Castletown House

Castletown was built from 1722 for William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and the richest man in Ireland, to a design begun by the Italian architect Alessandro Galilei and completed by Edward Lovett Pearce. It is the earliest and largest Palladian house in the country and set the template for everything that followed. The interiors include a Long Gallery decorated in the Pompeian manner in the 1770s and a staircase hall with plasterwork by the Lafranchini brothers. By the 1960s the house had been stripped and was facing demolition; Desmond Guinness bought it in 1967 through the Irish Georgian Society, essentially on his own initiative, and began the recovery of the contents and fabric. The state took it over in 1994. The parkland runs to the Liffey, is free and open daily, and includes the Conolly Folly and the Wonderful Barn on the wider estate.

History

The house was built in 1722 for William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, as the centre of an 800-acre estate, and after his death in 1729 his widow Katherine lived and entertained here until 1752. The estate was sold in 1965, the house and 120 acres were bought by preservationists as the first major project of the Irish Georgian Society, and it passed to the state in 1994 (Wikipedia, Castletown House).

What's there

• The Long Gallery - Pompeian decoration from the 1770s.
• The Lafranchini plasterwork - in the staircase hall.
• The Palladian front - the earliest and largest of its kind in Ireland.
• The parkland - free, open, running down to the Liffey.

When to go

April to October for the house, which has reduced or closed winter opening. The parkland is open year-round. Tours run at set times and book up at weekends.

Things to know

House access is by guided tour at fixed times, with seasonal closure. Some rooms remain sparsely furnished after the twentieth-century stripping. Parking charges apply. The Wonderful Barn and Conolly Folly are separate sites with their own access.

Nearby

Celbridge village is beside the gates; Maynooth and its castle are north-west.

Key facts