Tag: william orpen

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Cappoquin House + Gardens Cappoquin Waterford

The Best Days  

In The Super Seven Towns and Villages of West Waterford (2024), James Hyde describes the “glittering necklace” of Aglish, Ballyduff, Cappoquin, Lismore, Mount Mellerey, Tallow and Villierstown. “Cappoquin is a friendly business town located where the River Blackwater turns south. For decades it saw boats and paddle steamers plying their trade to the Irish Sea at Youghal, and bringing people upriver for days out and sports matches.” The crown jewel in this pretty village is Cappoquin House.  

The Big House in Ireland is usually hidden away behind high stone walls, locked gates and a wooded demesne. Notable exceptions are Castletown Cox (Piltown, County Kilkenny), Lismore Castle (Lismore, County Waterford, visible despite being set in a 3,240 hectare estate), and Rosemount House (New Ross, County Wexford) which are all distractingly visible from public roads. Cappoquin House firmly fits into the latter category: not many country houses have an address on Main Street. It rises high above the whole town, closer to heaven physically and visually that any of the nearby buildings.  

An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Waterford by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (2010) states, “The late 18th century Cappoquin House (1779), home of the Keane family, was burnt in 1923 but was reconstructed with great care to designs by Richard Orpen (1863 to 1938), brother of the more famous society painter William (1878 to 1931). The by then conservative aesthetic in which Cappoquin was rebuilt underlined the cautious approach to architecture that more or less dominated the century.” 

There are a lot of plants to see for an honesty box €6 entrance fee. Current owner Sir Charles Keane’s mother Lady Olivia Keane revamped the 19th century gardens in the 1950s and then expanded them two decades later. Due to the steep gradient, the town is invisible from the house and garden, and instead the uninterrupted view is across the tidal valley of the River Blackwater as it gains momentum en route to the sea at Youghal. Rambling Rector climbing rose drapes over the verandah; Golden Showers climbing rose wraps round the courtyard.  

“My mother began to develop the grounds more vigorously and she had a great concept of design,” says Sir Charles who lives in the house with his wife Lady Corinne. “She planted well with an instinct for what looks right – and that’s key. The aim, really, is beauty. If you are on a slope you must keep open to the view which means we’re always cutting back.” His ancestor, solicitor John Keane, bought the property 290 years ago. The Keanes are descendants of the O’Cahans of County Londonderry who lost their lands in the Plantation of Ulster. Ah, the nuances of Anglo Irish and British and Irish and West British lineage.  

“The country houses of politicians became a regular target during the Civil War that followed Irish Independence,” Sir Charles relates, “so when my grandfather Sir John Keane was elected to the Senate in the new Irish Free State, he anticipated an attack. With considerable foresight he removed the contents and many of the fixtures, and placed them in storage. It transpired that his premonition was well founded and the house was duly burnt. But by the 1930s he felt sufficiently confident to rebuild with the advice of Richard Orpen. In the ensuing remodelling the façade became the garden front while the north front facing the courtyard became the entrance front.” Before the era of Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach, the Irish Free State Government provided compensation to country house owners who had their properties destroyed in the Civil War. Most chose not to rebuild. The shadowy veil of picnickers in a foreign land would sadly prevail down the generations.  

Cappoquin House and gardens are in fact a 20th century creation or recreation. The real Phoenix Park. There’s a tantalising approach to the house: it appears in long distance views only to vanish above the town; a steep avenue off Main Street leads to the stable block which offers the first glimpse of the house framed by an archway. Names mentioned in connection with the original 1779 house are John Roberts of Waterford or the better known Sardinia born Davis Ducart. John Roberts designed the simply elegant Gaultier Lodge in Woodstown, 73 kilometres east of Cappoquin. But there is more of Cappoquin House to be found in the refined Italianate neoclassicism of Castletown Cox, a Davis Ducart designed country house 226 kilometres north of Cappoquin. Both share a seven bay elevation with three bay breakfront and s scattering of arch headed windows.  

The Keane residence is a two storey building constructed of smooth grey limestone. A flat roof behind a parapet dotted with finials is centred on a circular lantern over the staircase hall. A seven bay south elevation with a three bay breakfront overlooks the Sunken Garden and far below, the Blackwater River. The breakfront of the corresponding north elevation has two first floor bays above a three bay entrance arrangement treated as a two dimensional portico: Doric columns flank the partially glazed front door and pilasters end said arrangement. The north elevation is slightly shorter than the south elevation due to the projections on the east and west elevations. It faces the courtyard and the Upper Pleasure Garden. A verandah is attached to the three bay projection to one side of the six bay west elevation facing the Croquet Lawn. This ivy clad front resembles Mount Stewart in Greyabbey, County Down. A neoclassical conservatory projects from the six bay east front: a lower earlier wing extends from the three bay projection. The east front is plainer than the rest of the exterior with no window surrounds and overlooks the Wing Garden.

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Marble Hill House + Marble Hill Beach + St John’s Church of Ireland Church Ballymore Lower Dunfanaghy Donegal

Paradise

There are stunning houses with stunning views and then there is Marble Hill House overlooking Marble Hill Beach. The Barclay family clearly had taste. A three bay two storey over basement façade, grey as marble and high on a hill, is early 19th century neoclassical perfection. The central first floor tripartite window is in numerical harmony with the shallow triple inset formed by the two Ionic columns on either side of the entrance door hooded by a pair of pilasters with Soaneian recessed rectangular and circular panels supporting an entablature under a pediment. Roundheaded recesses define the ground floor windows flanking the portico. The slant of the portico pediment runs parallel with the hipped roof. Overhanging eaves are supported on paired console brackets. A materials palette of shades of grey is calming: ashlar, cut stone, render, slate.

Marble Hill House has an L shape plan. The longest elevation, all four bays, faces the coach house and outbuildings, enclosing a south facing garden hidden from public view. The substantial mid 18th coach house is almost as large as the house. It’s formal architecture: a two storey symmetrical façade confidently handled. A pair of central double height carriage doors under a fanlight is set in a shallow pedimented breakfront. On either side are three bay portions each with self contained symmetry. Both portions have a central arched carriage access (now fully glazed) and two first floor circular windows like architectural games of noughts and crosses.

Due to the sharp decline of the land, the coach house becomes three storey to the six bay rear elevation. This south front has a French look with its projecting eaves course supporting a hipped roof, arch heads to the upper floor windows (except the middle two) and a metal walkway wrapping round the first floor leading to garden level heading north. A row of carriage doors under fanlights opens off the lower ground floor into a walled courtyard. The grey materials palette continues: coursed stone, render, slate. Built by the Babington family, the distinguished neoclassicism of the coach house suggests the accompanying house (demolished by the Barclays) was of considerable merit.

A late Victorian three bay single storey gatelodge completes the three centuries of built form in this bucolic landscape on one of the most northerly tips of Ireland. It may be symmetrical but the gatelodge has an Arts and Crafts rusticity thanks to cottagey casement windows, a canopied porch supported on timber posts on the south elevation and a Roshine slate roof. The roof and porch canopy rest on sprocketed eaves with exposed rafter ends. Locally quarried Roshine slate is usually seen in vernacular buildings of this era. A bow window protrudes from the west elevation.

In 1987, Doe Historical Committee published A Guide to Creeslough-Dunfanaghy, “In the year 1894 a young barrister from Dublin, Hugh Law, married Charlotte Anne Stuart, daughter of the Rector of Ballymore. Hugh was the son of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. He bought Marble Hill House, a stately Georgian mansion that stands in idyllic surroundings overlooking Marble Hill. It was a happy marriage. Hugh, a man of independent means, did not have to practise his profession. Instead, he entered politics as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and was elected MP. Hugh was best known for his hospitality towards artists and men of letters … including William Orpen, Patrick Pearse and William Butler Yeats.” Marble Hill House, coach house and gatelodge are currently being restored and will be available to let for short stays. The band of trees blocking views of the strand have been removed.

It’s reckoned to be the finest Georgian church in Donegal. It certainly has the largest Venetian window in the County. St John’s Church of Ireland Church stands on a hill accessed off a bend in the road between Creeslough and Dunfanaghy nearly opposite the road down to Marble Hill Beach. Dating from 1752, the church is attributed to Michael Priestley of Derry City on stylistic grounds. The raised quoins and heavy rustication of the Gibbsian arch headed window surrounds are similar to the architect’s distinguished Lifford Courthouse built six years earlier. Doe Historical Committee records that the church was built for £300 gifted by the Board of First Fruits.

Grey roughcast rendered walls and a grey cut stone bellcote and a grey slate roof anchor the design in this rocky coastal terrain: Muckish Mountain is the dramatic backdrop. That Venetian window (all 92 panes of it) faces east across Marble Hill Beach towards Sheephaven Bay. A more normally sized Venetian window (with a modest 42 panes) lights the west elevation of the porch. The small vestry with latticed windows was added in around 1853 to the northeast. It was designed by Joseph Welland who was responsible as architect for the Board of First Fruits for several churches in northwest Ulster such as St Patrick’s Church of Ireland Church in Gortin, County Tyrone. Isabella Stewart, wife of the local Anglo Scots Irish landowner Alexander Stewart, demanded a tenants dodging privacy tunnel was burrowed from the church to her nearby residence, Ards House.

Inland Fisheries Ireland promotes 53 places in County Donegal for sea angling. In clockwise order from the south: Mullaghmore Head; Mullaghmore Harbour; Bunduff Strand; Mermaids Cove; Tullan Strand; Creevy Pier; Rossnowlagh Beach; St John’s Point; Black Rock Pier; Fintragh Strand; Shalwy Pier; Trabawn; Tralore; Teelin; Silver Strand; Glencolmcille; Loughros Point; Dawras Head; Portinoo Pier; Illanafad; Termon Point; Burtonport Pier; Cruit Point; Kincaslough Pier; Bunbeg Harbour; Magheraclogher Point; Bunaninver; Ballyness Pier; Dooros Point; New Lake Estuary; Ards Friary Pier; Downings Pier; Derrycasson; Pollmore; Tra-Na-Rossan Bay; Glashagh Strand; Fanad Head; Portsalon Pier; Rathmullan Pier; Buncrana Pier; Dunree Head; Lenan Pier; Pollan Bay; Doagh Isle; Trawbreaga Bay; Portronan Pier; Portmore Pier; Bunagee Pier; Culdaff Strand; Tremone Bay; Kinnagoe Bay; Moville Pier; and Carrickaroy. Marble Hill is closest to Portsalon Pier.

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The Hamiltons + Hamwood House Dunboyne Meath

Taking Refuge in the Shelter of Your Wings

Stephen Odlum sums up the origins of Hamwood House in his book Eva, Letitia and The Hamilton Sisters: Class, Gender and Art (2021): “The Hamiltons originally came from Scotland in the early 17th century and initially settled in the north of Ireland. The first of these settlers was Alexander Hamilton (1690 to 1768) who was MP for Killyleagh in County Down. In a tradition followed by many subsequent generations of the Hamilton family, he became a land agent. He seems to have been particularly successful in this role and left his five sons land worth £50,000. His son Charles Hamilton (1737 to 1818) moved south to Dublin where he first traded as a wine merchant. It appears that this business flourished, as he decided to build a house reflecting his new status. He chose to build in an area to the east of the village of Dunboyne in County Meath close to the border with County Dublin and only about 15 miles from the centre of Dublin.”

The writer details, “The Hamilton sisters remained attached to the old Ascendancy social monies and traditions. Letitia, Eva and Connie, who developed a gardening consultancy business, and Ethel, up to her death in 1924, pooled their resources to live in refined but declining style in a series of large, rambling houses in the Castleknock and Lucan areas of County Dublin from 1920 onwards. Manners mattered more than money – dinner was a formal event which the ladies dressed for and were summoned by a gong. In a world which would become increasingly dominated by Catholic dogma, Letitia and Eva would have had a liberty that was not often open to their Catholic sisterhood. Those who did choose to pursue modern feminist ideas were seen as being ‘West Brit’ or pro British. Indeed, Catholic women who were educated and middle class were more likely to join forces with their Protestant counterparts to achieve social and political recognition, as seen in the suffragette movement in the early part of the 20th century.”

It’s an unseasonably cool and overcast morning to meet Charles Hamilton VII for a private tour of his splendid home. The four bay two storey over basement under attic entrance front or perhaps it is the garden front (to be explained later) has curved wings extending out like crab claws grabbing the octagonal pavilions. “The house was built by Charles I in 1777 for £2,500,” introduces his descendant. “’Ham’ comes from Hamilton and ‘Wood’ comes from his wife Elizabeth’s maiden name Chetwood. Charles II’s wife Caroline found the house draughty – the original entrance on the side or west elevation opened straight into the reception rooms – so that’s how the current arrangement came about. A corridor now separates the entrance door from the living quarters. The driveway used to access what is now the garden elevation – really the house is back to front. In very hot dry summers the ghost of flowerbeds appears opposite the current entrance front.”

He adds, “Caroline insisted on many more trees being planted to help create shelter for the strong winds. Remember that when she arrived at Hamwood in the early 1800s it was a cold and bleak situation and very exposed being 300 feet above sea level. That may not sound particularly high but in relatively flat Leinster there was nothing between the house and the east coast! Caroline and her husband were greatly involved in the interior design of the house too, adding furnishings, artwork and ornaments.”

“The architect is unknown,” explains Charles, “although a surveyor Joseph O’Brien is mentioned in family papers. During the 1798 Rebellion the agent for nearby Carton was hanged. So my ancestor Charles I took over as agent and my family continued in the role from 1800 to 1950. This supplemented the income they made of the 165 acres at Hamwood. The family have always been very active in the community. They set up agricultural societies to create work and during the famine they ran a soup kitchen. My father Charles Gerald was the last agent of Carton. The Duke of Leinster sold it to Lord Brocket and then eventually it was turned into a hotel. We walk round to the other side of the house, down the long garden which has unbroken views across the countryside. Unbroken thanks to a nine foot wide haha.”

“The 1911 Census records a butler, three yard men, coachman turned chauffeur and five indoor servants. I remember as a child we still had seven glasshouses filled full of peaches and nectarines,” says Charles. We have now entered the house through the ocean blue coloured door and are greeting by a Canadian moose head in the octagonal hall. The corridor feels early Victorian: it is lined with tongue and groove wooden panelling and encaustic tile floored. It leads into an elegantly furnished double drawing room spanning the full four bay entrance front. The pale sea green blue walls are filled with paintings and drawings. There are two corresponding reception rooms on the garden front. The two bay dining room is painted deep shell pink. Two similar oil paintings hang side by side: Mrs Charles Hamilton by Sir William Orpen (the subject dressed in back with white frills writing a letter) and Portrait of Louisa Mrs Charles Hamilton by Eva Hamilton (the subject in the same outfit reading a book). “Eva and Letitia both trained at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art,” Charles confirms, “where the prominent Irish artist William Orpen taught. Eva was especially influenced by Orpen’s style.”

Bright airy bedrooms fill the first floor even on a dull day. A roof lantern lit corridor extends off the staircase landing. “The two storey library wing was built by my great uncle,” notes Charles. “It disrupts the symmetry of the garden elevation.” The two pane Victorian glazing has been replaced on the entrance front with 12 panes on the main block and intricate gothic topped panes on the arched windows of the wings. A painting of another country house hangs in the staircase hall. He states, “That was our family estate at Ahakista in West Cork. The television presenter Graham Norton lives there now. We used to have a townhouse in Dublin too – 40 Dominick Street Lower.” This four storey three bay terraced house, built in 1760, is now a language school. Hamwood House stands proud as the continuing family seat of the Hamiltons.