A visit to some North Cork houses

On Saturday, 6th September, 2014, members assembled at Ballyvonare for the first stop on our North Cork outing.  We received a warm welcome from Charles and Catherine Harold Barry.  Charles gave us a very interesting talk about the house and his fascinating family history and then led us on a tour. We marvelled at the wonderful restoration work recently completed

Members enjoyed lunch at the Doneraile Tea Room before being taken on an energetic and informative guided walk by Andrew Neenan   Alas, time ran out and we had to leave for our visit to Lohort Castle.   We assembled in the courtyard of Lohort and were well and truly spoilt with tea, coffee and sandwiches.  Richard Bradfield, our inspired guide and conservationist on the estate, presented each of us with a booklet detailing the history of the castle.  He also spoke about the restoration project and the work being carried out.  The members were fascinated at the sheer size of the structure.  One or two of the group recounted vivid tales of their visits to the castle in their youth.

From Lohort we proceeded to Kilshannig to view the gardens and pack bridge and the day’s tour concluded at the Church of Ireland graveyard in front of the French Prince’s grave.

North Cork Visit May 2012

It was a gloriously sunny day for the IGS Cork Chapter outing to North Cork on Saturday, 26th May, 2012.  The original programme for the day had to be changed, but the slightly revised scheme was a great success.

The first venue was Kilbrack House, near Doneraile, where the large group received a warm welcome (and delicious home-made apple juice) from the owners Dr. Miles Frankel and Emer Ransden.  The attractive house was built in 1775 and has had relatively few changes of ownership in its lifetime.  The family house is full of character and members admired the main rooms and unusual staircase.  It was wonderful to wander around the adjoining impressive farmyard and gardens and, in fact, the serene atmosphere and beautiful weather made it tempting to linger long at Kilbrack ... but lunch beckoned so members reluctantly took their leave.

The next stop was the Nano Nagle Centre at Ballygriffin, the spiritual home of the Presentation Sisters on the site of Nano Nagle's house.  Only the coach house remains and it has been adapted into an exhibition centre and location for retreats, conferences and sustainable living activities.  The weekly Saturday Market was finishing up as the group arrived, allowing for some purchases to be made!  Then, following a light lunch, members were brought on a guided tour of the organic gardens and renewable energy facility.

Burton Park, near Churchtown, was the next destination.  Generous hospitality was shown to the IGS members by owner Rosemary Ryan-Purcell and her family.  The group was divided in two; one half touring the house while the other enjoyed tea on the sunlit lawn, before swapping around.  The house was originally built in the 1660s, burnt in 1690 and subsequently rebuilt in stages.  It was constructed by the Percevals, Earls of Egmont and has been home to the Purcell family for generations.  Members admired the impressive interior, including the recently restored ceiling in the drawing room and the well preserved private chapel at the side of the house

The final destination was Marybrook House, near Kanturk, where Chris and Karen Southgate and their family gave a warm welcome to the group.  Chris spoke about the fascinating history of this interesting house, created over the centuries and incorporating a tower house dating to about 1550.  As a conservation engineer, he was well placed to restore the house, unveiling the layers of history as the work proceeded.  It was fascinating to view the huge fireplace and bread oven which were rediscovered when tons of debris from later alterations were removed.  The house is one room deep and light flooded into the rooms which were full of history, while acting as comfortable and attractive family rooms.  Delicious refreshments were provided to the members at the end of the visit and marked the conclusion of a most successful outing to North Cork.

Thanks to all those who hosted the group on the day and special thansk to Catherine FitzMaurice and Arthur Montgomery for organising the programme.

A mid-Summer visit to North Cork Saturday 17th July 2010

A mid-Summer visit to North Cork - Saturday, 17th July, 2010

On a somewhat dull Saturday morning in July members began to arrive at the entrance to St. Colman’s Church of Ireland, Farahy for a day of visits to a church, a site and two country houses.

St. Colman’s Farahy once threatened with demolition has been saved for posterity and is preserved as a sort of shrine to the memory of Elizabeth Bowen and who is buried in the churchyard. St. Colman’s is described ‘The church was built in 1721 and is a fine example of a very rare early 18th century Church of Ireland church. Attached to it is an early 18th century schoolhouse that is now used as the vestry’. Dean Robert McCarthy who is a trustee of the church gave us a short talk on the history of the building and its association with Elizabeth Bowen and he also gave a short reading from ‘Bowen’s Court’ published in 1942. On leaving the church we noted the memorial to Elizabeth Bowen carved by Ken Thompson and in the graveyard the tombstone which commemorates Elizabeth and her husband Alan Cameron who died in 1952. The ‘Cole-Bowen’ vault was pointed out and it would not have been noticed but for the knowledge of Dean Robert McCarthy. Of note in a corner of the graveyard was a memorial to those that perished in the ‘Great Famine’.

We now made our way to the site of the demolished ‘Bowen’s Court’ was a classic example of the tall and square 18th century Irish house and was built by Henry Bowen to the designs of Isaac Rothery in 1776. The house was three storeys over a basement and had a seven bay entrance façade with a three bay breakfront and a pedimented door case. The house was the home of Elizabeth Bowen (1899 – 1973) the novelist and it has been immortalised in her book ‘Bowen’s Court’ with its “rows of dark windows set in the light façade against dark trees has the startling, meaning and abstract clearness of a house in a print, a house in which something important occurred once, and seems from all evidence, to be occurring still”.

We strolled to the site in the ever increasing heat as the clouds peeled away to reveal a clear blue sky. Such optimism was soon repressed as we came upon mounds of broken cut stone a testament to the quality of the craftsmanship that had made such a fine house. The group stood and stared silently for a few moments reflection. It was sad to think that the house had only been demolished in 1961 having been sold by Elizabeth Bowen in 1959 due to the rising cost of upkeep. Elizabeth’s hope that the house ‘could be filled with the sound of children’ went unrealised as the ‘rates’ condemned the house to its fate shared by many other ‘big houses’ in the neighbourhood. At least ‘Bowen’s Court’ has been luckier than most other houses that have gone as the house is memorialised in the book of the same name. There is one surviving out-building that could be rescued with a little imagination and used as a museum to Elizabeth Bowen and the site itself and the remaining stone should be given special protection by the County Council.

A book well worth having is ‘Elizabeth Bowen Remembered - The Farahy Addresses’ Eibhear Walshe, Editor © 1998

Our thanks to Brenda Hennessy for giving us access to the Church and bringing us to the site of the house and looking after some members in need.

We departed the vanished house and followed in convoy led by Don McAuliffe to ‘Ballymacmoy House’ a Regency house built in 1818. It is the original home of the Wild Geese family - the Hennessys of Cognac. The compact estate is located at the edge of the village of Killavullen. It has three and a half miles of exclusive fishing rights along the river Blackwater and has a one acre walled garden. There is also a unique prehistoric private cave on the estate. Parking in the designated area the house was just visible through the trees. Walking the short distance it was immediately obvious that much work had been undertaken to restore the house and certainly the exterior had the feeling of newness. Our host Frederic Hennessy welcomed the group to his home and gave a short history of the evolution of the house and estate and its connection with the famous ‘Hennessy Cognac’ family. The house has been restored to its ‘Georgian’ elegance with its rows of ‘Wyatt’ windows and the newly lined faux ashlar. The interior was a revelation and the intimate scale of the rooms made the house elegant and comfortable. Memories came flooding back for some of those on the tour as it had been run as county house accommodation in the early 1970s by Eileen and Dan McAuliffe and tow of their children Jocelyn and Don both relived their memories of the house at the time which contributed to the enjoyment of all. The bowed former ball-room was now a dining room and having strolled about the house we were ready for lunch and we were not disappointed as there was plenty of food and seconds if needed, dessert, tea and coffee followed. All too soon it was time to depart and as we thanked Frederic for his hospitality we wished his enterprise well.

Once again the convoy made its way to the next house ‘Annes Grove’ which was built in the early eighteenth century. In 1900 Richard Grove Annesley (1879-1966) inherited the property and developed the renowned Robinsonian gardens. After his death in 1966, the task of maintaining the gardens fell upon his son, the late E. P. Grove Annesley, and they are now being conserved by his grandson, Patrick Grove Annesley. The ‘Woodward’ gate lodge has been restored by the Irish Landmark Trust. With such a big group we were divided into two with one group led by Jane Annesley and the other by her husband Patrick Annesley. The interior of the house is quite intimate and not what one would expect but at least it makes it more manageable. The house has been re-roofed recently and so hopefully preserves it for future generations to come. The porch a later addition to the house was erected sometime in the late nineteenth century and the steps were brought from Ballywalter House having been burnt in the troubles. Of course the ‘piece de resistance’ is the garden developed in the early twentieth century. ‘There are few gardens anywhere in Ireland where rare trees and shrubs are grown so successfully and in such a harmonious setting as the beautiful Robinsonian gardens of Annes Grove. Set on a sloping site around an elegant early eighteenth-century house overlooking the River Awbeg, the thirty acre garden is filled with thousands of thriving plants in a layout that merges unobtrusively into the landscape. In front of the house stretches a parkland with some fine trees; nearby is a walled garden with herbaceous borders, yew walk, rock garden and water garden; beyond is an extensive woodland garden noted for its rhododendrons; and down below in a wooded limestone gorge is a lovely river garden with an island, stony rapids, rustic bridges and a lush tapestry of green foliage’. (Terence Reeves-Smith Irish Gardens © 1994). Having enjoyed the house and garden we converged on a converted barn to enjoy some refreshments, the storm clouds were gathering and despite a few drops of rain the tour successfully concluded before the deluge began.

We extend our thanks to Geraldine O’Riordan for organising this enjoyable event and to our speakers and photographers.