Tag Archives: Dromana

An Octocentenary

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Perched on a promontory high above the Blackwater river Dromana, County Waterford has been home to successive generations of the same family for the past 800 years. Originally built for the FitzGerald family, the property frequently passed through the female line without ever changing hands. From the late 1700s until demolition in the 1960s a large house abutted that seen above which in its present form dates from the first decades of the 18th century and features a cut-limestone Gibbsian doorway. The history of Dromana, its owners and their shifting fortunes will be explored on site from tomorrow until Sunday during which the Irish Aesthete will be among the speakers; for more information, see http://www.dromana800.com.
Below is a coat of arms of the Villiers family which has long been associated with the place. The motto Fidei Coticula Crux translates as The Cross is the Touchstone of Faith.

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Bridging Cultures

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The ‘Hindu Gate’ at Dromana, County Waterford. This originated as a papiér maché and canvas-covered timber structure erected in 1826 by the tenants of Villierstown to welcome home their newly-wed landlord Henry Villiers-Stuart, later Lord Stuart de Decies, and his Austrian bride Theresia Pauline Ott. Drawings for the present structure dated 1849 were made by Wexford-born architect Martin Day, who carried out other work on the estate. Located on one side of a bridge spanning the river Finnisk, the gate is a entrance lodge, its central arch flanked by chambers. While some elements of the design, such as the decorative glazing bars complimented by quatrefoil-detailed filigree above are a reflection of Georgian gothick, other features – not least the minarets and copper-clad onion dome – appear to owe their inspiration to John Nash’s Royal Pavilion, Brighton built some thirty years earlier. After being restored by the Irish Georgian Society in the late 1960s, the gate was subject to vandalism and had to be repaired again by the local county council in 1990.

Next Wednesday, October 1st I shall be speaking on ‘The Fate of the Irish Country House: A Comparative Study’ at a symposium being held in King’s College, London to mark the fortieth anniversary of the influential 1974 V&A exhibition, The Destruction of the Country House. For more information, see: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/cmci/eventrecords/2014/forty-years-english-heritage-legacy-destruction-country-house.aspx