Tag: ballyfin county laois

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Kings of Leinster + Borris House Carlow

The Lines of Beauty

“The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour.” I Corinthians 15:41

Roger White writes in Country Life, 3 October 2011, “First time visitors to Irish country houses are often struck by two things in particular. One is the sheer quality of architecture and craftmanship, and the other is the idiosyncrasy of the families who have owned these houses. Borris House in County Carlow has both characteristics in spades. The idiosyncrasy tends to be associated with the Anglo Irish but it would not be strictly accurate to so describe the Kavanaghs of Borris, about whom there is nothing ‘Anglo’.”

Staggered up a hillside, an architectural beauty parade of picturesque cottages clinging to the gradient, a Georgian house doubling as a petrol filling station, a boutique hotel boasting a celebrated chef, and an improbably vast château emerging like a granite mirage on the horizon, Borris in County Carlow is a cut above the average Irish village. With a County population of 50,000, one third that of the smallest London Borough, driving around Carlow is a breeze. It’s off the beaten track of the touristy east coast. Despite a chalkboard at the gates announcing a house tour, we’re the only people to turn up. Just us and the owner Morgan Kavanagh. There are no National Trust style timed entry queues round the curtilage.

While we are led round the house and adjoining chapel, something magical is happening outside. It’s the bewitching hour: late afternoon in an Irish winter. The windows of Borris House are ablaze – amber, cerulean, mauve, scarlet – in reflected glory as the sun sets behind the Blackstairs Mountains far away across the Barrow Valley. So what do we learn on our select tour? Rather a lot: Morgan proves to be an entertaining and well versed guide.

Key points of his tour include: Borris House is a mostly 1830s Richard and William Vitruvius Morrison confection. Neoclassical innards beneath a Tudoresque skin. In turn, the original Georgian box had swallowed up an older castle. Morrison masterpieces stretch the length of the country from Glenarm Castle in the north to Ballyfin in the midlands and Fota House in the south. Glenarm Castle, County Antrim, is the closest in looks.

Borris is the seat of the MacMorrough Kavanaghs, High Kings of Leinster. Their pedigree is traceable back to the dawn of Irish history. King Art Mór Mac Murchadha Caomhánach was a particularly feisty ancestor who reigned for 42 years, reviving his family’s power and land in between warring with the English King Richard II. The estate was once 12,000 hectares before being broken up in 1907. On the current 260 hectare walled demesne are Lebanon cedars, fern leaf beeches and Ireland’s tallest broadleaf tree. It’s a 44 metre high hybrid American poplar down by the River Barrow.

Morgan says, “A two storey wing with a walkway over the kitchen used to connect the main house to the estate chapel so that the family could enter straight into their first floor gallery seating. My grandmother demolished that wing. Anglican services are still held in the chapel every other Sunday.” Songstress Cecil Frances Alexander, forever extolling the combined merits of Christianity and country life, donated an organ (of the musical variety) to the chapel. Her son Cecil John Francis Alexander married Eva Kavanagh, daughter of a 19th century owner of Borris House, in 1882.

Most excitingly, in 1778, Eleanor Charlotte Butler, the sister-in-law of Thomas Kavanagh fled from Borris House where she was staying to elope with Sarah Ponsonby of Woodstock in Inistioge, County Kilkenny. Eleanor and Sarah escaped to East Britain and set up home together in Plas Newydd, Llangollen. They became well known as the ladies who did more than lunch together. Morgan recently discovered an 18th century letter in the library of Borris which refers to the pair as “Sapphos”.

Local historian Edmund Joyce carried out a study titled Borris House County Carlow and Elite Regency Patronage in 2013. Extracts include: “This study focuses on Borris House, the ancestral home of the MacMurrough Kavanagh family, situated beside the town of Borris in south County Carlow, Ireland. The house sits on a hillside facing southeast towards the County Wexford border. The Blackstairs Mountains, which terminate the prospect, form a boundary in that direction of unusual grandeur. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the MacDonough Kavanagh family were amongst the most powerful in the country with up to 30,000 acres of land in Counties Carlow, Kilkenny and Wexford.”

“In the early 19th century Borris House underwent a dramatic transformation and the house as it now stands is the result of this remodelling of the earlier classical house. The architectural historian Peter Pearson describes how ‘in the 1800s the MacMurrough Kavanaghs of Borris embarked on a lavish building programme that transformed their 18th century mansion into a Tudor Revival showpiece’. The changes were performed under the direction of Richard Morrison, the Cork born architect. The remodelled Borris House was the earliest recorded property in County Carlow to adopt the Gothic Revival style. Early Gothic Revival houses such as Slane Castle, County Meath (1785), are simply classical houses with gothic details.”

“The importance of Borris House as a Regency house designed by an Irish architect, furnished by Irish craftsmen and occupied by a landed family of Gaelic descent deserves a thorough study in order to draw out a deeper understanding of its meaning in the broader context of Regency design both at home and abroad. The scale of the building project at Borris House can be categorised as considerable by any comprehensive by any standard. The veneering of the house in the Gothic Revival style brought it up to date with fashionable contemporary design. In Ireland, a building draped in a Gothic shroud provided a consciousness and awareness of defence together with a deep rooted long ancestral provenance.”

“Christine Casey in her essay The Regency Great House describes how Richard Morrison ‘created a series of starkly contrasting interiors’, stating that ‘Borris is clearly a house bristling with ideas, unresolved but full of vitality and interest’. This clearly underscores the importance of the house in the context of Irish Regency design. Casey sees Borris House as Richard Morrison’s Regency prototype that ‘whets the appetite for the Morrisons’ grandest and most mature country house, Ballyfin, County Laois’.” Richard Morrison’s son, although suffering from depression, would join him in the thriving architectural practice. Randal McDonnell, Lord Antrim, owner of Glenarm Castle, once remarked to us how Morrison junior, “Went by the rather wonderful name of Vitruvius.”

In 2022 Edmund Joyce gave a lecture on Borris to the Kilkenny Archaeological Society. He explained, “The house is missing a big chunk and that chunk is missing as a result of works that happened in the 1950s. So when you get an architect in the 1950s to give you advice they give you three options. First option to let Borris House and build a small house adjacent. Second, to demolish rear sections of Borris House and take down the top storey of the main house. Third, to demolish Borris House and build a small house adjacent, a four bedroom bungalow in the walled garden.”

The Kavanaghs’ architect was Dan O’Neill Flanaghan of Waterford City. Edmund pulled extracts out of his 1957 report: “Perhaps I will be forgiven if I say that Borris House is not an architectural gem … to completely remove the front portico I do not think the general appearance of the house would suffer by its removal … to invite tenders from demolition contractors, and the second to auction it room by room, or floor by floor, and employ one’s own contractor on the demolition.”

Fortunately any decisions on the future of the house and estate had to go through four trustees. Option two was chosen in part: demolish the long two storey subsidiary wing. This proved costly and bereft the house of its kitchen. A vintage photograph (copyright of the Irish Architectural Archive: one of several reproduced here for non commercial educational purposes) shows part of the vanished wing. The cupolas, the crowning glory of the square turrets at each corner of the main block were removed at this time.

That’s as far as the demolition progressed. Edmund ended his lecture with, “The house was going forwards then it started going backwards now it’s going forwards again. A lot of restoration work is happening and the current generation is very interested in putting back what was there before. It’s nice to see that it’s gone full circle.” The recent lime rendering washed in apricot accentuates the best parapet in Ireland, even without its cupolas. Turning the circle comes at a price: it costs the Kavanaghs about €250,000 a year to maintain and run Borris House and estate.

“The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.” Ecclesiastes 1:5

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Marlfield House Hotel + The Duck Restaurant Gorey Wexford

A Bon Mot Cast in Stone

“Margaret and Laura Bowe inherited good taste from their parents,” states architect Alfred Cochrane. He worked on Marlfield House Hotel over a 15 year period starting in 1982. “Mary their mother has incredible style and she wanted more accommodation. My work at Marlfield is Postmodern. I wanted the Conservatory to be a room away from the house, not directly attached. It’s inspired by Richard Turner’s  Botanic Gardens Belfast and the National Botanic Gardens Dublin glasshouses as well as Brighton Pavilion. The pond front of the single storey wing is designed to resemble a French hunting lodge. I had to insert a fire wall into the Staircase Hall of the original house. The Bowes bought superb 18th century fireplaces like the one in the Library. Great artists were brought on board: Marina Guinness and Victoria Ormesby-Gore created the Print Room and Nat Clements painted the murals in the Entrance Hall. Mary’s husband Ray dammed a stream to create the pond.”

Alfred’s work augments Marlfield’s presence both physically and aesthetically. Creative clients helped. “We’re all mad about design,” declares Laura Bowe. “Our family all have a good eye. I worked in Alfred’s practice for a while.” Mary and Ray bought the house and 15 hectares from the widowed Lady Courtown in 1977. It was built in 1852 by the 4th Earl of Courtown as a dower house. The house is tall, slim and elegant. Three storeys: four bay entrance front; four bay corresponding garden front with a two bay breakfront; and two bay bowed side elevation. The other side adjoins a two storey ancillary wing. Faced with rugged semi coursed rubblestone and red brick quoins. A parapet free pitched roof over deep eaves is punctuated by tall chimneystacks. The 5th Earl swapped some of the ground floor multi pane windows for plate glass sashes in 1866. “Courtown House was across the road,” comments Laura. “It was sold to the Irish Tourist Board in 1948 and pulled down.” Jeremy Williams records in his 1994 guide Architecture In Ireland 1837 to 1921, “Courtown House, the seat of  the Earls of Courtown, was much modified during the 19th century … William Burn was involved in remodelling the house.” The 9th Earl, James Patrick Montagu Winthrop Stopford, recently enjoyed a weekend at Marlfield.

The vivid reinvention of the former dower house, a joyous revivication, begins at the entrance to the grounds. In place of traditional stone pillars are Alfred’s whimsical wrought iron columns supporting wry wiry pineapples. This design is shadowed in a gazebo on the lawn. The entrance portico of the house bridges the gap between Neoclassicism and Postmodernism. There’s a layering of stylistic language at play, apropos for a polyglot architect. A Doric centrepiece steps forward from smooth stone bays; it’s deconstructed to become not so much a broken pediment as a broken temple ‘glued’ together with glazing. Beyond lies the vast semicircular Entrance Hall partly mirrored in plan by a bowed external water feature. A picture gallery connects the Entrance Hall to the State Suites of the single storey wing: the French Room, Georgian Room, Morland Room, Print Room, Sheraton Room and Stopford Room. “Inspiration for the Print Room came from Mariga Guinness’s work at Leixlip Castle and of course Lady Louisa Connolly’s famous Print Room at Castletown,” notes Margaret. “When the doors are pulled across the bed alcove, wedding ceremonies are often performed in this room.”

There are another 13 bedrooms, all with marble bathrooms, upstairs in the main house. Guests can dream and more in coronet, fourposter and half tester beds. The Conservatory on the garden front balances the State Room wing on the entrance front. History, luxury, harmony, geometry and symmetry: all are important at Marlfield, a billet-doux to hospitality. The Conservatory, an adventurous addition, is a tripartite triumph in cast iron and glass. A central projection balloons up to a storey high ogee shaped dome. The vertical frame of distinctive lattice metal pilasters topped by stylised Ionic capitals is as stylish as anything produced in the Regency era. The Ionic order with cerebral associations bestowed upon it by Vitruvius has long carried intellectual heft. Soaneian mirrored cornicing, cills and starburst ceiling roses reflect the omnipresent brilliance.

“I worked with Alfred and his business partner Jeremy Williams in the summer vacations while I was studying architecture,” says Albert Noonan. “I was involved in drawing the magnificent curvilinear Conservatory. Extending a period property is full of design challenges. Alfred tackled these challenges with confidence, building on historic references to create a statement piece that harmonises well with the original building both inside and out. The Conservatory is a joy to walk around and the interior with frescoed walls brings the beautiful gardens into the Dining Room. Stylistically it has not dated and looks as good today as when it was first built.” It reminds us of sitting in the conservatory of Ballyfin, County Laois, or Rokeby Hall, County Louth.

Albert reminisces, “As a young architect I was impressed by the uplifting experience of visiting Alfred’s projects. His designs deliver on functionality but they also incorporate creative details that add a sense of intrigue and visual interest. This approach to design influenced my career – I endeavour to create designs that not only meet clients’ brief of functionality but also create appropriate environments that are uplifting and pleasurable experiences for the end user.”

In a mark of approval, a continuum of tradition, an aligment of the story arc, a refinement of the built form, he would return to Marlfield to design the restoration and conversion of the coach house, potting shed and gardener’s tool shed into The Duck. The hotel and restaurant share the same avenue but then it forks off into different, albeit abutting, worlds. “The Duck is a meeting point for all directions in good or bad weather,” Margaret clarifies. “People come in the summer to sit on the terrace. People come in the winter to be near the fire. It sits 100 for lunch and 120 for dinner.” There’s a rustic feel inside: exposed stone walls and timber panelling. “The beauty of the restaurant is it overlooks the kitchen garden. There’s a kilometre long walk around the meadow. This whole place is in use, all 36 acres.”

Two years later, Albert designed the remodelling of the tiny Gatelodge, transforming it into a spacious two bedroom single storey residence. “It’s extremely popular,” confirms Margaret. “People never stay once.” A pair of simple gate pillars marking the entrance to the Gatelodge garden is repeated in the hedge opposite lining the avenue: that symmetry in action. He recalls, “The original Gatelodge was a classic and modest design and the extended building retains these attributes externally. Internally, we created visual interest through elevated ceilings and a varied palette of materials and textures including exposed brick walls, timber panelling, stone flooring and earthy muted colours. Laura has a great eye for furniture and fixtures that convey a sense of luxury and comfort.” An opaque circular ceiling window – like the one over the Staircase Hall of Alfred’s County Wicklow home – lights the Lobby leading into the large open plan Reception Room.

“Following on from the Gatelodge project, the Bowes wanted to provide more bedroom accommodation,” remarks Albert. “Rather than extend the main house it was decided to provide five freestanding Pond Suites. They’re of a contemporary design intended to complement the woodland setting. Each Suite has large windows and a terrace orientated to capture great views over the pond and island.” Margaret adds, “They’re called The Peacock, The Fox, The White Heron and The Blue Heron. We named the two bedroom suite The Nest.”

He continues, “The Pond Suites are constructed in a lightweight timber frame walling sitting on bored pile foundations to minimise disruption to the ground beneath. The floors are floating just above ground level. Main exterior walls are clad in cedar which will transform into a silver grey finish over time. The rear walls and monopitched roofs are clad in black coated zinc. We used Crittal steel windows. The monopitched design maximises the height of the façade glazing.”

As night falls and sun sets, dinner in the Conservatory hits more high notes than a Wexford Festival Opera diva. First there’s the prelude of parmesan and spice bread which sides the Courgette and Goat’s Cheese Canapé. Mozart in a mouthful. Seared Irish Scallops (roast apple purée, Granny Smith crisp) form the brisk and lively first movement of this incredible edible symphony. Pachelbel on a plate. Roast Onion Soup is lyrically relaxing. Bach in a bowl. Fillet of Pan Seared Halibut (concasse of tomato, sugar snap peas, mussels, lemon beurre blanc) ups the tempo and pumps the mood music. Tchaikovsky on the tastebuds. Marlfield Garden Rhubarb Millefeuille (vanilla pastry cream, candied ginger) provides a rollocking finale. Pudding is La Passione. Encore will be breakfast and encore une fois coffee and shortbread while the car pulls up for departure.

“I joined the team in 1994 after working in event management in London,” Margaret concludes. “Laura arrived back in 2004 after leaving the film industry. She is responsible for brand development and I take care of the sales department. On a daily basis, we manage the hotel together. Ireland is essentially a rural country and I’ve lived in the countryside for much of my life. My love of nature is my way of expressing the attachment, this Irish identity.” A tortoiseshell runs past into the herbaceous border. Margaret mourns, “George the peacock and the ginger cat died a couple of years ago. In July and August, George was always crowing, calling out for a lady. There are three cats now. They just appear! There are lots of birds too.” On cue, a heron swoops out of the pond, past two gliding ducks.

Five years after opening, Marlfield became a member of the coveted Relais et Châteaux group. Add sustainability to its list of qualities. The Gatelodge has triple glazed windows and a heat pump. That open plan layout is never draughty. “We strive to constantly reduce our carbon footprint,” assures Margaret. “We operate on green energy and are moving towards biogas. The Pond Suites are close to zero carbon. Our menus use local produce within a radius of a few kilometres. Over the last two years we have planted at least 150 trees.”

Courtown House long gone, Marlfield House is in its golden era. The dowager is now the doyenne.

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WOW!house 2024 + Design Centre Chelsea Harbour London

Artisan Residence

When asked what her favourite season is, Moira Rose, star of Netflix series Schitt’s Creek, responds, “Awards Season!” No doubt if Moira was living in the English capital she would say “The Season!”. London society events really take off in June and WOW!house has been cleverly placed right at the beginning of the month just before everyone is dusting down their top hats for Royal Ascot. Claire German, CEO of Chelsea Harbour Design Centre, says,

“In just three years, WOW!house has brought our worldwide design family together, sparking conversations, building relationships, sharing knowledge, championing creativity and raising awareness for the charitable causes at its heart.” She calls it “an immersive interiors journey like no other; a journey that stands as a remarkable testament to creativity and design excellence”. We soon learn that, if anything, those words form an understatement.

A new cohort of 20 designers, from rising to global stars, has dreamt up 19 indoor and outdoor spaces totalling 500 square metres, each with their own scent (by Diptyque). Red carpets are so out of season. WOW!house has rolled out a polychromatic floral carpet designed by Jennifer Manners. The rooms flow one after the other like luxurious stationary railway carriages. Zoffany sponsored the Entrance Hall by British design and interiors creative Benedict Foley. He took inspiration from the country house Temple Newsam in Leeds, a damask draped scene in Luchino Visconti’s 1963 film The Leopard, and Zoffany’s heritage. “I’d like everyone to feel welcome,” declares Benedict, “and to imagine they are whirling round a palazzo ballroom in Italy.” It’s got the wow factor!

Richness becomes reality in the Legend Room, a sitting room and study. Alidad (being known monoymously is a sign of success in itself) joining forces with room sponsor Watts 1874 proves he really is one of the great high priests of interior design. The ecclesiastical ambience of this room is not accidental: many of the fabric house Watts 1874’s original commissions were for churches. After setting up his interior design studio in 1985, his work caught the eye of Min Hogg, Founding Editor of The World of Interiors magazine, and his reputation skyrocketed. “As a designer, I’m not interested in what’s here today and gone tomorrow,” Alidad confirms. “Look at the longevity of Watts. Having gone through the beige and cornice-free white cube phase, these fabrics have survived and are as relevant today as they were 150 years ago.” Minimalists beware!

American designer Ken Fulk worked with The Rug Company to bring us the atmospheric Dining Room. He believes, “Rugs are an incredible medium telling stories of our humanity via exquisite craftmanship for thousands of years.” A bespoke rug for the Dining Room is based on the storytelling of blue and white Delft tilework. This is another interior where the fifth wall, the ceiling, is given special attention. Ornamental mouldings and coffers printed with drawings provide a bold backdrop for the chandelier of recycled plastic bottles by artist Thierry Jeannot. Place settings by ceramicist Linda Fahey are a riot of pattern and colour. Minimalists still beware!

“It’s actually really hard to design when you’ve no client,” smiles Lucy Hammond Giles of Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler. She’s created the bright and cheery Morning Room. “It’s a room where you’d want to sit on a Saturday with a coffee and a newspaper – the perfect refuge,” she reckons. We do concur. A balustraded and pedimented birdcage is a quintessential country house interior piece. It’s like a maquette of the conservatory of Ballyfin in County Laois (which of course is fitted with Grants Blinds from the Design Centre). Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler is the longest established decorating firm in the UK. Lucy marks its 90th anniversary with butter coloured curtains paying homage to the company’s famous Yellow Room in Mayfair. Lucy has proved she is a great designer – and client!

Wimbledon is of course a fixture of The Season so it’s no surprise the Courtyard is a tennis pavilion. London based designer Katharine Pooley has completed projects in 24 countries but it is innate Britishness that she brings to this space. Sponsor McKinnon and Harris make America’s best aluminium outdoor furniture. It’s the perfect place to enjoy truffled scrambled egg and wild salmon canapés by Social Pantry, the hospitality leader in prison leaver employment. Design Restaurant by Social Pantry is its permanent base in the North Dome. Katharine confirms, “Sharing a devotion to traditional craftsmanship and timeless design, my partnership with McKinnon and Harris is more than mere synergy.” Anyone on the umpire’s seat would agree with that. The Courtyard is ace!

Nigerian British creator Tolù Adẹ̀kọ́’s Bedroom Suite really is a luxurious stationary railway carriage good enough to join the Orient Express. “This room design is a homage to the art of travel and textiles in the early 20th century,” he explains. Tolù was drawn to the pioneering spirit of the interior textile sponsor Zimmer and Rohde’s founders who originated during the days of Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The ribbed cornice and coved compartmented ceiling resemble an expanded suitcase. It’s a sultry and sexy room. Tolù Adẹ̀kọ́ is on the right track!

Charlotte Freemantle and her husband Will Fisher of Jamb London have sailed downstream from Pimlico to create the Primary Bedroom. A fourposter bed dominates the room as befits one of the city’s leading stockists of antiques and makers of exceptional reproduction chimneypieces, lighting and furniture. “The posts are washed in celadon blue to give that sleepy country house feel,” Will tells us. Inspired by the palettes and extravagant drapery of Renaissance and Baroque masters Rembrandt, Domenico Veneziano and Diego Velázquez, they have wrapped the walls in silk rendered in shades of dusky pink. A new pumice black and dove grey Grigio Carnico marble chimneypiece channels period pieces. Very sweet dreams!

Materiality again plays a central role in the Courtyard bedroom sponsored by American design house Schumacher and designed by British company Veere Grenney Associates. The fourposter is more contemporary in this bedroom: Schumacher damask drapes and checked upholstery linings with matching wall covering provide a restrained tailored feel. A Georgian chimneypiece from Jamb London and contemporary furniture from Veere Grenney’s own collection deliver an eclectic look. The designer admits, “I like to think that we design rooms you want to spend time in.” We don’t want to leave!

In yet another significant anniversary, Hill House Interiors have launched a capsule collection to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Hill House Lifestyle offers furniture, indoor and outdoor cushions, rugs and trimmings. The pieces are calm, sophisticated and all about the detailing. We join owners Helen Bygraves and Jenny Weiss for lunch in their first floor showroom in the South Dome of the Design Centre. Catering is once again by Social Pantry: we go for harissa baked salmon, bulgar wheat and spring onions. Helen says, “We hope you enjoy our Lifestyle Collection as much as we do.” We do!

The 20th century Anglo Irish writer Elizabeth Bowen once said of her ancestral residence Bowen’s Court in County Cork, “Indoors and outdoors the house’s character, with its inherent beauty, is in its proportions and its sureness of style.” The same could be said of this show except make it sureness of styles. According to Pulitzer Prize winning author Marilynne Robinson, “Each of us lives intensely within herself or himself, continuously assimilating past and present experience to a narrative and vision that are unique in every case yet profoundly communicable, whence the arts.” A visit to Chelsea Harbour Design Centre is an opportunity to live beyond yourself, embracing the arts – an exclamation mark worthy experience. And to paraphrase the late Queen Elizabeth II, this really is an Annus Mirablis for WOW!house. Tis The Season.