Every trip out on a lazy weekend in Ireland provides a stroll through history. Gazing over 19th-century rooftops across the streets of Cork, spotting shattered medieval tower houses bedded on rumpled fields on the train, our built heritage is everywhere.
In the 18th century as artillery continued to demonstrate its ability to reconfigure the deepest castle walls, the brooding, stone defences the aristocracy and gentry had used to shield their homes were gradually taken down in favour of something more welcoming, light-drenched, fanciful and above all fashionable.
Georgian elegance signalling Grand Tours of Europe, an appreciation of classic grandeur, and a more gentled domestic setting replaced stone batters, toothed ramparts, and arrow loops.
Stately homes from the 1700s and 1800s have an important place in our social, political, and architectural story. The gardens blanketed around them provide some of the most beautiful man-made landscapes in the country.
Those open for us to roam have a more democratic, inclusive presentation, whispering the tales of their former residents from the gossip of the scullery to the mysteries, politics and entitlement of the gilded ballroom.
Here are just a few of my favourites for you to wander through this year.
Fota House & Gardens, the seat of the Smith-Barrys is popular for repeated visits by Corkonians, not least because we can frolic through arguably Ireland’s most important arboretum, while cheetahs roar beyond the tree-line.
This fabulous Regency house has been restored, not renovated, saved not sanitised. It retains the best of its Neo-classical architecture and a spine-tingling atmosphere.
Surrounded by art and artefacts, you really can imagine the whisper of lace underskirts brushing the shallow steps of the grand staircase. Large, foxed mirrors in the drawing room allowed women to regard their faces without seeing the full horror of wax-laden make-up in HD.
Ensure you take the tour with a volunteer from The Irish Heritage Trust for tales of secret staff parties and simple kindnesses between the classes. April-September: Weekdays 8.30am to 4.45pm, Weekends 11am to 5pm. Adults €13, with concessions. See fotahouse.com.
Strokestown Park House in County Roscommon is also under the care of the Irish Heritage Trust, and another Palladian-style Georgian beauty. When Olive Pakenham-Mahon sold the house in 1979, her family had owned it for over 300 years.
It’s a magnificent example of a gentle manor house with a perfect parkland situation. Like Fota, Strokestown has been staged as a time capsule and is deliberately cloaked in the faded grandeur of continuous, inter-generational occupancy that belies the amazing work done to save the house and grounds.
For a historically balanced and fascinating day, take in the brilliantly redevised National Famine Museum on the same afternoon (it’s pitched at every age). Adult prices with a tour start from €16, but there’s a choice of ticket possibilities to include the house, museum and glorious gardens for €35 for the whole family. strokestownpark.ie.
Keep in mind, if you would like to get behind the scenes and volunteer at any of the Irish Heritage Trust properties — you will be more than welcome. Go to the irishheritagetrust.ie.
Johnstown Castle in Wexford is a little younger than these 18th-century piles, but its high Victorian grandeur and history are set in the most amazing gardens and incorporate the fascinating Museum of Country Life, part of our feted national museums, otherwise largely centred on Dublin.
It stands on deeper layers of history, as the estate was first granted to the Esmonde family as thanks for their role in the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. In 1850 Thomas Lacy Esq., was brought by coach under the porte-cochère of Johnstown Castle, its battlements finished in fresh Tudor-style knuckles of limestone.
Having wandered the deer parks, glass houses and shimmering lakes, he wrote in his memoir: “So grand, so gorgeous” (Home Sketches – 1852). It still is a Neo-gothic fairy-tale of a place and perfect for a spring or summer roam with young and old.
“This house saw the familiar story of death duties and family tragedy,” according to Jo Tynan of the Irish Historic Trust. “Lady Maurice Fitzgerald (d.1942) was the last grand owner of Johnstown who actually lived here.”
Again we have two venues to enjoy together with a seriously good café in the courtyard, The Peacock. The recently restored historic east wing of the 800-year-old Gothic revival castle is now open to the public (for weddings too if you’re interested).
Learn more about rural Irish lives when you visit the Irish Agricultural Museum included in your visit. Its huge collection of original farming-related machinery, vehicles, and artefacts, along with exhibitions and recreated scenes are moving and informative. Ticket prices from €3-€9 with family tickets from €11, johnstowncastle.ie.
The recent publication of “The Blackwater, History and Images from the Irish Rhine” by Mitchelstown historian, author and photographer Bill Power, brings to mind two privately owned, period homes in West Waterford with a unique and intimate flavour right in my neck of the woods.
Both nestle on the banks of the third longest and some would say, loveliest of our Irish rivers flowing through a total of five counties. They would make a lovely double treat, rich in history, remarkable horticulture and mouth-watering scenery, ideal for a drive out into the Deise over the warmer months.
Dromana House & Gardens has a magnificent setting, mounted proudly on an outcrop of rock on the river Blackwater, just outside the heritage town of Villierstown. The approach to the estate includes an amazing faux Hindu-Gothic lodge incorporated into a bridge over the River Finisk, c.1826.
There has been a house at Dromana since the 13th century when this was the seat of the FitzGeralds, a junior branch of the Earls of Desmond. The oldest woman in Ireland, Katherine, Dowager Countess of Desmond, is said to have fallen from a clamber up a cherry tree to her death in 1604 at Dromana at the age of just 140.
Surrounded by 600 acres and cared for resolutely by the noble family of James Villiers-Stuart, the estate boasts numerous woodland and garden walks, rare plants and the chance to spot a range of wildlife.
Keep your eyes and cameras peeled for one of the latest returning species to nest in Ireland, osprey, a stunning fishing raptor tempted by a new platform constructed at Dromana. House and Garden €15, House only €10, the garden only €6. See dromanahouse.com.
Sleeping between the twin towns of Lismore and Cappoquin, with the curtain of the Knockmealdown Mountains shimmering to the rear, and in the same lushly wooded gash of the valley, is Tourin House & Gardens. It’s a graceful, Italianate-style villa of classical proportions, completed in 1841, with a surviving tower house built around 1560.
Led up to by its original Carriage Sweep are 15 acres with a fine tension of wonderfully wild and gentrified gardens, blousy with roses, seasonal flowers and plants. Tourin is and really feels like what it is, a beloved family home, and the ever-hospitable Jameson sisters regularly guide visitors around the Broad Walk, Victorian Pleasure Grounds, and the walled garden at the base of the tower house, still producing vegetables for the table.
Richard Musgrave (1861-1938) was a great friend of the brewer and politician, Richard Henrik Beamish (1861-1938) one of Ireland’s most renowned horticulturists. The gardens at Tourin were extended under his direction.
The owners’ Norwegian mother Didi Jameson, built on the heritage of unique and rare planting with her own work over the years. The results are a wonderland flush with charm and tranquillity. The Garden is open from April 1 to September 30, Tuesday to Saturday, 1pm to 5pm. Admission fee €6. Tours of Tourin House, April 1-July 29, 1pm-5pm. Admission fee €6, tourin.ie.