Abandoned Mansions Of Ireland

losthorizon

Maybe its the wrong forum to put it in but I came across this really interesting site on abandoned houses and mansions in the Republic

http://www.abandonedireland.com/start.html

bideye

yes its a brilliant site, have bought the book, the" picture on the front castleboro house is near my home in wexford, we have wonderful memories of days out during the summer going for walks to see the castle and each year there was an annual field day -fundraiser held there - the sun always seemed to shine then

i now live in the midlands and fell in love with this book when i saw the image of "home" on the cover, i believe there is a second book on the way:)

StereoLove

It's a very good website. I love looking at these abandoned houses and places.

CDfm

It really is a stunning book and site and is chock full of great detail.

owenc

Thanks for that it is such a disgrace that the mansions are let to wreck and ruin.

AI

Thanks guys
Volume 2 of Abandoned Mansions will be out September/October. It features all new material, another fifty amazing locations and all very well researched. I'm sure my publisher, The Collins Press, will do another great job with the layout and printing so should be another beautiful book.

Not much going on with the website lately as I've been totally snowed under with research and writing for another project; I should get back to some updates on AbandonedIreland.com in the next couple of months.

CDfm

AI wrote: »

Thanks guys
Volume 2 of Abandoned Mansions will be out September/October. It features all new material, another fifty amazing locations and all very well researched. I'm sure my publisher, The Collins Press, will do another great job with the layout and printing so should be another beautiful book.

Well I hope you give up a blow for blow build-up to the book launch with wiped brow and all that.

Paparazzo

I took a trip up to Pilltown House (near bettystown in meath) before it was burned down. Spectacular house inside, big dome all pink and purple colours.

AI

The pink & purple interiors at Piltown were a bit mad alright! Sunglasses needed :cool:.

The interior was once very classical- see pic attached of the dome's original interior!



This is what it looked like when I visited:

Paparazzo

Think I've a few pictures from inside Pilltown house when I went up there before the fire. I'll post a few up later, as far as I remember, the dome was still up and the colours were fairly vivid.

yellowlabrador

AI wrote: »

Thanks guys
Volume 2 of Abandoned Mansions will be out September/October. It features all new material, another fifty amazing locations and all very well researched. I'm sure my publisher, The Collins Press, will do another great job with the layout and printing so should be another beautiful book.

Not much going on with the website lately as I've been totally snowed under with research and writing for another project; I should get back to some updates on AbandonedIreland.com in the next couple of months.

My all time favourite is in Courtmacsherry. I've seen that house tumble down in the past 15 years. I love the stable block, it used to have sky blue walls with little golden stars and I used to collect apples and pears in the walled garden. The variety was wonderful and I'm sure some of those apple trees need to be preserved. It also has, what I call the tallest tree in Ireland

Paparazzo

Thought I had more pictures, but you get the idea of what the dome was like and can probably imagine what the rest of the house was like when it was being lived in:

AI

yellowlabrador wrote: »

My all time favourite is in Courtmacsherry. I've seen that house tumble down in the past 15 years. I love the stable block, it used to have sky blue walls with little golden stars and I used to collect apples and pears in the walled garden. The variety was wonderful and I'm sure some of those apple trees need to be preserved. It also has, what I call the tallest tree in Ireland

Yes indeed Courtmac is a lovely ruin. The front door case all covered in ivy and wild flowers was really quite a sight. I'm not sure it is possible to get into the stables and walled garden any more - too overgrown. I found out a bit more info after my book was published - Apparently the house was purchased by a German gentleman who sent over two of his staff, a house keeper and butler with sufficient funds to keep the house going for good while. This gent however never showed up in Ireland and eventually his staff ran out of money. They depended on the local villages for donations of food before eventually finding their way back to Germany. The house was abandoned, and over the subsequent years fell into the dire state that it’s in now.

IrishEyes19

It's really lovely to see a thread regarding this. We have so many old gentry houses and abandoned mansions here going into ruin, it's nice to see people do have an interest in them. It would be really nice if we ever get back into economic prosperity that we could afford to renovate these beautiful houses and their estates which most have.

A lot of old mansions were built on estates and have been kept well and are open to the public, but there are so many houses which just lie in ruin and its a pity these beauties won't be standing here in the future. Having said that, I wouldnt like to see them go down a commercial tourist route either which would see a lot of the estates ruined to accommodate tourists, but rather really show these houses in the glory days without the silly gimmicks they seem to sell in some open touring areas which IMO take away from the place.

losthorizon

You know, its just a pity a government agency cant rescue some of these houses and mansions. I'm sure they would make the money back in entrance fees over a number of years. I cant get over the sheer amount of big houses there are out there simply decaying.

CDfm

Lots of houses were abandoned but I remember seeing the singer donavan on tv years back when he lived in ireland

he had bought a place real cheap only to discover the lead was gone

the salvage was worth more than the house

when you take on a historic place the rules are often too onerous to turn it into a residence

and quite a few are preserved in private hands

i have often felt the money spent on farmleigh would have been better applied on the magazine fort or the fort offered to the scouts !!!!

pedroeibar1

CDfm wrote: »

when you take on a historic place the rules are often too onerous to turn it into a residence

and quite a few are preserved in private hands

It should not be forgotten that one of the good things CJH did was to introduce the artist's tax exemption - his primary objective was to entice them in to buy old mansions and spend money doing them up. Frederick Forsythe was one of the first.

Ownership of any listed building in Ireland is a major hardship, more or less no support (e.g. NT in UK) and no insurance company here will insure a listed building. The only positive is that the BER rules do not apply to them!

Judgement Day

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

It should not be forgotten that one of the good things CJH did was to introduce the artist's tax exemption - his primary objective was to entice them in to buy old mansions and spend money doing them up. Frederick Forsythe was one of the first.

Ownership of any listed building in Ireland is a major hardship, more or less no support (e.g. NT in UK) and no insurance company here will insure a listed building. The only positive is that the BER rules do not apply to them!

CJH introduced the artist's exemption tax to ingratiate himself with the arts establishment rather than to entice them to buy up old houses.

I agree that ownership of a listed building is an onerous undertaking and there little in the way of State supports - anymore than there is in Britain as the National Trust is a voluntary organisation despite its title. As for insurance, it is available for listed buildings the same as for any other - I used to own one. Anyway, the simple fact is that many of the remaining 'big' houses that are still occupied are struggling, so restoring every other old ruin and opening them to the public is not a practical proposition.

CDfm

The British had a bit of money behind them. They developed a strategy to suit Britain and its resources.

Ours did not all fall down at the one time either but we haven't developed something appropriate to our means.

pedroeibar1

Judgement Day wrote: »

CJH introduced the artist's exemption tax to ingratiate himself with the arts establishment rather than to entice them to buy up old houses.

I agree that ownership of a listed building is an onerous undertaking and there little in the way of State supports - anymore than there is in Britain as the National Trust is a voluntary organisation despite its title. As for insurance, it is available for listed buildings the same as for any other - I used to own one. Anyway, the simple fact is that many of the remaining 'big' houses that are still occupied are struggling, so restoring every other old ruin and opening them to the public is not a practical proposition.

I'm not standing up for the man, just relating fact. He always had an interest in Arts & Heritage and was a big supporter - for eg he was the main mover behind the creation of Aosdana. (Giving rise to Kennelly's remark on 'feeding the hand that bites you'.)
There is a substantial amount of grant funds made available to NT building owners in the UK, unlike here.
I own a listed building, to my cost I know there is no company in Ireland insuring them. Even to get insurance on an unlisted building older than 100 years is a major problem. I'm paying double (-/+) the premium of an unlisted building of the same value. :mad:

shadowcomplex

I find this interesting too, but I assume people aren't visiting these places? It could be very dangerous as I cant imagine they are very structurally sound

Tess Walsh

Did anyone ever come across black and white photographs of curraghchase house when it was still lived in? There are supposed to be some on the www but I can't find them.

Killer Wench

Anybody know much about this mansion? I was on a re-routed 128 that drove by it and I was surprised to see such a building just stuck back there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=dublin+map&hl=en&ll=53.355293,-6.247525&spn=0.001726,0.005284&hnear=Dublin,+County+Dublin,+Ireland&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=53.355208,-6.247387&panoid=32HSKDLLAdiYqG1Wn5p6iA&cbp=12,228.76,,0,-0.18

Judgement Day

Killer Wench wrote: »

Anybody know much about this mansion? I was on a re-routed 128 that drove by it and I was surprised to see such a building just stuck back there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=dublin+map&hl=en&ll=53.355293,-6.247525&spn=0.001726,0.005284&hnear=Dublin,+County+Dublin,+Ireland&t=m&z=18&layer=c&cbll=53.355208,-6.247387&panoid=32HSKDLLAdiYqG1Wn5p6iA&cbp=12,228.76,,0,-0.18

Aldborough House - more information than you could shake a big stick at here: http://www.archiseek.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7878

texasgal

Amazing website!

So much history....

AI

Abandoned Mansions of Ireland II - trailer for my new book
I'm doing an exhibition and book prelaunch as part of Dublin Culture Night - 21st September. Will give more details closer to the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=slf7Iyk5k3M&vq=hd720
The book won't be officially released until end of october.
T.B :cool:

Judgement Day

Great stuff - you've really been getting around! Is Vol.1. still available - it's been on my shopping list for a long time now.

AI

Yep Vol 1. is still available, has been reprinted four times now. Cheapest place to get it is amazon.co.uk or bookdepositry.co.uk

telekon

AI wrote: »

Yep Vol 1. is still available, has been reprinted four times now. Cheapest place to get it is amazon.co.uk or bookdepositry.co.uk

Congrats on Vol 2. I bought the first volume on the back of my addiction to the website and will be purchasing the new one too.

Is there any way of knowing which buildings have been recently added to the website? Sometimes it is hard to know which ones you have viewed before and which ones you haven't...

AI

Telekon - many thanks and I'm sure you'll really like Vol II, it is by far my best work to date. I've been putting so much work into books lately that I haven't had much time for the website; so there have been very few updates.

AI

Free exhibition as part of Dublin Culture Night on the 21st September
Come along and say hello