Historic Private Houses in Ireland

Country house accommodation in Ireland is a wonderful experience and an ideal introduction to the country's built heritage. This is true whether you are using your chosen Hidden Ireland house as a base for planned day trips or experiencing what is, in many ways, a user-friendly living museum that provides guests with an opportunity to live in, and become involved with, a unique part of our country's history.

Over the centuries many Hidden Ireland houses have been visited by famous people and witnessed major events, while others have important artistic or literary associations.

Our guests enjoy the life of the fabled Irish 'big house' to the full. Wonderful, large bedrooms, filled with books, interesting pictures and objects; the cawing of the rooks and the dew on the lawn at day-break; long, unhurried breakfasts; relaxing with a book in the library; exploring the countryside on foot and returning in time for tea and a leisurely bath; delicious dinners, fine china, family silver and friendly conversation as if you were a guest at a private family dinner party; lingering over coffee and port beside the drawing room fire or taking a post prandial walk through the twilight garden at the day's end.

Our houses are all very different; in date, style, surroundings, contents and, most importantly, in their owners. While we all have our individual interests and talents, and our individual strengths, all Hidden Ireland members share a strong commitment to our family homes.  Many owners are merely links in a long chain of ownership stretching back over the centuries and The Hidden Ireland allows us to maintain and restore our homes, helping to secure their future.

We are all equally enthusiastic about our guests. We want them to enjoy our houses as much as we do and we are dedicated to providing the type of unique experience which makes guests want to return year after year, as many do.

We would like to give you a brief chronological description of our houses.

Built within the walls of a mediaeval castle and, subsequently, a polygonal fortified house of the 17th century, Castlecoote in County Roscommon was remodelled in Georgian times and was recently restored. In the mid 18th century it was home to the famous Gunning sisters, renowned beauties of George II's court.

Georgian Country Houses in Ireland

From the mid 18th century is Ballinderry Park, a small Georgian doll's house looking out over the plains of East Galway, recently rescued from ruin and authentically converted and restored.

Slightly later is Ashley Park, in County Tipperary, though its appearance has been dramatically altered by Edwardian verandas where guests can sit looking out across Lough Ourna to the mountains beyond.

Enniscoe is a house of c.1790 overlooking Lough Conn, built in front of an earlier house and described as 'the last great house of North Mayo'. It has a restrained, almost minimalist, neo-classical interior and is set in wonderfully rugged surroundings beneath Nephin Mountain.

Tyrella, in woods beside the coast of south County Down and Glenview in the lush valleys of east Cork both date from the late 18th century though, like Enniscoe, Tyrella is built on to the front of an earlier house, reputedly a marine residence of Lord Limerick from nearby Tollymore Park.

From the early 19th century are Woodbrook, County Wexford, a large classical Regency house beneath the Blackstairs Mountains with huge Wyatt windows and a wonderful free-standing spiral staircase of wood, and Martinstown, County Kildare, a very large, beautiful gothic cottage ornée on the edge of the Curragh, formerly the Duke of Leinster's lodge and reputedly built to house his mistress, a Miss Martin.

In County Tipperary are Mobarnane, an early 18th century house, hidden behind a far-larger, Regency front, recently restored to a very high standard and Lismacue, a large classical country house with a glorious lime avenue later 'castellated' by the addition of a gothic porch, pasteboard crenellations and a fine gothic interior.

Several of our town houses also date from this period. Creagh House, Doneraile, County Cork is an imposing cut-stone classical house in this charming North Cork town while The Quay House, overlooking the quiet harbour in Clifden, County Galway, is the oldest building in the town with an interestingly varied history, having been the Harbour Master's house, a Friary, a convent and a hotel, before it was purchased by its present owners.

Number 30 Fitzwilliam Place (the front of Number 31 Leeson Close, q.v.) is a typically splendid Dublin town house on what was, until the insertion of a modern office block in the early 1970s, the longest street of Georgian red-brick houses in the world.

Victorian Country Houses in Ireland

From later in the century are Ballinkeele, County Wexford, an asymmetrical cut-stone house of 1840, with a classical portico treated as a porte-cochère and a largely unaltered interior, Coolclogher, County Kerry, a large Victorian villa in 'an engaging blend of Romanesque and Neo-classical' overlooking the Killarney Lakes from its own miniature park and Temple House, a vast cut-stone house in the Georgian manner, in a huge, heavily wooded park overlooking a lake and the ruins of a castle of the Knights Templar.

Hilton Park, County Monaghan, is an 18th century house remodelled after a fire. It was re-worked in 1872 to form a vast Victorian-Palladian mansion and faced in cut Dungannon stone with an imposing porte-cochère. The entrance is through the original basement while the principal rooms on the first floor are approached by an internal staircase and treated as a piano nobile. The park, in part designed by Ninian Niven, and the gardens are sublime.

Farren, in County Cork, is also an 18th century house completely remodelled in the late 19th century, and is now a comfortable Victorian house of great charm.

From the last quarter of the 19th century is Clonalis, County Roscommon, the 'new' 1870s seat of the O'Conor Don, rebuilt on an elevated site as the family had been prone to illness in their earlier low-lying riverside house. This estate has been O'Conor property since time immemorial: the house contains their collection of portraits, furniture and objects, and the library and papers of the renowned antiquarian, Charles O'Conor of Bellnagare.

Our smaller houses are also worthy of note. Kilmokea, County Wexford, Frewin, County Donegal, and Lorum, County Carlow, are all former Church of Ireland (Protestant) rectories. The first date from the 18th (or very early 19th) century and the latter are mid-to-late Victorian. All are very different with their own character and style. Kilmokea has particularly wonderful sub-tropical gardens, Frewin is just on the edge of Ramelton, a wonderful historic port town on the river Lennon with some fine early buildings, while Lorum is a subtly restrained gothic essay in warm, golden Carlow granite, looking out over the valley of the River Barrow.

The regular, gabled Marlagh Lodge, in the well-ordered farmland outside Ballymena in County Antrim, was built in 1850 as a residence for the son of a prosperous local family during his father's lifetime. Mornington, County Westmeath, is an intact Arts & Crafts house of c.1890 overlooking beautiful Lough Derravaragh, while Delphi and Emlaghmore are all west of Ireland fishing lodges. The former was the Hellenophile Lord Sligo's lodge of c.1810 just north of Killary Harbour - Ireland's premier fjord - (the location reminded him of Delphi in Greece, hence its name). Emlaghmore is a Victorian lodge in South Connemara, a snug classical building in a much earlier style, resembling a Georgian rectory.

Among our more modern houses is Number 31, the former residence of Sam Stephenson, Dublin's leading architect of the 1970s, which was converted from a pair of early 19th century stables, and is now now operated in conjunction with the superb Georgian House in front, Number 30 Leeson Place, to form a single spectacular town house.

Hidden Ireland houses form a valuable part of Ireland's built heritage. Ballinkeele, Clonalis, Enniscoe, Hilton, Lismacue, Mornington, Temple House and Tyrella are still occupied by the descendants of the people that built them, and contain original furnishings, artefacts and memorabilia. Their owners, like all our other Members, are a fount of information on local history, culture, topography, flora, fauna and sport, and on interesting things to do and see in their areas. Today Hidden Ireland provides some of the best, and the most interesting, country house accommodation in Ireland and represents an unrivalled opportunity to explore the world of Ireland's historic private houses at leisure, and discover what it was like to live in them.

Literary Ireland

Is there any country in the world that has such a rich literary heritage? Dublin alone boasts a long roll of illustrious writers; Dean Jonathan Swift, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Samuel Beckett, Thomas Kinsella, Brendan Behan, O'Casey, Joyce, Shaw, Synge, Wilde, Edmund Burke and Bram Stoker are just a few and their works are internationally renowned.

Yet poets, novelists, essayists and dramatists have made their voices heard from rural Ireland too, indeed they hail from all parts of "this dreaming island". Our legends, myths, songs and stories have all combined to create a literary outpouring unrivaled in its richness and diversity. Those who wish to visit the places and landscapes that have influenced Irish writers can do so with great advantage from our Hidden Ireland houses. Many have been occupied by the same families for generations and have accumulated libraries and formed relationships (and even, on occasions, forged family connections) with local writers, and their owners all have a special knowledge of the literary associations in their locality.

Any journey through literary Ireland should begin in Dublin, at the Writers' Museum in Parnell Square, within easy reach of Number 31, a truly hidden oasis in the heart of the Georgian city. These are the streets where the great writers lived and from whence they drew their inspiration. If you can, visit Dublin on June the 16th, Bloomsday, and celebrate one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, Joyce's Ulysses. Or, if you are in town overnight, spend an evening at one of the city's two great theatres, the Gate or the Abbey, a logical culmination of any visit to Ireland's capital.

And then you are free to explore the remainder of our island, a land that has inspired so many of Europe's greatest writers. Wherever you decide to go, at all points of the compass, you will find literary associations and connections. You can visit the places and spaces that encouraged people to put pen to paper. Who knows, you too may be inspired to write.