Tag: kimmitt dean

Categories
Architecture Country Houses Design Developers Hotels

St Ernan’s House + Island Donegal

A Memory of A Memory

A shimmer of morning light rushes across the motionless water and in a flash illuminates the house in a golden glow. The dash and hue of nature dictate the hurried glory of sunrise. Is this Ireland’s most beautifully situated house? Where are the contenders? Little wonder it has sent countless photographers into ecstasy, numerous architectural historians into a frenzy, and even inspired a novel. County Donegal: that’s the location. Donegal Town: that’s the nearest cèilidh. St Ernan’s House on St Ernan’s Island: that’s the never forever home.

First the literary giants who paved the way. Mark Bence-Jones gives it his best shot in A Guide to Irish Country Houses, 1978, “A house on an island in the estuary of the River Eske, built early 19th century by John Hamilton of Brownhall; then passed by John Hamilton’s daughter Annabella, wife of A H Foster. Subsequently owned by Henry Stubbs, who largely rebuilt the house, so that it became late Victorian in character, with gables and ornate bargeboards; but with a pillared porch, which was probably a surviving early 19th century feature. In the present century, it was the seat of the Honourable Matthew Fitzmaurice-Deane-Morgan, afterwards 6th Lord Muskerry.”

And then there’s Professor Alistair Rowan who spoke so eloquently and movingly at the much loved Dorinda Lady Dunleath’s Memorial Service in 2022. He writes in his Guide to Northwest Ulster, 1971, “This was the island retreat of John Hamilton of Brown Hall (1800 to 1884), the author of Sixty Years Experience as an Irish Landlord. Mr Hamilton took a romantic fancy to the island, laid out a pretty garden on it, with a wall round the shore, and built a two storey Regency style cottage there between 1824 and 1826. It is five windows long with a continuous verandah running the length of its front across canted bays at either end. The setting is indeed glorious, but the romantic whim of a young and newly married proprietor proved inconvenient. For most of each day the island was cut off either by the tide or, worse, by impassable shallows of mud. The construction of a causeway, despaired of by professional engineers, was achieved by Hamilton with free labour from the surrounding country.”

The most complete history is The Story of St Ernan’s, an undated booklet compiled by George Seaver and based mainly on John Hamilton’s Memoirs as well as “memories of some old folk communicated verbally to the compiler”. It opens with references to the eponymous saint, an acolyte of the better known St Columbanus. In circa 640, St Columbanus was buried in a monastic settlement to the south of Donegal Town. Red Hugh O’Donnell would build a Franciscan Abbey in the same area in 1474. “It may well have been the Friars there who gave the name of St Ernan to the island,” George reckons.

He writes, “The house owes its existence to a moment of impulse on the part of a wealthy young landowner of ancient Scottish lineage named John Hamilton, proprietor of Brown Hall in the neighbouring parish of Ballintra.” John was born in Dublin in 1800 and orphaned age seven, he and his siblings were brought up by their grandmother Lady Longford of Pakenham Hall in County Westmeath (now known as Tullynally Castle) and their relatives in Dublin. He married Mary Rose of Dublin in 1823 and they took up residence at the family estate of Brown Hall before selling their share to John’s brother. Around that time, John took a novel approach to solving a local argument: “There was a dispute between two of his tenants who had grazing rights for sheep on St Ernan’s Island, and he rode over from Brown Hall to settle it. It was, he wrote, a beautiful day in September; the tide was in, the sun was shining, the view was delightful. ‘I settled the dispute by taking the island for myself.’” Two years later, the happy couple moved into a newly built cottage on the island.

There was a practical issue as Professor Alistair Rowan observed. Accessibility. At low tide one could wade across to the island; at high tide one could row; at half tide, neither. “A rapid current flowed through the channel from south to north,” George records. “John Hamilton resolved to block it up entirely and thus deflect the current from its course to form a new channel through a sandbank that lay between St Ernan’s and Rooney’s Island to the south of it. Employing up to 100 men at a time he started building a dam reinforced with large round stones across the channel from both ends at once.” Equal opportunities were at work although it would be even more surprising if indeed it was free labour as Alistair claims. “One morning, hardly had a strong party of Orangemen from a Yeomanry Corps arrived from a village six miles away, than another party of equal force who were Roman Catholic Ribbonmen appeared from a mountain property even farther distant in an opposite direction.” The combined workforce got to it and completed the causeway over six weeks during a hot and dry summer.

“The completion of the causeway enabled him to transform the house on the island from a cottage to a substantial mansion with stables and coach house, a barn and various sheds, which grew with the years,” George notes. “The immense quantity of stone for their construction came from the Drumkeelin quarries above Mountcharles. These abound in a hard durable sandstone of a tawny mottled blue, laid in horizontal strata of convenient thickness easily sawn into the required size and shape like slabs of cake.” The rubble used to mortar the freestone was a soft limestone found on the shore close to where the gatelodge was later built, mixed with sand and ox blood. Horse drawn carts of building materials trundled across the causeway as the beauty of the house took shape.

He continues, “It is certain that the back door, heavily buttressed and with an early 19th century fanlight above it was the original front door; and the present front door, with two flights of steps below it leading down to an open space for cars, was a much later addition. Indeed, the entire south front of the house including the morning room and large drawing room and bedrooms and attic above them are also comparatively modern. The ‘garden close’ of 1826 became in course of time a high walled space of flowers embowered with various trees and some rare shrubs (from Ardnamona), interwoven with a maze of wood walks which led to a large stone bench at the end of the Island. It is still there and still known as Abraham’s Seat (the Reverend Abraham Hamilton was once John’s guardian uncle) and it commands a view of one of the most significant seascapes in Ireland.”

John Hamilton became a Christian in 1827. “What was traditional religion now became personal, and to the end of his life a vivid and earnest faith showed itself by a self denial, a thoughtfulness for the good of others and a sense of justice, combined with a liberality of mind and a freedom of enquiry not easily confined within the then popular systems or religious beliefs. He was in fact ecumenically minded generations before the idea had occurred to churchmen, because the Christian faith was for him personal discipleship rather than a system of ecclesiastical or doctrinal shibboleths.” John launched a Sunday school and Bible class in a schoolhouse he built on the edge of his estate, attracting 1,200 attendees. John donated to both Church of Ireland and Catholic church building. “In 1829, the year of Catholic Emancipation, he was active in suppressing, more than once at personal risk, demonstrations of belligerent Orangemen.”

John continued to put his faith into practice at the most traumatic time in Ireland’s history. According to George, “His exertions for the welfare of his tenantry during the terrible years of the Potato Famine were such that not one became an inmate of the union workhouse or died of starvation, and the only death that occurred on his property was attributable to other causes. It must have been during these years that as a measure of finding employment he encircled the entire island with a ‘famine wall’ 10 foot high, and extended the same operation to the opposite shore.”

Father John Doherty was the Parish Priest of Donegal Town and, despite his general opposition to the landlord system, told the Derry Journal in October 1880, “In all Ireland there never was, nor is there, a more considerate and humane landlord than the good and kind hearted proprietor of St Ernan’s. I know the pulse of his tenants well, and I know of my own knowledge that they honour him, respect him, and love him for personal kindness and friendliness towards them, and for his sympathy in all their worldly fortunes and mishaps. They regard him more in the light of a friend and benefactor, like his Master ‘going and doing good’, than as a landlord.” John Hamilton would die four years later.

His daughter with her husband Arthur Hamilton Foster inherited St Ernan’s. The property was sold after Arabella’s death in 1905 to Henry Stubbs (suggesting the Victorianisation mentioned by Mark Bence-Jones would have more likely been carried out by the Fosters). It was next bought by the Muskerry family and passed to Alma Elimina Blanche West in 1954. George Seaver notes, “Having a home of her own in Wokingham and a sufficiency of worldly goods, she wanted neither to occupy nor lease it.” Instead, Alma donated St Ernan’s to the Representative Body of the Church of Ireland and until 1983 it was used as a retirement home for clergy families before becoming a hotel.

Gillian Berwick includes St Ernan’s in Splendid Food from Irish Country Houses, 1990, “St Ernan’s House (now Ernan Park) on the 8.5 acre St Ernan’s Island near Donegal Town is close to some of the most beautiful scenery in this scenic county. Its creator sited his house on the low point of the island to protect it from the wild Atlantic winter gales. He built protective walls so that he could cultivate trees, and laid out attractive walks around his little domain. The restored interior of this manor house is strikingly beautiful with antiquity, colour and pattern inspiringly blended. As befits such a house, service is personal and charming. The views along the Atlantic Coast are of miniature white farmhouses and tiny sheep dotting the distant hills like a stage setting. It is an image of Ireland that people dream about. The gracious dining room glows with warmth. The cuisine is well nigh perfect. To stay at Ernan Park is to live a little.”

Hotel recipes in Gillian’s book include Stuffed Aubergine, Baked John Dory with Fennel Sauce and Strawberry Cheesecake with Irish Whiskey. Sounds like the components of a great three course dinner! An accompanying sketch by the Dublin based late architect Jeremy Williams shows the interior of the bay window with its coffered semi dome. The guide states there were 11 bedrooms: bed and breakfast was priced from 28 to 39.50 Irish Punts. Five course dinner, 17.50 Punts. The proprietors were Brian and Carmel O’Dowd and the hotel was open from Easter to the end of October each year. The hotel closed in 2010 and the building and island returned to use as a private residence and demesne.

St Ernan’s Blues is the intriguingly named 2016 novel principally set on the island. It is part of a mystery series by Magherafelt County Derry born London based Paul Charles featuring Inspector Starrett. “A lone building on a small island off Ireland’s Donegal coast, St Ernan’s is politely known as a ‘retirement home’ for priests. The exiled residents are guilty of such serious offences as entrepreneurship, criticising the Church, or getting too friendly with the flock. But things take a turn when Father Matthew McKaye is found dead in the kitchen. Has one of these isolated outcasts committed murder?” Although never used to house errant priests, the clergy connection is historically accurate albeit relating to ‘the other sort’ to use a colloquialism.

“Situated right at the mouth of the River Eske in Donegal Bay, Donegal Town or Fort of the Foreigners, was the town that gave its name to the county,” explains Paul. He describes how tricky it is to find St Ernan’s Island despite its position close to the town, before eulogising on the local natural beauty. “The thing about autumnal mornings in Donegal is that the sun, as it lights up every corner of the rich tapestry of fields; hills; mountains; trees; rugged hedges; blue heavenly skies; faint white clouds and all creatures great and small, does tend to show off our Creator’s magic in all its spiritual glory.” And on wintry mornings as well.

An entry in Ireland’s Blue Book of Charming Country Houses and Restaurants, 1996, states: “Quietly situated on a wooded tidal island, connected to the mainland by a causeway, St Ernan’s offers the perfect respite from the hectic pace of everyday life. There is a unique warmth and sense of serenity at St Ernan’s. It recaptures the charm of the past – quietude in a relaxing friendly atmosphere. The house, built in 1826 by John Hamilton, a nephew of the Duke of Wellington, has 12 bedrooms, each with a private bath or shower, telephone and television. Most have stunning views of the sea and countryside. The dining room is one of country elegance where the cuisine is based on fresh local produce. From this perfectly situated house the countryside may be explored. There are several excellent golf courses nearby. Horse riding, fishing and bicycle hire are also available locally. St Ernan’s offers the perfect escape from the pressures of modern life to the finest traditions of Irish country house hospitality.” As well as recording an additional bedroom, the Blue Book includes increased rates. Bed and breakfast ranged from 55 to 52 Punts. Dinner was 26 Punts.

The house is as deep as it’s wide: the north, east and south fronts are arranged around a west facing courtyard. Until recently it was painted pink, except for the window surround quoins and verandah columns which were picked out in white. An early 20th century photograph shows the ground floor either painted a dark colour or unrendered. The current pale cream colour scheme works well, changing tone as often as the unpredictable Donegal weather. The two storey east front is the most visible elevation from the mainland. A full width slimly columned verandah stretches across the whole of the ground floor and beyond, terminating in angled walls providing further shelter. The three middle bays of both floors have typical Georgian sashes. The outer bays of the ground floor have three sided chamfered projections: the righthand one has typical Georgian sashes; the lefthand one has very narrow sashed openings. This narrowing is the only element of asymmetry on the otherwise perfectly balanced elevation. The outer bays of the first floor have paired sash windows divided by a mullion.

In contrast to the late Georgian or Regency appearance of the east front, the two storey plus attic south front looks more Victorian. Gabled projections with frilly bargeboards stand tall on either side of an asymmetrical two bay setback. The lefthand projection has two paned sash windows; the righthand projection has quoined corners and Georgian sash windows to the first floor and attic above a large Doric pilastered and corniced bowed extension with five two paned windows. A conservatory projects from the central setback under two paired sash windows divided by mullions. The two storey six bay with attic and visible basement north front is plainer and looks the most Georgian due to a proliferation of multipaned sash windows, except for the two storey extension with its larger pane sash windows. It has just one gable to the left of the slate pitched roof. The west front comprises the courtyard with irregular gabled late 19th century extensions.

Rubblestone walls line the 190 metre long causeway linking the island to the small peninsula of Muckros. The 3.4 hectare roughly oval shaped island, now densely wooded, stretches to just over 300 metres at its widest point. At the far end of Muckros, close to the main road between Donegal and Ballyshannon, stands the gatelodge to St Ernan’s House. Kimmitt Dean (mostly) admires it in Gatelodges of Ulster, 1994, “Circa 1845. A pretty little lodge delightfully situated defending the entrance to a ‘furlong of causeway built by his grateful tenantry’ for John Hamilton, to save him from Atlantic tides on his approach to a retreat which he built in 1825. He had become disenchanted with Brown Hall which he had inherited on his father’s death in 1811 [which contradicts George Seaver’s account of John being orphaned age seven]. A one and a half two up two down Picturesque cottage with ornamental serrated bargeboard to gables. One elevation aligned obtusely with the entrance gates, a single storey canted bay window looks on. In uncoursed square masonry now painted over, a flat roofed rear return and entrance hall recently added are hardly compatible.” The gatelodge is closest in style to the south front of the big house. County Donegal: wild. Donegal Town: wild night out. St Ernan’s: wildness tamed.

Categories
Architects Architecture Art Country Houses Design Developers Hotels Luxury People Restaurants

Killeavy Castle Hotel + St Luke’s Church Meigh Armagh

A Major Retrospective

Mark Bence-Jones’ tome A Guide to Irish Country Houses, 1978, unusually misses out Killeavy Castle. Its architect George Papworth (1781 to 1855) moved from London to work in Dublin. There’s an entry for another of his works, Middleton Park in Mullingar, County Westmeath: “A mansion of circa 1850 in the late Georgian style by George Papworth, built for George Augustus Boyd. Two storey six bay centre block with single storey one bay wings; entrance front with two bay central breakfront and single storey Ionic portico. Parapeted roof with modillion cornice; dies on parapets of wings. At one side of the front is a long low service range with an archway and a pedimented clocktower. Impressive stone staircase with elaborate cast iron balustrade of intertwined foliage. Sold circa 1958.”

Middleton Park is very well restored as a hotel; another of the architect’s houses is not. Kenure Park in Rush, County Dublin, is included in The Knight of Glin, David Griffin and Nicholas Robinson’s 1988 publication Vanishing Country Houses of Ireland, “A large early to mid 18th century house altered circa 1770 when the two large drawing rooms were created. These rooms had magnificent rococo ceilings and carved doorcases, that on the ground floor having a superb Doric chimneypiece. The house was altered and enlarged again in 1842 for Sir Roger Palmer Baronet, to the design of George Papworth. Papworth refaced the house and added the granite Corinthian portico. He also created the entrance hall, the library and the central top lit staircase hall. The house was sold in 1964 and became derelict before its demolition in 1978. Samples of the rococo ceiling were saved by the Office of Public Works. Only the portico remains.”

Nick Sheaff, the first Executive Director of the Irish Architectural Archive, recalls a visit to Kenure Park: “My first impression was of a mansion conceived on ducal scale in Greco Roman style. In reality it was a stucco refacing of a mid-18th-century three-storey house, skilfully realised by George Papworth in 1842 and fronted by his great Corinthian porte cochère of limestone. It had stylistic echoes of Nash’s work at Rockingham, County Roscommon, and the Morrisons’ work at Baronscourt, County Tyrone. Kenure had a remarkable interior, with two magnificent rococo ceilings of circa 1765 in the style of Robert West. The majestic top lit stairhall by George Papworth had a double-return staircase with a decorative cast-iron balustrade painted to resemble bronze, and walls marbled to suggest Sienna marble blocking as at Benjamin Dean Wyatt’s York House, St James’s in London (now Lancaster House), completed in 1840. When I visited Kenure in 1977 with Rory O’Donnell the house was derelict, open to the elements and to vandalism. It was demolished in 1978 with only the great porte cochère left standing. Kenure had contained some exceptional English furniture of the mid-18th-century, including pieces attributed to Thomas Chippendale, Pierre Langlois, and William and Richard Gomm.” A Chippendale cabinet, commissioned by Sir Roger Palmer for Castle Lackan in County Mayo, and formerly at Kenure Park, was sold at Christie’s in 2008 for £2,729,250.

George Papworth, typical of his era, was able to fluently design in a multiplicity of styles, from the neoclassicism of Middleton Park and Kenure Park to the Tudor Gothic medieval castellated Killeavy Castle. The latter’s setting is majestic, backing into the hillside of the Slieve Gullion and commanding a panorama across the green basin floor. The castle is now a wedding venue and forms the star in a galaxy of 140 hectares of forest, farm and formal gardens. It stands in isolated splendour rising over its battlemented apron of a terrace like a fairytale in granite. In line with best conservation practice, the ‘enabling development’ contemporary hotel and spa accommodation is kept away from the main house. No sprawling 20th century type extensions here. The Listed coach house and mill house were restored and five less important farm buildings demolished and replaced with newbuild around a courtyard roughly filling the original footprint. The mill fountain and pond form eyecatchers framed by the large single pane windows of the hotel. Owner Mick Boyle, locally born then raised in Australia, returned to his homeland and together with his wife Robin and four children took on the immense task of restoring and rejuvenating the castle and demesne. He explains,

 

“The environment around us inspires all that we do at Killeavy Castle Estate. Everything has a purpose. We put much thought into what we grow, buy, use and reuse. We’re restocking our woodland with native oak to restore habitat diversity. And creating forest trails to bring you closer to nature. We farm sustainably too. Traditional local breeds of Longhorn cattle and Cheviot sheep graze in our pastures. Whenever possible we use fresh ingredients foraged, grown or raised right here, in our fields, forests and extensive walled and estate gardens. We make our own jams, preserves and dried foods. We smoke, age and cure our own meat so that bounty can be savoured year round in our restaurants and farmshop. We support our community by sourcing 90 percent of what we serve and sell from within a 32 kilometre radius. Even the seaweed adorning Carlingford oysters ends up fertilising our strawberry plants. And slates have a second life as plates. We’re always finding inventive ways to meet our sustainable target goal of being carbon neutral by 2027.”

The Boyles’ architect was Patrick O’Hagan of Newry. In the planning application of 2014 (which would be approved a year later by Newry and Mourne District Council) he explained, “The Grade A castle will be repaired and fully restored adapting current conservation techniques and standards. Interventions to the Listed Building will be minimal. The works to the Listed Building will be under the direction of Chris McCollum Building Conservation Surveyor, working in conjunction with Patrick O’Hagan and Associates Architects, and other design team members. A 250 person detached marquee will be sensitively positioned to the rear of the castle, excavated into the hillside and suitably landscaped to ensure it does not detract from the setting of the Listed Building or the critical views from the Ballintemple Road.” A discreet wheelchair ramp to the entrance door is just about the only element Powell Foxall wouldn’t recognise. The entrance hall leads through to two formal reception rooms with further informal reception rooms now filling the basement. The first floor has a self contained apartment including a sitting room, dining kitchen and three bedroom suites.

Patrick O’Hagan continued, “The hotel will have its main entrance located in the Listed coach house and will be restored under the direction of the conservation surveyor working closely with the architect. The lean-to Listed structures and the old mill building will be restored and form part of the hotel accommodation. The design carefully maximises the benefits of the steeply sloping site, sloping to the east, which ensures that the new three story hotel building’s roof level is some six metres below the floor level of the castle. The flat roofs of the hotel will be appropriately landscaped to present a natural ‘forest floor’ when viewed from the castle and terrace above.”

And concluded, “The layout of the hotel provides important views to the castle, the restored walled garden and distant views of the surrounding demesne and beyond making travel in and around the hotel an experience in itself. The restaurant, lounge and kitchen areas are vertically stacked on the northern elevation but the public areas also address the internal courtyard providing a southerly aspect and natural solar gain. Views up to the castle from the restaurant and lounge areas are a critical element of the design and will ensure a unique ambience. The courtyard level bedrooms are externally accessed directly from the landscaped courtyard and internally via passenger lifts. The remaining bedrooms are designed with both courtyard and east elevation views.”

Sustainability was a theme of the construction as well as the ongoing running of the hotel. “A limited palette of materials is proposed in the new building work. The use of granite cladding and larch boarding reflects materials naturally occurring on the site. The larch boarding will be painted with a water based wood stain to emulate the great boughs of the adjacent ancient beech, lime and sycamore. The organic masonry water based paint colours will be selected to tone with the woodland setting. All construction materials will be 100 percent recyclable.” Sustainable operational features for the 45 bedroom hotel include a woodchip boiler harvesting waste timber from the demesne and collecting and reusing rainwater.

Kimmitt Dean records in The Gate Lodges of Ulster Gazetteer, 1994, “South Lodge circa 1837 architect probably George Papworth; demolished. A painting in the Armagh Museum indicates what was a contemporary and unassuming gatelodge at the end of a straight avenue on an axis with the front door of the ‘castle’.” Not content with simply restoring the castle, the Boyles commissioned Templepatrick based architects Warwick Stewart to dream up a suitably romantic replacement gatelodge. The result is a convincing neo Victorian country house in miniature faced in stone, dressed with cut granite, and dressed up with bargeboards. The gatelodge provides self contained guest accommodation of two bedrooms over a sitting room and dining kitchen.

Kevin Mulligan provides a detailed account of the castle in The Buildings of Ireland: South Ulster, 2013. Highlights include: “A delightful toy castle rising above a castellated terrace… remodelled in 1836 … In both architecture and picturesque effect the design recalls Charles Augustus Busby’s dramatic Gwrych Castle near Abergele in Wales … a lot has been achieved in a small compass: by the addition of an entrance tower, corner turrets, stringcourses, battlements, attenuated slits, flat label mouldings and mullioned windows, what was effectively a decent farmhouse has been impressively transformed … The tall narrow doorway is flanked by stepped buttresses, the door an ornate Gothic design bristling with studs and set under a Tudor arch and a machiolated bay window with three round lancets. The Foxall arms are displayed in Roman cement on the upper stage.” George Papworth’s client was Powell Foxall even though the Newry bank his family co founded, Moore McCann and Foxall, had folded two decades earlier.

And adds, “There is little dressed stonework in the design, and Papworth’s additions are distinguished from the rubble of the 18th century work by rough ashlar blocks – of limestone rather than the local granite – with wide uneven joints. On the side elevations, presumably as an economy, he concealed the old wall by replicating the newer pattern in stucco, using a composition render, as he had done at Headford (County Galway) in 1829.” Really it’s an attractive 1830s pre Gothic Revival version of Gothic.

Sir Charles Brett devotes four pages of Buildings of County Armagh, 1999, to Killeavy Castle. He’s clearly an admirer, “An exceedingly fine, deceptively modest, pre Victorian castle … a sort of scaled down version of Gosford Castle … The crenellations are marvellously convincing, as are the splendid mock medieval studded front door (painted green) and the astonishingly tall and narrow slit windows … George Papworth was the younger brother, and pupil, of the better known English architect John Buonarotti Papworth, son of a notable stuccodore. He established a successful practice in Ireland, and designed Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital in Ireland, and the King’s Bridge over the Liffey, in Dublin. His drawings for Killeavy were exhibited in the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1836, with the comment ‘now erecting’.”

The castle started life as an 18th century two storey over basement villa of the rectory size, with a three bay entrance front and a bow window in the centre of the rear elevation. George Papworth mostly retained the symmetry and plan, adding a square tower to each corner except for a circular tower to the rear northwest corner which rises an extra storey. A bathroom now occupies the top floor of the tallest tower. Charmingly, the Gothic carapace cracks on the rear elevation to reveal glimpses of the earlier house. Less charmingly, well for the Foxalls anyway, this was probably down to that age old issue of running low on funds. Earlier sash windows still light the bowed projection.

It’s hard to imagine the perilous state of Killeavy Castle until the Boyles came to its rescue. Imagination turns to reality in a lobby of the hotel: a gallery of photographs shows the ruins. St Luke’s Church of Ireland in the local village, Meigh, hasn’t been so lucky. At first glance it could be mistaken for another George Papworth commission, an offshoot of the castle. But Kevin Mulligan confirms that it is an 1831 design by the prolific Dublin based architect William Farrell. “A variation of the design for the churches of Clontribret and Munterconnaught. A small three bay hall with Farrell’s familiar pinaccled belfry and deep battlemented porch. The walls are roughcast with dressings of Mourne granite, nicely displayed in the solid pinnacle topped buttresses framing the entrance gable and porch. The windows are plain lancets with hoodmoulds, made impossibly slender on either side of the porch. Inside, the roof is supported on exposed cast iron trusses.”

Those trusses now compete for space with trees growing up the aisle. “The roof of the Protestant church in Meigh was only removed 15 years ago,” says Derek Johnston, landlord of Johnny Murphy’s pub and restaurant in the village. A trefoil arched plaque set in a high pedimented gravestone reads: “In loving memory of William Bell who died on 10 March 1896 aged 75 years. Margaret Bell wife of above who died 2 November 2016. Dr Margaret Boyd who died 21 August 1906. Joseph Priestly Bell who died 24 August 2013. John Alexander Bell who died 15 November 1928. Elizabeth Anne Bell who died 27 May 1951. John Alexander Bell who died 1 July 1957. George Reginald Bell who died 16 July 1957. George Reginald Bell who died 16 July 1972. Henry Wheelan Bell who died 30 October 1973. Phyllis Maureen Bell died 7 July 2000.” Their ancestor, Joseph Bell, had bought Killeavy Castle in 1881. Phyllis Maureen Bell was the last of the line to own the castle.

Charlie Brett had big concerns yet high hopes for Killeavy Castle, “It is now, alas, empty, and in poor order, the victim both of vandalism and of burglary, though many interior features appear to survive – including even some of the original wallpaper … It richly deserves its classification as one of only a handful of buildings in Category A in the county … Dare one hope that happier days may come, and that this delightful building might, in some shape, become a showpiece of the Ring of Gullion?” Happier days are here, and this delightful building has, now in shipshape, become a showpiece of the Ring of Gullion.

Categories
Architects Architecture Country Houses Luxury People

Ashbrooke House Fermanagh + William Farrell

The Spring of Content

Dr Roderick O’Donnell, author and Country Life contributor, considers Ashbrooke House in County Fermanagh to be “a very successful Regency country house”. Kimmitt Dean notes that “this seems to have formed part of a lucrative commission for the architect, there being many buildings of similar form in the vicinity…” Such a shame the late Sir Charles Brett didn’t come west of the River Bann in his riveting series on the buildings of Ulster. It would have been interesting to hear what Charlie thought of Ashbrooke. Would he have classified it as middling or large? The front elevation stationed above a grass bank is simply divine. Aha, a haha. Five bay bliss. Formality | solidity | proportionality | materiality.

A study by Queen’s University Belfast confirms Ashbrooke’s walls are of buff pink sandstone: Ballyness Sandstone and Fermanagh Carboniferous Sandstone to be precise. This material has a lovely coloured textured finish. Just like the enigmatic standing stone on the estate. No pale smooth featureless Portland stone here. Ashbrooke House is the substantial dower house of an even larger property, Colebrooke Park. There’s an experiential reduction in scale and grandeur (yet no diminution of quality) as befits the generational decline from Viscountess to Dowager. They’re both by the same architect: William Farrell. The commodious Portaferry House in County Down is also by Will. His work has a sturdiness: an antidote to Adam style frippery. He was one of several early 19th century Dublin architects (others that spring to mind are John Bowden and John Hargrave) with country house practices. Writing in Buildings of North West Ulster, Professor Alistair Rowan summarises Ashbrooke as:

“A five bay, two storey front with big windows and a projecting solid porch with Tuscan columns. Above, a tripartite sash window. Shallow hipped roof, like the big house, but here supported on an eaves cornice with projecting stone mutules. The house has only one regular front, with a long wing behind. A plaque, in the stable yard behind, has the legend, ‘Built by Sir Henry Brooke Baronet, for the use of his tenants in the year 1830’.”

The 3rd Viscount and Viscountess Brookeborough have restored and revived and rejuvenated and reinvigorated and refurnished Colebrooke. “The house was cement rendered in the early 19th century,” notes the Viscount, Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh and Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen. An 1891 photograph shows the south elevation in that state: the polygonal conservatory has since gone; the sunken garden was yet to come. An unpeeling revealed the rugged reddish sandstone underneath. Vast (seriously large – if anything, William Farrell got scale) reception rooms with Victorian wallpaper (and umpteen bedrooms) make it the ideal setting for shooting parties. Two paned sash windows frame uninterrupted views across the parkland.

In 1974, the executors of the 1st Viscount Brookeborough instructed Osborne King + Megran to auction the contents of the big house to cover death duties. Basil Brooke had been Prime Minister of Northern Ireland for two decades. The 2nd Viscount was also a politician. The 3rd Viscount’s brother the Honourable Christopher Brooke and his wife Amanda live in a new baronial style house on the estate. The Brooke family has been in Fermanagh since Sir Henry (High Sheriff, Governor and MP for County Donegal) was granted lands by Royal Patent in 1667. Military and public service have been something of a family tradition ever since.

In the family plot in Colebrooke Church of Ireland graveyard (a cornerstone dates the church 1765), one tombstone reads, ‘Here lies the body of Brigadier General Henry Francis Brooke eldest son of the late George Frederick Brooke of Ashbrooke and of the Lady Arabella Brooke born 13th August 1836 killed in action 15th August 1880 aged 44. He fell while commanding the sortie against the village of Dehkhoja during the siege of Kandahar, south Afghanistan, in the noble endeavour to save the life of a wounded brother officer Captain Cruikshank R.E. Greater love hath no man that this. That a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15.13.’

Amanda, a talented ceramicist who has exhibited at the Royal Ulster Academy, has turned her artistic hand(s) to decorating Ashbrooke House. It is available for parties or as a holiday let. All four reception rooms, eight bedrooms, six bathrooms and one kitchen (with Aga). The tack room and rabbit man’s cottage, outbuildings behind the main house, are now artists’ studios.

Hidden from the public for almost 200 years, now is the time for Ashbrooke House to be revealed. Literarily, not literally. Nestling in the 1,000 acre Colebrooke estate, it’s always going to be exclusive. The building is T shaped: a drawing room and dining room on either side of the entrance hall in front of an older lower wing. This arrangement allows for lots of light and airy dual aspect rooms. “I don’t like subdivided rooms so en suites are in former dressing rooms and other minor rooms,” explains Amanda. With typical 19th century disregard for convenience, the kitchen was originally located at the tip of the return. That is, as far as possible from the dining room. Not anymore. The new kitchen is next to the dining room and the old one is now a bright sitting room with exposed stone arches. Guests who can’t cook won’t cook never cook can rely on catering by French Village.

“The house had barely changed in 40 years,” she records. “But in restoring it we haven’t gone for the ‘interior designed’ look.” A more organic approach was taken: relaxed country house chic. With a few family heirlooms thrown in for good measure. A portrait of Eugene Gabriel Isabey dominates the drawing room; Reverend James Ingram guards the dining room. Architectural detailing is restrained in keeping with the exterior. The drawing room timber and marble fireplace was salvaged long ago from the ruinous Corcreevy House in Fivemiletown. Vintage fire extinguishers and milk churns marked ‘Colonel Chichester, Galgorm Castle, Ballymena’ are recycled as lampstands. There are one or two inherited colour schemes. The last Dowager’s choice of mustard walls in the dining room for instance. “That’s my late mother-in-law’s wallpaper,” smiles Amanda pointing to the trellis design zigzagging across the walls and ceiling of the blue bedroom. “Not the best for hangovers.”

Over dinner, distinguished Fermanagh architect Richard Pierce waxes lyrical about Ashbrooke: “The proportions are beautiful. The scale is beautiful. The setting is beautiful. You approach Colebrooke from above. You first see Ashbrooke from below. It’s very austere except for the porch. There’s a tremendous counterpoint between the centre and the rest. I like the fact it’s not showy. It’s quiet good taste but very good taste. What I feel about Ashbrooke is that it has a sense of neoclassicism you’d find in a St Petersburg dacha.” Amanda agrees, “There’s a purity to the design.”

“These houses aren’t museums,” Christopher believes. “They have always been sources of employment. They need to be run like businesses to survive.” He should know. He has turned Galgorm Castle outside Ballymena, another family property, into a thriving enterprise employing around 300 people. Gatelodges on the Colebrooke Park estate are holiday lets. Historically, the triumphal arch, still the main entrance to the estate, was a less successful venture. It was built for the arrival of Queen Victoria but at the last minute, she pulled a sickie. The Baroness was not amused.

It’s spring at Ashbrooke House. Dewy drumlins sprinkled with a dusting of daffodils and bluebells by day. And lambing by night: after dinner a midnight jaunt beckons across the estate to a barn full of Zwartbles sheep and lambs gambling amok. “Zwartbles sheep are very friendly and make great mothers,” observes Christopher. This Dutch breed has a distinctive blackish brown fleece and white forehead streak. Sure enough, in the wee small hours one gives birth to twin lambs. “It’s a far cry from Clapham Junction,” observes Amanda. She used to live near Lavender Hill.