The Langrishe family were originally from Hampshire, where they lived for several centuries until one of their number, Lieutenant Hercules Langrishe, arrived in Ireland c.1650. His father was the first of the family to be given that distinctive first name (his sibling was called Lucullus). The younger Hercules had one son, John, who married no less than five times, his second wife being Alice Blayney, daughter of Henry Blayney, second Baron Blayney. She had previously been married to one Thomas Sandford, who held a long lease on lands at Knocktopher, County Kilkenny; following her own death, the lease was inherited by John Langrishe and finally in 1757 his only child (from a third marriage) Robert Langrishe completed the outright purchase of the fee simple of this property. His son, another Hercules, created a baronet in 1777, served as MP for Knocktopher for almost 40 years until the Irish Parliament was abolished in consequence of the Act of Union in 1800. A keen advocate of Irish legislative independence, he was also a supporter of Roman Catholic Relief: in 1792 Edmund Burke published his renowned Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe arguing the necessity for all remaining civil restrictions on Catholics to be removed. Following Sir Hercules Langrishe’s death in 1811, the baronetcy and Knocktopher estate were inherited by his eldest son Robert.

The name Knocktopher derives from the Irish ‘Cnoc an Tóchair’, meaning the Hill of the Causeway. Seemingly, it first appears in surviving records from the late-13th century Ormond Deeds, associated with the Butlers. That family was critical in the development of the area, although a Norman motte and castle were already developed here by one Griffin FitzWilliam in the closing decades of the 12th century (a telling indication of public attitudes to the country’s heritage is the fact that the motte, along with some masonry, survived until 1973 when the site was completely levelled). In 1312 the Butlers took possession of Knocktopher, thereafter making it one of their principal residences; in consequence, an urban settlement grew up around the castle and eventually in 1365 Edward III gave permission for a weekly market to be held there. In the previous decade, James Butler, second Earl of Ormonde had founded a religious house in Knocktopher for Carmelite friars. They remained there until the Dissolution of the Monasteries and in 1542 their property was granted by the English government first to Sir Patrick Barnewall, Solicitor General for Ireland, and then passed to Sir Nicholas White, Master of the Rolls and Privy Councillor. His family retained Knocktopher until 1677 when it was bought by Sandsfords and, as mentioned above, through marriage it then passed into the possession of the Langrishes who remained there until 1981.

As seen today, Knocktopher Abbey primarily dates from 1866 when commissioned by Sir James Langrishe to replace an older property on the site which seemingly had been largely destroyed by fire some years earlier. The architect responsible was John McCurdy, today best-known for his remodelling of Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel. McCurdy’s output was eclectic: he also worked on the Museum Building in Trinity College Dublin and the Masonic Female Orphan School (now an hotel) in Ballsbridge, Dublin, as well as designing a number of private houses in diverse styles. At Knocktopher, evidently keen to emphasise the antiquity of the site, he opted for a loosely Gothic, asymmetrical manner, with suggestions of a French chateau, most notably in the three-storey entrance tower with Oriel window and steeply pitched roof. The building is faced in limestone ashlar, with granite used for door and lancet window dressings, the latter in bi- or tripartite arrangements. Further bipartite dormer windows are set into the roofline. What sets the house apart is that on the western side it incorporates parts of the medieval Carmelite priory, not least a great square tower of rough-hewn limestone and with window openings which may have been made by subsequent lay owners. Certainly a tall paired chimney stack suggests late 16th or early 17th century interventions and may hint at the appearance of the building lost to fire in the 19th century. But this must remain speculation, not least because access to the house’s interior was not possible. After being sold by the Langrishe family, Knocktopher Abbey was developed as a time share scheme. Today the service yard has been turned into a series of short-term self-catering units. A fascinating place that deserves closer study.