Riveting Pivoting
On 28 February 1990 the Irish Directors of Christie’s (Desmond FitzGerald the last Knight of Glin of Glin Castle in County Limerick and Danny Kinahan the last in the line to own Castle Upton in Templepatrick County Antrim) held a sale of contents of Straffan House which had been acquired by The Kildare Hotel and Country Club led by Michael Smurfit. It opened with Lot 1 “A plated cruet frame containing seven bottles and stoppers”, £50 to £80. Punts not pounds. It closed with Lot 515 “A mahogany crossbanded and ebony lined two tier occasional table, the moulded rectangular top on turned and fluted supports, the base fitted with a drawer to one side. 25 inches wide and a similar occasional table 15.5 inches wide”, £80 to £210.
Standout pieces included Lot 154: “A carved giltwood wall glass of early George III design, the shaped rectangular mirror plate in a rockwork acanthus caved and pierced foliate frame, the pierced surmount carved with rockwork and C scrolls, the base carved with C scrolls and foliage. 19th century. 46 inches high by 23 inches wide.” £3,000 to £5,000. Also Lot 160: “A kingwood burr walnut and floral marquetry commode of Louis XV style, the rounded rectangular pink veined marble top above a frieze mounted with circular floral painted porcelain panels enclosed in gilt metal laurel frames with ribbon tied surmounts and fitted with a drawer above a panelled cupboard door and flanked on either side by a bowed cupboard drawer inlaid in a trellis either side by a bowed cupboard drawer inlaid in a trellis parquetry with fleur de lys and divided by cast brass acanthus, mounts on cast brass paw feet. 55 inches wide by 22 inches deep.” £1,500 to £2,500.
Unexecuted plans by Dubliner Benjamin Hallam dated 1808 (copyright of the Irish Architectural Archive: reproduced here for non commercial educational purposes) illustrate proposed two storey pavilion like wings in a refined neoclassicism to the original three storey Straffan House. The house would burn down a few years later. Under new owner Hugh Barton, the current Straffan House was constructed in 1832 to the design of Frederick Darley, another Dublin based architect. Its design was apparently based on the Château de Louveciennes near Paris. It’s not quite Waddesdon Manor (a Loire Valley château transplanted to Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire) but Straffan House does have its Franglais moments. Vintage photographs show there were once a set of five unusually ornate chimneystacks symmetrically arranged across the roof of the main block. A storey height chimney masquerading as an obelisk marks the spot where the house meets the 18th century heavily quoined stable block. Box hedged formal gardens fill the courtyard of the stable block which was converted to guest suites.
Modern art in the auction included Lot 299 Gerald Dillon’s The Escape Artist, £5,000 to £8,000; Lot 294 Paul Henry’s Mullary Beach, £15,000 to £20,000; and two pieces by Louis de Brocquy: Lot 288 Lemon II, £3,000 to £5,000; and Lot 286 Reconstructed Head, £15,000 to £25,000. There were no fewer than 13 paintings by Brummie artist Edgar Hunt ranging from £5,000 to £8,000 up to £12,000 to £18,000. That’s a lot of ducks, donkeys, goats, cows and chickens. Lot 349 was a George II white marble chimneypiece after a design by Inigo Jones and William Kent, £50,000 to £80,000. It was formerly in the collection of the Earls of Gosford, Gosford Castle, County Armagh. A salvaged piece that was retained is an early 18th century timber doorcase, now in a curved corridor of one of the later blocks.
This year, the estate celebrates 1,475 of recorded history. 550: After the Anglo Normal invasion of Ireland, Strongbow grants Straffan to Maurice FitzGerald. 1500: The lands are forfeited by the De Penkiston family, who are implicated in a rebellion, and disposed of to the Gaydon family. 1600: Straffan is forfeited again and granted to Thomas Bewley. 1650: The Gaydon family are granted back the 280 hectares they originally owned and then sell up to Richard Talbot in 1697 for £700. 1720: Dublin banker Hugh Henry purchases the lands and builds the original Straffan House. 1831: Hugh Barton, who owns French vineyards, acquires the estate. He demolishes the Henrys’ burnt out home and builds a new house beside the 18th century carriage yard. 1850: An Italianate campanile is added to the house. 1937: The Bartons reduce the size of the house.1949 The Bartons sell up and it changes hands several times. 1988: The Smurfit Group purchases Straffan House and double it in size recycling a Francis Johnston granite porch from the ruinous Ballynegall House in County Westmeath to link both blocks together. 1991: The K Club opens.
In 2001 the original building was doubled in size with a new block designed by Henry John Lyons architects. It more or less replicates the appearance of Straffan House. A new north elevation entrance was created through the Francis Johnston Ionic portico: the original Ionic portico now leads into a lounge. Walls awash with white painted stucco walls. First floor and attic pedimented window surrounds repeated. And repeated. And repeated. Strung out stringcourses. The impact is powerful, only to be felt again 14 years later. The 2015 block by Henry John Lyons is even bigger, dropping another two storeys and having its very own campanile – a stylised version of the tallest component of Straffan House. It’s the hotel that never stops growing.
Just when you think the contiguousness has sprouted full growth along comes another extension. The latest proposals are by Michael Fetherston who bought The K Club in 2020. He commissioned JNP Architects to design an extension to replace the single storey swimming pool wing with a double height flat roofed function suite. Michael has restored the 1910 weir originally built to provide power for Straffan House. It has become the first weir powered resort in Ireland by harnessing hydropower from the River Liffey which runs through the 220 hectare estate.
We know The K Club well. Very well. Those stone steps flowing from the central bow window on the south front of Straffan House through grass banks onto a path past rose and lemon coloured flowerbeds to a fountain and finally the River Liffey are familiar terrain. Our first visit to The Byerley Turk Dining Room was on a windswept winter’s evening 30 years ago. The restaurant was named after a large painting measuring over three metres wide by two and a half metres high of a famous early 18th century thoroughbred racehorse. It is attributed to the English equestrian painter Thomas Spencer. Crimson flock wallpaper provided the perfect backdrop to the dark horse. Michael Smurfit sold the painting along with art by Jack Yeats in 2020. The Chinoiserie wallpaper in the drawing room painted by Naomi McBride has survived numerous refurbishments. Our subsequent writeup formed a double page spread in Ulster Architect November 1995 and our photograph of the south front graced the Christmas edition of the same magazine.
