Ancestral home of the Mcmorrough Kavanaghs, ancient High Kings of Leinster, the present Borris House, County Carlow is an 18th century house incorporating parts of an older castle. Around 1810-20, the father and son team of architects Richard and William Morrison tricked out the building’s exterior in vaguely Tudor-Gothic style. Among the flourishes they added were these sandstone hood moulds above each window, all of them concluding in coroneted heads so as to emphasise the residents’ former royal status.
I feel certain that not all the waters of the rough rude seas of recent centuries have washed their royal balm entirely away.
Indeed, the present generations of this family are completely charming.
I wonder if they and the O’Conors of Connaught are on speaking terms or do they conduct a vendetta that goes back to the famous row between Dermot McMorrough Kavanagh the last King of Leinster and Rory O’Conor the last High King of Ireland…
I rather think both sides have recovered from that row – and both families so charming today, not as bellicose as their ancestors.