Fortissimo
Anglicisation from Irish Gaelic is to blame in some instances (The Argory née Ard Garraidhe meaning “The Hill of the Garden” is a case in point) but quite a few Irish country houses have intriguing names. Jockey Hall and Shandy Hall (the latter to be found in Dripsey) sound fun. Whiskey Hall sounds like too much fun. Bachelors Lodge and Hymenstown are presumably kilometres apart. Mount Anne or Mount Stewart anyone? The mildly unnerving Flood Hall, Fort Etna, Spiddal Hall and The Reeks. Is Sherlockstown worth investigating? Zoomorphic zaniness: Fox Hall, Lizard Manor, Lyons, Mount Panther and Roebuck Hall. Elphin Castle (sounds like the London area of Elephant and Castle after a few shandies or whiskeys). Place names too. Bungalo begs the question: is it full of single storey residences?
Lots of houses without so much as a battlement are called castles: Beltrim Castle, Castle Coole, Castle Grove, Castle Leslie. Castle Ffrench in Ballinamore Bridge, County Galway, joins this list although there are romantic ruins of a towerhouse on the estate. The double consonant doesn’t disguise the fact the name originated somewhat unsurprisingly in France. The Ffrench family were part of a Norman landing in County Wexford in 1169. In time, they became one of the 14 Tribes of Galway. Their single consonant cousins owned French Park in Frenchpark, County Roscommon.
Castle Ffrench is a star of Maurice Craig’s seminal work Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size (1976). He notes its plan is virtually identical to Bonnettstown’s outside Kilkenny City, County Kilkenny, despite the 145 kilometre 40 year gap. A notable feature of both pretty Big Houses is the pair of staircases side by side, like slightly asymmetric Siamese twins. A thin wall between the pair once segregated the classes’ ascent and descent (for richer, for poorer). One is dressed in plasterwork; the other bare. Landings pressed against the four bay courtyard facing rear elevation provide intriguing mid storey variations in window positions. Both stairwells are lit by tall fanlight topped windows identical on the outside – only the family one has internal panelled shutters.
The front avenue facing elevation is more conventional, the grouped middle three bays of a five bay composition gently projecting. Urns and finials sprouting from a solid parapet dot the horizon. A three storey over basement (hidden to the front; semi exposed to the sides; for all to see to the rear) limestone block, this house is the epitome of Irish Georgian style. It even has an archetypal fanlight set in the entablatured triglyphed pilastered fluted rosetted doorcase. Conservation architect John O’Connell calls the building “very accomplished” and recognises the influence of the architect Richard Castle. A niche in the entrance hall is marginally unaligned with the ceiling plasterwork above. A signal that the house is the work of a builder with a pattern book or two at his disposal? Or simply plastered on a Friday afternoon?
Castle Ffrench rises above an unruffled patchwork quilt, a landscape of interlocking greens, quieter than Pimlico Tube Station on a Friday evening (are Pimlocals like Peter York too posh to push onto public transport?). So silent. Within the vale beyond The Pale. A two kilometre avenue and ample hectarage keep the populace at bay. Augustine days of yore aren’t so distant … indoors, there’s a hooley! The plasterwork at any rate. The stuccodores’ genius charges towards zenithsphere in the entrance hall and landing (of the family staircase). Neoclassicism and Rococo blend and blur in mesmerising jigs and reels of fables and foliage ribboned round Irish harps and French horns. Wreathes and sheaves and sickles, the whole shebang.
Lady Fifi Ffrench (such stutteringly fitting phonetics) and her husband John were the last of the original family to reside at Castle Ffrench, departing in the mid 20th century. Sheila and Bill Bagliani, the current owners, have sensitively restored this knockout property, carefully preserving its patina of age. Gaultier Lodge, their wonderful bed and breakfast in Woodstown, County Waterford, is also a period property. Bertie the Labrador and Sally the Westie run amok through the grounds of Castle Ffrench. Sheila, a talented artist, has a top floor studio. All stairs lead to a second floor central corridor spanning the full length of the house. This corridor might not have the ornate plasterwork of the spaces below but it’s very much defined by a series of blind and open arches resembling abstract vaulting. A forerunner to Sir John Soane’s streamlined style. There are flowers and canvases and a ghost in the attic – a previous owner refuses to leave and who could blame her?
That visit was so long ago, back in 2014. Castle Ffrench is currently for sale. All 16 hectares, eight paddocks, 16 stables, three and a half reception rooms, nine bedrooms, seven bathrooms and the barrel vaulted basement for €1,000,000. As to be expected the drawing room (5.96 metres by 8.15 metres) and dining room (7.29 metres by 5.64 metres) are the largest internal spaces. Castle Ffrench ticks all the boxes: a boxy beauty, a rural idyll, a great name. Caisleán Ffrench.
