Survey Data
Reg No
12403807
Rating
National
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Castletown House
Original Use
Country house
In Use As
Country house
Date
1765 - 1775
Coordinates
242831, 125784
Date Recorded
03/12/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached seven-bay three-storey over raised basement Classical-style country house, built 1767-71, on a symmetrical Palladian plan with three-bay full-height breakfront, three-bay three-storey side elevations, seven-bay three-storey over raised basement Garden (south-west) Front having three-bay full-height breakfront, five-bay two-storey lateral wings having single-bay full-height advanced end bays (five-bay double-height Garden (south-west) Front elevations), and single-bay two-storey higher pavilions on square plans leading to five-bay two-storey perpendicular outbuilding wings returning as three-bay double-height ranges. Hipped slate roofs (on a quadrangular plan to central block behind parapet) with rolled lead ridges, sandstone ashlar chimney stacks having cut-limestone stringcourses, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-sandstone eaves (concealed to central block). Octagonal slate domes to pavilions with rolled lead ridges, and open timber vents to apexes on octagonal plans (with elliptical-headed openings having balustraded parapet, moulded surrounds having keystones, frieze supporting dentilated cornice, and octagonal ogee-domed capping having ball finial supporting iron weathervane). Sandstone ashlar walls to Entrance (north-east) Front with cut-limestone dressings including quoins to corners, tripartite frontispiece to breakfront (comprising half-fluted double-height Composite pilasters supporting entablature, frieze, and dentilated cornice), carved entablature supporting frieze, dentilated cornice supporting top floor (treated as attic storey), carved cornice supporting balustraded parapet, limestone ashlar walls to remainder having rustication to basement to side elevations, quoined piers to ends to Garden (south-west) Front, and tripartite frontispiece to breakfront (comprising half-fluted double-height Composite pilasters supporting entablature, frieze, and dentilated cornice). Unpainted (dyed) lime rendered walls to wings with sandstone dressings including quoined piers to corners, band to eaves, sandstone ashlar walls to pavilions with cut-limestone dressings including quoined piers to corners, frieze supporting cornice, blocking course to first floor (treated as attic storey) supporting panelled pilasters, and frieze supporting cornice. Square-headed window openings (lunette window openings to basement to Entrance (north-east) Front; Venetian window openings to ground floor side elevations; round-headed window openings to basement to Garden (south-west) Front) with cut-limestone sills (profiled sills to first floor), carved limestone shouldered surrounds (supporting friezes to ground floor having entablatures with blocking course over), nine-over-six (ground floor), six-over-six (first floor), and three-over-three (top floor) timber sash windows (fixed-pane timber fittings to lunette window openings). Group (three-part arrangement) round-headed openings to ground floor Entrance (north-east) Front approached by platform with flight of fifteen cut-stone steps having iron railings, carved cut-limestone pilaster surrounds supporting archivolts having keystones, timber panelled double doors having fanlight, and nine-over-six timber sash windows to flanking openings having fanlights. Round-headed door opening to breakfront to Garden (south-west) Front approached by flights of cut-limestone steps forming perron on cut-limestone pillars having iron railings, carved cut-limestone pilaster surround supporting archivolt having keystone, and twelve-over-eight timber sash window forming French door having fanlight. Square-headed window openings to wings with round-headed window openings to end bays, round-headed window openings to return ranges, cut-sandstone sills, cut-sandstone Gibbsian surrounds having double keystones, six-over-six (ground floor) and three-over-three (first floor) timber sash windows having six-over-six timber sash windows to round-headed openings incorporating fanlights. Square-headed door openings with cut-sandstone Gibbsian surrounds having double keystones, and timber panelled doors. Elliptical-headed carriageways (some paired) with cut-sandstone surrounds having double keystones, and timber panelled double doors. Series of five (full-height) round-headed openings to Garden (south-west) Front forming arcade with cut-limestone pilaster surrounds supporting entablature, frieze, dentilated cornice to spring of arches, carved archivolts rising into roundel keystones, panelled soffits, and no fittings. Round-headed window openings to ground floor to pavilions with oculus window openings over having carved cut-limestone sill course, cut-limestone surrounds with stringcourse to spring of arches, double keystones, six-over-six timber sash windows, and carved limestone surrounds to oculus openings having timber fittings. Set back from road in own grounds with landscaped grounds to site including terrace to south-west leading to lake approached by flight of six cut-limestone steps.
Appraisal
An impressively-scaled country house built for Michael Cox (b. pre-1729), Archbishop of Cashel to designs prepared by Davis Ducart (Daviso de Arcort or Daviso d'Arcort) (fl. 1767-71) after Buckingham House (1703), London, by William Winde (c.1645-1722). Widely regarded as second only to Castletown House (begun 1722), County Kildare, the house in many ways almost surpasses the more renowned earlier namesake as the prime exemplar of the Palladian tradition in Ireland. Formally composed on a symmetrical plan accommodating residential and service ranges in a wholly integrated composition the architectural design value of the house is identified by elegant attributes including the identical frontispieces to each frontage, the distinctive pavilions, and so on. Exhibiting expert stone masonry throughout the carved dressings in locally-sourced Kilkenny limestone and sandstone further enhance the aesthetic appeal of the house. Having been carefully restored following a period of uncertainty regarding the future of the site in the late twentieth century the historic fabric survives largely intact both to the exterior and to the interior where decorative plasterwork dressings executed by Patrick Osborne (n. d.) are amongst the many features identifying the artistic design significance of the site. Forming the centrepiece of a large-scale country estate (including 12403808 - 13, 16 - 8/KK-38-08 - 13, 16 - 8) the house remains of additional importance in the locality for the connections with the Cox, the Villiers Stuart, the Wyndham-Quin, the Blacque, and the de Breffny families.