Month: December 2025

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Architects Architecture Country Houses People

Parkanaur Castlecaulfield Tyrone + Thomas Duff

Tudor Revival Survival

Forest parks on Irish demesnes often have a vital missing component: the country house. All too many were mindlessly demolished in the mid 20th century. Pomeroy House and Seskinore House both in County Tyrone are sadly typical examples. In those two cases all that remain are the stables and a footprint of the house just about legible from an aerial view. Parkanaur is a remarkable exception: the entire house with its rambling wings and outbuildings is intact and in use. Just to add to the country estate feel, white fallow deer descended from a pair gifted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1597 to her niece at Mallow Castle in County Cork roam an enclosure overlooked by the house.

In 1771, an Anglo Irish gentleman Ynyr Burges bought the Parkanaur Estate from the Caulfield family. John Henry Burges, a cousin of John Henry’s daughter Lady Poulet, leased the estate and built a triple gabled hunting lodge about 1804. The entrance door was to the left of the present one. A south wing was added in 1821 when the house became the family seat. John Henry’s son John Yner received an inheritance from Lady Poulet in 1838 enabling him to buy the freehold of the estate the following year.

John Yner commissioned the architect Thomas Duff to design a large extension which was completed at a cost of £3,000 in 1848. The original house has windows with mullions and Georgian astragals; the later addition has mullioned windows with leaded lights. The two principal fronts, at a perpendicular angle to one another, back onto courtyards surrounded by substantial outbuildings included a coach house and tower. The rear elevation of the largest courtyard building with its Georgian sash windows is three storeyed due to the sloping land.

The completed Parkanaur is a handsome Tudor Revival house. Thomas Duff was a serious architect. His oeuvre includes the Catholic Cathedrals of St Patrick’s Armagh, St Patrick’s Dundalk and St Patrick and St Colman’s Newry. Narrow Water Castle outside Newry, equally belonging to the revivification of the Tudor Style, is also by his hand. He partnered for a short time with the equally talented Belfast architect Thomas Jackson. The Newry based architect is credited with designing the first Presbyterian portico in Ulster at Fisherwick Place Church in Belfast.

As a Catholic, Thomas Duff was an unusual choice for Protestant commissions and clients. John Yner and his wife Lady Caroline also made improvements to the demesne, planting thousands of trees each year. The Burges enjoyed a sociable lifestyle revolving around entertaining and visiting other Anglo Irish families. Castle Leslie in County Monaghan, Glenarm Castle in County Antrim and Killymoon Castle in County Tyrone – neighbours in aristocratic terms – were all on their social circuit.

The 1830s were halcyon years for the Burges family. But the following decade, three of their four sons died leaving just two daughters. Lady Caroline sold the carriage horses to fund charitable efforts after the Great Famine struck in 1845. Her husband recorded, “My lady instituted a kitchen with every apparatus and convenience for feeding the labourers, all of whom were fed daily … they got the best beef, potatoes and pudding which sustained them while many were starving … with all this I could not keep my people and no less than 300 went off to America having disposed of their land to try their fortune in a strange country.”

The Burges were benevolent landlords. Lady Caroline’s brother, William Clements 3rd Earl of Leitrim, was not: he was murdered for his callousness in 1878. During World War II, Parkanaur was used as a base for the Western Command, housing 50 military personnel. In 1955, the Burges family sold the house and 25 hectares for £12,000 to Reverend Gerry and Mary Eakin. Their son Stanley had difficulty walking and would later use a wheelchair. The Eakins decided to set up an occupational training college in the house to support disabled students. Parkanaur now celebrates seven decades of educational use and residential care supporting a wide range of needs. It is currently occupied by the Thomas Doran Parkanaur Trust. The demesne continues to be a much loved forest park.

St Michael’s Church of Ireland Church Castlcaulfield is two kilometres from Parkanaur as the falcon files. At the summit of the sloping cemetery stands a Tuscan temple with a gloriously oversized pediment all faced in buff pink (long greyed) Dungannon sandstone. It is the Burges burial vault. There are two tombstones unmissably close to the church entrance porch. One marks the burial place of Frederica Florence Elizabeth (1873 to 1957) Burges of Quintin Castle, Portaferry, County Down (it’s now a nursing home). She was the widow of Ynyr Richard Patrick Burges who was buried in Lawrenny, Pembrokeshire, in 1905. Her tombstone is also over the grave of their daughter Margaret Elizabeth (1908 to 1958). Next to Frederica’s tombstone is the resting place of Major Ynyr Alfred Burges’ (1900 to 1983). The last of the Burges family to own Parkanaur, he was High Sheriff of Counties Armagh and Tyrone. His wife Christine (1908 to 1982) shares the same burial plot.

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Architects Architecture Country Houses Design Developers People Town Houses

Charlton House Charlton London +

Red Not Dead

The mid 20th century County Down housebuilder Joseph Gribben always advocated building in brick, especially the rustic textured variety, and recommended constructing tall chimneys that would allow smoke to blow above the roof ridge. He would appreciate Charlton in south London. High on a hill, the principal buildings circling the summit are all red brick and there are plenty of tall chimneys. Bridget Cherry and Nicholas Pevsner record in their Guide to South London Buildings (1983), “The old centre of the meeting of Charlton Road and Charlton Church Lane is small, and still has some village character, although it is surrounded by later 19th century and 20th century housing on all sides. Apart from the 17th century Church of St Luke, and Charlton House and its outbuildings, no buildings visibly of before the 19th century remain in the village centre although the attractively stuccoed Bugle Horn Inn is of late 17th century origin.”

Ah Charlton House, a miraculous half a millennium survival. It’s even still positioned in a parkland setting. Bridget and Nicholas describe its origins: “Built by Sir Adam Newton, tutor to Henry Prince of Wales, circa 1607 to 1612. Later owners were Sir William Ducie, who made repairs in 1659, Sir William Langhorne, East India merchant, after 1680, and in the 19th century the Maryon-Wilson family, for whom Norman Shaw restored the house and made minor additions in 1877 to 1878. Acquired by the Borough in 1925. Charlton House is the only Jacobean mansion of the first order remaining in the precincts of London. The plan is E shaped with four symmetrical bay windows at the ends of the four wings and two towers in the centres of the two wings, framing the building when seen from the west of east. The building is of three storeys above capacious cellars, built of red brick with pierced open tracery. The towers have ogee roofs. It is of plain and angular, spacious but not at all luxurious, with the exception of the west frontispiece, that is, the door surround and the bay window above which suddenly breaks out into the most exuberant and undisciplined ornament – the work of a mason probably who possessed a copy of Wendel Dietterlin’s Architectura of 1593 and a rare case of close imitation.”

And then the writing duo go inside, “The most remarkable feature of the interior is the position of the Hall, just as revolutionary (though not unique in Jacobean architecture) as Inigo Jones’s at the Queen’s House. it is two storeyed, placed at right angles to the front and back, and runs right across the building. Above it on the second floor in the Saloon reached by an elaborately carved staircase, quadrangular with a square open well and the flights of stairs supported by posts which between ground floor and first floor form palm branches in cases. The sloping pilaster balusters progress through the three orders from ground floor to top landing. The plasterwork is Victorian. The saloon has an original plaster ceiling with pendants and a marble fireplace with restrained architectural ornament to the overmantel above finely carved figures of Venus and Vulcan. This is very much in the manner of Nicholas Stone. In the bay window is circa 17th century heraldic glass with the Ducie arms. on the same floor the north wing is taken up entirely by the long gallery, also with a good plaster ceiling. The original panelling has gone except for pilasters by the windows. In these, more heraldic glass with the Ducie arms. The gallery is reached from the saloon by the white drawing room whose stone fireplace with two tiers of caryatids, three dimensional strapwork, and relief scenes makes the marble one in the saloon appear very classical.”

Finally, back to the great outdoors again, “Of outbuildings the stable to the south are contemporaneous with the house, now arranged on two sides of a quadrangle. Remanagements [sic] under Sir William Langhorne are easily discernible. In front of the entrance on the lawn a solitary gateway, plastered, with Corinthian columns and an 18th century cresting. To the northwest of the house, a handsome summerhouse of circa 1630, brick, square, with Tuscan pilasters, and a concave roof. There is no documentary confirmation of the traditional attribution to Inigo Jones, but the complete absence of Jacobean frills at evidently such an early date makes it quite justifiable. Nicholas Stone would also be a possibility.” The ski slope roofed Grade I summerhouse or lodge, a pepper pot pavilion, is now a public convenience (or rather inconvenience – it’s shut).

Armed with the wealth of knowledge Pevsner Guides are so adept at summarising, a decade ago Aimée Felton, Associate at leading architectural conservation practice Donald Insall Associates, led an Irish Georgian Society tour of Charlton House. Here are the highlights. Over to Aimee, “The lodge is widely attributed to Inigo Jones. Of course it is – he did most of Greenwich! Someone once attributed the lodge to him and it stuck.” She is undertaking a conditions survey as part of a long term masterplan of the house and estate. “A variety of historic fabric is remaining. Some in my opinion was later heavily edited by the various occupants. And heavily rebuilt following bomb damage.” This is most obvious in the north wing where the original imperial red brick and whitish grey stone have been patched up with metric red brick and yellow stone. These mid 20th century repairs included placing the sundial upside down.

“It’s the best Jacobean house in London and is of pivotal importance to its era,” Aimée declares. “It displays a full modern appreciation of flow and sequence of rooms. An H plan was so innovative. There are lots of Jacobean Houses of E plan and E without a tail, but not so many H. Charlton is first in its class: to walk in through the front door and see its garden beyond. The axis though the building is what makes it so special. The Kitchen was always on the north side of Jacobean houses to cool dairy produce and meat, with bedrooms above as heat rises. But this house is laid out to take in the views to the north towards the river and to the west to the King in Greenwich. This is a really bold statement and the only Jacobean house with a north facing gallery.”

The first floor Long Gallery stretches the full length of the north elevation. Like much of the house, the Long Gallery is an architectural puzzle. Aimée highlights, “The floor and ceiling are original but the panelling isn’t. Charlton has some of the best fireplaces of the Jacobean era. The Long Gallery marble and slate one is odd but exquisite.” No architect is recorded. “There is incredibly scarce information both on the Jacobean era and Charlton. You’ll notice I say ‘attributed to’ and ‘we suspect that …’ a lot!” At least there’s a keystone dated 1607 on the main block and one dated 1877 on the wing and the staircase is engraved 1612.

Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson sold the house to Greenwich Council and auctioned the contents in 1920. The house has been used ever since by various community bodies. A public library is now in the former ground floor Dining Room and Chapel and a café occupies the Hall. Donald Insall Associates are tasked with applying a holistic approach to its fabric and future use or uses. Furnishing rooms in the original period like a National Trust house is not an option. “There simply isn’t enough Jacobean furniture,” she says. “Even the V and A wouldn’t have enough and any pieces it has are so special they’re kept in glass cases.”

There’s plenty of pictorial evidence of how the rooms were furnished in the latter Maryon-Wilson years. Aimée smiles, “If you can’t find a decent photo of a country house look in Country Life because someone is always bragging about their home!” Charlton House is no exception. Monochromatic images of the early 1900s show the interior chockablock with traditional brown furniture and taxidermy and tapestries. This eclecticism is reflected in later plasterwork. She points out the ceiling in the Prince Henry Room which isn’t original. “The cornice is beyond wrong! As offensive as the ceiling is, it’s a nice ceiling, but one that’s just not for this house. Just because it’s not right though doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be preserved to show history. Everyone has their oddities and we just move on.” Much more in keeping with the original architecture is the 1877 extension to the south, now a wedding venue. Unsurprising as Bridget and Nicholas record it was designed by that great historically aware Arts and Crafts architect Norman Shaw. Aimée sums up the extension as, “Jacobean with a Shaw twist.”

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Architects Architecture Country Houses Design People

Francis Johnston + Townley Hall Tullyallen Louth

Thrill of the Chaste

An immaculate concept, a gorgeous late Georgian flowering. Townley Hall deep in the Boyne Valley came about in the closing years of the 18th century. Its architect Francis Johnston designed Rokeby Hall, 17 kilometres north of Townley Hall, a decade earlier in 1786. The former is a smaller version of the latter. Both are of a spare patrician architecture so appealing to the modern eye. Plain planes. Townley is an achingly svelte seven bay by seven bay 27.5 metre square block.

The architect conceals and reveals scale and massing as the viewer moves round the outside. This is a four storey house masquerading on three sides as a two storey building. Attic dormers lurk behind a solid parapet in a similar arrangement to the contemporaneous Castle Coole, County Fermanagh, except there the dormers peep through balustraded gaps in the parapet. Townley is Castle Coole taken to next level Grecian severity in a case of keeping up with the Lowry-Corrys. Francis’ brother Richard was the original architect for Castle Coole: he was replaced by the celebrity architect James Wyatt. There is another Fermanagh link: the client Blayney Townley Balfour married Lady Florence Cole in 1794. She was from Florence Court, a neighbouring estate of James Wyatt’s masterpiece.

Townley Hall is an essay in structural rationalism, a formal stone box grounded by rolling countryside. Recent semiformal planting softens the grey to green juxtaposition. Unencumbered by unnecessary architectural frippery, Francis employs taut lines. He let’s go – just a little – with the kitchen wing. A collection of curves carefully enriches the wing’s fenestration: recessed arches, roundheaded windows, segmental arched tripartite mezzanine windows, a bow window. It’s not just an august purity auguring minimalism that defines Townley. Workmanship and materiality are also top notch. The facing ashlar was quarried from nearby Sheephouse. It has lower absorbency than most limestone. Mortar is barely visible between the masonry. Metal rods reinforce the slimmest of glazing bars. A mid storey string cornice and Greek Doric eaves cornice relieve the expanse of wall.

A tetrastyle Doric portico leads into the entrance hall which has twin Doric chimneypieces – more restrained versions that those in Castle Coole. That’s a theme developing in this article. Rectangular plasterwork wall panels resemble vast empty picture frames. A coffered ceiling adds to the room’s crisp angularity. Straight ahead – silent drum roll – is the rotunda, a nine metre diameter glass domed cylinder forming the core of the house. A swagger of genius. A swoop of plasterwork swags and skulls. Irish design at its most suave. All the plasterwork whether naturalistic or geometric is of shallow relief. There are two coats of paint on the rotunda walls: the current 1920s creamy beige over the original stone grey. The ribbed dome casts a spidery web of shadows which leisurely climbs the staircase as the afternoon progresses.

An interlinking ceiling rose pattern in the drawing room is similar to the overhead plasterwork of the dining room in Castle Coole. Like all the main rooms around the rotunda it is 7.3 metres deep. This layout allows all the main rooms to have natural light while the rotunda is top lit. Rokeby Hall is similarly laid out and equally bright. It is an efficient arrangement removing the need for corridors. Andrea Palladio’s 1560s Villa Rotunda outside Vicenza is an obvious source of inspiration although the dome of Townley is hidden behind the attic floor rather than being on full display. Surprisingly Francis’ drawings illustrate the final rationality of layout and simplicity of design was achieved through an evolutionary process. For example, the more elaborate Ionic order (which James Wyatt used for the portico of Castle Coole) was replaced with the plainer Greek Doric for the portico. Francis was clearly a master of the Golden Ratio.

A set of early 1900s photographs courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive includes views of the interior. Furnishings were suitably classical and restrained. Chinese wallpaper in the south facing drawing room is a rare flush of extravagance. The boudoir and dressing room over the drawing room overlook the parkland. They are one of five family suites clustered around the first floor rotunda landing. On the floor above, the view from the servants’ dormitories is the backside of the parapet below a sliver of sky. The only unobstructed attic windows are in the west facing barrack room which looks down into the courtyard: guards needed to be on watch.

In 1957 the family sold the house and 350 hectare estate to Trinity College Dublin for use as an agricultural school. Since 1977, Townley and its immediate 60 hectares has been a residential study centre owned by the School of Philosophy and Economic Science. A single level extension (visible as one storey on the north front) was recently completed over the kitchen wing plus a double height access link to the original house. The two main conservation schools of thought are to either design an extension that blends in with the host building or one that contrasts with it. The current Irish notion strongly favours the latter. Oh the architectural profession’s fear of that ultimate sin: pastiche! That’s despite every other modern glass building being derived from Philip Johnson’s Glass House in Connecticut and its 70 year old ilk. RKD Architects of Newmarket Dublin secured planning permission for an extension that consisted of similar massing to that executed except the courtyard facing elevation was a dormered mansard. RKD proposed Georgian style sash windows throughout.

Treasa Langford of Dúchas Heritage Service commented on the application, “The finishing of the north wall is not specified; however, the construction is specified as exposed uncoursed rubblestone, which would appear to be inappropriate on a cut stone house such as Townley Hall. We would recommend a ruled and lined nap lime plaster finish without use of cement.” Her opinion is based on the view of sympathetically blending old and new. It could be counterargued that rubblestone would be suitably subservient to the cut stone of the grand main block, emphasising the ancillary nature of the wing.

A decade later, MVK Architects of Fitzwilliam Square Dublin’s design also secured planning permission and this time it was built out. Their approach is very different. The design concept is to add an identifiably contemporary layer to this historic property. Subordination and deference are common themes of both practices’ thinking. MVK’s has neither a mansard nor Georgian style glazing bars but the window openings are classically positioned and proportioned.

Michael Kavanagh of MVK Architects relates, “The choice of material was based on aesthetic as well as practical considerations. Natural zinc has a light grey colour – from historic photographs it appears the slate on the original roof had a similar light grey colour. The material is not intended to match the limestone colour but rather be complementary to it. Zinc is natural, hardwearing, long lasting and difficult to puncture. These characteristics make it ideal for long term weatherproofed cladding. It is stiffer than lead or copper and consequently allows for the crispness of detailing which is intended throughout.” This metal envelope is fixed on plywood decking across battens to form a ventilation zone. The zinc is fitted in strips of varying widths using a staggered but repeating rhythm which reflects the use of differently sized limestone blocks on the main house exterior.

The best example in Ireland of a Modernist addition to a neoclassical building is of course the Ulster Museum Belfast extension. Edinburgh architect James Cumming Wynnes won the 1913 competition for the original museum. The exterior displays fairly ornate Beaux Arts decoration. In 1964, London architect Francis Pym won a competition to extend the museum. His highly inventive design is at once contextual and disruptive. He draws out the neoclassical detailing such as cornices and string courses which then collide with abstract cubic concrete blocks expressing the layout of the galleries inside. Francis’ dramatic work is unsurpassed in its genre. Surprisingly, he worked in church conservation and his only other recorded built form is a gazebo somewhere in England.

This is an article of superlatives. The O’Connell Wing of Abbey Leix in County Laois is a study in how to do it right. Architect John O’Connell’s masterful 1990s reimagining of an unfinished 1860s wing by Thomas Henry Wyatt (an Anglo Irish distant next generation relation of James) is a lesson in improving what’s there already. Client Sir David Davies explains, “This extension was never built as planned but the remains of the Wyatt scheme – a low unadorned wall to the right of the main house was a disfiguring distraction, an issue O’Connell resolved by puncturing the walls with windows and adding architectural ornament.” John O’Connell was also responsible for the late 20th century restoration of Castle Coole. This is an article of connections.

Sympathetic contextual additions; visibly contemporary extensions; dramatic architectural interventions; subtly remodelled wings – they all have their place and supporters. English Poet Laureate and architectural historian Sir John Betjeman once stated, “I have seen many Irish houses, but I know none at once so dignified, so restrained and so original as Townley Hall in County Louth.” More than 230 years after it was finished, such is the strength of Francis Johnson’s design, capturing the spirit of a future age, it still possesses dignity, restraint and originality.

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The Inner Temple Garden + The Middle Temple Garden + The Garden Room Restaurant Temple London

Paper Buildings Real Flowers

Sophie Tatzkow, Deputy Head Gardener of The Inner Temple Garden shares the evolution of the high border: “Over recent years, it has been undergoing a transformation moving away from the resource intensive management that heavily relied on annual bulbs in spring and various seasonal display changes throughout the year. The adaptation of the border is based upon detailed observation and evaluation of environmental conditions to blend beauty with sustainable cultivation.”

The Garden is only open to the public for a few hours each weekday. She elaborates, “One of the keys to this evolution is layered biodiverse planting where reliable trees and shrubs form the backbone, underplanted with resilient perennials, grasses and self seeding plants. This structure reduces the need for replanting which lessens soil disturbance. Undisturbed soils consist of a network of billions of beneficial organisms such as bacteria, fungi and earthworms which together create a wonderful environment for plant health and wildlife.”

“The High Border is now a living breathing ecosystem that thrives on resourcefulness,” Sophie relates. “The long season pollinator friendly planting with repeating patterns creates an ever changing yet harmonious space where nature and cultivation coexist. The greatest satisfaction I take away is the cultivation of a border by blending beauty with ecological responsibility. As custodians of this Garden it is important to champion a conscious approach of reducing waste, conserving resources and creating beautiful biodiverse and wildlife friendly ecosystems.”

For Sophie’s Victorian counterpart, the smog of London proved challenging and so Samuel Brome favoured hardy plants. In his 1861 bestseller Culture of the Chrysanthemum as Practised in The Temple Gardens, he recommends balsam, calceolaria, scarlet geraniums, snowdrops and tulips. He explains that shrubs do not fare well in pollution while some varieties of dwarf roses, being close to the ground, are less affected by smoke. The Plane Tree is one of his recommendations as it sheds bark each spring and “by doing, it gets rid of the soot, which sticks to other trees like varnish, and which there is no getting off”. Plane Tree allergy sufferers of the 21st century would come to regret his arboricultural allegiance.

The Middle Temple Garden is the smaller of the two green spaces. Tudor Hall dominates its northern side. The Garden Room restaurant spills onto a terrace on its eastern side. This area was once part of the River Thames. In the 1530s the land south of the Temple was drained and reclaimed to create more space for the expanding Societies. The earliest record of landscaping of The Middle Temple Garden is a 1615 “Gardener’s bill for the new knott”. At this time the level of the ground was raised and a vogueish geometric knot garden created filled with scented plants like rosemary and sweet briar.

The Temples Conservation Area includes one Scheduled Monument, eight Grade I Listings, 12 Grade II Listings and five Grade II* Listings in Inner Temple; seven Grade I Listings, four Grade II* Listings and nine Grade II Listings in Middle Temple; and two Grade II Listings on Victoria Embankment. Unsurprisingly this forms one of the greatest concentrations of historic protected buildings and structures in London.

In Roman times, the western route out of the City approximately followed what is now Fleet Street and the Strand on the higher ground north of the marshy margin of the Thames. The slope from Fleet Street to the Strand and downwards to the Thames remains a prominent feature. The religious Order of the Knights Templar was established in Holborn in the 1160s before relocating to the Temples. In 1185, Temple Church was consecrated. The Templars were suppressed by Parliament in the early 14th century and Parliament voted to handover the property to the Order of St John. At that time, parts of the Estate were already leased to law students.

After Henry VIII’s Dissolution the property went to the Crown which granted freehold to the Benchers of the Temple in 1608. The Inns of Court would become fashionable places of education during the Reformation. The other two Inns of Court are Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn, both in Holborn. They are the four professional associations for barristers in London. These historic collegiate institutions provide education, training and social networking for emerging and established barristers. Membership is mandatory for anyone wishing to practise as a barrister. There is no visible physical distinction between Inner and Middle Temple Inns except many buildings in the former display the symbol of Pegasus and in the latter, Agnus Dei.

A few buildings survived the Great Fire of 1666. Tudor and Tudoresque architecture intermingles with Georgian. The construction of the Embankment in the 19th century extended The Inner Temple and Middle Temple Gardens. Buildings damaged in the World Wars were sympathetically rebuilt in the mid 20th century. The Gardens, only open during restricted hours or when let for functions, are very much part of hidden London.

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Architects Architecture Art Country Houses People

The Hamiltons + Hamwood House Dunboyne Meath

Taking Refuge in the Shelter of Your Wings

Stephen Odlum sums up the origins of Hamwood House in his book Eva, Letitia and The Hamilton Sisters: Class, Gender and Art (2021): “The Hamiltons originally came from Scotland in the early 17th century and initially settled in the north of Ireland. The first of these settlers was Alexander Hamilton (1690 to 1768) who was MP for Killyleagh in County Down. In a tradition followed by many subsequent generations of the Hamilton family, he became a land agent. He seems to have been particularly successful in this role and left his five sons land worth £50,000. His son Charles Hamilton (1737 to 1818) moved south to Dublin where he first traded as a wine merchant. It appears that this business flourished, as he decided to build a house reflecting his new status. He chose to build in an area to the east of the village of Dunboyne in County Meath close to the border with County Dublin and only about 15 miles from the centre of Dublin.”

The writer details, “The Hamilton sisters remained attached to the old Ascendancy social monies and traditions. Letitia, Eva and Connie, who developed a gardening consultancy business, and Ethel, up to her death in 1924, pooled their resources to live in refined but declining style in a series of large, rambling houses in the Castleknock and Lucan areas of County Dublin from 1920 onwards. Manners mattered more than money – dinner was a formal event which the ladies dressed for and were summoned by a gong. In a world which would become increasingly dominated by Catholic dogma, Letitia and Eva would have had a liberty that was not often open to their Catholic sisterhood. Those who did choose to pursue modern feminist ideas were seen as being ‘West Brit’ or pro British. Indeed, Catholic women who were educated and middle class were more likely to join forces with their Protestant counterparts to achieve social and political recognition, as seen in the suffragette movement in the early part of the 20th century.”

It’s an unseasonably cool and overcast spring morning to meet Charles Hamilton VII for a private tour of his splendid home. The four bay two storey over basement under attic entrance front or perhaps it is the garden front (to be explained later) has curved wings extending out like crab claws grabbing pebbles – the end octagonal pavilions. “The house was built by Charles I in 1777 for £2,500,” introduces his descendant. “Ham comes from Hamilton and Wood comes from his wife Elizabeth’s maiden name Chetwood. Charles II’s wife Caroline found the house draughty – the original entrance on the side or west elevation opened straight into the reception rooms – so that’s how the current arrangement came about. A corridor now separates the entrance door from the living quarters. The driveway used to access what is now the garden elevation – really the house is back to front. In very hot dry summers the ghost of flowerbeds appears opposite the current entrance front.”

A set of early 1900s photographs from the Irish Architectural Archive includes a picture of the garden. And sure enough it is filled with flowerbeds. Other pictures show the house with window shutters and the house with the shadowy ghost of window shutters. Previous generations pose on the lawn and in the library.

Charles adds, “Caroline insisted on many more trees being planted to help create shelter for the strong winds. Remember that when she arrived at Hamwood in the early 1800s it was a cold and bleak situation and very exposed being 300 feet above sea level. That may not sound particularly high but in relatively flat Leinster there was nothing between the house and the east coast! Caroline and her husband were greatly involved in the interior design of the house too, adding furnishings, artwork and ornaments.”

“The architect is unknown,” he explains, “although a surveyor Joseph O’Brien is mentioned in family papers. During the 1798 Rebellion the agent for nearby Carton was hanged. So my ancestor Charles I took over as agent and my family continued in the role from 1800 to 1950. This supplemented the income they made of the 165 acres at Hamwood. The family have always been very active in the community. They set up agricultural societies to create work and during the famine they ran a soup kitchen. My father Charles Gerald was the last agent of Carton. The Duke of Leinster sold it to Lord Brocket and then eventually it was turned into a hotel. We will walk round to the other side of the house, down the long garden which has unbroken views across the countryside. Unbroken thanks to a nine foot wide haha.”

“The 1911 Census records a butler, three yard men, coachman turned chauffeur and five indoor servants. I remember as a child we still had seven glasshouses filled full of peaches and nectarines,” says Charles. Upon entering the house through the ocean blue coloured door, visitors are greeted by a Canadian moose head in the octagonal hall. The corridor ahead feels early Victorian: it is lined with tongue and groove wooden panelling and encaustic tile floored. It leads into an elegantly furnished double drawing room spanning the full four bay entrance front. The pale sea green blue walls are filled with paintings and drawings.

There are two corresponding reception rooms on the garden front. The two bay dining room is painted deep shell pink. Two similar oil paintings hang side by side: Mrs Charles Hamilton by Sir William Orpen (the subject dressed in back with white frills writing a letter) and Portrait of Louisa Mrs Charles Hamilton by Eva Hamilton (the subject in the same outfit reading a book). “Eva and Letitia both trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art,” Charles confirms, “where the prominent Irish artist William Orpen taught. Eva was especially influenced by Orpen’s style.”

Bright and airy even on a dull day, bedrooms fill most of the first floor. A roof lantern lit corridor extends off the staircase landing. “The two storey library wing was built by my great uncle,” notes Charles. “It disrupts the symmetry of the garden elevation.” The two pane Victorian glazing has been replaced on the principal front with 12 panes on the main block and intricate gothic topped panes on the arched windows of the wings. A painting of another country house hangs in the staircase hall. He states, “That was our family estate at Ahakista in West Cork. The television presenter Graham Norton lives there now. We used to have a townhouse in Dublin too – 40 Dominick Street Lower.” This four storey three bay terraced house, built in 1760, is now a language school. Hamwood House still stands proud as the family seat of the Hamiltons.