Follies Trust Mini Lecture Series: Malone Mausoleum
The Follies Trust has announced two lectures aimed at raising an awareness of and an appreciation for the pyramid-topped Malone Mausoleum (1812) in the grounds of Saint Bigseach’s Church (Kilbixy), County Westmeath, for the conservation and repair of which they have just received €50,000 in funding under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage’s Historic Structures Fund 2023.
The Malone Mausoleum has been attributed to James Wyatt (1746-1813) and has been described by Michael Craig as a ‘mini- Halicarnassus at Kilbixy’ and by Kevin V. Mulligan as in the spirit of ‘the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllus in Athens’. The Malone Mausoleum is an outstanding piece of funerary architecture, its cross-vaulted cruciform-plan interior the setting for fine Greek Revival mural sarcophagi, but it is in need of repair, which is why the Follies Trust has committed to safeguarding it for future generations.
The first of the Follies Trust lectures, “Monumental Kilbixy – A Survey of the Archaeological Landscape around the Medieval Settlement of Kilbixy, County Westmeath”, will be delivered by Caimin O’Brien of the National Monuments Service at 5:30pm on Wednesday, 3rd May 2023, in the Irish Architectural Archive, Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
The second of the Follies Trust lectures, “The Kilbixy Mausoleum and the Malone Family”, will be delivered by Dr. Finbar McCormick at 5:30pm on Wednesday, 7th June 2023, in the Irish Architectural Archive, Merrion Square, Dublin 2.