Ardbraccan House, Navan, Co Meath
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. 7. “The Palace of the (C of I) Bishops of Meath, on the site of the old castle where the Bishops lived from C14. Bishop Evans left money for the building of a new house here early in C18; his successor, Bishop Henry Downes, came here with Dean Swift to lay out the ground; but it was not until the time of the next Bishop again, Arthur Price, that the house was begun ca 1734, to the design of Richard Castle. When the two 2 storey 5 bay wings of what was to be a Palladian mansion had been completed, Price was elevated to the Archdiocese of Cashel. For the next 30 years, the subsequent Bishops did nothing about building the central block, but lived in one of the wings, using the other for guests. It was not until early 1770s that Bishop Henry Maxwell, a younger son of 1st Lord Farnham, decided to complete the house; he is said to have boasted that he would build a palace so grand that no scholar or tutor would dare to live in it. He obtained designs from Thomas Cooley and also from one of his own clergy, Rv. Daniel Beaufort, Rector of Navan, who was a talented amateur architect. Both of them were, to a certain extent, under the influence of James Wyatt, who produced a sketch of the garden front. The centre block, which was eventually begun 1776 and took several years to build, is a simple and dignified grey stone house of 2 storeys and 7 bays, with an Ionic doorcase; it harmonises well with Castle’s wings, to which it is joined by curved sweeps with niches. The garden front, also of 7 bays, has a 3 bay central breakfront in which the ground floor windows are set in a blind arcade. The restrained neo-Classical interior plasterwork is said to have been designed by Wyatt, though Beaufort was asked by Bishop Maxwell to design a ceiling for the entrance vestibule 1780. This is a narrow room with a barrel-vaulted ceiling of shallow hexagonal coffering; a door under a large and elegant internal fanlight at its inner end opens into the main hall or saloon in the middle of the garden front, which has a cornice of mutules and elliptical panels above the doors. The principal and secondary stairs lie on either side of this saloon, which also communicates with the drawing room and dining room in the entrance front, on either side of the vestibule. Despite Bishop Maxwell’s hope that the grandeurs of Ardbraccan would discourage scholars and tutors from aspiring to the diocese, his successor was Thomas O’Beirne who had started life as a humble schoolmaster; but who none the less carried out improvements to the outbuildings, advised by Beaufort. The more aristocratic Bishop Nathaniel Alexander carried out grander improvements to the outbuildings in 1820s and 30s. The handsome farm and stable yards are joined by a tunnel under the garden terrace.”
Ardbraccan House, Ardbraccan, Navan, County Meath, C15W8C0 for sale March 2025 courtesy Sherry Fitzgerald
€10,150,000
11 Bed
7 Bath
2150 m²
for sale March 2025 courtesy Sherry Fitzgerald.
Once home to the Lord Bishop of Meath, and with a history going back one thousand years, Ardbraccan House owes its design to one of the most significant architects working in Georgian Ireland. Thanks to award winning restoration works, this Palladian Mansion is presented in ideal condition, while the approx. 101ha (250 acres) of lands include pleasure grounds, gardens, pastures and farmlands and so comprise one of the county’s finest country estates.
Mansion House, approximately 2,150 sq. m. (23,142 sq. ft.) 4-bedroom guest wing, 2 bedroom staff apartment, 4 guest lodges SPECIAL FEATURES • Approx. 101 Hectares (250 Acres) Country Estate with lands laid out in grazing paddocks and woodlands in the Boyne Valley • Walled garden, specimen trees, pleasure grounds, formal gardens and secluded walking trails • Historic 18th Century Georgian Mansion designed in the Palladian style by a team of architects including Richard Castle, architect of Leinster House • Beautiful and elegant original features throughout, with ideally proportioned reception and entertainment rooms • Full stables, stud farm and horse sport facilities Additional farmyards and coach houses and outbuildings • Excellent lands, ideally maintained and suitable for grazing, sporting pursuits or tillage • Eleven bedrooms in the central main house, four-bedroom guest wing, and two-bedroom staff apartment • Historic church and four additional lodges on site, including two apartments • Located just 5km from Navan • Approx 56km from Dublin International Airport • Approx 12km from Ballyboy Private Airfield • Excellent road network throughout the lands, including tunnels linking farmyards • Lands very well laid out with excellent secure fencing • Heritage award winning restoration of the Main Residence
ARDBRACCAN HOUSE Ardbraccan House joins Castletown and Carton as one of Ireland’s most significant Palladian mansions, taking its design from the hey days of classical Georgian Architecture. Contributed to by many of Europe’s most significant architects and designers, craftspeople and creators, it has been refurbished to award-winning standards. The principal mansion sits at the heart of lands that have been equally well designed, tended and restored over the centuries. A significant two storey over basement centrepiece is flanked by curved linking enfilades leading to a pair of symmetrical guest wings, one of which also houses a set of palatial stables. Reached via a sweeping set of stone steps, Ardbraccan preserves the symmetry so loved by the Georgians by means of a rare and beautiful barrel-vaulted hall, leading through to the wider Great Hall beyond. This feature allows the principal Dining and Drawing rooms three windows apiece, with lavish views across the estate parklands. Both of these gracious rooms have particularly fine neo-Classical plasterwork. The Great Hall has a William Chambers chimney piece, elegant plasterwork and French windows to the garden terrace. It leads to the Library and Study. Adjacent to this, the main Stair Hall has plasterwork to designs by James Wyatt, who also worked on Slane Castle.
Also at this level are a servery / kitchen, a pair of cloakrooms and a second staircase. At garden level there is a larger kitchen / breakfast room, gym, laundry room, playroom, pantry, stores, brickfloored beer cellar and wine cellar. The vaulted, country-style garden level kitchen is a particularly beautiful room. Light-filled it has an Aga, granite worktops, wooden-topped island unit, York flagstone floor, and solid timber cabinetry.
Upstairs are four generous bedroom suites, and two further bedrooms, and on the second floor, you will find a further five bedroom suites. All are beautifully proportioned with views across the gardens and parklands. A kitchenette on the top floor is a wise convenience for both nightcaps and morning coffees.
The two adjoining wings have been beautifully refurbished. To the left is a semi-separate wing with a kitchen, breakfast area, dining area, staff room and laundry room, with one bedroom at ground level, and three generous bedrooms above.
To the right, the ground floor houses stables, a tack room and boot room, while above is a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a loft.
Guest and staff accommodation throughout the estate is also provided in four lodges altogether. At the main entrance, the Main Gate Lodge offers a one-bedroom residence, providing an elegant and welcoming setting as you enter the estate.
At the rear entrance, the Kells Gate Lodge features two bedrooms, along with its own private parking area and garden, ensuring privacy. Built in the late 1990s, this lodge was designed in a traditional period style to blend with the aesthetic of the estate. Additionally, at the entrance to St. Ultan’s Church, which has been de-consecrated in recent years, stand two beautifully refurbished cottages: The School House and Sexton’s Cottage. Both of these lodges feature two bedrooms and have been meticulously restored, including the refurbishment of original sash windows, and are finished to an very high standard throughout.
RESTORING ARDBRACCAN, A PROJECT OF PASSION While the house and lands at Ardbraccan feel timeless, history marches on, and estates such as this thrive on the care of each succeeding generation. After lying vacant towards the end of the last century, previous owners lavished their attention on a painstaking restoration project. Working to conservation standards, specialist craftspeople used and revived traditional methods to bring the woodwork, plasterwork, stonework, roofs and windows back to their former glory. Where replacements were necessary, items were sourced and salvaged from sister properties in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Chimney pots were re-cast to match the originals, and the roofs were restored using the original slates, copper and leadwork. Specialist painters, stoneworkers and stuccadores congregated, some to apply and pass on their skills, and others to perfect their craft with the masters. Glass was handblown, and work extended right through to the inlay details in mother of pearl, as well as brass, pewter, marble and papier mache. At the same time, services were brought up to twenty first century standards. The project was renowned in Ireland, and in 2002 Ardbraccan was accoladed with An Taisce’s BestRestoration of a Private Building award. More recently, Ardbraccan’s owners have continued this legacy by restoring one of the wings, upgrading the behind-the-scenes services, sensitively revitalising the interiors, and refurbishing some of the lodges. LANDS AT ARDBRACCAN With approximately 101 Hectares (250 Acres) of excellent land, the immediate gardens at Ardbraccan are thought to have been originally designed by Ninian Nevin, who also designed the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin, and those at the home of the President of Ireland, Áras an Uachtaráin. Notable in the immediate vicinity of the main house are pleasure gardens with paths leading to informal gardens, shrubberies, small conservatories and a brick-lined walled garden. This was restored with the expertise of Daphne Shackleton, whose portfolio also includes gardens at Slane Castle, Virginia Park, the historic gardens at Loughcrew, and restorations at Ballintubbert and Baronscourt. These gardens speak of history and time: one Yew tree on the property is thought to be more than 500 years old. Stands of mature trees shelter the house and provide privacy, while opening up to reveal unspoilt views. The pastures and woodlands are separated by a pair of ha-has, adding to the sense of expansiveness. Beyond these are stud-railed paddocks and pastures. The parklands were extensively drained, fenced and replanted with specimen trees in the early 2000s, and the care has been on-going since then. Extensive yard and farm buildings include Palladian style yards, with stables, coach houses, a restored clock tower, lofted hay stores, a timber-panelled tack room, and horse walker. Two of these yards are linked by an underground tunnel. Further farm buildings are south, beyond a private sunken garden. These include a walled orchard, bell tower, grain lofts and a dovecote. A more-modern farmyard is screened within a former walled garden. There is also an historic church, now deconsecrated, on site. The estate is set within a single block, with the exclusion of a minor public road beyond the immediate core. Offering unparalleled privacy, and huge opportunity, the estate and lands at Ardbraccan give extraordinary scope for country and sporting pursuits, equestrian enterprises and farming. They also comprise an idyllic retreat in The Royal County, in a welcoming community, within easy reach of Ireland’s capital, and Dublin Airport, connecting you to the world, just half an hour away.
Section 482 in 2000, David Maher 046 9074800
https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/14402402/ardbraccan-house-ardbraccan-co-meath
Detached double-pile seven-bay two-storey over raised basement central block, built c.1776, flanked by quadrant walls to five-bay two-storey kitchen and stable wings, built c.1735. Former residence of the Bishops of Meath, now in use as a private house. Hipped slate roof to main block with ashlar chimney stacks. Hipped slate roof to flanking blocks with central chimney stacks. Ashlar Ardbraccan limestone walls with string course and a carved limestone cornice. Rear elevation with central three bays advanced with full length square-headed window openings to central block with ashlar limestone reveals, tooled limestone sills and timber sash windows. Laundry house, granary, outbuildings, icehouse and walled gardens to rear.
Appraisal
Ardbraccan House and demesne occupy an historically important site as it has been the seat of the Bishops of Meath since the fourteenth century. It has archaeological sites within the demesne including a holy well and two mounds. Architecturally the house is significant as Richard Castle designed the kitchen and stable blocks while the central block appears to be a culmination of the designs of Thomas Cooley and James Wyatt, together with amateur architect the Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort. The house displays the finest construction materials, such as Ardbraccan limestone and high quality fixtures and fittings. The house is set in mature pasture land with formal gardens and walled gardens.
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
p. 113. “The house was begun in the 1730s for Bishop Arthur Price, to designs by Richard Castle, who clearly envisaged a typical Palladian house with a large central block joined by curved links to kitchen and stable wings. When Price was raised to the Archbishopric of Cashel, building activity ceased at Ardbraccan; only the wings had been completed, and they served as accommodation for successive, and presumably less worldly, bishops until the 1770s. They survive today as rectangular four-bay, two-storey blocks with hipped roofs and central chimneystacks. The architecture is simple: sash windows, twelve-pane below and six-above, with a continuous string-course between. The S kitchen wing, now remodelled internally, had originally two-storey kitchen with a gallery or walkway to facilitate efficient supervision. The N stable wing, similar to Castle’s work at Strokestown in Co Roscommon, and to other stable blocks by him, is groin-vaulted throughout, the vaults carried on Tuscan columns set on the deep round bases that are characteristic of Castle’s architecture and derive ultimately from the bases of the minor order of Palladio’s basilica at Vincenza.
“The decision to complete the house was made by Henry Maxwell, a younger son of the first Lord Farnham and Bishop of Meath for 32 years from 1766 to 1798. In 1773 he obtained a preliminary design for the central block from James Wyatt. This shows a simple seven-bay, two-storey block above a basement, astylar and studiously understated, with regular sash windows, embellished only by architraves at ground-floor level, an Ionic doorcase and string-courses. The existing house, a reticent seven-bay two-storey building of grey Ardbraccan limestone, although almost certainly not by Wyatt, differs little from his conception, and both Thomas Cooley and the Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort, the amateur architect who provided the later and more detailed designs for the house, were undoubtedly guided by it… [p. 114].Cooley’s plans are restrained and nearer to Wyatt’s than Beaufort’s, which are often fussily grandiose and old-fashioned. Wyatt left no model for the garden front, proposals for this elevation were less inhibited. What was built is a simple seven-bay façade – the three centre bays advanced and expressed as full-length windows on the ground floor, set in round-headed relieving arches, a design close to Cooley’s drawings of 1775, though they lack the rather gauche arches of the design as built.
“In one sense the plan of Ardbraccan follows the traditional double-pile layout: a hall flanked by public rooms, with the principal and service stairs in the middle on each side and three rooms at the rear. What is different is that the usual large square hall is here placed in the centre at the rear, behind a narrow vaulted vestibule, an arrangement which first appears in Cooley’s plans of 1773 and 1774 and permits the rooms on either side to be large rectangular spaces, each with three windows, instead of the more common near square plan.
“The ground plan for the unsigned and unexecuted Adamesque design was the most unusual and up-to-date of all the proposals: a rectangular hall, elliptical stairhall and circular saloon, all on a central axis flanked on each side by dining and drawing rooms, parlour and library.
“Internal features suggest the close involvement of Cooley: the square, ample proportions, the free yet restrained treatment of anthemion and foliate motifs to the joinery and plasterwork, particularly the bay-leaf garlands in the dining room and the simplified – and freely treated – mutule cornice in the stairhall. An elegant finishing touch is the curved inner edge of the mahogany doors throughout the ground floor, all of which operate on a swivel rather than a hinge, a measure of the absolute refinement of late C18 building. Ardbraccan is a sophisticated house, cool and reticent rather than graceful, and more elegant than endearing.”
Ardbraccan, County Meath, “This formal dining room features panels on the wall painted in a delicate acqua tone and a large dining table ” copyright Luke White/The Interior ArchiveLW_268_18
Ardbraccan County Meath copyright Luke White The Interior Archive, dining room LW_268_13
This formal living room is furnished with an Aubusson carpet and a formal arrangement of sofas and armchairs. Ardbraccan House, Copyright Luke White/The Interior Archive Ltd, LW_268_06
The comfortable library is decorated in warm shades of red. Ardbraccan, Copyright Luke White/The Interior Archive Ltd, LW_268_05
The gracious entrance hall features a drum table and walls painted a neo-classical grey, Ardbraccan, Copyright Luke White/The Interior Archive Ltd, LW_268_26
Ardbraccan County Meath, This landing is furnished with a mahogany period sideboard and a pair of matching table lamps and armchairs ,copyright Luke White The Interior ArchiveLW_268_15
The master bedroom is decorated with a formal portrait above the fireplace, Ardbraccan County Meath copyright Luke White The Interior Archive , the master bedroom LW_268_14
Record of Protected Structures:
Detached double-pile seven-bay two-storey over raised
basement central block, built c.1776, flanked by quadrant
walls to five-bay two-storey kitchen and stable wings, built
c.1735. Former residence of the Bishops of Meath.
Front gate lodge:
Detached three-bay single-storey gable-fronted gate lodge,
built c.1770. Now in use as private residence. Main facade
constructed of ashlar limestone with pediment and
pronounced cornice.
http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/PlacesToSee/Meath/
Ardbraccan Estate former home to the Church of Ireland Bishops of Meath.
https://www.geni.com/projects/Historic-Buildings-of-County-Meath/29729
Ardbraccan House Liscarton. Bishop’s Palace. Historic house which served as the residence of the Church of Ireland Lord Bishop of Meath. residence of a bishop for over one thousand years, first of the Bishop of Ardbraccan and later following the merger of many small dioceses into the Diocese of Meath as the residence of the Bishop of Meath. By the Middle Ages a large Tudor house, containing its own church, known as St. Mary’s, stood on the site. 1734 Bishop Arthur Price (1678-1752) decided to replace the decaying mansion with a new Georgian residence. Initially the two wings of the house were built, before the main four-bay two-storey block of the house was completed in the 1770s by Bishop Maxwell. It was partly designed by the acclaimed 18th-century German architect Richard Castle (also known as Richard Cassels) was the architect of many notable Irish buildings including Leinster House in Dublin.Ardbraccan House and demesne occupy an historically important site as it has been the seat of the Bishops of Meath since the fourteenth century. It has archaeological sites within the demesne including a holy well and two mounds. Architecturally the house is significant as Richard Castle designed the kitchen and stable blocks while the central block appears to be a culmination of the designs of Thomas Cooley and James Wyatt, together with amateur architect the Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort. The new bishop’s palace became famous for the quality of its architecture. Funded by government grants and locally paid tithes, the Church of Ireland bishop held court from the mansion, which was the centre of a large agricultural demesne. However the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871, following the previous scrapping of Roman Catholic-paid tithes, fatally weakened the economic survival of the bishop’s estate, which was left totally reliant on the small local Church of Ireland community, and in 1885 the bishop sold the estate and house, moving to a smaller mansion nearby (which Church of Ireland continued to live until 1958 and which was then sold to a Roman Catholic religious institute, the Holy Ghost Fathers). Ardbraccan House was bought by Hugh Law, the son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and remained in the ownership of his descendants until sold by Colonel Owen Foster in 1985 to Tara Mines who used it as a guest residence for visiting businessmen. In the late 1990s the house once again changed hands. The new owners invested large sums to completely restore the mansion. In 2002 the restoration of Ardbraccan House won the An Taisce Best Restoration of a Private Building award. It is now open to the public. In the early 2000s, the County Meath planning authority approved plans to build a major new motorway linking Clonee and Kells through part of the house’s historic demesne. The Irish Georgian Society and environmentalists criticised the proposal. The motorway would also pass through the pristine parkland of a religious seminary called Dalgan Park and close by the historic Hill of Tara, seat of the ancient Árd Rí na hÉireann (High King of Ireland). The motorway is currently (2008) being built.
http://www.navanhistory.ie/index.php?page=ardbraccan-house
Ardbraccan was the seat of the diocese of Ardbraccan founded by St. Breaccan and St. Ultan. In the middle ages Ardbraccan became the seat for the Protestant bishops of Meath and a large house was erected with a chapel dedicated to St. Mary. The bishops of Meath were interred in the churchyard at Ardbraccan. The house was replaced by a Georgian building in the eighteenth century. The kitchen and stable wings were completed first in the mid 1730s and then the central block was erected about 1776. The two wings were designed by Richard Castle, the pre-eminent architect working in Ireland at the time while the central block was an amalgam of the designs of Thomas Cooley and James Wyatt, together with amateur Navan architect, the Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort. The house was constructed with limestone from the nearby White Quarry. The house is set in mature pasture land with formal gardens and walled gardens. There is a courtyard of domestic and agricultural buildings to the north of the house. The farm and stables are joined to the house by a tunnel under the garden terrace. A dome-shaped icehouse, dating from about 1800, is located to the south of the outbuilding complex. A gable fronted gate lodge was constructed about 1776 when the main house was completed. Known as Ardbraccan House or Bishop‟s Palace the house was the residence of the bishops of Meath until 1885, after which it became a private residence.
In 1734 Bishop Arthur Price decided to replace the old Tudor house with a new residence and commissioned Richard Castle to prepare plans. Arthur Price had been vicar of Celbridge and resided at Oakley Park. Here his steward at Oakley Park was Richard Guinness, who was acclaimed for his brewing talents. Richard‟s son, Arthur, went on to establish the Guinness Brewery in Dublin in 1759. While the new house was in the process of construction Price was elevated to Archbishop of Cashel and construction came to a halt. The kitchen wing was used as the bishop‟s residence for more than thirty years until Bishop Henry Maxwell decided to complete the building. Bishop Maxwell was a younger son of the 1st Lord Farnham of Cavan. James Wyatt, Thomas Cooley and Rev. Daniel Beaufort of Navan drew up plans and it would appear that while Wyatt‟s plans were used but Beaufort and Cooley also influenced the final house. Beaufort attended the laying of the foundation stone but had to leave early due to a toothache. Beaufort described the house as being “in a style of superior elegance, and yet with such simplicity as does equal honour to his lordship’s taste and liberality.‟ Maxwell is said to have boasted that he would build a palace so grand that no scholar or tutor would dare live in it. Bishop Maxwell also constructed the nearby Ardbracan church about 1777. The Bishops of Meath resided at Ardbraccan during the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries. Rev. James Singer became bishop in 1852 but resided mostly in Dublin and the house at Ardbraccan was shut up in the 1860s. In 1876 Rev. William Plunket became bishop of Meath and he resolved to sell Ardbraccan as the costs of upkeep were too large for a now disestablished Church of Ireland.
The bishops moved to a smaller house in the locality, Bishop’s court, now An Tobar. Bishop Plunkett sold the house in 1885 to Hugh Law, son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. At the time Fr. Kearney P.P. Bohermeen suggested purchasing the Bishop‟s Palace as a seminary but his bishop did not agree with the suggestion. The house remained in the Law family until it passed by marriage to the Foster family. In 1985 Colonel Owen Foster sold Ardbraccan House to Tara Mines who used it as an occasional guest residence for visiting businessmen. The Fosters moved to the old schoolhouse at the entrance to the churchyard and were noted for their great care of the grounds of the church. In the late 1990s the house was once again sold.
Copied from meath-roots.com”
The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found. Robert O’Byrne. The Lilliput Press, Dublin, 2024.
Ardbraccan, County Meath. January 2021
“For many centuries, Ardbraccan was the seat of the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath. In 1734, following his appointment to the diocese, Arthur Price embarked on building a new residence for which one of his predecessors, John Evans, had left the sum of £1,000. Designs for a Palladian house were provided by Richard Castle and work began on the project but then halted in 1744 when Price was transferred to the archdiocese of Cashel. By this date, the wings of the building had both been completed and one of these, intended to house the kitchen, was converted into a residence for Price’s successors. Only following Henry Maxwell’s appointment as Bishop of Meath in 1766 was it decided to finish work on the site. In the early 1770s new designs were sought from three architects, not least James Wyatt, based in London. Thomas Cooley, then also working for Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh, likewise produced plans, as did local rector and amateur architect, the Rev. Daniel Beaufort. The finished house, in the then-fashionable cool neoclassical style, is an amalgam of all three men’s proposals. The garden front of the main block… is of seven bays with a three-bay central breakfront, the ground floor windows set in a blind arcade. Ardbraccan remained the seat of Maxwell’s ancestors until after the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869 and has been owned by a number of private individuals since that date.”
https://theirishaesthete.com/2013/04/29/practical-palladianism/
Palladian is a much-abused term in this country, frequently applied to buildings which visibly have no link with Palladio but which happen to be old. Rather than attempt to re-write an already admirable summary, I here quote from the Encyclopaedia Britannica: ‘Palladianism, style of architecture based on the writings and buildings of the humanist and theorist from Vicenza, Andrea Palladio (1508–80), perhaps the greatest architect of the latter 16th century and certainly the most influential. Palladio felt that architecture should be governed by reason and by the principles of classical antiquity as it was known in surviving buildings and in the writings of the 1st-century-bc architect and theorist Vitruvius. Palladianism bespeaks rationality in its clarity, order, and symmetry, while it also pays homage to antiquity in its use of classical forms and decorative motifs.’
Palladianism as we see it in Ireland emerged in the early 18th century, heavily influenced by English practitioners and theorists such as Colen Campbell whose Vitruvius Britannicus was published in 1715, and his patron Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (and also, let it not be forgotten, 4th Earl of Cork, since he was a large landowner in this country). The first indisputably Irish Palladian house is Castletown, County Kildare on which work began c.1722 with its facade designed by Florentine architect Alessandro Galilei (1691-1737), today best known for his work at the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome.
One aspect of Palladianism often overlooked is its functionality: seduced by the beauty of the overall design we are inclined to forget these buildings were intended to serve a practical purpose. In the 16th century many of Palladio’s clients were wealthy Venetians who owned country estates on which they wished to spend the summer months. The estates were working farms, and the houses Palladio created at their centre reflect this reality. Because of his admiration for classical design and the importance of symmetry, rather than permit a variety of stand-alone farm buildings scattered across the site as had customarily been the case, he consolidated them into a single unit.
Thus the archetypal Palladian villa is dominated by a central residence with a facade inspired by Roman temples (hence the frequency of pedimented porticos). On either side of this block run a series of lower wings symmetrical in appearance and practical in purpose. Behind their calm and orderly exteriors a quantity of different activities would take place, whether the preparation of meals or the storage of grain, the housing of livestock or the washing of clothes. There would be stables and dovecots, piggeries and chicken coops, all of them part of a single harmonious unit. The concept was both simple and yet sophisticated, rational yet handsome. In the late 19th century the American architect Louis Sullivan proclaimed ‘form ever follows function.’ Palladio’s villas demonstrate the truth of this maxim. As his influence spread beyond Italy, so too did his designs and the practical philosophy that underlay them. This approach found a particularly warm reception in Ireland where from the late 17th century onwards landowners sought to bring order to their estates and to create new residences at their core.
One such estate was Ardbraccan, County Meath. This had been the seat of a bishopric for over a thousand years and in the 16th century a large Tudor house called St Mary’s stood there. However by the early 18th century the old residence had become so dilapidated that a new house was deemed essential. In 1734 then-Bishop of Meath Arthur Price made a start on the project but within a few years he had been transferred to the Archbishopric of Cashel (where incidentally he was responsible for unroofing the old cathedral, seemingly because he found his carriage could not easily be driven to the top of the hill on which it stands). It would be another 30 years before the work initiated by Price was brought to completion, but the two wings of the building he commissioned were completed before his departure.
The architect employed for this task was Richard Castle, whose personal history remains somewhat shrouded in mystery. He is believed to have grown up in Dresden, where his father, an English-born Jew named Joseph Riccardo, served as Director of Munitions and Mines to Friedrich Augustus, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. By 1725 Castle, sometimes called Cassels, had come to England where he is likely to have encountered Lord Burlington and his circle of Palladians. Three years later he moved to Ireland, supposedly at the request of Sir Gustavus Hume, to design Castle Hume, County Fermanagh. Not long after Castle began working as a draughtsman for Sir Edward Lovett Pearce on the plans of the new Parliament House then being built in Dublin. Following Pearce’s death in 1733 Castle took over some of his unfinished commissions and also became the most notable designer of country houses in Ireland. He was, therefore, the obvious choice when Bishop Price sought an architect for the new residence at Ardbraccan.
Understandably visitors to Ardbraccan focus their attention on the main house, finished in the 1770s to the designs of no less than three architects: James Wyatt, Thomas Cooley and the Rev. Daniel Beaufort. As a result, the rest of the structure receives less notice, even though it offers one of the purest examples of Palladianism in Ireland. To north and south of the central block run arcaded quadrants that link to two-storey, five-bay wings, their entrances facing one another across the house’s forecourt. The facade presented to the world is one of order and equilibrium, harmony and proportion. In classic Palladian fashion Castle provided facilities for a wealth of complementary domestic and agricultural activities, all housed in splendidly constructed outbuildings that remain intact. These include stables and carriage houses, kitchens and laundry yard, pump yard and slaughter house, piggeries, granary, dovecotes, cattle sheds and fowl yards, accommodation for the large community of workers who engaged in diverse activities, and rising above them all a clock tower to ensure time was kept on the day’s tasks.
One of the pleasures of these buildings is the quality of their finish, a tribute to Irish workmanship at the time. It is worth noting the way different sections interact; the mixture of cut and uncut stone within the stable block to the north, for example, is surprisingly successful. On this side of the house a Gibbsian door permitted the bishop to descend to the yard via a flight of handsome steps, and then climb another short sequence to the mounting block for his horse. Inside the wing itself look at the superlative groin vaulting in the stables, the vaults carried on solid Tuscan column. Elsewhere the interplay of curved wall and staircase is another delight. These were all practical spaces, intended to ensure the estate operated smoothly and would be almost self-sufficient. Nonetheless as much attention was paid to their design and construction as to the episcopal residence. Here are the tenets of Palladianism put into practice and showing their mettle.
https://theirishaesthete.com/2017/05/10/a-day-in-may/
Pastoral scene with country house as backdrop: Ardbraccan, County Meath. The central block dates from the 1770s when it was constructed for the then-Bishop of Meath, Henry Maxwell. Visiting the place two centuries ago, the English agronomist and politician John Christian Curwen wrote that Ardbraccan ‘is a modern edifice, erected by the former Bishop on a plan of the late Dr Beaufort; which unites much internal comfort with great external beauty and simple elegance, well designed and appropriated for the residence of so considerable a dignitary of the church. The grounds are laid out with great taste, and the luxuriant growth of the trees and shrubs affords incontestable evidence of the fertility of the soil.’
https://theirishaesthete.com/2017/09/27/autumn-hues/
A moment when the Virginia Creeper perfectly matches the colour of the door: the façade of Ardbraccan, County Meath. Dating from the late 1760s the building has a complex history, since Henry Maxwell, Bishop of Meath commissioned designs from three architects: James Wyatt, Thomas Cooley and Daniel Beaufort, the last of these also being a local Anglican clergyman. In the end the façade reflects elements of all their proposals, although it is closest to that of Wyatt.
https://theirishaesthete.com/2014/01/04/wyatt-thing/
A detail of the plaster frieze running around the walls of the staircase hall at Ardbraccan, County Meath. We know that in 1773 James Wyatt produced drawings for the centre block of the house. These were commissioned by Henry Maxwell, Bishop of Meath whose brother Barry Maxwell, Earl of Farnham would likewise employ Wyatt to design a new house for him in County Cavan a few years later. In the event, the architect’s plans for Ardbraccan were modified to incorporate elements from schemes by both Thomas Cooley and Daniel Beaufort, the latter a gifted amateur who was also Rector of nearby Navan. However, the staircase hall’s plasterwork is distinctly Wyatt’esque and so it is surely not too fanciful to imagine that at least this part of his proposal was executed without intervention from other hands.
US buyer snaps up Meath estate for €4.9m
A businessman from Maryland is the latest American to buy an Irish country estate, in this case Ardbraccan, a Palladian pile partly designed by Richard Castle, the classical-style architect who also created Leinster House
for sale, bought 2013
9 May 2013 by Jack Fagan
A wealthy American businessman has availed of the sharp fall in the price of country estates here to buy one of Ireland’s finest Palladian mansions on the Ardbraccan Estate in Navan, Co Meath.
Charles Noell, who co-founded JMI Equity in Baltimore, Maryland, has paid close to the asking price of €4.9 million for the 18th century mansion and 120 acres of formal gardens, ancient woodlands and parkland about three miles outside Navan.
Noell was underbidder last February for the 420-acre Dowth Hall estate on the river Boyne between Slane and Drogheda which was bought by a local businessman for €5 million.
Noell is the latest American to invest in a large estate in Ireland following the purchase of Humewood Castle in Co Wicklow, and Woodhouse Estate in Co Waterford, in recent months by American businessmen.
Noell is best known as president of the family investment company of John J Moores, founder of BMC Software, who last year attracted international attention when he sold the San Diego Padres baseball team for €800 million.
George Windsor-Clive, an international equestrian property agent, who advised Noell, said his client enjoys an interest in bloodstock and racing, and he expects that he will breed horses at Ardbraccan.
The marketing campaign here was handled by Pat O’Hagan of Savills who said that when the “overseas buyer” indicated his interest in acquiring the Navan estate the deal was wrapped up in record time and the sale closed last Friday.
Ardbraccan was built in the mid-1700s as the palace of the bishops of Meath. It is now a vast home, extending to 2,150 sq m (23,142 sq ft), and includes a stunning range of reception rooms and 15 bedrooms, six of which are suites.
Like many other great mansions, Ardbraccan, partly designed by Richard Castle, conforms to the classical style of a central block joined to subordinate wings by curved linking walls inset with niches.
riginally housing butlers’ and housekeepers’ rooms and kitchens, the south wing now provides well-proportioned guest accommodation including three reception rooms and four bedrooms.
The north wing is mainly used for staff accommodation and a farm office.
The central block, built after the two wings, is a simple and dignified grey stone house of two storeys over basement and seven bays with an Ionic doorcase.
When the last owner, property investor David Maher, acquired Ardbraccan, the property had been unoccupied for almost 20 years and was in need of considerable attention. Over four years the house, yards, gardens and grounds were restored by specialist craftsmen using traditional methods and, where necessary, salvaged materials from Ireland and the UK.
Chimney pots were specially cast to match the originals and roofs recovered with original slates, and worked in copper and lead. Internal fittings were also restored and replaced and parklands were fenced and replanted with specimen trees.
One of the unusual features of the house is a narrow entrance vestibule with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. This allows the principal rooms on either side to be large rectangular spaces, each with three windows looking out on to the spectacular gardens.
rdbraccan differs from most layouts in that it has a large square hall at the rear of the house behind the entrance vestibule. The Great Hall has French doors leading to the rear garden. This also connects directly with the drawingroom and the diningroom. The principal and secondary stairs are on either side of the Great Hall.
Like the rest of the house, the basement has also been tastefully restored and includes a wide range of facilities including a kitchen, wine cellar, pantry, laundry room, playroom and billiard room. And of course a boot room. Where would you be without one?
http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2015/10/ardbraccan-house.html
SEVERAL small bishoprics gradually coalesced into one See, which received the name of Meath, at the end of the 12th century.
In 1568, the bishopric of Clonmacnoise was incorporated with it by act of parliament.
It extends from the sea to the River Shannon, over part of six counties, viz. Meath, Westmeath, King’s County (Offaly), Cavan, Longford, and Kildare.
From east to west it extends 80 miles; and in breadth, about 25 at a medium.
The Lord Bishop of Meath traditionally took precedence next to the four archbishops (Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, Tuam), and has been styled Most Reverend.
The other bishops, excepting only the Lord Bishop of Kildare, took precedence according to the date of their consecration.
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| Entrance Front |
ARDBRACCAN HOUSE, near Navan, County Meath, is a large Palladian mansion house which served from the 1770s until 1885 as the seat of the Lord Bishop of Meath.
By the Middle Ages a large Tudor house, containing its own church, known as St. Mary’s, stood on the site.
Bishop Evans left money for the building of a new residence here early in the 18th century.
His successor, Bishop Downes, came here with Dean Swift to lay out the new ground; though it was not until 1734 that Bishop Price (1678-1752) decided to replace the decaying mansion with a new Georgian residence.
Initially the two wings of the house were built, before the main four-bay two-storey block of the house was completed in the 1770s by Bishop Maxwell.
It was partly designed by the acclaimed 18th-century German architect Richard Castle (also known as Richard Cassels).
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| Garden Front |
When the two two-storey, five-bay wings had been completed, Bishop Price was translated to the archbishopric of Cashel.
For the following thirty years, succeeding bishops did nothing about building the centre block, but resided in one of the wings, using the other for guests.
It wasn’t till the early 1770s that Bishop Maxwell, a younger son of the 1st Baron Farnham, decided to complete the house.
This prelate boasted that he would erect a palace so grand that no scholar or tutor would dare inhabit it.
The centre block, which was eventually begun in 1776, took a number of years to complete.
It comprises two storeys and seven bays, with an Ionic doorcase.
This block complements the wings with curved sweeps and niches.
The garden front has a three-bay central breakfront.
The interior plasterwork is Neo-Classical in style.
Bishop Alexander carried out more elaborate renovations to the outbuildings in the 1820s and 1830s.
THE disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1871 fatally weakened the economic survival of the bishops’ estate, which was left totally reliant on the small local Church of Ireland community.
In 1885, the Church of Ireland sold the estate and house.
The bishop moved to a smaller mansion nearby (until 1958, when it was sold to a Catholic religious institute, the Holy Ghost Fathers).
Ardbraccan House was bought by Hugh Law, the son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and remained in the ownership of his descendants until sold by Colonel Owen Foster in 1985 to Tara Mines who used it as a guest residence for visiting businessmen.
In the late 1990s, Ardbraccan once again changed hands.
The new owners invested large sums to restore the mansion house.
https://meathhistoryhub.ie/houses-a-d/
Ardbraccan was the seat of the diocese of Ardbraccan founded by St. Breaccan and St. Ultan. In the middle ages Ardbraccan became the seat for the Protestant bishops of Meath and a large house was erected with a chapel dedicated to St. Mary. The bishops of Meath were interred in the churchyard at Ardbraccan.
The house was replaced by a Georgian building in the eighteenth century. The kitchen and stable wings were completed first in the mid 1730s and then the central block was erected about 1776. The two wings were designed by Richard Castle, the pre-eminent architect working in Ireland at the time while the central block was an amalgam of the designs of Thomas Cooley and James Wyatt, together with amateur Navan architect, the Rev. Daniel A. Beaufort. The house was constructed with limestone from the nearby White Quarry. The house is set in mature pasture land with formal gardens and walled gardens. There is a courtyard of domestic and agricultural buildings to the north of the house. The farm and stables are joined to the house by a tunnel under the garden terrace. A dome-shaped icehouse, dating from about 1800, is located to the south of the outbuilding complex. A gable fronted gate lodge was constructed about 1776 when the main house was completed.
Known as Ardbraccan House or Bishop’s Palace the house was the residence of the bishops of Meath until 1885, after which it became a private residence.
In 1734 Bishop Arthur Price decided to replace the old Tudor house with a new residence and commissioned Richard Castle to prepare plans. Arthur Price had been vicar of Celbridge and resided at Oakley Park. Here his steward at Oakley Park was Richard Guinness, who was acclaimed for his brewing talents. Richard’s son, Arthur, went on to establish the Guinness Brewery in Dublin in 1759. While the new house was in the process of construction Price was elevated to Archbishop of Cashel and construction came to a halt. The kitchen wing was used as the bishop’s residence for more than thirty years until Bishop Henry Maxwell decided to complete the building. Bishop Maxwell was a younger son of the 1st Lord Farnham of Cavan. James Wyatt, Thomas Cooley and Rev. Daniel Beaufort of Navan drew up plans and it would appear that while Wyatt’s plans were used but Beaufort and Cooley also influenced the final house. Beaufort attended the laying of the foundation stone but had to leave early due to a toothache. Beaufort described the house as being ‘in a style of superior elegance, and yet with such simplicity as does equal honour to his lordship’s taste and liberality.’ Maxwell is said to have boasted that he would build a palace so grand that no scholar or tutor would dare live in it. Bishop Maxwell also constructed the nearby Ardbracan church about 1777.
The Bishops of Meath resided at Ardbraccan during the late eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries.
Rev. James Singer became bishop in 1852 but resided mostly in Dublin and the house at Ardbraccan was shut up in the 1860s. In 1876 Rev. William Plunket became bishop of Meath and he resolved to sell Ardbraccan as the costs of upkeep were too large for a now disestablished Church of Ireland. The bishops moved to a smaller house in the locality, Bishop’s court, now An Tobar.
Bishop Plunkett sold the house in 1885 to Hugh Law, son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. At the time Fr. Kearney P.P. Bohermeen suggested purchasing the Bishop’s Palace as a seminary but his bishop did not agree with the suggestion.
The house remained in the Law family until it passed by marriage to the Foster family. In 1985 Colonel Owen Foster sold Ardbraccan House to Tara Mines who used it as an occasional guest residence for visiting businessmen. The Fosters moved to the old schoolhouse at the entrance to the churchyard and were noted for their great care of the grounds of the church.
In the late 1990s the house was once again sold.
Irish Historic Houses 