homes historical ireland

A two acre romantic scented garden. Twice featured on T.V. and judged "Best in County Wexford" in the last Shamrock National Gardens Competition. There are gravel and woodland areas, terraces, pergola, gazebo, mixed borders in soft colours, ponds, lavish planting around a little stream and over 70 varieties of clematis....

It was built as a manorial residence of the Bishops of Down, and is attributed to John Sely who became bishop in 1413, but was deprived of his See in 1441 for having lived in the castle with a married woman. If the date be correct, this would make Kilclief the oldest known tower-house in Ireland.

It was garrisoned for the Crown by Nicholas Fitzsymon and ten warders in 1601-2. The entrance to the four storey tower was on the east side, protected by two flanking towers which are joine...

Lissadell - "That old Georgian Mansion" in the words of W.B. Yeats - is still owned by the Gore-Booth family. A fine but austere example of Greek-Revival architecture, it is full of many artefacts associated with succeeding generations of the family. Visitors can expect a genuine atmosphere of faded grandeur....

Once one of the most elegant of Dublin's squares, Mountjoy Square suffered severely from neglect and is now in the process of restoration.
It was developed between 1792 and 1818 and named after the man who planned it, Luke Gardiner, the first Viscount ofMountjoy.
Michael Stapleton and Charles Thorp were among the designers and some of the houses have very fine plasterwork....

Passing eastwards to Elphin you pass Raheen House, once the home of the Irwins, where, on a visit there, Goldsmith got the idea for his play She Stoops to Conquer. Elphin, which had been the seat of a bishopric for 1500 years, has given its name to the diocese. St. Patrick founded a religious establishment here, over which he placed St. Assicus as its first bishop; he is the patron saint of the Elphin diocese to this day....

Henrietta Street was one of the first Georgian developments in the city and for many years the most fashionable.
Dating from 1720, it was laid out by the first Luke Gardiner, who had his own house here at No 10. Gardiner's residence and No 9 next door are now occupied by a convent.
If you can mentally exclude the parked cars it is easy to imagine this beautiful street as it was in its heyday....

Located in Bantry, County Cork, Bantry House is the former home of the Earls of Bantry. Egerton Shelswell-White, who is a descendant of the Earls, and his family now live here.
Bantry House and Gardens are open to the public from 17 March until 31 October in 2008. The Estate is open daily, 10 am - 6 pm.
The Armada Exhibition Centre is both educational an entertaining and tells the story of the attempted landing of Wolfe Tone and the French Armada in Bantry Bay in 1976....