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The Lonely Sentinel
A solitary obelisk standing on raised ground in what was once the parkland of Dangan Castle, County Meath. Dangan was the seat of Richard Wesley, created first Baron Mornington in 1746. He spent a...
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The Irish Aesthete Recommends VIII
A survey conducted in Northern Ireland in 2005 concluded that while there had been 40,000 thatched dwellings in the six counties half a century earlier, only 150 of these now remained. Joseph...
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Urning its Place
An stone urn sitting atop a double plinth closes a flight of terraces at Knockdrin, County Westmeath. In the early 19th century, the heavily-castellated Knockdrin replaced an earlier Georgian house...
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On Your Bike
A not unusual sight in the Irish landscape: two bicycles leaning against the stone wall of a farm building in County Monaghan. This pair, however, appear not to have been in use of late, since one is...
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A Dash of Panache
‘In an orderly country,’ chided the German travel writer and ethnographer Johann Georg Kohl after a visit to Ireland in September 1842, ‘ruins should really not be tolerated. They should be demolished...
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Paradise Lost
This page from the Dublin Penny Journal of December 5th 1835 shows the casino at Marino, Dublin completed sixty years earlier to the designs of Sir William Chambers. As discussed here before (see...
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Garden Guardians
Two pieces of statuary in the grounds of Ballyfin, County Laois. To the rear of the main block and flanked by obelisks, the figure of a river god reclines in a basin. The cascade behind him concludes...
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Abandoned Farmhouse
He was a big man, says the size of his shoes on a pile of broken dishes by the house; a tall man too, says the length of the bed in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man, says the Bible with a...
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Laid Out with Great Taste
Pastoral scene with country house as backdrop: Ardbraccan, County Meath. The central block dates from the 1770s when it was constructed for the then-Bishop of Meath, Henry Maxwell. Visiting the place...
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A View to Die For
The memorial shown here is situated on rising ground at Brittas, County Meath and is inscribed as follows: ‘Beneath this Monument Are interred the remains of Thomas BLIGH, Lieutenant General of his...
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