Big houses, big view
Malcom Rogers examines the charms of some of Ireland’s finest big houses, part of a hidden Hibernia that few tourists visit, and recommends a tour of Irish mansions to give your holiday back home an added dimension.
 Ireland is home to some of the finest country houses in these islands, some dating back as far as 400 years, others from more recent Victorian times. They were the preserve of the aristocracy — sometimes the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, “the Raj in the rain”, sometimes locals made good — and dominated the surrounding townland. But they’re more than just handsome houses to visit. They are a wonderful guide to the history of the locality, and an endless source of local stories. In Dunsany Castle in Co. Meath in the early 1920s, robbers forced their way into the building and started looting and ransacking their way from room to room. “Whom shall I say called?” the butler is said to have enquired of the fleeing thieves.
Many of Ireland’s houses are today in public hands. Just like some of the privately owned ones, they are anxious to get some money in for heating bills, so have opened up their doors to the public. A visit usually includes a tour of the gardens — some of which are spectacular places containing unusual botanical specimens. They represent a great day out, something a bit out of the ordinary, and are usually cheap, uncrowded places for a fine cup of tea and home baked cakes.
Ardress, Co. Armagh
Ardress was originally a modest, gentleman farmer’s residence with aspirations of grandeur, set in the almost soporifically beautiful rolling landscape of Armagh. Originally a seventeenth century house, it was enlarged at various times between 1780 and 1810 — all cleverly incorporated behind façades that couldn’t be bettered in Islington.
Paintings, plasterwork and furniture of a very high order are on display — you could spend a day just looking at the art collection. I nearly did — only the lure of treacle bread in the restaurant tore me away from The Road to Calvary by Frans Franckena (a gentleman who was presumably not a local).
The grim town of Portadown also seems a million light years away — but is in fact only seven miles down the road.
Lissadell House, Co. Sligo
Lissadell is just about the most famous country house in Ireland, immortalised by W.B. Yeats in his poem ‘In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz.’
The house itself is a large and austere Grecian Revival home beautifully situated amidst woods and glades on the north shore of Sligo Bay. The young Yeats spent many happy days here with Eva (the renowned poet), whom he likened to a gazelle, and Constance (the renowned first woman ever to be elected to Westminster), the ‘acknowledged beauty of the county’. Indeed, as you wander through woods with dusty carpets of bluebells lying between the birch and beech you almost feel the poetic muse stirring within oneself.
Lissadell is worth visiting for its beautiful surroundings, its history — which includes being mortgaged during the Famine — and its literary connections. Yeats is buried close by in Drumcliffe churchyard.
Westport House, Co. Mayo
Westport House should be visited not least because of its magnificent setting on the edge of Clew Bay. Thackeray described the scenery hereabouts as “the most beautiful in the world” and it would be hard to disagree with old Billy Makepeace. The mainland of Ireland suddenly stops here and the land appears to have shattered into thousands of tiny, misty and mystical islands.
Westport is the largest and most important country house west of the Shannon and remains the property of the family that built it. Since the late eighteenth century, visitors have marvelled at the building’s ‘up yours’ style of architecture. It used to have a beautiful demesne but sadly, as is the way of these things in Ireland, this has been seriously mutilated by development in recent decades.
The house was designed in 1731 by a famous architect, the aptly named Richard Castle.
Legend has it that a local, John O’Malley, was a bear of a man who was responsible for the general running of the House. According to locals he’d hire and fire the staff, look after the horses and hounds — and even turn his hand to cooking. Visitors would see him squash flies with his huge carving knife — the same knife he used to cut the ham. Mind you he would always wipe the knife on his trousers before resuming bacon-cutting duties, explaining to the visitors: “We’re fierce particular about hygiene here.”
Mount Stewart, Co. Down
 Situated on the shores of Strangford Lough, Mount Stewart is one of the great houses of the North. The birthplace of Lord Castlereagh, British foreign secretary during the Napoleonic Wars, it was designed by George Dance and William Morrison. Although the house is of both historic and architectural interest, it is the gardens which are the glory of Mount Stewart. Rich in antique nick-nacks, you can spot stone dodos, dinosaurs, griffins, satyrs, heraldic lions, crocodiles — and that’s before you even begin with the flowers. In archaeological terms the place is also worthy of note, boasting a perfect dolmen, three raths (or forts) and the ruins of a small ancient church.
Belvedere, Co. Westmeath
 A desire to escape from the formality of country house life during the 18th century led to the emergence of small, comfortable holiday retreats known as villas. Undoubtedly the best example of such a building in Ireland is Belvedere — an exquisite house with an unusual elongated plan set in a fine landscape park overlooking Lough Ennell. Belvedere was built around 1742 to a design by Richard Castle, probably as a fishing pavilion, for Robert Rochfort, Lord Belfield, whose seat at Gaulston lay five miles away
Although its rooms are now empty, Belvedere remains relatively unchanged. A solid, grey, limestone house of two stories over a basement with a long front and curved end bows, it now stands as a monument to a slice of Irish life which has gone forever.
Lismore, Co. Waterford
 Anyone who has ever crossed the bridge over the Blackwater River into the town of Lismore will have been stunned by its irresistibly romantic castle, whose splendid silvery-grey turrets, towers and battlements rise serenely from a cliff above the wooded banks of the river. While extensively remodelled in the nineteenth century, the walls of Lismore incorporate many earlier buildings with a history stretching back over 1,000 years.
Although the name Lios Mor means ‘big fort’, the castle site was originally occupied by an important monastery and seat of learning, established in the early seventh century. It’s even said that King Alfred the Great studied here. It was still an ecclesiastical centre when Henry II stayed here in 1171, and except for a brief period after 1185, when a castle occupied the spot, it served as the episcopal residence of the local bishop. In 1589 Lismore was acquired by Sir Walter Raleigh, who sold the property in 1602 to another famous adventurer, Richard Boyle, later Earl of Cork.
Richard’s famous son was born here in 1625 — Robert Boyle, father of modern chemistry. The poet William Congreve (of “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast”) lived here, although, contrary to what some guide books would have you believe, he was actually born in England.
Today the walled garden is famous for its collection of camellias, magnolias and a remarkable yew walk. |
