Knockabbey Castle and Gardens (also known as Thomastown Castle), Tallanstown, County Louth

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. 178. “(O’Reilly/IFR) An old tower-house with a three storey six bay buttressed Georgian wing, and also an early C19 Gothic wing. The old tower has Georgian Gothic doorway. Famous library, which burnt ca 1920.” 

Section 482 in 2000, owner Janice Tynan 01 677 8816 or 086 3903376 

https://archiseek.com/2010/knockabbey-castle-louth-co-louth

1858 – Knockabbey Castle, Louth, Co. Louth 

Architect: William Caldbeck 

When it was first built in 1399, it was called Thomastown Castle and consisted only of a towerhouse. Reflecting their prestige and position, the Bellews, who had lived here since 1399, extended the tower house to the west around 1650. That extension with its original stairwell and its elegant six-bayed facade still exists today. The house was remodelled again in 1754. In the 19th century, it was renamed as Knock Abbey, and the owner commissioned architect William Caldbeck to add a new house. This required substantial alterations to the original tower house including fitting Gothic Revival windows and rebuilding all the battlements. The addition to the east and south, including the contents of the library, were lost when the Irish Republican Army broke into Knock Abbey and set fire to it in 1923. What survived was rebuilt in 1925. 

https://www.discoverireland.ie/Arts-Culture-Heritage/knockabbey-castle-gardens/9446

Knockabbey Castle has evolved over the last millennium and each of the families who lived there have left their mark. They contain some of the finest historical water gardens to be found anywhere in the country, dating back to the 11th century. The gardens contain a wide range of magnificent specimen trees and its tulip tree ranks among the largest and finest in Ireland. 
 
Today you have a unique opportunity to see these gardens restored after generations of neglect. Spend an afternoon strolling through the 30 acres, which include meadows, herbaceous border, formal Victorian garden with restored glasshouse, parkland and various other garden buildings. Experience the peace and tranquillity of this magical place. 
 
Spend some time in the courtyard where you can view a film on the restoration in our Interpretive Centre or browse through the Tack Room. 
A visit to Knockabbey Castle and Gardens is like a step back in time, here you can see for yourself a real piece of Irish gardening history. 
 
Refer to website for opening times and rates.  
 
Facilities 
Coffee Shop | Audio Visual Presentation | Public Toilet | Coach Parking | Interpretative centre | Refreshments by appointment for groups of 20 or more | Wheelchair friendly | Guided Tours | 

https://fivestar.ie/luxury-property-sales/knockabbey-castle/

https://www.talkofthetown.ie/knockabbey-castle-finally-sold-after-seven-years-on-the-market/

After more than seven years on the market, the stunning Knockabbey Castle has finally been sold in recent months. 

The Louth Village castle first went on the market in April 2011 with an asking price of €2.5 million but a deal was finally completed earlier this summer for €800,000. 

It is not known at this stage who is beyond the purchase. 

The castle is famous for its stunning gardens. 

The building dates back to 1399 when it was called Thomastown Castle. Having housed the Tennyson and O’Reilly families in the 14th and 15th centuries, the estate was home to the Bellew family for many years until it was confiscated following William of Orange’s victory over King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. 

More recently, Knockabbey was purchased by Dublin-based property developer Cyril O’Brien in 1998. The grounds were in a bad state of disrepair, but with support from the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Fund, horticultural experts, stonemasons, tree surgeons and other experts, the historic gardens at Knockabbey are now in fine condition and have even been used as a setting for wedding pictures in recent years. 

In total €3.81 million was invested in the restoration. 

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/new-to-market/2-5m-ardee-castle-has-a-touch-of-zanzibar-1.591885

A pub owner with an eye for the exotic is selling his 14th century Co Louth castle on 30 acres of glorious garden 

KNOCKABBEY Castle is an eight-bedroom castellated property set on 30 acres of national showcase gardens outside Ardee in Co Louth. 

Situated about nine miles from the historic town, Knockabbey weaves a stone and brick tapestry that is influenced by many episodes in Irish history, starting with the monks who first manipulated its waters 1000 years ago. They were the demesne’s first inhabitants – moving from the nearby metropolis of Louth Village, then ecclesiastical capital of Ireland, to the pastoral splendour of Knockabbey. 

The house is under-done rather than overstated. a family could happily knock about it without feeling restricted by its architecture. 

Knitted into the fabric of the house are several building styles; the oldest, a tower built in 1399 with a £10 grant from Dublin Castle to protect the north-west corner of the Pale, was enlarged by the Bellows family in 1650, who added a six-bay, three-storey Queen Anne extension. 

By the late 1700s the castle came under the ownership of the O’Reillys, a family who could trace their roots back to Niall of the Nine Hostages. They put their stamp on the house, remodelling it and adding Gothic windows. 

The additions to the east and south, including the contents of the O’Reilly family library, were lost when the IRA set fire to it in 1923. What survived was rebuilt in 1925. 

The property is asking €2.5 million through joint agents Knight Frank and Hassett Fitzsimons. 

It was a Sunday drive that convinced owner, former publican, Cyril O’Brien, to pay £475,000 for the historic building back in 1998. 

That it needed work didn’t deter O’Brien, a man who transformed Dublin’s pubscape in the 1980s by introducing a destination gay bar, The George, and turning a certain generation onto dance music through his club Sides. 

In the 1990s he introduced the capital to the principles of the super-pub and boutique hotel with the respective launches of Zanzibar and The Mercantile. Flourishes of both styles are evident throughout the house. 

The restoration drama wasn’t as traumatic as his friends and family had warned, he says, but it was way more costly. A basic refurbishment turned into a large-scale restoration. O’Brien says he paid £250,000 in professional fees alone never mind materials and labour. 

The main entrance is via the tower house into a hall with vaulted ceilings and a flagstone floor. A wood-burning stove sits in the fireplace while display units showcase costumes made by Emmy and Oscar-winning costumier, Joan Bergin for a Millennium house party. 

The Gothic hall has a red quarry tile floor, ornate staircase and stained glass roof light. To the left is a large eat-in kitchen with dog baskets a-plenty, a four-door Aga and a linen cupboard from upstairs now a large larder. 

Traverse the hall to interconnecting reception rooms, a sittingroom and adjoining diningroom. An adjacent utility room has an ice machine, glass washer, bathrooms and storage. 

Down the hall is the music room, two rooms opened into one where the star feature is the pair of wooden pillars O’Brien discovered during the refurbishment. A bar and tea rooms complete the ground floor accommodation. 

Back in the original tower a stone “trip-step” staircase leads upstairs to the propertys chapel and on up to an interpretative centre. 

Climb up onto the ramparts and enjoy 360 degree views of the surrounding rolling hills. The view also shows the number of fine trees on the property – all sheltering the house. 

In its current configuration, the house has eight bedrooms, six of which are en suite. Most are decorated in a traditional style – the exception being the Thai room, which is fitted out with a raised platform bed and has windows veiled by reed blinds. 

But it is the property’s sylvan setting that makes this house special. Restored by Finola Reed using some monies from the Great Gardens of Ireland Restoration Fund, there are 30 acres of gardens set out in lawn and wild flower meadows. The meadows have paths mown through them so you can get up close and personal with the estate’s numerous specimen trees – including one of the largest-girthed tulip trees in these islands. 

Buttercup-laden, the meadows tap into our inner child and make you want to kick off your shoes and go running through the thigh-high foliage. 

A Victorian tea house, a stone-built fern house and an octagonal gazebo: all offer sheltered settings from which to admire the gardens, their Italian-style ornamental canals, pergolas wrapped in white wisteria and walls hung with fruit trees of apple, pear and plum. 

Business-motivated buyers should know that the gardens, while gorgeous, havent delivered the tourist numbers O’Brien had hoped for. 

He ran a tea rooms on the property for some years but there simply wasn’t enough interest, he admits. Neither, he believes, are any of the rooms sufficiently big to appeal to the wedding market. 

This is a place that celebrates the sound of silence. As the crow flies Knockabbey is two miles from the N2 and about seven from the M1 – yet the drone from either is blissfully absent. 

The house comes with a two-bedroom gate lodge, a replica of the original, a one-bedroom apartment and stables where further accommodation could be considered. 

It is approximately 76km from Dublin Airport and 105km to Belfast Airport. Off-peak, Dublin city centre is an hour’s drive. 

Owner O’Brien is staying in the area. This time though he’s building a thoroughly modern eco-friendly house from scratch. 

http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/louth/knockabbey/knockabbeycastle.html 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/13901130/knock-abbey-thomastown-co-louth

Attached six-bay three-storey country house, dated 1754, on a T-shaped plan with single-bay (single-bay deep) full-height central return (south); four-bay (two-bay deep) two-storey block (south-east) on a rectangular plan. Extended, 1858; 1863, producing present composition. Occupied, 1901; 1911. Burnt, 1923. Reconstructed, 1925. Sold, 1998. Restored, 2004. Pitched slate roof on a T-shaped plan behind parapet centred on pitched slate roof (south), clay ridge tiles, coping to gables with rendered chimney stacks to apexes having stepped capping supporting terracotta tapered pots, and concealed rainwater goods with cast-iron downpipes; flat roof not visible behind parapet (south-east) with concealed rainwater goods retaining cast-iron hoppers and square-profile downpipes. Replacement rendered walls with “Cavetto”-detailed ogee cornice below lead-covered dwarf parapet; part creeper-covered repointed rubble stone walls (south-east) with machicolation (west) or turret (east) framing battlemented parapets having coping. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing nine-over-nine or three-over-six (top floor) timber sash windows without horns. Pointed-arch door opening (east) with threshold supporting cast-iron bootscrapers, timber doorcase with clustered colonettes on cut-limestone padstones supporting shallow cornice on rosette-detailed frieze, and moulded rendered surround having stepped reveals framing glazed timber panelled double doors having sidelights on panelled risers below fanlight. Pointed-arch off-central door opening (south-east) with repointed voussoirs framing glazed timber panelled double doors having sidelights on panelled risers below fanlight. Pointed-arch window openings with cut-limestone sills, and repointed voussoirs framing eight-over-eight timber sash windows centred on six-over-six timber sash windows having overlights. Set in landscaped grounds. 

A country house erected by Thomas Tenison (“TT 1754”) representing an important component of the domestic built heritage of County Louth with the architectural value of the composition, one abutting a tower house erected on lands granted (1st November 1399) ‘by John Kenefer to John Bedelew and John Boscombe the younger’ (Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society 1923, 193-7), confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression; and the parapeted roof showing a slab-like slate finish: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the later “improvement” of the country house (1858; 1863) to designs by William Francis Caldbeck (c.1824-72) of Harcourt Street, Dublin (The Builder 29th May 1858, 381), with the compact rectilinear plan form; the construction in unrefined local fieldstone; the “pointed” profile of the openings showing switch-track glazing patterns; and the monolithic battlements, all rooted firmly in a surprisingly conservative Georgian Gothic fashion. Having been sympathetically restored (“COB 2004”), the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or replicated fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior reconstructed following ‘the barbarous mania of incendiarism’ during “The Troubles” (1919-23) (ibid., 179-83), thus upholding the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent outbuildings (—-); and nearby gate lodges (see 13901128 – 13901129), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of an estate having historic connections with the O’Reilly family including Matthew O’Reilly (1756-1817); Matthew O’Reilly (1779-1841); William Joseph O’Reilly MP (1792-1844); Myles William Patrick O’Reilly MP (1825-80) ‘late of Knockabbey [sic] Louth County Louth’ (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1880, 583); and William Joseph O’Reilly (1864-1937).