various hands before what remained of the estate was bought in 1915 by David O’Hannigan of County Cork for £1,000. He did not have long to enjoy Mount Shannon since it was burned down in June 1920 during the War of Independence, the light of the flames apparently seen in Limerick city. The house remains a shell. To walk through it today is to have a sense what it must have been like visiting a site such as the Baths of Caracalla in the aftermath of Imperial Rome’s collapse, especially as this immense structure is now surrounded by others domestic buildings of infinitely smaller dimensions and aspirations. Even in its present broken-down state Mount Shannon continues dominate the area and to exude an air of greater distinction than any of its neighbours.
Not all anniversaries are necessarily cause for celebration. Today marks the centenary of the burning of Mount Shannon, County Limerick, one among the first wave of Irish country houses to be burnt during the War of Independence, followed by many more over the course of the Civil War. Dating from the mid-18th century, Mount Shannon was originally built for the Oliver family but by 1765 it had been acquired by John FitzGibbon, who had converted from Roman Catholicism to the Established Church in order to practice law. This move ultimately also converted him into a wealthy man, so understandably the same profession was also followed by his son, another John FitzGibbon, who became known as ‘Black Jack’ for his hostility to the faith of his forebears and his advocacy of the 1800 Act of Union. Prior to that event, he served as last Lord Chancellor of Ireland and was rewarded with a peerage, becoming Earl of Clare in 1795. While he improved Mount Shannon and the surrounding demesne, it was his son the second earl who did most work on the place, not least by enhancing the façade with the addition of its great Ionic portico, designed by architect Lewis William Wyatt. Thanks to a pension secured by his father, he was also able to fill the interior with furniture and works of art collected during his travels in Europe, and from time spent in India as Governor of Mumbai (then called Bombay). Having no children, when he died in 1851 both title and estate passed to a younger brother.
The third Earl of Clare did not benefit from a government pension such as that enjoyed by his late brother, nor did he lead as charmed a life; in 1854 his son and heir, 25-year old Viscount FitzGibbon, was reported missing, presumed dead, after leading his troop of Royal Irish Huzzars at the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War. His body was never recovered. So, when the third earl in turn died a decade later, Mount Shannon passed to the youngest of his three daughters, Lady Louisa FitzGibbon who likewise suffered various misfortunes: her first husband died, as did her son, and then her second husband – a Sicilian marchese – proved to be as just as impoverished as was she. Already in debt, the onset of the Land Wars finished off her prospects and in 1888 Lady Louisa’s creditors forced a sale of Mount Shannon and its contents. The house had two more owners before its eventual destruction, the first being Thomas Nevins, who had been born in Mayo but made a fortune in the United States as a tram and railway contractor. He lived at Mount Shannon for less than a decade because in 1902, exactly a century after the first Earl of Shannon had died following a fall from a horse, Mr Nevins suffered the same fate. His wife followed him a few years later, and Mount Shannon was back on the market. Most of the land was divided up between local farmers and in 1915 the house and immediate surroundings were bought for £1,000 by one David O’Hannigan, who already owned a fine property some thirty miles to the south, Kilbolane House, County Cork (since demolished). However, he was unable to enjoy his new home for very long because on the night of June 14th 1920 Mount Shannon was set on fire by a local band of the IRA, leaving the building completely gutted; it is believed flames from the blazing site could be seen in Limerick city more than five miles away. What remains of the house has stood a ruin ever since. Over the next three years, there will be many more such centenaries to recall.
Knockatrina, County Laois, 1986, photograph: William Garner, 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.
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.
listed as Knocknatrina, p. 179: “A two C19 storey Tudor-Gothic house with gables, mullioned windows, a curved bow and tall chimneys. Burnt ca 1940, now a shell.”
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.
Anyone driving south-east from Durrow, County Laois on the N77 cannot fail to notice a striking ruin on a rise just outside the town. This is Knockatrina, yet another Irish house with unclear origins. The land here was owned by the Flower family, created Viscounts Ashbrook in 1751, whose main residence was nearby at Castle Durrow. The fifth Lord Ashbrook had three sons, the youngest of whom, Lt-Colonel Robert Flower is known to have been living in Knockatrina by the late 1860s following his marriage to Gertrude Hamilton: with no expectations of inheriting the main property, this would have been as much as he could expect to receive. And as the youngest of the family, he had to earn his living which he proved admirably capable of doing since he had a strong interest in engineering. He was responsible for a number of inventions, including a handloom for the unskilled and a latch-hook needle for faster weaving: these devices would be put to use by his neighbour the fifth Viscount de Vesci who in 1904 opened a carpet factory in Abbeyleix. Two years later Robert Flower became eighth Viscount Ashbrook, neither of his elder brothers having had male heirs (in 1877 the sixth Lord Ashbrook had divorced his wife Emily on the grounds of adultery with a Captain Hugh Sydney Baillie). As a result he came into possession of Castle Durrow but by that time the family finances were in poor condition and three years after his death in 1919 the ninth viscount was obliged to sell Castle Durrow.
Knockatrina was inherited by the eighth Lord Ashbrook’s eldest daughter the Hon Frances Mary Flower who in 1893 married Henry White, the younger son of a neighbour. As early as 1908 she and her husband were in trouble for failure to pay debts yet somehow they managed to hang on. Following her husband’s death in 1923, Frances White continued to farm and train horses, despite being declared bankrupt in 1928. It was only in 1946 that she finally moved out of Knockatrina and into a nursing home in Kilkenny where she died the following year aged eighty. Knockatrina meanwhile had been bought by Mary Mooney who acted as housekeeper and companion to another local woman, Amy Mercier (Mary Mooney would be the beneficiary of the latter’s will). It seems Ms Mooney acquired Knockatrina as an investment rather than a residence since in 1958 her agent, a farmer in the vicinity, arranged to have the house stripped of all removable fittings and unroofed (this was the period when any such building with a roof was liable to domestic rates, hence many of them had the slates removed). Left a shell, Knockatrina quickly deteriorated and the land on which the remains stand was subsequently sold.
As is so often the case, no records appear to exist offering information about when Knockatrina was built or who might have been its architect. It has been proposed that Robert Flower was responsible for the house’s construction but this seems unlikely, not least because by the time he moved there the family was already burdened by debt. More importantly, on the basis of design it looks to belong to the group of medium-sized country houses including Rathwade, Wykeham and Mount Leinster Lodge. There were all in nearby County Carlow and built during the 1830s to the designs of the prolific (and – like the Flowers – permanently indebted) Daniel Robertson in a loosely Tudor Gothic style. If Knockatrina belongs to the same group, and indeed was designed or inspired by the same architect, this means it would have been erected during the lifetime of the fourth Viscount Ashbrook, whose first wife Deborah Friend was a considerable heiress. Given its proximity to Castle Durrow, Knockatrina would then have served as either a dower house or an agent’s residence. However neither would have been required by the late 1860s, so handing it on to a younger son made sense. Inevitably given that the house has been unroofed for almost sixty years almost nothing of the interior survives (other than some tiles on the entrance hall floor). Fortunately, as can be seen in the photographs above, the present owner does not wish for the building to fall into further disrepair. On the contrary, he is keen to undertake a programme of restoration over the coming years and return Knockatrina to residential use. All being well it won’t be long before the view from the N77 offers passers-by not a ruin but once again a fully functioning house.
New Park (or Newpark) House, Co Kilkenny – burnt in 1932
Newpark House, County Kilkenny entrance front 1898 photograph: J.W. Lapham, collection: Maj. R.J.H. Carew on loan to Irish Architectural Archive, 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.
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. 225. “(Newport, Bt/PB1862; Bloomfield/LGI1912) A late C18 house with rounded ends, on the opposite bank of the River Suir to the City of Waterford. Built by the rich and powerful C18 Waterford banking family of Newport, in whose day the house was noted for its picture collection. Subsequently passed on to the Boomfield family. Burnt 1932.”
John Newport (1756-1843) 1st Bt, c. 1828 by James Ramsay courtesy of Fonsie Mealy Summer Fine Art sale 2025.
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.
From an old photograph album, a view of New Park, County Kilkenny. Situated high above the river Suir on the opposite bank to the City of Waterford and with parkland running down to the water, the house was built in the second half of the 18th century by Simon Newport, who established the region’s largest and most important bank, Simon Newport and Sons: at the time there was a common expression in Waterford, ‘as good as Newport’s notes.’ Unfortunately in 1820 the bank failed and the founder’s younger son William Newport who was then responsible for its affairs committed suicide. Although he repudiated any personal liability Simon Newport’s elder son, Sir John Newport, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer who was then an M.P. in London, contributed at least £5,000 towards numerous local compensation claims. On his death in 1843, New Park was inherited by Sir John’s only surviving nephew, the Rev. John Newport and when he died sixteen years later, the estate was sold to Fitzmaurice Gustavus Bloomfield whose mother had been heiress to the Castle Caldwell estate in County Fermanagh. New Park remained with the Bloomfield family until the house was destroyed by fire in 1932: below is a photograph of its appearance after the conflagration.
Oakley Park, Celbridge, Co Kildare (now St. Raphael’s)
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. 227. “(Napier, sub Napier and Ettrick, B/PB; Maunsell/IFR) A fine three storey ashlar-faced house of 1724, built for Arthur Price, Vicar of Celbridge – who proposed to Swift’s “Vanessa” and who later became Bishop of Meath and Archbishop of Cashel – possibly to the design of Thomas Burgh, MP, Engineer and Surveyor-General for Ireland. Seven bay front, three bay central breakfront; doorway with segmental pediment, solid roof parapet, bold string courses. Various subsequent alterations. Later in C18, it was the home of Lady Sarah Napier, sister of Lady Louisa Conolly, of Castletown, and of Emily, Duchess of Leinster, mother of the United Irish leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald. Lady Sarah, born Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of 2nd Duke of Richmod, was the love of the young George III, who, according to a legend, wrote the song The Lass of Richmond Hill, about her. Oakley afterwards became the seat of a branch of the Maunsell family; it now belongs to a religious order.”
Detached seven-bay three-storey over basement Classical-style house, built 1724, retaining early aspect with three-bay three-storey breakfront, three-bay three-storey side elevation to south-west, single-bay three-storey recessed end bay to north-east and seven-bay three-storey rear elevation to north-west having single-bay single-storey bowed projecting bay to north. Refenestrated, c.1950. Now in use as hospital. Hipped roof behind parapet with slate. Rolled lead ridge tiles. Cut-stone chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods. Coursed limestone walls. Cut-stone dressings including stringcourses to each floor and moulded cornice having cut-stone parapet walls with cut-stone coping. Square-headed openings (segmental-headed window openings to basement). Stone sills. Cut-stone surrounds. Replacement 9/9, 9/6 and 6/6 timber sash windows, c.1950. Original 6/6 timber sash windows to basement. 1/1 timber sash windows to bowed projecting bay. Cut-stone doorcase to front (south-east) elevation approached by flight of steps with segmental pediment over on consoles. Cut-stone surround to door opening to rear (north-west) elevation. Replacement timber panelled and glazed timber panelled doors, c.1950. Overlights. Interior with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set back from road in own grounds. Landscaped grounds to site.
Appraisal
Oakley Park, now known as Saint Raphael’s, is a fine and imposing Classical-style mansion that was built contemporaneously with Castletown House as the residence of Sarah Napier, sister of Lady Louisa Connolly. Of social and historical interest, the house represents the origins of Celbridge as an estate town with sophisticated private buildings flanking both ends of what would become the Main Street. The house retains much of its original character and is a valuable component of the architectural heritage of Celbridge. Composed of graceful Classical proportions on a symmetrical plan centred about a breakfront to both primary elevations (to south-east and to north-west), the house is finely detailed, without unnecessary ornamentation, to include features such as decorative doorcases and a heavy cornice to the roof – the presence of a bowed projecting bay also adds incident to the regular design. The construction of the house in coursed cut-limestone is a good example of the high quality of stone masonry practiced in the locality. Replacement fenestration was inserted in the mid twentieth century, but this has been carried out in keeping with the original integrity of the house – original fenestration remains in situ to the basement, having wide glazing bars, while the interior retains features such as timber panelled shutters to the window openings. Set back from the line of the road in its own grounds, the house retains attractive landscaped lawns to the front (south-east).
Oakley Park, formerly Celbridge House, was built in 1724 by Arthur Price when he was vicar of Celbridge, later Bishop of Meath, and Archbishop of Cashel. Dr. Price’s steward at Oakley Park was one Richard Guinness, known for his brewing talents. His son, Arthur went on to establish the Guinness Brewery in Dublin.
In the early 20th century, the house changed ownership many times and fell into disrepair. In the 1930s, Oakley Park was sold to the Christian Brothers, who planned to open a school there. They never managed to get the school up and running and it was sold again. The house was purchased in 1952 by its present owners, the Brothers of St. John of God. Today Oakley Park forms part of the St. Raphael complex training centre for mentally handicapped children and young adults.
Formerly the entrance but now the garden front of Oakley Park in Celbridge, County Kildare. The house is believed to have been built c.1724 for the Rev. Arthur Price*, who was then the local rector (he later rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Archbishop of Cashel). Tall and somewhat austere, Oakley Park’s design is attributed to Thomas Burgh, also responsible for the Old Library at Trinity College, of which it is somewhat reminiscent. In the late 18th century, the house was acquired by Lady Sarah Napier, sister of Lady Louisa Conolly who lived nearby at Castletown, and Emily, Duchess of Leinster who lived at Carton. It appears thereafter to have changed hands regularly and at some date in the 19th century, the entrance was moved to the other side of the building (see below). Since 1953 the house and surrounding grounds have been used by the St John of God religious order who run a training centre here for disabled children and young adults.
*Arthur Price’s land steward in Celbridge was one Richard Guinness. On his death in 1752 he left £100 to Guinness and his son, Arthur – Price’s godson – who a few years later established a certain well-known and still flourishing brewery.
The following story is an updated version of that contained in Turtle Bunbury’s 2004 book, ‘The Landed Gentry & Aristocracy of Co. Kildare‘. If you should spot any errors or ommissions, or have further information or photographs of relevance, please let us know.
A heroic defense of a Waterford Castle against Cromwell’s army earned the Maunsell family considerable respect from their Irish peers when they first settled in Ireland in the mid 17th century. During the Georgian Age, they rose to prominence in Limerick, as bankers, politicians and Mayors. When not in Limerick, they were invariably leading an army from one international battlefield to the next. In the early 18th century, they moved to Oakley Park, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, formerly home to the Napier family, scions of three mighty Generals. In the early 20th century they married into the Orpen family. The connection to Ireland dwindled after the sale of Oakley Park in 1924. Today the house is run by the St John of Gods.
OrIgin of the Maunsell Family
p. 153. The name Maunsel is said to be derived either from the Norman French word mancel (an inhabitant of Le Mans) or from le mansel (a feudal tenant occupying a manse farm). The Maunsell family claim descent from Philip de Mancel, Cup Bearer to William the Conqueror. He came to England in 1066, settled in Buckinghamshire, acquired a substantial estate in Leicestershire and built a fine mansion house at Oswick in Glamorgan. His descendents prospered greatly under the Plantagenet kings. In 1163, Sir Robert Maunsell served with the Knights Templar while his eldest son Walter was Napkin Bearer to the King. William’s son Sir John was raised in the Royal Court of Edward Longshanks, received numerous lands and manors in southern England and rose to become one of the most prominent statesmen of his age. During the War of the Roses, Sir Philip Maunsell was captured by the Yorkists at the battle of Tewkesbury and beheaded along with his two elder sons.
Rhys Maunsell & the Irish Rebellions
p. 154 In 1535, Sir Philip’s grandson and eventual heir, Sir Rhys Maunsell of Oxwich Castle, Glamorgan was dispatched with a body of troops to assist Lord Deputy Grey in suppressing the rebellion of Silken Thomas FitzGerald. (2) For his efforts, he was given a grant for life for the site of the Cistercian abbey of Margam in Glamorgan, as well as the Office of Chamberlain of the County Palatine of Chester, and the royalty of Avon Waters to him and his heirs. After the dissolution of the monasteries, he got a lease of Margam and in 1540 purchased the entire Margam property where he built a mansion house partly on the site of the abbey. (3) One of his grandsons, Captain Rhys Maunsell served for the English against the O’Neills in the Nine Years War. He was captured along with Sir John Chichester at the Battle of Carrickfergus in 1596 and beheaded. Their heads were sent to Tyrone and their bodies buried at Carrickfergus. (4)
Thomas & APHRA Maunsell (1577 – 1661)
The principal branch of the family continued to live at Chicheley in Buckinghamshire, marrying into some of the greatest dynasties of Tudor and Stuart England. In the early 17th century, the head of the family was Thomas Maunsell (1577 – 1661), a prominent London solicitor and land speculator. In the 1630s he purchased an estate in Waterford from the Earl of Cork where he relocated with his wife Aphra Crayford who bore him a commendable 23 children. Following her death in 1666, Aphra Maunsell was interred in Caherconlish, Co Limerick. A stone tablet in Basso relievo is still within the precincts of the graveyard, though displaced by an overgrowth of trees on the wall of the church.
Thomas and Alphra’s eldest son Colonel Thomas Maunsell, one of the ’49 Officers’, distinguished himself during the Confederate Wars by his defence of Mocollop Castle, Co. Waterford, against Cromwellian forces in 1649. After the siege he converted the ruined castle into his own mansion, which was inherited by his son Thomas. (5)
p. 155. Following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Thomas the Younger was awarded land in Galway, Waterford and the Liberties of Limerick. His sons became merchants and magistrates in Limerick and Cork over the ensuing decades but, upon his death in 1692, the inheritance devolved upon his grandson, Richard.
NB: Edward Mansell was chaplain to King Charles I during the civil war. His father, Robert Mansell was born circa 1580 and operated as a miller in Great Bourton, Oxon.
The bankers of limerick
Richard Maunsell (d. 1773) unexpectedly inherited the Maunsell family estates when his three elder brothers predeceased him. He served as Mayor of Limerick in 1734 and was MP for Limerick City in the Irish Parliament from 1740 to 1761, during which time the city developed as a centre of Atlantic trade, particularly in upmarket fashion and woollen manufacture. By his first marriage to Margaret, younger daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Twigg of Donnybrook Castle, Co. Dublin, he had a son, Thomas, and a daughter, Anne. (6)
Although contemporaries recalled him as ‘an honest but a very dull man’, Thomas Maunsell proved himself a very capable lawyer and married one of the Waller girls from Castle Waller. His oldest son Richard Maunsell emigrated to the USA after he graduated from Trinity and no more if known of him. In 1789, his sons Robert and Thomas co-founded Maunsell’s Bank in Limerick City. Maunsell’s Bank later became the Bank of Limerick, which was one of Irelands’ leading private banks before its collapse in the economic depression that overtook Europe at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. (7) The younger Thomas became MP for Johnstown while Robert later settled in India where he was elected to the Supreme Council of Madras. Another son became Dean of Leighlin while another became Rector of Oranmore, respectively marrying daughters from Macroom Castle and Bunratty Castle.
Thomas Snr’s eldest three daughters all married well – barristers and landowners from Tipperary and Limerick – but his youngest daughter Dorothea Maunsell caused a tremendous scandal when, aged 15, she eloped with the famous Italian castrato opera singer Giusto Ferdinando Tenducciduring the 1760s. (Burke’s Irish Family Records claimed Dorothea was married in 1762 to William Long Kingsman, barrister-at-law. He did indeed become her second husband but not until late in the decade). For more on their extraordinary affair, click here.
Thomas Mausell Snr. later became King’s Counsellor in the Court of Exchequer and and MP for Kilmallock. He finished up as Counsel to the Revenue by Lord Harcourt, an office worth £800 a year. When he died in 1783, his legacy was secured through the survival of his aforementioned namesake son and heir, Thomas Maunsell, MP for Johnstown.
The Norbury Connection
Richard’s second wife Jane was the eldest daughter of William Waller of Castle Waller, Co. Tipperary. By this marriage he had a further five sons. Among these were General John Maunsell who commanded the 56th regiment at the Siege of Havana in 1762, Eaton Maunsell who served as Mayor of Limerick in 1779 and, the eldest, Richard Maunsell who settled at Ballywilliam in County Limerick and married Helena Toler, a half-sister of the 1st Earl of Norbury. As Chief Justice of Ireland during the early 19th century, Lord Norbury was infamous for the number of men he condemned to the gallows. An anecdote survives of how the judge was addressing the jury in one such case when his voice was drowned out by the sound of an irate ass. “What noise is that?” he inquired angrily. “Merely an echo of the Court, my lord“, was the defending barristers risqué reply. But Norbury could be quick too. At dinner one day, his host told him he had shot 31 hares that morning. “I don’t doubt it“, replied his lordship, “but you must have fired at a wig.” (8)
The Maori Bible
p. 156. Richard and Helena had four sons. The eldest, Daniel, succeeded to Ballywilliam on Richard’s death in 1790. He was grandfather to General Sir Thomas Maunsell, KCB (1906), a prominent soldier in the Punjabi Campaign, the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny. (*) The second son Richard Maunsell lived at Queensboro in Limerick. The fourth son George Maunsell also lived in Limerick and was sometime Collector of the Irish Customs, a post he secured when he married the daughter of the previous Collector, James Smyth. George’s youngest son Robert emigrated to New Zealand in 1834 and became the first person to translate the Bible and Prayer Book into Maori. Richard and Helena’s third son John Maunsell was born in 1752 and became a barrister at the Middle Temple in 1774. Six years later, he married Anne Webster, only daughter and heiress of Edward Webster of Whitehall, Dublin. Anne died in August 1788, giving birth to her only child, Richard. Her widowed husband remained at Carrickoreely, Co. Limerick.
* In March 2008, I was contacted by Lois Adam’s, granddaughter of Daniel Toler Thomas Maunsell’s eldest son George Edward Maunsell. George was born in Dublin around 1858 and emigrated to Jamaica in 1882 where he died in 1911. Lois would very much like to find some trace of descendants of his family in Ireland or elsewhere. She has been to Dublin and found the graves of Helen, Daniel and and some of his siblings in Mount Jerome cemetery but so far have been unable to locate any living descendants. Please contact me if you have further information.
The Napiers of Oakley Park
p. 156 In 1787, Oakley Park became the home of Colonel George Napier and his wife, the formerLady Sarah Bunbury. Located between the Conolly estate at Castletown and Lord Cloncurry’s estate at Lyons, the Georgian house was originally built in 1724, most likely by Thomas de Burgh (qv). Its first owner was Dr. Arthur Price, the Vicar of Celbridge who proposed to Jonathan Swift’s “Vanessa“. Price later became Bishop of Meath and Archbishop of Cashel.
p. 157. Dr. Price’s steward at Oakley Park was Richard Guinness, whose son, Arthur went on to establish the Guinness Brewery. Lady Sarah was one of the beautiful Lennox girls, popularised in the book and TV series “Aristocrats” by Stella Tillyard. Her sisters included Lady Louisa Conolly of Castletown and Emily, Duchess of Leinster. (10)
The Napiers raised eight children in this home. They clearly did something right because the sons grew to be remarkable men. Indeed, for many years afterwards, the house was known by country people as “The Eagle’s Nest,” on account of the high spirit of the Napier boys. During the 1798 Rebellion, for instance, Colonel Napier armed his five sons and instructed them all in the strategy of defence. The boys were educated at the grammar school in Celbridge. Here the eldest boy Charles organised his fellow pupils into a volunteer force and made them parade. However, his younger brother William showed such little respect for these military drills that he was tried by “a drum-head court martial” and sentenced to some sadly unknown punishment. William refused to accept the penalty and so Charles reluctantly gave the go-ahead for the other volunteers to teach the young rebel a lesson. However, “William, his fiery nature revolting against the insult, whirling a large bag of marbles like a sling discharged them amid the crowd, and then, charging, broke the obnoxious drum, and forced his most prominent assailant, greatly his superior in age and size, to single combat. Although getting far the worst of it, and badly hurt in the fight, William, still refusing to give in, was restored to the ranks by his brother for the pluck he had shown.” (11) The long term impact of these schoolyard scraps becomes somewhat more formidable when one considers that Charles, William and a third brother George went on to become three of the greatest British heroes of the Peninsula War. Indeed all three were knighted and promoted to the rank of General. After the death of Colonel George Napier the house and lands were sold to Theobold Donnelly. He changed the name from Celbridge House to Oakley Park.
On 1st June 1807, the younger Richard married Maria Woods, only daughter of John Woods of Winter Lodge, co. Dublin, and sister of George Woods, JP, of Milverton Hall, Skerries, Co. Dublin. (9) In 1813 the estate was purchased by John Maunsell for his son Richard Mark Synnot Maunsell, whose son Richard John Caswell Maunsell sold the estate in 1924 and moved to London. So only 3 generations of the family lived there for altogether 111 years.
9. From 1831, George Woods maintained a pack of hounds to hunt both hares and foxes. In 1849, he was granted the right to hunt foxes in the area by the Louth Foxhounds.
Six Maunsells Brothers
In 1840, the Lord Chancellor was “pleased to appoint” Richard Maunsell a magistrate for County Dublin. He served as High Sheriff for Kildare in 1841 and died on 25th November 1866, leaving six sons. (12)
John Maunsell, the 46-year-old firstborn, succeeded to Oakley Park. He also inherited an estate of some 1200 acres at Carrickoreely in Co. Limerick from his grandfather. Little is recorded of John save that he studied at Trinity College Dublin, became a barrister at Gray’s Inn in 1834, served as High Sheriff for Co. Kildare in 1868 and never married.
p. 158 Upon his death in 1882, the property passed to his brother, George Woods Maunsell (1815-1887), previously resident of Ashford, Co. Limerick. George owned several thousand acres in Counties Dublin and Westmeath and was a barrister of prominence in Dublin, with offices at 10 Merrion Square South. He served as JP and Deputy Lieutenant for Kildare and as High Sheriff for Dublin City in 1876 and County Kildare in 1885. On 4th August 1842, he married Maria Synott (d. 1883), eldest surviving daughter and co-heiress of Mark Synnot of Monasterois House, Edenderry, Co. Offaly. (13) Two boys – Mark and George – and two girls Anne and Maria – followed. (14)
p. 159. The third of Richard and Maria’s six sons, the Rev. Richard Dixie Maunsell, succeeded to his maternal grandmothers’ home at Whitehall in Co. Dublin and was Rector of Innistonnagh, Co Tipperary. On 10th February 1859 he married Alicia Laing, daughter of Malcolm Laing, a Scotsman from the Orkney Islands who settled in Jamaica’s Spanish Town at about this time. They had nine childrenincluding Richard Maunsell, BA, MA, (1862-1929), a well-known land agent and secretary of the Irish Landowner’s Convention during a time of much anxiety to Irish landowners. Educated at St Columba’s College and Trinity College Dublin, Richard joined the Dublin firm, Stewart & Kincaird. He subsequently became agent for a number of leading Irish estates and lived at Shielmartin, Portmarnock, which was later home to William ‘The Boss’ McMullan, co-founder of Maxol. On 20 March 1929, Richard and his wife Lucie Eleanor (nee Waters) were on their way to London to meet their only son who had just returned from Egypt where he had been serving for several years with the Sudan Government Railways. Richard had a heart attack and died on the way.
p. 160. The fourth son Edward Maunsell was killed in the muddy trenches at Sebastopol on 10th July 1855 while serving as a captain with the 30th Regiment.
The fifth son Warren Maunsell lived at Hodgestown, Co. Kildare, and was Rector of Thomastown, Co. Kildare.
The sixth son Frances Maunsell was also a clergyman, lived at Shrule in the Queen’s County, was Rector of Symondsbury in Dorset and married Emily, another daughter of Malcolm Laing of Jamaica.
Captain Mark Maunsell
George Woods Maunsell passed away on 26th April 1887 and was succeeded by his only surviving son,Mark Maunsell. Mark was born on 22nd October 1843. At the age of 20, he married Lucy Copeland, eldest daughter of Alexander Copeland of Wingfield, Berkshire. He subsequently served as a captain with the 1st Royal Dragoons. Lucy died without issue in the winter of 1875. Two years later, Captain Maunsell married again. His new bride was Mary Caswell, only daughter and heiress of a wealthy Limerick businessman Samuel Caswell, JP, of Blackwater, co. Clare, who had died a few years previously. The Caswell and Maunsell families had been acquainted for years; Mark may have attended Samuel’s funeral. The marriage took place at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Limerick, on 26th February 1877. “Two processional marches signalled the arrival of the bridal party. Before the ceremony the hymn “The Voice that Breathed o’er Eden” was sung. After the ceremony came Mendelssohn’s Wedding March. The newly married pair, after having received congratulations without number, and ‘wishes for happiness’ of equal extent, left for Dublin by the four o’clock train, whence they proceed on an extended Continental tour.”
p. 161. Mary seems to have been rather a frightening woman, preferring the hunting field to life as a mother. For the next ten years, she and Mark lived at Strand House in Limerick, with occasional visits to see Mary’s mother at Blackwater. Mark retired from the army and was a JP for County Clare. In 1887 they relocated to Oakley Park. Mark was quickly appointed JP for Kildare and, from 1890 to 1892, served as High Sheriff for the county. After Mary’s death in August 1893, he was married a third time to Georgina Middleton.
Dick Maunsell & the Orpen Connection
Captain Mark Maunsell left a daughter Norah and a son, Richard (‘Dick’) John Caswell Maunsell. The latter was born at 80 George Street, Limerick, on 2nd May 1878 and educated at Hailebury College in England and Trinity College Dublin.
In 1905, he left Trinity and entered at the King’s Inn as a barrister. He was subsequently JP for Co. Kildare. On 24th September 1913 he married Mary Winifred (‘Molly’) Orpen, fifth daughter of Richard Orpen of Ardtully, Kilgarvan, Co. Kerry. The Orpens were a family of rising influence. Molly’s first cousin Sir William Orpen (1878 – 1931) was regarded as the most influential Irish artist of his generation.
p. 162. His experiences of the Great War inspired him to paint to some of the most powerful images of that horrific conflict. He was knighted in 1918 and the following year was resident artist at the Paris Peace Conference. (16) Sir William’s brother Richard Orpen (1863 – 1939) was Cathedral architect for both St Patrick’s Cahedral in Dublin and St Canice’s in Kilkenny. He also served as President of the Incorporated Law Society from 1915 – 1916. Molly’s brother Dr. Raymond Orpen (1875 – 1952) spent much of his life advancing knowledge of public health in Sierra Leone, Gambia and Nigeria. Her elder sister Amy married Major John Henry Kennedy, TD, eldest son of Robert Kennedy, JP, of Baronrath, Co. Kildare.
In January 1915, Dick secured a commission as a lieutenant in Kitchener’s army and set off for France with the Inniskilling Fusiliers. He remained with the regiment until 1919, witnessing some of the bloodiest battles of the war. In 1917 he was awarded the OBE, after which he became part of the General Staff.
The Ireland to which Dick returned after the war was a rapidly changing society. In 1919 Irish Republicans initiated a guerrilla war against the occupying British army that culminated in the birth of the Irish Free State. Mollly Maunsell’s family home at Ardtully in Kerry was one of perhaps two hundred country homes in Ireland burned down during the Troubles. In 1924 Dick sold Oakley Park and moved with his wife and two sons to England. He died on 27th September 1955. Molly survived him until 2nd May 1974.They left two sons, Richard and John, and a daughter Aphra Maunsell who rose to a position of some prominence in the Bank of England. Aphra retired in 1974 and passed away on 21st May 2002 aged 85.
Richard Maunsell & the Phosphoric Revolution
The eldest son, Richard Mark Orpen Maunsell, was born on 15th September 1914 and, like his father, went to school at Haileybury. He later graduated from London University and went to Australia for 13 years where he worked with the chemical firm Albright & Wilson. He was subsequently transferred to Toronto, became a Canadian citizen and was sometime Director of Research for the Electric Reduction Company of Canada. In partnership with Richard Courtney Edquist, another Albright & Wilson scientist, he developed a process for the burning of phosphorus in the manufacture of phosphoric acid that has since been the basis of the manufacture of thermal phosphoric acid worldwide. He died on 2 January 2007. He married Gwendolin Minchin of Australia and had three daughters, Catherine, Elizabeth and Helena Claire Maunsell. The eldest daughter Catherine lives in Toronto, Ontario, and was formerly married to Alex Himelfarb, Clerk of the Privy Council, Secretary to the Cabinet and Head of the Public Service. Returning to Ontario in 1980, Catherine began working with the Ministry of Correctional Services and for the last 7 years has served as Manager of Female Offender Programs. She lives in Toronto with her life partner Helen McIlroy. She is grandmother to twin girls – Jesse Grace and Sam Alison Heichert. The second daughter Elizabeth lives in Quebec City where she is a professor of epidemiology at Universite Laval and a researcher in the area of psychosocial aspects of breast cancer. She is married to Guy Dumas, now retired but formerly the deputy minister responsible for language policy in the Quebec government. The younger daughter Claire had a very successful career as a glass blower as ‘H. Claire Maunsell’. married Paul Ostic and has two children, Rachel Sarah Maunsell Ostic, born 1997, and Maxwell Richard Maunsell Ostic, born 1999.
p. 163. Richard’s younger brother John Maunsell was born on 30 April 1920 and educated at Haileybury and London University. He served as a Bomber Commander with the Royal Air Force during World War Two and later worked with Unilever. His memoirs of the war were entitled ‘No Such Thing as an Easy Ride‘ and a precy of them is online here. By his marriage to Eileen Conolly he had a daughter Susan born in 1961. In 2009, he was living in Reading.
Nonie Maunsell
Dick Maunsell’s sister Norah – known as “Nonie”- was the last of the family to live in Ireland. Her niece Aphra Maunsell recalled her as ‘a Dublin character’ such as you will find nowhere else. She was extremely handsome with a beautiful complexion and (as I remember her best) with pretty, softly waving grey hair. She had the wit of the Irish and was a great conversationalist. She dressed in an entirely individual style which had absolutely no reference to any prevailing fashions–usually wearing large picture hats. She was invariably draped in long strings of pearls, and wore diamond rings and a cloak. She lived in Dublin at 8 Wilton Place, in a house which, to the day of her death, had only gas light. There she was surrounded by beautiful furniture, china, and Irish silver. From the time of my father’s marriage in 1913 (she had previously kept house for him at Oakley Park) she shared this flat with her great friend Miss Kathleen Hamilton, who was, in fact my godmother’. Nonie died in Dublin on August 30th 1960 and was buried in the Maunsell plot in the village of Celbridge, Co. Kildare.
St. Raphael’s
Oakley Park was purchased by the Guiney family in 1935 and then sold to the Christian Brothers. Their plans to open a school did not come to fruition and, in the 1950s, the property passed to the St John of Gods. The house now forms part of the St Raphael’s complex training centre for mentally handicapped children and young adults.
Further Reading
The Maunsell family with its numerous branches has not only found extensive coverage in various of Burke’s and other publications, but has also been in depth investigated in Robert George Maunsell’s ‘History of Maunsell or Mansel (And of Some Related Families” (1903) and in Commr Edward Phillips Statham’s and Col Charles Albert Maunsell’s 3 volume work ‘History of the Family of Maunsell (Mansell, Mansel)‘ (1917-1920).
With thanks to Josef Muether, Lois Adams, Paul Ostic, Elizabeth Maunsell, Catherine Maunsell, Anne Armstrong, Wendy Artiss, Patrick Hourigan and others.
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. 68. “(Mahon, Bt/PB) The grandest of Sir Richard Morrison’s villas, built from 1803 onwards for Ross Mahon, afterwards 1st Bt; replacing an earlier house. Square, compact plan; front of two storeys, back of three; but with a two storey side elevation. Shallow curved bow at centre of front, with die and pedimented Ionic porch; one bay on either side, with pedimented triple windows in lower storey. Four bay side elevation, the duality being resolved by a central pediment on two broad superimposed pilasters or framing bands. Rich interior, characteristic of Morrison, wiht good spatial effects. Elliptical staircase hall or saloon leading into central toplit staircase hall leading into domed back hall with Doric columns and entablature. The elliptical hall or saloon has pairs of recessed fluted Tower of the Winds columns and a domed ceiling with swags of foliage. The staircase hall, though not particularly large, has an air of great height. The staircase, which has a simple metal balustrade, rises to a magnificent domed landing, with yellow Siena scagliola columns of the Composite order at either end. The dome is carried on fan pendentives; the tympana and soffits below the dome are decorated with swags and other plasterwork. The 5th Bt, who succeeded 1893, added a service wing and built a new porch at the back of the house; so that the Doric back hall became the entrance hall. In 1898 he commissioned Arrowsmith of London to transform the dining room into a classic interior of its period; with a fretted ceiling, a massive carved oak chimneypiece and a wallpaper of scarlet and pink stripes below a frieze of female figures and yellow and green foliage by Sibthorpe. In 1904 the drawing room was done up, also by Arrowsmith; the Morrison plasterwork in the ceiling was retained; but the room was given a frieze, chimneypiece, overmantel and doorcases in the Adam-Revival style, and a pink striped “Adam” wallpaper now faded to a beautiful colour.”
THE MAHON BARONETS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY GALWAY, WITH 8,619 ACRES
BRYAN MAHON, son of Bryan Mahon, land steward to the Earls of Clanricarde, Lieutenant in Lord Clanricarde’s Infantry Regiment, in JAMES II’s army, fought at the battle of the Boyne, 1690.
He wedded, in 1693, Ellinor, daughter of Ross Gaynor, and had issue,
ROSS MAHON (c1696-1767), of Ahascragh and Castlegar, County Galway, married, in 1721, Jane, daughter of Christopher Ussher, and had issue,
ROSS, his heir; John; Alice.
Mr Mahon, who inherited most of his brothers’ fortune, was succeeded by his eldest son,
ROSS MAHON (1725-88), of Castlegar, County Galway, who espoused, in 1762, the Lady Anne Browne, only daughter of John, 1st Earl of Altamont, and had issue,
ROSS, his heir; John; Henry (Rev); James (Very Rev), Dean of Dromore; George; Anne; Harriette; Jane; Amelia.
Mr Mahon was succeeded by his eldest son,
ROSS MAHON (1763-1835), JP, MP for Granard, 1798-1800, Ennis, 1820, who wedded firstly, in 1786, the Lady Elizabeth Browne, second daughter of Peter, 2nd Earl of Altamont, and had issue, three daughters,
Charlottle; Elizabeth Louisa; Anne Charlotte.
He espoused secondly, in 1805, Diana, daughter of Edward Baber, of Park Street, Grosvenor Square, and had further issue, a daughter,
Letitia Anne.
Mr Mahon married thirdly, in 1809, Mary Geraldine, daughter of the Rt Hon James FitzGerald, of Inchicronan, County Clare, by Catherine, Baroness FitzGerald and Vesey his wife, and had further issue,
ROSS, 2nd Baronet; JAMES FITZGERALD, 3rd Baronet; WILLIAM VESEY ROSS, 4th Baronet; John Ross, joint founder of Guinness Mahon, 1836; Henrietta Louisa; Georgina; Catherine Geraldine; Jane Alicia; Caroline.
Mr Mahon was created a baronet, in 1819, designated of Castlegar, County Galway.
Sir Ross was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR ROSS MAHON, 2nd Baronet (1811-42), ADC to the 2nd Earl de Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who died unmarried, and was succeeded by his brother,
SIR JAMES FITZGERALD ROSS MAHON, 3rd Baronet (1812-52), JP DL, Barrister, who died unmarried, when the title devolved upon his brother,
THE REV SIR WILLIAM VESEY ROSS MAHON, 4th Baronet (1813-93), Rector of Rawmarsh, Yorkshire, 1844-93, who wedded Jane, daughter of the Rev Henry King, and had issue,
Ross, died in infancy, 1854; Ross (1856-76); WILLIAM HENRY, his successor; John; James Vesey (Rev); Edward; Gilbert; Mary; Alice.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
SIR WILLIAM HENRY MAHON, 5th Baronet (1856-1926), DSO JP DL, High Sheriff of County Galway, 1898, Major, West Yorkshire Regiment, who espoused, in 1905, Edith Augusta, daughter of Luke, 4th Baron Clonbrock, and had issue,
William Gerald Ross (1909-10); GEORGE EDWARD JOHN, his successor; Luke Bryan Arthur; Ursula Augusta Jane; Mary Edith Georgiana.
Sir William was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,
SIR GEORGE EDWARD JOHN MAHON, 6th Baronet (1911-87), who married firstly, in 1938, Audrey Evelyn, daughter of Walter Jagger, and had issue,
WILLIAM WALTER, his successor; Timothy Gilbert; Jane Evelyn.
He wedded secondly, in 1958, Suzanne, daughter of Thomas Donnellan, and had further issue,
Sarah Caroline.
Sir George was succeeded by his eldest son,
SIR WILLIAM WALTER MAHON, 7th Baronet (1940-), LVO, Colonel, Irish Guards, Member of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms, who married, in 1968, Rosemary Jane, daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Ernest Melvill, and has issue,
JAMES WILLIAM (b 1976); Annabel Jane; Lucy Caroline.
CASTLEGAR HOUSE, Ahascragh, County Galway, dates from ca 1803.
It replaced two other houses in the property.
The present mansion, built for Ross Mahon, afterwards the 1st Baronet, is a square block comprising two storeys, with three at the rear, and a two-storey side elevation.
There is a curved bow in the centre of the front, with a pedimented Ionic porch.
The opulent interior is characteristic of its designer, Sir Richard Morrison.
The 5th Baronet added a service wing and back porch following his succession in 1893; thus the Doric rear hall became the new entrance hall.
The Irish Times wrote the following article about Castlegar in 1999:-
IT HAS STOOD there since 1803, exalting testimony to the taste and distinction of late Georgian architecture.
Castlegar is hidden away among 50 acres of gardens, parkland, woods and pasture outside the village of Ahascragh, in east Galway.
It is for sale by private treaty through Charles Smith, of Gunne’s country homes division, who is quoting a guideline price of £1.5 million.
Originally, the estate was the home of the Mahons, gentry stock whose descendants linked with the Guinness family to form a land agency that eventually evolved into the Guinness Mahon merchant bank.
Sir Ross Mahon commissioned architect Richard Morrison to plan alterations to a rambling old house that existed there previously.
Rather than remodelling it, Morrison designed an entirely new building which took several years to complete.
Since 1992, Castlegar has been owned by a Frenchman with a passion for restoring old houses to their original splendour and who has spent hundreds of thousands on refurbishing it.
He is now selling it as he is unable to spend enough time there because of commitments in Paris, the US and Canada.
He is leaving one of the finest Georgian country homes in Ireland, restored with consummate care to the pristine state of its early days.
The marvel of the restoration work lies in the fact that while it has uncovered the innate beauty of the house as it was first conceived, it also has added all the appurtenances of modern living.
Castlegar has been described as the grandest of Morrison’s “villas”, the word villa being used in its original meaning of a country residence.
The house combines resplendent reception rooms with exceptionally comfortable family accommodation in an ambience of relaxed old-fashioned elegance.
In addition to the staff accommodation, there are six bedrooms, each with a fireplace and its own bathroom, and all providing views across the rolling plains of east Galway.
Oddly, the house has two entrances, one on the north side, the other on the south.
The south entrance, no longer used as such, opens into an oval hall with a magnificent ceiling adorned with classic floral friezes, a white marble mantelpiece, and columns flanking recessed doors that lead to the drawing-room on one side and a morning-room on the other.
Two other doors open on to the top-lit central stair hall, an elegant space where the Portland stone staircase has a simple, wrought iron balustrade and ascends to an imposing domed landing.
The oval hall, the huge drawing-room and the dining-room were radically decorated at the turn of the century with commendable taste and the present owner has attentively preserved and enhanced the adornments.
The drawing-room, which has a polished, pitch pine floor, is graced by a striking period mantelpiece with an Adam-style grate.
Classic Victorian-style predominates in the dining-room where there’s a high fretted ceiling, a carved oak mantelpiece and heavy oak shutters.
A spacious billiards-room-cum-library, with a large, hand-crafted oak mantelpiece, and a beautifully appointed study are other impressive features of Castlegar.
In addition to the six bedrooms on the first floor, there is another spacious drawing-room looking across a fountain and lawns to the south.
The staff quarters are located on the second floor.
There are a further two bedrooms here as well as a kitchen, sitting-room and bathroom.
Walled gardens, a stable complex and a hard surface tennis court are spread out over several acres close to the house.
The outbuildings include a beautiful lofted cut-stone coach-house, along with four garages and three stables, plus a stable-yard that has seven loose boxes, a tack room and a further spread of farm buildings.
Beneath the house is a vaulted basement, dry and airy, with six rooms, a boiler space and a wine cellar.
During Heritage Week in 2025 we were given a wonderful tour by its resident Alicia Clements, daughter of the Earl of Rosse, who married a descendant of Nathaniel Clements who built the Áras an Uachtaráin in the Phoenix Park.
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. 278. “(Parsons, Rosse, E/PB) A house ca 1815 with a fanlighted Ionic doorway under a giant arch. A Gothic central window was inserted later and the interior remodelled in Gothic, probably for 2nd Earl of Rosse’s two bachelor brothers. Afterwards occupied by agents of subsequent Earls of Rosse.”
The entrance front of Tullynisk, County Offaly. Dating from the early 19th century and replacing an older property on the site, the house is a mixture of the classical and gothic, the former evident in the doorcase with its Ionic columns, the latter in the window directly above. The combination of the two is as unselfconsciously assured as the sheep grazing in the immediate vicinity.
See Robert O’Byrne, The Irish Country House, A New Vision. With photographs by Luke White. Rizzoli, New York, Paris, London, Milan, 2024.
“In 1620 Sir Laurence Parsons, who had followed the example of his elder brother William by moving from England to Ireland, came to live in Birr Castle, then a dilapidated fortress. Originally constructed by the once-powerful Ely O’Carroll family, the property and surrounding 1.277 acres were among the lands wrested from them by the English government and granted to Sir Laurence, at the time receiver general of Crown Lands. Demonstrating a determination that he and his descendants would remain living on the site, he renamed the place the Manor of Parsonstown.
Sir Laurence did not enjoy possession of his Irish property for long since he died in 1628. His elder son followed a few years later, after which Birr Castle was inherited by a younger son William. He is remembered for being a doughty soldier, governor of the surrounding territory, who survived a fifteen month siege of the castle during the Confederate Wars of the 1640s. And although eventually obliged to surrender, the family was later able to return to Birr and repair the building, which remains their home to the present day.
At the start of the nineteenth century, Birr Castle was extensively remodelled and enlarged by architect John Johnson in a fashionable castellated Gothic style for Sir Laurence Parsons, future second Earl of Rosse. The work undertaken here may have inspired the earl’s two younger sons, John Cleare Parsons and Laurence Parsons, when they were given the opportunity to overhaul a villa owned by the family on the edge of the town. Originally called Woodville but now known as Tullanisk, it had been built in the midst of ancient oak trees around 1810 as a dower house, the design attributed to local architect Bernard Mullins. Three years after a fire in the building in 1820 had left it badly damaged, the Parsons siblings chose to put their own stamp on the place. The result is a house that fearlessly, yet successfully, mixes the classical with the Gothic, reflecting gradual shifts in taste during the period in which it was renovated.
While the Parson brothers might have had a hand in Tullanisk’s design – as their father had at neighbouring Birr Castle two decades earlier – there is some debate over who might have been the architect employed here. The most likely candidate is Richard Morrison, responsible for a number of other country houses with similar features in the same part of the country: Tullanisk’s garden front, for example, has a three-bay central bow almost identical to that seen at Cangort Park, another property designed by Morrison, some ten miles to the south. Of two storeys over basement, Tullanisk’s garden front conforms to classical expectations, as do the building’s elevations to the southeast and northwest. The appearance of the entrance front, on the other hand, is somewhat unexpected. Of five bays, that in the centre takes the form of a recessed arch, its outline traced by clustered shafts. Within this enclosure is an Ionic doorcase with side- and fanlight and then, somewhat surprisingly, a tripartite Gothic window on the floor above.
The Gothic influence continues inside the house, beginning with the entrance hall that has a vaulted ceiling with bosses, all supported by slender wall shafts. In style, this is a simplified version of the Gothic saloon created in Birr Castle by John Johnston, and so too are the narrow flanking passages that leaad to Tullanisk’s main reception rooms. Further Gothic inspiration was emplyed for the narrow spiralling staircase, reminiscent of those found in medieval castles, which climbs to the bedroom floor where, as below, the corridors are vaulted.
Returning downstairs, classicism reigns in the principal rooms, perhaps because they were too large to accommodate the same Gothic motifs, perhaps because the Parson brothers recognised that they lived in a house and not a castle. In consequence, the only variation found in these rooms comes from the different motifs employed in the cornicing.
While Laurence Parsons lived to be almost ninety and enjoyed two marriages, his elder brother was not so lucky. In 1828, a week shy of his twenty-sixth birthday, John Cleare Parsons died of scarlet fever. As for the building they had renovated, it served a variety of uses, including for many years as residence for the agents of the Birr Castle estate and, during the 1990s, as a popular guesthouse. In more recent years, it has once more become home to a member of the Parsons family, Lady Alicia Clements, daughter of the present Earl of Rosse, and her husband Nat Clements, together with their children. Ireland’s foremost decorative artist, Nat Clements has been responsible for giving Tullanisk its present appearance, from the faux-stone blocking in the entrance hall to the dragged paint walls of the saloon. As for the pictures and furnishings, they are a happy blend of items inherited from both of the couple’s families, together with new acquisitions, joyously married to form a unified whole.”
[picture caption p. 188] Immediately inside the front door… sit busts of Robert Bermingham Clements, Viscount Clements and William Markham, Archbishop of York.
p. 190 caption. The drawing room bookcase came from the now demolished Ashfield Lodge, County Cavan. Above it hangs a portrait of of the house’s former chatelaine, Catherine Markham, wife of Henry Theophilus Clements. .. The sofa came from the former Clements estate, Lough Rynn, County Leitrim. The chandelier os old Murano glass.
In the dining room, the table is a modern piece, made from a single yew tree that blew down in the storm of 1988, and in keeping with all the doors in Tullanisk that are of the same wood. .. The bronze horse is by local scuptor Siobhan Bulfin.
The bedroom corridor continues the Gothic theme found on the floor below, the vaulted ceilings ribs meeting a plaster bosses in the manner of a medieval cloister.”
Tullynisk House, WOODFIELD OR TULLYNISK, County Offaly
Detached five-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c.1810, with recessed central blind arch to façade and full-height bow to rear elevation. Set within its own grounds. Hipped slate roof with oversailing eaves having stone brackets, terracotta ridge tiles, rendered chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls with tooled stone plinth course, string course and quoins. Moulded tooled stone surround to recessed segmental-headed bay at façade. Timber sash windows with chamfered tooled stone surrounds and keystones. Tripartite timber sash window to first floor of façade’s recessed bay having pointed-segmental-headed mullions. Segmental-headed door opening to façade with coved and fluted archivolt, engaged Ionic columns, glazed and panelled timber double doors, fanlight and sidelights, accessed by tooled stone steps. Brick-lined servants’ tunnel to rear. Square-headed ashlar limestone gate piers to road with fluted capitals, plinth walls with spear-headed cast-iron railings and gates. Stone outbuildings with hipped and pitched slate roofs to north-west adjacent to walled garden with stone and yellow brick walls. Late twentieth-century bungalow constructed within walled garden.
Appraisal
Annotated as Woodfield on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map and as Woodville on the nineteenth-century second edition of the Ordnance Survey map, this country house is now known as Tullynisk House. Belonging to the Rosse Estate at Birr, it is part of the architectural and historical heritage of that town. Its design is striking and although unproven, has been attributed to Richard Morrison. The garden front of Tullynisk House is similar in design to the rear elevation of Cangort Park, with the unusual chamfered window architraves. Incorporating limestone dressings, a Gothic inspired central window and a splendid doorcase with leaded lights, the decorative detailing at Tullynisk creates drama within the symmetrical façade. Its rear, being equally as pleasant, is enriched with bowed central bays that look out onto a lawn. The site is completed by highly crafted entrance gates, an attractive gate lodge and outbuildings. Of particular note is the walled garden, situated to the north-east of the house. Now housing a modern bungalow, the impressive stone and yellow brick walls enclose a large area.
Detached three-bay single-storey gate lodge, c.1810. Hipped slate roof with paired timber modillions at eave course. Rendered walls with square-headed door and window openings with timber casement lattice windows and stone sills. Set behind square-headed ashlar limestone gate piers with fluted capitals, plinth walls with spear-headed cast-iron railings and gates.
Appraisal
This highly crafted gate lodge forms part of a group of attendant structures within the Tullynisk House demesne. Annotated as Woodfield on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map and as Woodville on the nineteenth-century second edition of the Ordnance Survey map, this country house is now known as Tullynisk House. Belonging to the Rosse Estate at Birr, it is part of the architectural and historical heritage of the town.
A little over a mile north of Birr, in County Offaly, surrounded by a demesne of magnificent oak trees, Tullanisk, formerly known as Woodville, was built in about 1810 as the dower house for Birr Castle to the designs of Bernard Mullins. Despite its relatively modest size the house is remarkable for its regularity, with four formal fronts, and for its architectural ingenuity. The central feature of the five bay facade is part gothic, part Regency, all recessed within a giant arch. Otherwise the exterior is typically late-Georgian. The interior is partly classical and part gothic, with a wealth of innovative details and decoration, and craftsmanship and materials of the highest quality.
The entrance front of Tullynisk, County Offaly. Dating from the early 19th century and replacing an older property on the site, the house is a mixture of the classical and gothic, the former evident in the doorcase with its Ionic columns, the latter in the window directly above. The combination of the two is as unselfconsciously assured as the sheep grazing in the immediate vicinity.
Castle Daly, County Galway entrance front, photograph collection: Miss Olive Daly, 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.
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. 66. “((Daly/IFR) a three storey C18 house with a pedimented centre….Castle Daly is now demolished, and only the front wall remains standing, like a folly or a piece of stage scenery.”
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. 69. “An important three storey seven bay early to mid 18C house with a pedimented breakfront incorporating a tower house. Rere facade has battlements added in the early to mid 19C. Built by the Dalys. Now a ruin. Only the rere elevation remains.”
Castle Daly, County Galway, photograph courtesy Daniel Finnerty instagram @greatirishhouses ‘.Castle Daly garden front c. 1880. Photograph: Collection Bertie Donohoe. 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.Castle Daly, County Galway, photograph courtesy Daniel Finnerty instagram @greatirishhouses ‘.
In Blake, Tarquin. Abandoned Mansions of Ireland. Collins Press, Cork, 2010.
Around 1783 Peter Daly, then a young man of 20, left home to seek his fortune. Daly was a younger son whose father, Darby Daly, had died some years earlier leaving the family property, Dalysgrove to his eldest-born, Francis. The Dalys could trace their ancestry in this part of the country back to Dermot O’Daly of Killimor, whose five sons were the forebears of many prominent East Galway landowners thereafter, not least the Dalys of Dunsandle (see Dun and Dusted « The Irish Aesthete). Unlike their cousins, however, the Dalys of Dalysgrove remained Roman Catholic while managing to hold onto their estate. In adulthood, Peter Daly might have followed the example of other young adventurers and moved to France, or Austria or Italy, or even North America, then just achieving independence. Instead, he travelled to Jamaica where he became the owner of several coffee plantations, the crops of which were exported to England. In 1806, he married Bridget Louisa MacEvoy, daughter of Christopher MacEvoy, another substantial plantation owner in the West Indies; the couple would have three sons. Interestingly, Peter Daly named his Jamaican estate Daly’s Grove, after the family property back in Ireland. Eventually, in the late 1820s, he had made sufficient money in the Caribbean that he was able to buy the original Dalysgrove in County Galway from his elder brother Francis. By this time, he had also acquired another property in the same part of the world, Corbally, which had previously been owned by a branch of the Blake family.
The Blakes were one of the Tribes of Galway, the 14 families who dominated trade in that city during the MIddle Ages. Like many of the other Tribes, they began to buy land in the surrounding counties and according to an account of the family records published in 1905, Peter Blake, third son of Sir Richard Blake of Ardfry, County Galway (for more on this house, see All Washed Up « The Irish Aesthete), was in December 1679 granted the castle and lands of Corbally by patent. His descendants remained living there until 1829 when the property was sold to Peter Daly. (Incidentally, Sir Henry Blake, the 19th century British colonial administrator who was successively Governor of the Bahamas, Newfoundland, Jamaica, Hong Kong and Ceylon – now Sri Lanka – was the grandson of Peter Blake who sold the estate to Daly). Occupying a prominent site on high ground, Corbally began as a late-mediaeval tower house but c.1780 the Blakes built a large classical house in front of this. An old photograph shows that the building’s facade was of three storeys over basement and of seven bays, the centre bay in a pedimented breakfront with a typical tripartite doorcase on the groundfloor approached by a short flight of stone steps and an oculus within the pediment. Directly below this, and between the two third-floor windows was a large panel displaying a coat of arms. Following Peter Daly’s acquisition of the property, the house’s name was changed to Castle Daly and significant changes were made to the garden front, where the old tower house was given a twin to create a pair of projecting wings with a forecourt between them. The roofline of both towers was ornamented with limestone crenellations supported on corbels. While these helped to convey an impression of antiquity, the two bays between them retained the 18th century Venetian tripartite doorcase with a Diocletian window directly above, although the roofline was again given crenellations. Similar work was carried out at Dalysgrove after it too had been acquired by Peter Daly. … [see post]
On March 19 1735, Mr. Richard Taaffe of Manfieldstown granted a lease of the lands of Stephenstown, Ballyclare and Ballinlough (a later deed confirms that the townland of Knocktavey was also included, together with the dwelling house and demesne of Stephenstown) to Mr. John Taaffe. On 14th February 1740, John Taaffe surrendered the lease of all the above lands to Mr. Page, a money lender from Dublin, who immediately re-leased on the same terms and conditions to 
Irish Historic Houses 
