Killarney House

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Killarney House
Corridor in Killarney House

Killarney House ( Irish Teach Chill Airne ) is a country house in Killarney in County Kerry, southwest Ireland . Queen Victoria chose the site for this house when she visited Ireland in 1861. It replaced Kenmare House , built in 1726, as the seat of the Earls of Kenmare .

The first Killarney House

Valentine Browne, 4th Earl of Kenmare , decided to build the house in 1872 on a hillside overlooking Lough Leane . The old country house, Kenmare House, was demolished and a new country house built in a new Elizabethan style above the location of the old house. The cost was well over £ 100,000.

Lady Kenmare ( Gertrude Thyme , granddaughter of Thomas Thynne, 2nd Marquess of Bath ) is said to have inspired the construction of this house and it was inspired by Lord Bath's truly Elizabethan family seat, Longleat House in Wiltshire (built of red bricks), but it did was not uncommon for descendants of Elizabethan or Jacobean settlers in Ireland to assert their comparable "age" by building Jacobean houses during this period . The architect was George Devey , but, according to Jeremy Williams, “(...) that feeling of having been built up over the centuries that set Devey's work apart from others was missing, here entirely, partly because the work of WH Lynn (the architect from Belfast ) were monitored in its most ruthless [manner] (...). The furthest west lodge, with gables and galleries, (which has been preserved to this day) [is] Devey in his most delightful way. "

The house, in addition to its other shortcomings, did not look good in the landscape as it had many gables and bay windows . The interior was paneled with wood and hung with Spanish leather. The house was considered the most beautiful in Ireland. Unfortunately it burned out twice - once in 1879, shortly after its completion, and again and finally in August 1913 - it was never rebuilt. Instead, Valantine Browne, 5th Earl of Kenmare , decided to use the nearby stables of the old Kenmare House for the family and rename this new house "Kenmare House".

Knockreer House

1956 left Mrs. Beatrice Grosvenor ( CBE , 1915-1985), niece of Gerald Ralph Desmond Browne, 7th Earl of Kenmare (1896-1952), and granddaughter of the Duke of Westminster , Knockreer House (Irish Teach Chnoc Rír ) in the place of the build first Killarney House. The house was designed by Mrs. Grosvenor's cousin, Francis Pollen (1926–1987). Knockreer House and the surrounding land, originally part of the Kenmare Estate of the Earls of Kenmare, was later donated by Mrs Grosvenor to be Killarney National Park .

The second Killarney House

Also in 1956, Mrs. Grosvenor sold the second Kenmare House along with 100 km² of land to an American syndicate, which in turn resold it in 1959 to John McShain (1898-1989), a US general contractor . He and his wife, Mary J. Horstmann (1907-1998) had the building extensively renovated and renamed it “Killarney House”. In 1978 Mrs. McShain sold Killarney House and most of the surrounding property to the Irish State for a price well below market value at the time, after being assured that the house and property would be integrated into Killarney National Park. Mr and Mrs McShain kept the house and an adjoining 20.8 acre property for their own use for life. Mr McShain died in 1989 and Mrs McShain lived in the house until her death in 1998; then the house and property fell to the Irish state. After the building stood empty for several years, it fell into disrepair. In July 2011 Leo Varadkar , then the Irish Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sports, announced a € 7 million restoration of the country house. After the restoration work was completed, Killarney House opened to the public on April 3, 2016.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Patricia O'Hare: The Browne Family, Ears of Kenmare , p. 89, in Jim Larner: Killarney - History and Heritage , The Collins Press, Cork 2005, ISBN 978-1-903464-55-7 .
  2. ↑ Kenmare House . In: Lord Belmont in Northern Ireland . August 16, 2011. Archived from the original on August 20, 2011. Retrieved on January 24, 2019.
  3. ↑ Parlamentary Debates - Seanad Éireann - Volume 189 - May 27, 2008 . Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  4. ↑ € 7m restoration for Killarney House announced . In: RTÉ News . August 11, 2011. Accessed January 24, 2019.
  5. ^ Anne Lucey: Killarney House to be restored . In: The Irish Times . July 30, 2011. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  6. ^ Anne Lucey: Back to future at Killarney House and Gardens as it reopens . In: Irish Examiner . April 4, 2016. Retrieved January 24, 2019.

Web links

Commons : Killarney House  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 52 ° 3 ′ 33.5 ″  N , 9 ° 31 ′ 26.9 ″  W.