jigginstown manorial house

This gaunt-looking mansion with a 380-foot long frontage beside the road was begun in 1636-7 by Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1633 to 1640. He planned it as a summer residence for himself and as a palace in which Charles 1 could live if and when he came to visit Ireland. It never served their purpose, however, because it was left unfinished when Strafford was called to London and beheaded in 1641. The eastern portion may have been temporarily finished as it appears to have been roofed at one time.

The building consists of fine vaulted cellars and a number of tall rooms on the ground floor (which was reached by an outside stairs). The house was one of the first ones built with red-brick in Ireland, and it is interesting to note that the architectural mouldings are made in the bricks. Tradition says that the bricks were of Dutch manufacture, and that a human chain was formed stretching from Dublin to Jigginstown so that each brick passed from hand to hand from Dublin until it reached Jigginstown.