Two country houses, both in County Meath and both now hotels. Today, Dunboyne Castle which dates from the mid-1760s and in its present form was designed by Drogheda architect George Darley for the widowed Sarah Hamilton. Although only 15 or so years later than Bellinter (see the previous post), Dunboyne Castle’s interiors are quite different, rococo having usurped baroque as the preferred style of decoration. The plasterwork of the ground floor saloon’s ceiling is reminiscent of work from the same period at Dowth Hall which was also designed by Darley (see https://theirishaesthete.com/2012/12/24/netterville-netterville-where-have-you-been) and which has been attributed to Robert West.
Lovely plasterwork. I followed your link to the post about Dowth, very interesting and good to see that there are so many descendants of the original family interested in its future. The post was in 2013, what news since then? Has it been renovated as promised? The interiors are absolutely amazing.
Dowth is undergoing a gradual restoration, but as you know there is archaeological work going on there, which I believe may have slowed down the project (it’s a while since I was last there…)
I also had no idea that the Last September had been made into a film – found it on Youtube – what a star studded cast, a very young Keely Hawes and of course Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon and David Tenant. Lovely to see how the house once looked and so glad it is being restored, however slowly….