Aclare House, Drumconrath, 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. 1. “(Singleton/LG1912; Lindsay, sub Crawford, E/PB). An almost Italianate house built 1840 for H.C. Singleton; 2 storey and faced with ashlar. Three bay entrance front, projecting central bay with pedminent and Wyatt windown about Grecian Doric portico; three bay side with slightly projecting end by. Office wing set back, fronted by graceful conservatory with curving ends and roof. Inner hall ceiling supported on carved wood brackets; upstairs landing screened from central top-lit space by arcade supported on Tuscan columns. Opened as a hotel ca. 1950 by its then owner, Mr D.E.T. Lindsay; it has since been sold, but is still run as a hotel.”
Record of Protected Structures:
Aclare House, aclare House Demesne.
A good example of the Greek Classical revival, c.1830.
Frontispiece of three bays, two-storeys, with single bay
pedimented breakfront, Wyatt window in the centre,
tetrastyle doric porch. Stone outbuildings to rear of house.
Walled Garden.
https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/site/4931/aclare-house-lower-slane-drumcondra-aclare-house-demesne
was a hotel in 1982 but no longer.
In 1837 belonged, along with 325 statute acres, seat of H. Corbet Singleton Esq. ref: https://www.libraryireland.com/topog/D/Drumconra-Lower-Slane-Meath.php
A listed structure, https://meathcountydevelopmentplan.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/appendix-8-record-of-protected-structures.pdf
A good example of the Greek Classical revival, c.1830. Frontispiece of three bays, two-storeys, with single bay pedimented breakfront, Wyatt window in the centre, tetrastyle doric porch. Stone outbuildings to rear of house. Walled Garden.
Also known as Athclare lodge the house was possibly constructed about 1800. The two storey over basement house is located near Drumconrath. 1835 it was the property of H.C. Singleton. Aclare Cottage, the residence of Mr. G. Moore Adams, was in the north-east of the townland. The Adams family had connections to Aclare from the early 1700s. The demsne contained 36.5 acres. The house was described as a two storey, slated modern house in good repair. It seems to have been a u shaped house. George Adams held the house and demesne in the 1850s. John William McKeever and his family occupied Aclare Cottage in 1911. The original windows have been replaced. Today there are farm buildings around the house.
Aclare House, Drumconrath, was constructed for Henry Corbet Singleton in 1840. A previous house on the site was described in 1836 as being a two storey slated house in good repair. A well planted demesne of 97 ½ acres surrounded the house.
Located beside the river Dee the townland takes its name from a ford over the river possibly at the site of the crossing called the Han bridge. The house is a good example of classical revival. Casey and Rowan describe the house as faced with Scottish sandstone. The house has a central top-lit stair hall. Held by the Lord of Slane in 1640 the property became part of the estate of the Corbet family. The large reception rooms contain neoclassical chimney pieces. The ballroom leads to the orangerie which overlooks the parkland of the estate. There are substantial stables and outbuildings to the rear of the house and a walled garden. The river Dee winds its way though the parklands and powered a turbine which provided electricity for the house.
The Corbets of Aclare were descended from Very Rev. Francis Corbet DD, Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and the family had burial rights at the cathedral. The owner of Aclare, Francis Corbet, added the name Singleton to his surname by royal licence in 1820 when he inherited the Meath estates of his uncle, Henry Singleton. The eldest son, Henry Corbet Singleton, born in 1806 inherited the property. Henry was a magistrate and deputy lieutenant of the County Meath. [see https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/singleton-francis-corbet-1597 ]
Robert Corbet Singleton, the second son of Francis Corbet, established St Columba’s College, Rathfarnham, in 1843 and St Peter’s College, Radley at Oxford in 1847. As its first warden he inaugurated a very strict and rigorous system of religious discipline. In 1868 he co-edited, The Anglican Hymn-Book, which contained nearly thirty original hymns by him, most notably ‘With gladsome feet we press.’
Francis Corbet Singleton was the third son of Francis Corbet Singleton. Joining the Royal Navy he emigrated to Adelaide, South Australia, where he became Clerk of the Legislative Council. He established a silver mine in South Australia which he named Aclare. This may not be accurate as there was a second Francis Corbet Singleton, who was a relative of the family living at the same time.
Loftus Corbet Singleton, the fourth son, joined the army and became a major. He died in 1881 aged 38 from wounds received at Majuba Hill, Natal, South Africa while fighting the Boers.
Henry Corbet’s son, also Henry Corbet, was born in 1837 and served as a major in the 30th Foot before assuming his role as landlord of 5,857 acres in County Meath in 1872 on the death of his father. When he died in 1890 the estate passed to his brother, Rear Admiral Uvedale Corbet Singleton, who died in 1910. His only child monica Virginia, married and English cousin in 1923. The estate then passed to the Land Commission in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The contents of the house were sold in 1930. Each summer the Singletons gave a party at Aclare for the school children from Drumconrath, which was followed by a football match between the local men.
The house and 160 acres were sold by the Land Commission in 1939. In the 1940s the house was owned by Mr. Phillips. The house was opened as a hotel about 1950 by its then owner Mr. D.E.T. Lindsay and it remained operating as a hotel in the following decades.
Another branch of the Singletons were established at Mell, Drogheda and a number of these were members of parliament in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This family held nearly nine thousand acres in Cavan, Louth, Meath and England. Another Singleton family held over nine thousand acres mainly in Monaghan and Fermanagh.
Irish Historic Houses 