Dromore Castle, County Kerry
Dromore Castle ( Irish Caisleán an Droma Mhóir ) is a mansion in the Civil Parish Templenoe in County Kerry, Ireland . The house over the Kenmare River was built by the Mahony family in the 1830s according to plans by Sir Thomas Deane in neo-Gothic style .
description
The house is crenellated ; the facades are clad with roman cement and limestone . With the exception of the large south window with its pointed arch , all windows are made of pointed arch tracery in rectangular frames, a style that is typical of Deane's work in Ireland. The entrance hall in the form of a long gallery covers half the area of the ground floor. The west wing of the house has the shape of a round tower and contains a spiral staircase and an attached tourelle .
history
Architect Thomas Deane was probably helped by his brother Kearns Deane in building the house for Denis Mahony . Work began in 1831, even if the account books show only a negligibly small construction sum, which was spent from May 1834. The construction was completed in 1839.
Even though Dromore Castle was built according to Denis Mahony's instructions, his father, John Mahony, made the decision to have a large house built earlier in the 19th century. He apparently gave up after his yacht, which came back from London with roofing material and wine for the cellar, sank in the Kenmare River, within sight of the house. After that, there was no further work until Deane began construction for Denis Mahony in the 1830s.
Denis Mahony was officials of the Church of Ireland and dedicated Proselytist . He was known for setting up a soup kitchen in Dromore Castle during the Great Famine and preaching in the chapel to the hungry who came to eat. His proselytist activities kept him not that popular in the area and in 1850 he was attacked in the church of Templenoe. When he got back to Dromore Castle, he found another group of disgruntled people there, digging flowers from the beds, cutting trees, and setting the house on fire. It is said that the attackers were only stopped by the intervention of the local Catholic pastor, Brother John O'Sullivan .
After the death of Reverend Denis Mahony in 1851, his son, Richard John Mahony inherited the mansion. He successfully ran the property and also an oyster farm in the bay. When Richard Mahony died, the mansion fell to his son, Harold Segerson Mahony .
Harold Mahony was a successful tennis player and is still considered the last Irish winner of the Wimbledon Championships to this day . His tennis court can still be found today in the manor's gardens. In the last years of the 19th century, when the house was owned by Harold Mahony, Harold Boulton, best known for his lyrics to the Skye Boat Song , visited Dromore Castle. There he is said to have written the text of the famous song The Castle of Dromore , which was published in English in 1892 and later translated into Irish Gaelic .
When Harold Mahony died in a bicycle accident in 1905, he left no heirs and the mansion fell to his sister, Norah Hood . She in turn left it to her cousin, Hugh Boulton Waller , and it remained in the hands of the Waller family until 1993 . Then it was put up for sale. Dromore Castle is now owned by a group of investors who want to restore it.
estate
Most of the estate beyond the manor gardens now belongs to Coillte Teoranta , the Irish Forest Service. The Kerry Way runs through the property and there are several footpaths down to the river. Access to the property from National Road 70 between Kenmare and Sneem is through a crenellated gatehouse , also designed by Thomas Deane.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Harold Boulton: The Castle of Dromore . www.irishpage.com. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
swell
- Frederick O'Dwyer: The Architecture of Deane and Woodward . 1997. ISBN 0-902561-85-5 . Pp. 21-23.
- Valerie Bary: Historical genealogical architectural notes of some houses of Kerry . 1994. ISBN 0-946538-08-5 . Pp. 102-103.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 51'27 " N , 9 ° 42'59" W.