Category Archives: Architectural History

A Study in Contrasts


The doorcase of a house standing on the north side of The Square in Durrow, County Laois. It is one of a number of properties developed here in the late 18th century by the Flower family, Viscounts Ashbrook, the entrance to whose estate lies to the immediate west of the terrace, adjacent to the Church of Ireland church. This house, of five bays and three storeys, has the finest doorcase, with carved limestone pilasters and entablature below the fanlight. Another in the same group can be seen below with its contrasting Gibbsian doorcase approached via charming wrought iron railings.

Well Weathered


A church at Cannistown, County Meath is thought to have been founded by St Finian of Clonard in the sixth century. However, the present structure, dedicated to St Bridget, was erected some 600 years later, probably by the Nangle family, granted land in this part of the country by the Anglo-Norman knight Hugh de Lacy. Much of it was rebuilt in the 15th/16th centuries but thereafter it quickly fell into a poor condition: in 1612 George Montgomery, then-Bishop of Meath, wrote of Cannistown church ‘the chancel was repaired, but the church in ruins.’ So it has remained ever since.



The building’s most notable feature is its substantial chancel arch, which has decorative carvings at its base (above the pilasters on either side). Both well-worn and somewhat damaged, that on the north depicts three dogs attacking another animal, while the one to the south show three men and is thought to represent the Taking of Christ. There are also carved corbel stones above the, which would originally have supported the roof.

On a Prominence


Despite occupying such a prominent position overlooking the town, Millmount in Drogheda, County Louth is relatively little known. According to Irish legend, this site was the burial place for Amhairghin, a poet for the Milesians, supposedly the last race to settle in Ireland, at least until the Normans arrived. However, it seems more likely that the latter constructed a fort here, Drogheda being one of their most important settlements. Here in the 1180s, on a bluff overlooking the river Boyne, they constructed a motte and bailey, probably on the instructions of Hugh de Lacy; his son Walter would grant the town which grew up around the fort its first charter during the following decade. A stone castle was later built in the same place.




None of the buildings on the site today are of medieval origin. The original fortifications were all demolished in the first decade of the 19th century when the present Martello Tower was constructed on the highest point; this was the time of the Napoleonic Wars when fear of a potential invasion by the French (as had happened in 1798) led the government to develop a series of such fortifications around the coast. By this time, the area below the old castle had been developed into a centre for the British army, named Richmond Barracks. A range of two-storey accommodation blocks for soldiers, dating from c.1720 survives here, along with a number of other, larger buildings such as a Governor’s House and the officers’ quarters, both erected around the same time as the tower.




The buildings of Richmond Barracks survived into the last century, and were among the first to be vacated by the British Army, who handed over the premises to the Free State authorities in January 1922. However, a few months later, members of anti-Treaty forces occupied Millmount. In July, the Free State army shelled the place, thereby forcing its occupants to retreat but leaving the tower seriously damaged. It remained in this condition until the late 1990s when finally restored in time for the Millennium and opened as a museum. Meanwhile, a number of the houses below have also been refurbished and are now used for diverse purposes, some of them providing space for small businesses, workshops and retail outlets. A large area to the immediate west of this complex remains derelict and would benefit from attention by the local authority.

A Waste of Resources



Boarded up and falling into dereliction: the former administration block of the workhouse in Mullingar, County Westmeath. Many of the other buildings that were part of this complex have since been given fresh purpose by the Health Service Executive (albeit with the introduction of uPVC windows: when will official Ireland ever provide a lead here?). However, this handsome house, which is at the entrance to the site, is in a wastefully poor state, only saved from total ruin by being constructed in sturdy limestone. Dating from 1841 and built in the Tudor-Gothic style to the design of architect George Wilkinson, the building’s present state is a shameful waste of state resources.


Getting High



Another week, another cross, this one found in Killamery, County Kilkenny. A monastery was founded here in the 7th century by St Gobhan, and the High Cross is thought to date from the late 8th/early 9th century. Although there are scenes with figures (now well-worn) around the cross itself, the shaft is decorated with abstract patterns, those of the western front featuring a floral motif; seemingly a much-weathered inscription on the base reads OR DO MAELSECHNAILL, ‘A Prayer for Máel Sechnaill’ who was High King of Ireland 846-862. The capstone, which takes the form of a gabled roof, used to be touched by visitors as a cure for headaches.
The High Cross stands in the grounds of a graveyard close to the ruins of a former Church of Ireland place of worship dedicated to St Nicholas. Dating from 1815, it was constructed with assistance from the Board of First Fruits but services ceased to be held here less than 90 years later, and it has since fallen into its present state.


Spring


Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;





The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.





What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins 
Photographed at Coolcarrigan, County Kildare 

A Lost Daughter


After last week’s post about a late 17th century stone cross at Robertstown, County Meath: in the adjacent graveyard stands – just about – this tombstone, featuring an image of the crucified Christ  below which are the heads of two winged angels. The tomb was erected by local man Patrick Hand to commemorate his daughter Eleanor who had died in August 1836 at the age of 24.

Outstanding in its Field



Kilcoltrim, County Carlow: a substantial, five-bay, three storey over basement house that dates from the mid-18th century, it is listed by Samuel Lewis (1837) as being the residence of Edmund Hegarty but has long fallen into ruin. The most notable feature of the building, a cantilevered stone staircase located at the centre of the building, is documented as still intact when David Griffin compiled his list of vanishing or lost Irish country houses in 1988. This feature has since gone and little beyond a disintegrating shell now remains.


The Persistence of Faith


The Cruise, or Cruice, family has been mentioned here before, specifically with regard to the remains of Rathmore Church, County Meath (see https://theirishaesthete.com/2012/11/19/music-sent-up-to-god). They were the descendants of an Anglo-Norman soldier with the name de Cruys who came to Ireland in the 12th century and settled in this part of the country, gaining control of land that stretched from what is now North County Dublin and well into Meath. More than 15 miles north of Rathmore can be found the ruins of another church in a place called Cruicetown, thereby showing its direct link with the family. Now standing at the highest point in a field, and surrounded by a low, subcircular stone wall, Cruicetown church is believed to date from the late 12th or early 13th century, and to have once served a settlement in this area, begun when the Normans constructed a motte and bailey. At the start of the 14th century, when all Irish churches were being valued for the Papacy in order to assess the proportion of their revenue that should be given as tax, that at Cruicetown as valued as £2, 15 shillings and eight pence. The church continued to be used for services until the mid-16th century, but probably fell into disuse soon afterwards and was already in a ruinous state by 1622 when visited by James Ussher, then Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath.





The Cruises remained in this part of the country until the upheavals of the 17th century. They also, like many old Anglo-Norman families, remained loyal to the Roman Catholic church, the consequence being that eventually they came into conflict with the English authorities. There appears to be some confusion about what became of the Cruises of Cruicetown in the aftermath of the wars of the 1640s (in which they had supported the defeatedCatholic side). Many reports declare that Christopher Cruise was forced to forfeit his property at Cruicetown and then transplanted to Connacht, only some time later his son Lawrence being able to regain possession of the land here. On the other hand, a very substantial report on the site produced by Dr James Galloway in 2005 states that ‘the Cruise family appear to have retained their position as lords of Cruicetown in the post-1640 period’ and that in 1686 ‘the manor was granted by royal patent to Laurence Cruise.’ Certainly, they owned land here for another century, until in 1789 Joseph Cruise sold his interest in Cruicetown to one Arthur Ahmuty, a retired colonel formerly in the service of the East India Company and now living in London. With this transaction, the Cruice family’s major interest in Cruicetown came to an end.





Cruicetown church contains two notable features, the first being a remarkable chest tomb inside a niche on the south wall of the chancel. Dedicated to the memory of Water and Elizabeth Cruise, it features recumbent figures of the two deceased, above their heads appearing that of God flanked by trumpet-blowing angels. The figures rest on a base with four pilasters carved with foliage, rosettes and hearts while the end of the chest features symbols of mortality. On the wall above is a dedicatory plaque containing heraldic motifs of the Cruise and Dalton families, and the information that the tomb had been erected in 1688 ‘AND IN THE 4TH YEARE OF THE REIGNE OF THE MOST ILLVSTRIOVS PRINCE OVR GRACIOVS KING JAMES THE SECOND’
The tomb was erected by the couple’s son, Patrick Cruise and he was also responsible for a sandstone cross that stands outside the church and to the south of the building; an inscription on one side of the monument reads ‘Pray for the souls of Patrick Cruise and Catherine Dalton, his wife, daughter to William Dalton 1688’. It is clearly inspired by much earlier Irish High Crosses and yet considerably more primitive in design. One face features the crucified Christ with a winged head above, while the other side carries a depiction of the Virgin with a rather substantial Child occupying her lap. It would appear that even when this pair of additions were made to Cruicetown church, the site had already been abandoned for services and now only served as a burial place. The persistence of an ancient religious faith in Ireland during this period is remarkable to observe.

Idiosyncratic


The idiosyncratic façade of Dunmain, County Wexford. The house can be dated to the 1690s when the land on which it stands were bought by Arron Lambert. It subsequently passed through a number of different owners including the owners but has been occupied by the present family since being bought at auction in February 1917. At either end of the five-bay, two-storey over basement building rise conical roofed octagonal towers, weather-slated like the rest of the building; that on the right houses a tiny 19th century chapel on the ground floor. It is unclear whether they are original to the building, or a later insertion. The granite pillared portico approached by a flight of steps looks to have been added in the 19th century.