Author Archives: theirishaesthete

Make Merry and Be Glad



Of late, and even before the publication last year of The Irish Country House: A New Vision (Rizzoli, 2024), the Irish Aesthete has been increasingly interested in discovering historic properties which have undergone an improvement in their fortunes. For many decades, and certainly for much of the last century, our architectural heritage suffered from cruel, and even from time to time gratuitous, negligence. In consequence, we lost much which could have and should have been saved, as can be seen by the considerable number of ruined structures scattered across the national landscape. But of late, there appears to be a change of attitude and, at least in some quarters, a desire not to leave older structures fall into ruin. Instead, they are being brought back from the brink by a new generation of owners who have the imagination to see the potential in what was built by our predecessors, and a determination that these buildings have a future as well as a past.





Over the past ten years or so, a number of state-backed initiatives, run by both central and local government as well as a number of other agencies, have begun to provide financial assistance to owners who wish to undertake restoration work on their historic property. While the funds available are not necessarily as much as might be needed, the existence of these supports likewise indicates a change in attitude towards our built heritage, not least a better understanding of how important is its preservation. Of course, many old properties continue to face dilapidation and disrepair, most often through simple neglect. However, it is imperative that sometimes we celebrate what has been saved. As the prodigal father proclaims to his disgruntled elder son in Luke’s Gospel, ‘it was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.’ 





Today’s pictures show just such a lost and found property, Solsborough, County Tipperary. The present house dates back to the 1830s but appears likely to have been constructed on the site of an older residence since the family who lived there, the Poes, had been settled in this part of the country since the 1660s. Like so many other buildings of this ilk, Solsborough was unroofed in c.1953, thereby saving the then-owners the necessity of paying domestic rates. When the Irish Aesthete first visited the place nine years ago, little more than the exterior walls remained, although by then the building was encased in scaffolding as the owners, who had bought it in 2014, were already intending to embark on a restoration programme. Returning to the house now, and as these pictures show, it is difficult to believe this was once a roofless ruin, so thorough a job has been undertaken on the place. To see Solsborough in all its glory now is to understand why there are occasions when we must make merry and be glad.



I shall be speaking next Thursday, September 11th at the Old Museum Building, Belfast on the subject of The Irish Country House: A New Vision (see The Irish Country House: A New Vision by Robert O’Byrne – UAH) and at the Hunt Museum, Limerick on Thursday, September 18th (see Hunt Family Memorial Lecture – ‘The Irish Country House: A New Vision’ – The Hunt Museum)

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A Picturesque Eye Catcher




After Monday’s post about Loughton, County Offaly, here is an earlier dwelling found within the demesne. Standing on raised ground to the immediate south of the main house and evidently retained as a romantic eye-catcher, this is a four storey tower house likely dating from the early 17th century when constructed for the then-dominant O’Carroll family. Circular bartizans remain at the top of the building on the south-west and north-east corners, with an internal staircase beginning on the east wall before turning 90 degrees and ascending up the north. A large fireplace opening also remains on the east side of the now-roofless castle.




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Another Gratifying Example



Following the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Captain George Pepper was confirmed by the crown in ownership of Ballygarth Castle, County Meath, a property that had hitherto belonged to the Netterville family. However, by the second half of the 18th century, one branch of the Peppers had settled in County Offaly where, in 1777 they commissioned a new residence called Loughton. Facing north across sweeping parkland, as originally constructed, the house had its entrance located in a central canted bay with two bays on either side, and probably looking not unlike Newhall, County Clare (see New Blood for New Hall « The Irish Aesthete). It served as home to Thomas Ryder Pepper until killed in a hunting accident in 1828. Having no direct heir, he directed that Loughton be left to his brother-in-law, Lt-General Benjamin Bloomfield, who had been created Baron Bloomfield three years before. After a distinguished career in the army, Bloomfield had entered royal service, acting as an Aide-de-Camp, then Chief Equerry and Clerak Marshall to the Prince of Wales, before becoming Private Secretary to George IV, as well as Keeper of the Privy Purse and Receiver of the Duchy of Cornwall from 1817-22. It was in his role as Keeper of the Privy Purse that he ran into trouble, since Bloomfield attempted to curb the monarch’s notorious extravagance, thereby not only incurring the latter’s wrath but also that of Lady Conyngham, George IV’s mistress and a frequent beneficiary of his largesse: once a great friend of the king, Bloomfield was ignominiously removed from his positions in 1822. 





Following the first Lord Bloomfield’s death in 1846, Loughton was inherited by his only son, John, second baron and diplomat who began his career in 1824 acting as an attaché in Lisbon. In 1851 he was appointed ambassador to Berlin and from thence to Vienna in 1860, eventually retiring 11 years later. When he died in 1879, he left no legitimate heir, although while posted to Stockholm in 1826 he had at least one child with Swedish actress Emilie Högquist, later mistress of King Oscar I. The Loughton estate then passed to Benjamin Bloomfield Trench, whose mother Georgiana had been a sister of the second Lord Bloomfield: the Trenches lived not far away at Cangort Park (see A Work in Progress « The Irish Aesthete). Benjamin Bloomfield Trench and his wife Dora had two daughters, and following their deaths, Loughton passed once again to another relation, Major Anthony Guy Atkinson, whose family for many generations had also lived in the area at Cangort House (see A Feast of Colour and Light « The Irish Aesthete). His son would sell Loughton in 2001 to Dr James Reilly, former Minister for Health who, in turn, sold the property to its present owners in 2016. 





As seen today, Loughton shows the results of a radical remodelling and enlargement of the house undertaken by architect James Pain in the mid-1830s for the first Lord Bloomfield. On the exterior, the entrance was moved from the north front’s canted bow to a new single-storey extension on the east side, leaving a rather sober rendered facade of three storeys over basement, tall, plain and relieved only by the windows’ limestone dressings. The eight-bay, south-facing garden front is altogether more immediately engaging, reversing the plan on the north side so that full-height canted bays flank a central two-bay recess, the window treatments also more dressed with details such as pediments and entablatures on console brackets. One curious feature is that the heights of the windows in the two central bays have not been raised to match those on either side, thereby disrupting the lines. The enfilade of principal reception rooms lies immediately behind this front, the drawing room leading to the library and thence the dining room. Immediately behind the library, Pain cleverly used the canted bow former entrance as a hall, its cantilevered stone staircase snaking around the walls to the main bedrooms immediately above. The most important of these formerly contained a richly carved bed made in 1821 in expectation of a visit to the house by George IV: the king never came to Loughton but the bed remained in situ until very regrettably sold at auction in 2016. Meanwhile, off the staircase hall can be found the former billiard room which acquired its present decoration of inlaid doors and window shutters, as well as a Tudor Revival chimneypiece, around 1890 seemingly thanks to Dora, wife of Benjamin Bloomfield Trench. Since acquiring the property nine years ago, when all the contents were sold, the current owners have been working both to refurbish and refurnish Loughton, an arduous task given the size of the place. Nevertheless, given how much has already been achieved here, their ambitions seem perfectly achievable. This is another gratifying example of what can be done to ensure Ireland’s historic houses have a viable future. 



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Often Overlooked



Often overlooked by visitors, this is the spectacular entrance hall of the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Designed by T.N. and T.M. Deane in 1885-90 and taking the form of a rotunda, it consists of a ground floor around which run a series of polished Ionic columns in different coloured Irish stone. The deep entablature, pierced by a sequence of oculi, supports a balustraded gallery above which pilasters with gilded capitals framing niches and, in one section, windows. And on top of this floats the dome. Meanwhile, the floor is covered in mosaic designed and laid by the Manchester firm of Ludwig Oppenheimer Ltd; the central section is taken up by the twelve signs of the Zodiac surrounding a stylised sun.



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A Noble and Commanding Appearance


‘The history of Mourne is associated with that of the Castle of Greencastle – one of the finest specimens of Anglo-Norman architecture military architecture in the County of Down – which constitutes such an important feature in the scenery of that coast, from every point of which it presents a noble and commanding appearance. It was erected by the early English invaders to guard the entrance to the Lough of Carlingford and to secure a line of correspondence between the Pale and their outlying possessions in Lecale.’
From An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor by the Rev. James O’Laverty (Dublin, 1878)




‘Greencastle, situated in the barony of Mourne, County Down, province of Ulster. It stands upon a gut or inlet of the sea and was reputed a strong castle, fortified by the Burghs, earls of Ulster and lords of Connaught. It was remarkable for two eminent marriages celebrated here in 1312; one between Maurice Fitzthomas and Catherine, daughter to the Earl of Ulster, on the 5th of August, and the other between Thomas Fitz-John and another daughter of the said earl, on the 16th of the same month. It was destroyed by the Irish, A.D. 1643, but soon after repaired and better fortified. Green Castle and the Castle of Carlingford, appear by a record, 1 Henry IV, to have been governed by one constable, the better to secure a communication between the English pale of the County Louth and the settlements of the English in Lecale and those northern parts; and Stephen Gernon was constable of both, for which he had a salary of 20l. per annum for Green Castle and 5l. for Carlingford. In 1495, it was thought to be a place of such importance to the crown, that no person, but of English birth was declared capable of being constable of it.’
From An Improved Topographical and Historical Hibernian Gazetteer, by the Rev. H Hansbrow (Dublin, 1835)




‘The castle stands upon an elevated rock, about a quarter of a mile from the sea. The walls are double, and the outer ones is looped at regular distances for archers, with passages to each floor. The central building is strengthened and protected by four square flanking towers at the corners, with a spiral staircase in each. Upon gaining the battlements, a beautiful view of the Lough scenery is obtained; the most striking object, however, is the Castle of Carlingford, which looks to great advantage from this point.
Green Castle rendered important services in the rebellion of 1641. It served not only to protect the Protestants of the district, but exercised considerable influence in keeping the insurrection in check. A part of this old Castle is now in occupation, and the rest turned into out-offices for cattle.’
From Tours in Ulster: A Handbook to the Antiquities and Scenery by J.B. Doyle (Dublin, 1855)


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Somewhat Pharaonic



On high ground to the south of St Finian’s church in Kinnitty, County Offaly, this is a mausoleum erected to commemorate the Bernard family who lived nearby at Castle Bernard (now Kinnitty Castle). There seems to be some confusion over who was responsible for commissioning the structure, with many writers proposing that, following time spent in Egypt, Richard Wellesley Bernard did so in 1834 , but since he was then only aged 12 and had yet to leave Ireland, this seems unlikely. It may instead have been his father, Thomas Bernard, who died that year and was also responsible for rebuilding the family house. In the Pevsner Guide to this part of the country, Andrew Tierney proposes that the inspiration for the mausoleum came from the first century BC Pyramid of Cestius found next to the Protestant Cemetery in Rome. Of grey sandstone ashlar, rather unusually, the blocks run diagonally across each face before interlocking in the middle. Notice also how the cast-iron doors giving access to the interior are laid flush with the wall.



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A Place of Pilgrimage



June 23rd 1752: ‘This country being entirely unknown I have been the more particular in relation to it, for my own satisfaction. From the Ferry I went westward along the Strand, and passed under an old Church called Kilkenny, a chapel of Ease to Enniskeel, a mile farther I came to a village called Balyaristan: and having a letter to Mr. Stewart the Minister of Inniskeel I came in two miles to his house, the first half on the strand and the remainder within the sand banks ; opposite to it is a small Island called Keel or Inniskeel (Island Bed) in which are two churches, about one the Protestants bury, and at the other the Papists; At low water they ride over to it.’
From Richard Pococke’s Tour of Ireland in 1752, edited by George T. Stokes (Dublin, 1891)




No longer to be seen on Inishkeel or indeed in this part of the world: St Conall’s Bell and Shrine. Made of iron, the original plain hand bell, used to summon the local people to services, likely dates from the 7th or 8th century. It is indicative of the growing fame of St Conall that several hundred years later, this simple device was decorated with a bronze mount and then, in the 15th century, an elaborate shrine of bronze and silver parcel-gilt, with silver plates, rock crystal studs and a chain, was made to house the implement. Both the bell and its shrine were kept for many centuries by the local O’Breslin family, supposedly descendants of the saint’s family, and would be exhibited annually during celebrations of his feast day (May 22nd) when pilgrims gathered on Inishkeel. Writing for the Ordnance Survey in 1835, described how ‘This chain O’Breslin threw around his neck, and from it the bell hung down his breast, exhibiting to the enthusiastic pilgrims the glittering gems and the symbol of the bloody sacrifice.’ At some date around this time, the bell and shrine were purchased by Major James Nesbitt, a local magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of Donegal, who lived a little further south in a house called Woodhill. The items then passed through a couple of hands before being bought by the English antiquarian and collector Augustus Wollaston Franks who in 1889 presented them to the British Museum where he served as Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities. Bell and shrine remain in the museum’s collection to the present day, although they were loaned for exhibition in the Donegal County Museum ten years ago.
Inishkeel is a little island off the coast of south-west County Donegal, only accessible on foot when the tide is sufficiently low. Here, in the late 6th century, Saint Conall Cael, about whom almost nothing is known, founded a monastic settlement which, like so many others, in due course became a renowned place of pilgrimage. Remains of two small churches, one dedicated to St Conall, the other to the Virgin, both dating from the 13th century and later, can be seen here. They have each undergone some restoration work (the east end of the St Conall’s church has evidently been reconstructed, since numbers can be seen on many of its stones). There are also several cross slabs still standing, including two on which carved decorations of interlaced design may still be seen: one of them is believed to have been the shaft of a high cross from the 11th/12th century. When the buildings here fell out of use is unclear, but the island continued to be populated into the 19th century: the 1841 census shows there were 16 people living on Inishkeel. Today, while one roofed house still stands, it is otherwise uninhabited. Looking at the scant remains, it is difficult to believe that this was once the centre of a thriving monastic community and a place to which pilgrims flocked. 




No longer to be found on Inishkeel or indeed in this part of the world: St Conall’s Bell and Shrine. Made of iron, the original plain hand bell, used to summon the local people to services, likely dates from the 7th or 8th century. It is indicative of the growing fame of St Conall that several hundred years later, this simple device was decorated with a bronze mount and then, in the 15th century, an elaborate shrine of bronze and silver parcel-gilt, with silver plates, rock crystal studs and a chain, was made to house the implement. Both the bell and its shrine were kept for many centuries by the local O’Breslin family, supposedly descendants of the saint’s family, and would be exhibited annually during celebrations of his feast day (May 22nd) when pilgrims gathered on Inishkeel. Writing for the Ordnance Survey in 1835, described how ‘This chain O’Breslin threw around his neck, and from it the bell hung down his breast, exhibiting to the enthusiastic pilgrims the glittering gems and the symbol of the bloody sacrifice.’ At some date around this time, the bell and shrine were purchased by Major James Nesbitt, a local magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of Donegal, who lived a little further south in a house called Woodhill. The items then passed through a couple of hands before being bought by the English antiquarian and collector Augustus Wollaston Franks who in 1889 presented them to the British Museum where he served as Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities. Bell and shrine remain in the museum’s collection to the present day, although they were loaned for exhibition in the Donegal County Museum ten years ago. 



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A Failed Venture



The former lock-keeper’s house outside Smithborough, County Monaghan. Dating from the mid-1830s, it was constructed by the Ulster Canal Company established in the previous decade to link Lough Neagh to Lough Erne. The canal opened in 1842 but proved a failure, since in an effort to economise the company created too narrow locks and, in places, a route too narrow to permit boats to pass. Shortage of water was also a problem, as was competition by the expanding network of railway lines. By 1851 the company was already in financial difficulty and the canal was taken over by the Board of Works. However, the problems proved insuperable and by the early 20th century the canal had become derelict. This little house now sits surrounded by dry land (as does and adjacent former lock), a souvenir of a failed venture.



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A Brave Initiative



The story of Dr James Barry – a military surgeon in the British army during the first half of the 19th century who, on his death in 1865, was discovered to have been a woman called Margaret Anne Bulkley – is well-known. However, today’s post concerns another doctor of the same name and period, but who lived in County Kerry. Born in 1800, James Barry settled in Cahersiveen, where he had a successful practice and, despite being a Justice of the Peace, was a supporter of the Fenians: during an unsuccessful uprising in this part of the country in February 1867, it was reported that he had given shelter to a number of Fenians, one of their leaders, John Joseph O’Connor, taking the doctor’s horse when they departed. And an official report into local disturbances during the 1872 elections noted ‘the obstructive attitude of a local J.P., Dr. Barry, when the police were trying to restore the peace’ with the doctor described as ‘a disgrace to the Bench.’ Barry was clearly a man of both influence and affluence: by 1828 he was able to make an offer to Daniel O’Connell to buy the materials of Carhan House (where Daniel O’Connell had been born), although this may have meant just the doors, chimneypieces and so forth: the earliest Ordnance Survey map of 1841 already describes Carhan as being ‘in ruins.’ The same map also shows the first bridge across the river Fertha linking Cahersiveen with the Iveragh Peninsula; hitherto the only way to get across was by ferry. A pedestrian timber structure (it would be replaced in the 1930s with the present concrete bridge), this features on the Ordnance Survey map as ‘Barry’s Bridge (in progress). It was officially opened in 1847. The doctor’s motives for involvement in this project may not have been altogether altruistic because the following decade he built himself a fine new residence on the other side of the river and overlooking Cahersiveen. Access to this property was made easier by the existence of a bridge bearing his name.





In January 1857, Dr Barry married, seemingly for the first time. His bride was Honoria Ponsonby, whose family had, until the previous decade, lived at Crotta House, an important 17th century residence which survived in part until the 1970s. Honoria was a widow, having previously been married to Richard Francis Blennerhassett of Kells, County Kerry. His wedding may have spurred the doctor into building a new house for himself and his wife, because the following year he embarked on just such a project, leasing a site from the Marquess of Lansdowne on the north side of the river, with the land running down to the water’s edge and the marquess contributing £100 towards its construction. The building was given the name Villa Nuova, although, again looking at the earliest Ordnance Survey map, there is no evidence of an older structure here, certainly not one of any substance. As first built, Villa Nuova was of two storeys over raised basement; the rear of the latter looks to be of earlier date, so there may have been some kind of structure here before. The exterior’s most notable feature are the facade’s two steeply pitched gables with a small recessed bay between them. The present entrance porch, accessed at the top of a flight of Valencia slate steps, replaces an earlier one burnt in the 1920s. On either side of the house are two-storey canted bays which may be original or perhaps added later, although they can be seen in an early photograph of Villa Nuova. 





The history of Villa Nuova in the last century is a little unclear. Dr Barry and his wife had no children of their own, and the house thereafter seems to have passed through a variety of hands. In the 1901 Census, it is listed as being occupied by Resident Magistrate Major Ernest Thomas Lloyd, retired from the Bengal Civil Service, together with his four young children and three household servants. Ten years later, the occupant of the building was local solicitor James Shuel. However, by the early 1920s Villa Nuova was owned by one Bartholomew Sheehan, a local merchant who also had commercial premises in Cahersiveen: both these and the house suffered from being attacked and burnt by anti-Treaty forces in 1922. In consequence, Villa Nuova was left gutted and had to be reconstructed, so that much of the interior seen today dates from the mid-1920s. This includes a series of tiled chimneypieces produced by a Devon-based company called Candy and Co, as well as handsome oak doors and architraves, and a fine staircase. Villa Nuova then became home to the Duffy family, a relative of whose was the last to live in the house some 20 years ago. In September 2007, the building, together with some 54 acres, was sold to a local company for €2.35m, but was then left empty and unoccupied. Most recently, together with the immediate land, it has been bought by new owners who have embarked on an ambitious programme of retrieval and restoration, with the intention of bringing the place back to a habitable condition in which they will live. It’s a brave initiative, and – as always with such projects – deserves applause and all possible support.



For readers interested in following the restoration of Villa Nuova, the owners are chronicling progress on YouTube ((1) Villa Nuova – YouTube) and Instagram (@villa_nuova_)

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A Good Showish Figure



To the immediate east of St Macartan’s Cathedral in Clogher, County Tyrone stands the former bishop’s palace which was likewise rebuilt in the early 18th century by the Rev Dr John Stearne. Mrs Delany visited the place in August 1748 when it was occupied by Stearne’s successor, Robert Clayton and his wife, and while she thought the garden  ‘pretty with a fine large sloping green walk from the steps to a large basin on water, on which sail most gracefully fair beautiful swans,’ she was less satisfied with the house, describing it as ‘large, and makes a good showish figure; but great loss of room by ill-contrivance within doors. It is situated on the side of so steep a hill that part of the front next the street is under ground and from that to the garden you descend fifty stone steps which is intolerable.’ In consequence, while the seven-bay entrance front is of three storeys, the six-bay garden front is of four storeys. As seen today, the old palace is the result of work undertaken here by Lord John George Beresford, bishop in 1819-20 and then Lord Robert Tottenham. Following the union of the diocese of Clogher with the archdiocese of Armagh in 1850, the property was sold and became a private residence. The interiors are rather plain, the most striking feature being the staircase, the ceiling of which is painted with six cherubs: these represented the children of Thomas Stewart Porter who inherited what was then called Clogher Park in 1903. The house subsequently became a convent for the Sisters of St Louis, but is now a residential care home.



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