A Handsome Ensemble



Temple House, County Sligo has featured here before (see Thinking Big « The Irish Aesthete), on which occasion the immensity of the building was discussed. The property’s stableyard was constructed on a similarly substantial scale, reflecting the affluence of the Perceval family at the time. The main house, dating from 1825 and built in the then-fashionable neo-classical style, was greatly altered and enlarged less than half a century later and no doubt the same was also true of the U-shaped stables, entered through gateposts on the south-west side of the site. Facing this is a carriage entrance taking the form of a pedimented triumphal arch with Doric pilasters on either side and a clock tower cupola above. On either side are eleven-bay, tw0-storey wings, of ashlar limestone like all the rest, and centred on three-bay pedimented breakfronts. An exceptionally handsome ensemble that will, in time, find a new purpose.


Untapped Potential


Almost exactly five years ago, in early May 2019, Scouting Ireland announced that it was closing its centre at Mount Melleray, County Waterford. According to a report carried at the time in the local Dungarvan Gazette, a spokesperson for the organisation said of the closure, ‘This decision, which is a precautionary measure, has been taken after a planned health and safety audit identified a number of actions which should be taken to improve the building’s overall safety.’ As the publication noted, the centre, which had been operating for the previous four decades, had been a popular location for camps and other activities for groups throughout the south-east of the country. Scouting Ireland’s spokesperson said the audit’s recommendations ‘will now be considered in full before the building reopens.’ Five years later, the building – in fact a long terrace incorporating six substantial buildings – remains closed. 





A group of Cistercian monks first arrived in this part of County Waterford in May 1832, having come from the monastery of Melleray in Brittany. Initially the monks, many of whom were of Irish origin and were led by Waterford-born Fr Vincent Ryan, had moved to County Kerry but the land there proved unsuitable and so they looked for an alternative location. They were then offered 600 acres by Sir Richard Keane of nearby Cappoquin House, and so moved there, the new monastery’s foundation stone being laid in 1833. Two years later, the place was officially designated an abbey and in remembrance of their former home in France, the monks called it Mount Melleray: members of the order, albeit not very many of them, remain living in the same location to the present day. Within just over a decade of their arrival, the monks opened a school, initially for local boys but demand for places quickly grew and so they expanded their facilities: in June 1845, the foundation was laid of what originally was called the classical school. At the time, students not from the locality had to stay with local families (only those approved by the school principal) but further building work allowed for the establishment of dormitory and other facilities, on land owned by the monastery but not directly attached to it. As mentioned above, these properties which date from the mid-19th century consist of a series of six blocks, of two storeys over basement. Mostly of red sandstone ashlar with cut limestone window and doorcases, the largest of the blocks is of seven bays, the smallest of two. Constructed on a sloping site, they are interconnected, running from north-west to south-east and concluding just before the gates into the grounds of the abbey. At the top end and again linked to the other structures, is a Gothic Revival chapel, also dating from the same period. All of these buildings were occupied and used by students attending Mount Melleray school until it closed down in 1974. 





Five years after the school at Mount Melleray closed, the monks came to an agreement with the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) that it would take over responsibility for this collection of buildings. To mark the golden jubilee of its foundation, in 1977 the CBSI had already held an international jamboree in the grounds of Mount Melleray with some 10,000 attendees, so the organisation already had associations with the place, which was in need of fresh purpose once the students had left. Thereafter, it was used by the CBSI and, after this body merged with the Scout Association of Ireland in 2004, by the newly-created Scouting Ireland. Not least thanks to its substantial premises, the Mount Melleray venue became an important centre for activities; in 1996 a National Scout Archives and Museum was opened here. With accommodation for several hundred people and ample surrounding grounds available for use as campsites, it is easy to see why the venue proved so popular and why its closure was so widely mourned. A Scouting Ireland newsletter produced in October 2019, a few months after Mount Melleray shut its doors, noted that estimated costs for repairs to the property, upgrades to meet building regulations and conservation of a protected structure were more than €1.2 million. The same document recorded that the organisation was then in discussions with both the local authority and the monastery – from which it has held the buildings on lease – ‘to explore what the challenges are and possible options to meet these challenges.’ As yet, those discussions have not produced any results, and after five years of neglect, this range of substantial buildings is showing widespread evidence of neglect, not least slates coming off the roof in several places, thereby allowing water ingress. As is so often the case in Ireland, failure to address a problem speedily will mean the solution – if one is ever found – will be more costly and time-consuming than ought to have been the case. This is an extravagant and foolhardy waste of a property with considerable potential. 

Another Light Hand


No.36 Westland Row, Dublin and its exquisite neoclassical plasterwork has featured here before (see A Light Hand « The Irish Aesthete) Home for more than 150 years to the Royal Irish Academy of Music, the building was originally constructed in 1771 as a private house but in the 19th century, like so many others, became used for commercial purposes. Somehow, its interiors remained intact, not least one of the first-floor reception rooms, the ceiling of which has an elaborate decorative scheme with a classical scene painted by an unknown hand at its centre. Meanwhile, on either side of the chimney-breast are substantial fluted niches, with various classical figures inside ovals. As mentioned before, the stuccowork here has been tentatively attributed by Conor Lucey to Michael Stapleton, drawing on designs made by Thomas Penrose. The latter acted as agent for the English architect James Wyatt who during this period had many clients in Ireland.

Of a Very Superior Character


‘The monastery of Rahan…was founded by St Carthach or St Mochuda about the year 580. A king of Cornwall, named Constantine, abandoned his throne in 588, and became a monk there, whence it would seem the name Constantine became a favourite one with the family of Molloy, who were princes of Fercall, the district around Rahan. Under St Carthach, Rahan marvellously prospered, so that 867 monks were said to have been gathered under his rule at one time, and his followers formed one of the four great orders into which the Irish monasteries were divided…The monastery of Durrow, however, became jealous of the success of Rahan, and so in 636 roused King Blaethmac to expel Carthach, who took refuge in Lismore, where he founded the see but died the next year.’
From The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Part III, Third Quarter, 1896.





‘The ancient Irish church at Rahan – repaired for Protestant worship – has a remarkable round window, measuring about seven feet six inches in the external diameter of the circle, and it is placed about twenty-two feet from the level of the ground. It formerly lighted a chamber placed between the chancel and the stone roof. It has a circle of bead ornaments and chevron carving within the outer band-line. The ornamental sculpture is in low relief are inciso or hollow. The stone and masonry of this church are of a very superior character.’
From Lives of the Irish Saints Vol.X, by the Rev. John O’Hanlon, (Dublin, 1905)






‘The Abbey of Rahin [is] partly restored as a parish ch. It was founded in the 6th century by St Carthach or Mochuda, afterwards Bp. of Lismore, and is remarkable for its archaeological details. The visitor should notice the chancel archway, which consists of 3 rectangular piers on each side, rounded at their angles into semi-columns, and adorned with capitals elaborately sculptured with human heads. The original E. window is gone, but lighting a chamber between the chancel and the roof is a remarkably beautiful round window with ornaments in low relief. The antiquary should compare the decorations of the capitals with those at Timahoe. There are also ruins of 2 other chs., one of them containing a doorway with inclined jambs (indicative of early Irish architecture) and an arch adorned with the characteristic moulding so like Norman.’
From A Handbook for Travellers in Ireland by John Murray (London, 1866)

Out of Service




After Monday’s account of Bessbrook, here is what might be classified as one of the casualties of the town’s success: the former St Jude’s church a couple of miles to the south-west. The building dates from 1772 and has been attributed to architect Thomas Cooley since by that date he had begun receiving commissions from Richard Robinson, Archbishop of Armagh (and who carried on employing Cooley until the latter’s early death in 1784). Whoever was responsible, the design is a standard hall of three bays with a tower and entrance at the west end, built of coursed rubble with granite used for the doorcase, windows and quoins. Although capable of accommodating a congregation of some 120 souls, St Jude’s probably never attracted that number and it was abandoned as a place of worship in the late 1860s when a new Church of Ireland church was constructed in Bessbrook.



A Model Village


‘What immediately strikes the stranger is the substantial and comfortable appearance of the mill and its surroundings. At Bessbrook each house consists of from three to five rooms, according to the size of the family occupying it. Every arrangement necessary to promote cleanliness and health is resorted to. As you pass up, some of the first buildings you come to are the schoolrooms, which are for girls and boys, and for lads in the evening who are engaged during the day. The infant-school attached is the most interesting feature; but you will be pleased with the clean appearance of the boys and girls—with their intelligence and readiness to learn. The staff of masters and mistresses employed is evidently superior…Every householder has to send his children there, or whether he sends them or not he is charged a penny for the schooling of each child. £100 is subscribed annually, I believe, by the mills, and there is, besides, a Government grant. The playground attached to the school is an extensive one, and the view from it very fine.
A few doors further on, and we come to the Dispensary. There are ills to which all flesh is heir, and to remove which the services of a medical man are required…All here are expected to subscribe to a medical club, and the Firm supplement the subscription with a handsome one of their own. Thus a doctor is secured, who comes to his Dispensary on certain days of the week, and who also, of course, visits the serious cases in their own homes.
Further on, we come to a building which we ascertain to be the Temperance Hotel. This is the club and newsroom of the place. In the winter-time it is highly popular. Many Irish papers and a few English ones are taken in, and, I may add, most diligently perused. Here also are Punch and Zozimus, or the Dublin Punch. There also chess and draughts are played, and smoking is permitted. Boys are here indulging in games, while the advanced politician has his favourite organ—Conservative or Liberal; and those who care for neither, discuss matters connected with the neighbourhood, and the state of affairs at home.’
Extract from Bessbrook and its Linen Mills by J. Ewing Ritchie (London, 1876)





As seen today, Bessbrook, County Armagh dates from the mid-19th century when it was developed as a model village by the Quaker businessman John Grubb Richardson. From the second quarter of the 17th century to the end of the 19th century, the land on which the village stands was owned by the Caulfeilds, later Earls of Charlemont. Taking advantage of the river Camlough, a linen mill with bleaching green was established here in 1760 by the Pollock family, and in 1802 this business passed into the hands of Joseph Nicholson; the village’s name derives from that of his wife Elizabeth, or Bess. Following a fire in the scutching mill in 1839, the complex went into decline before being acquired by Richardson who had previously worked in his family’s successful family linen export company, JN Richardson Sons and Owden. It was Richardson who transformed the existing settlement into a model village for the workers in his linen mill which lay a short distance to the south and came to employ around 2,000 workers. A precursor of the better-known Bournville established by another Quaker family, the Cadburys, near Birmingham in England, by the end of the 19th century Bessbrook accommodated some 3,000 persons in 700 houses, many of them living in two-storey houses of rubble granite with red brick dressings. Two large squares – Charlemont Square and College Square – were linked by Fountain Street with a number of other streets running off this. All major Christian denominations, Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian, were provided with plots on which to construct a place of worship and as a Quaker Richardson provided a meeting house for members of his faith. As was noted by J. Ewing Ritchie in 1876, Richardson established a school for boys and girls, and built houses for its teachers, along with providing very many other facilities for the town’s residents: a dispensary, savings bank, orphanage, convalescent home, allotment gardens, gas lighting and hydro-electric tramway.He paid for a large building, called the Institute but known as the Town Hall, where meetings and recreational activities could be held. And, as also noted by Ritchie, he built an hotel where no alcohol was served. Richardson’s principles were based on the ‘Three P’s’: that there should be no public houses, no pawn shops and, as a result, no need for police. His son, James Nicholson Richardson wrote ‘From far-famed model Bessbrook/Where Bacchus is unknown/Where lack of public-houses/Has starved him off his throne/(Police, pawn-shop, nor publican,/Come nigh this realm of ease/The envious call it in their wrath/“The city of three P’s”)’. Many people were deeply impressed with Richardson’s philanthropic enterprise, but not everyone delighted in the place. After visiting it in 1879, George Bernard Shaw wrote, ‘Bessbrook is a model village where the inhabitants never swear or get drunk and look as if they would like very much to do both.’ 





The decline of linen production from the middle of the last century onwards eventually led to the closure of the Richardson’s mill at Bessbrook in 1970. Around the same time, owing to the onset of the Troubles, the British Army needed a substantial base in South Armagh and therefore requisitioned the buildings, which were converted into a major military base. For a period thereafter, seemingly the former mill became the busiest heliport in Europe, with army helicopters taking off and landing low over Bessbrook every few minutes. Inevitably, the consequent security issues had consequences for the village which suffered economic decline. The army finally left in June 2007, and in recent years work has been undertaken to restore the centre of historic Bessbrook, although more still needs to be done (the former Temperance Hotel, on the corner of Fountain Street and Charlemont Square, for example, sits empty and disconsolate). As for the vast old mill complex, since the departure of the British army, this site has sat largely empty. However, in the autumn of 2022 plans were announced by Farlstone Construction, a company based elsewhere in County Armagh, for a £60 million redevelopment of this area, with the buildings being converted into apartments, offices and retail units. Whether this scheme comes to fruition remains to be seen. 

Setting an Example



Drayton Villa in Clara, County Offaly dates from 1849 when built for Lewis Goodbody at the time of his marriage to Rebecca Clibborn. The Goodbodys were a Quaker family who had moved into this part of the country in 1825 and established a number of industries in the town, including a milling business and a jute factory, taking advantage of the river Brosna, The original block was of three bays and two storeys over basement, but in the mid-1860s another two-storey bay was added to the west side of the house, while a conservatory (since lost) was built on the building’s east side. Drayton Villa remained home to successive generations of Goodbodys until 1934 when it was sold to the Roman Catholic church for use as the parish priest’s residence. In February 2020, the house and 25 acres of land were offered for sale for €675,000 and subsequently bought by Offaly County Council ‘for public purposes’. Local media reports suggest that the land might be used for building a new school but nothing seems to have happened and in the meantime Drayton Villa has sat empty and boarded up. Is this the kind of example a local authority wants to set for the maintenance of its architectural heritage?


 

Of Small Extent but Very Strong


‘Castle of Doe – or MacSwine’s Castle, is situated on Cannon-point, a peninsula but little broader than its extent, on the bay of Ards, to the demesne of which it appears in various handsome views. It was built by a lady of the name of Quin, who afterwards married one of the Mc’Swine family, a couple of years before the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it was since then fortified with a strong bawn by the grandfather of the present Mr. Mc’Swine of Dunfanaghy; it was only of small extent, but very strong, and surrounded by a deep fosse, which admitted the sea-water on the landside.’
From Statistical Survey of the County of Donegal by Dr James McParlan (1802)





‘The MacSwines held Doe Castle (Dhuv or Black Castle) for ages. It is a lofty round tower, surrounded by high walls, on the northern coast of Donegal, at the entrance of a small bay or estuary. It is in perfect preservation, and is inhabited to the present moment. It contains several good rooms, especially a banqueting-hall, and the view from the top is grand and extensive. Up to the reign of Elizabeth, it was held by the MacSwines. After the rebellion of Sir Cahir [O’Doherty, killed at the Battle of Kilmacrennan, 1608], it came into the hands of captain Harte, or Culmore, and is at the present date the property of lieutenant Harte, R.N., the lineal descendant of the governor of Culmore.
The Hartes retain the property they got to the great extent at Sir Cahir’s death. The present head of the family, lieutenant Harte, resides at Kilderry, near Culmore, and is considered to be worth from £1,500 to £2,000 per annum. His grandfather, General Harte, of the Indian service, lived at Doe Castle and, of course, extraordinary stories of the nabob are circulated freely in the neighbourhood. He was at the taking of Seringapatam, and, if we can credit rumour, made a very considerable “loot” thereat.’
From The Fate and Fortune of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Rory O’Donel, Earl of Tyrconnel, by the Rev. C.P. Meehan (1868)





‘The Hartes of Culmore and Kilderry were the owners of Doe Castle and the landed property attached up to the year 1866 when it was purchased by Mr. Stewart of Ards. General Harte, of the Indian Service, who was present at the battle of Seringapatam and at the capture of Tipoo Sahib, lived at Doe Castle for many years in true Oriental magnificence. He met with an accident by falling down the steep staircase leading to the tower, from which death ensued afterwards. Captain Harte, his son, who succeeded him, was famous for his hospitality and very popular with the people. Tippp Sahib’s body-servant, a Hindoo, was made prisoner by the General, brought to Ireland and died at Doe Castle. He slept at night at the General’s bedroom door, dressed in oriental costume, and fully armed. The Hindoo’s health started to decline after his master’s death, to whom he was devotedly attached, and in a few years he died broken-hearted. The cannon captured at Seringapatam are yet to be seen on a green lawn sloping downwards to the sea from the outward walls of the castle…’
From Scenery and Antiquities of North-West Donegal by William Harkin (1893) 

 

Evolving Over Time



At the start of the 18th century, Peter Aylward, who came from Aylwardstown at the southern boundaries of County Kilkenny, married Elizabeth Butler. Her father, Sir Richard Butler, owned property at Paulstown further north in the county and the young couple settled here in an old tower house which they then modernised and extended. The new range had a recessed centre with projecting bays on either side, one of which was the original tower house.  This building appears to have survived unchanged for a century until some date in the 1820s/30s when a further single bay extension was added and the whole exterior crenellated, so that the house was thereafter called Shankill Castle; this work has been attributed to local architect William Robertson. In 1861, a conservatory designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and opening off the drawing room was added, but then taken down 100 years later. What does survive is another conservatory on stilts at the back of the building, accessed from a return on the main staircase. Shankill Castle remained home to Peter Aylward’s descendants until 1991 when it was sold; the property has since been owned by historian Geoffrey Cope and his artist wife Elizabeth.


A Piece of Stage Scenery


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. 





As mentioned, thanks to the fortune he had made in Jamaica, Peter Daly was able to buy both the Corbally (thereafter Castle Daly) and Dalysgrove estates, and return to live in Ireland where he carried out significant alterations to both properties. It helped that in November 1835, he was awarded £2,318, 11 shillings and six pence by the British government. Why so? Because this sum was compensation for the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean colonies. Peter Daly had hitherto had 113 slaves working for him on his Jamaican plantation and, following the Slave Abolition Act which came into effect in 1834, owners were entitled to seek recompense from the government for loss of revenue. Daly was among 170 people in Ireland who so benefitted under the terms of the act (for more on this, see Dirty Money « The Irish Aesthete). Peter Daly had two sons who survived to adulthood, and following his death in 1846 the elder, James, inherited Castle Daly while the younger, Peter Paul was left Dalysgrove; curiously both men died in the same year, 1881. While the Castle Daly estate ran to 3,495 acres of land, that at Dalysgrove had just 500. However, by 1906, presumably following sales under the terms of the various Land Acts, Castle Daly was surrounded by just 100 acres of untenanted demesne. The last of the family to own this property was Dermot Joseph Daly who in July 1945 sold Castle Daly. Two months later, an advertisement announced that various items removed from the house – shutters, windows, chimneypieces, wooden flooring, staircases – were being offered for sale in convenient lots. The house built by the Blakes was later demolished but for unknown reasons the garden front, as composed by Peter Daly, was left standing, a strange spectacle on the horizon looking, as Mark Bence-Jones noted, ‘like a folly, or a piece of stage scenery.’ Down in the village below and in a prominent position in front of St Teresa’s Catholic church (and formerly facing the entrance gates to the estate) can be seen the Daly Mausoleum which dates from 1860.