While in Ireland visiting relatives we headed over to the west coast to do the Westport to Achill greenway cycle route. A nominal search for derelict things to look at en route brought up the Carrigglas (or Carrickglass) demesne. The main attraction here is a Tudor-Gothic revival style manor house (ca. 1840) but there is also a part-built abandoned hotel and golf course along with an abandoned holiday village on the same estate; Ireland is littered with this sort of stuff after the 2008 crash.
The manor house proved to be too well defended, but the somewhat earlier (1792 - 1804) double courtyard and stables nearby was an unexpectedly pretty collection of buildings. Now anyone who knows Dublin will probably have heard of James Gandon as the architect of the Custom House, the Four Courts and O’Connell Bridge, amongst others. He also did grand country houses and it turns out that the double courtyard is one of his few remaining rural projects.
“This complex comprises an elegantly proportioned walled rectangle divided into two courtyards with a stable block to the northeast and a more architecturally plain and rustic, but nevertheless, impressive, agricultural/farmyard complex to the southwest. The differing architectural treatment of the yards has been interpreted as a metaphor for the superior status of the horse over agricultural/farmyard activity” http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=LF®no=13401415.
On looking around it seems that some parts of the courtyards have been restored and others are probably destined to be holiday lets, although work stopped some time ago and none of it is in use, just decaying slowly in the damp Irish weather. The most interesting feature was the stables which look completely original.
Externals, starting with the more agricultural end and finishing with the stables, which are behind the red doors.
The remains of several sheep.
We were puzzled as to the function of the slots in a spiral staircase.
The manor house proved to be too well defended, but the somewhat earlier (1792 - 1804) double courtyard and stables nearby was an unexpectedly pretty collection of buildings. Now anyone who knows Dublin will probably have heard of James Gandon as the architect of the Custom House, the Four Courts and O’Connell Bridge, amongst others. He also did grand country houses and it turns out that the double courtyard is one of his few remaining rural projects.
“This complex comprises an elegantly proportioned walled rectangle divided into two courtyards with a stable block to the northeast and a more architecturally plain and rustic, but nevertheless, impressive, agricultural/farmyard complex to the southwest. The differing architectural treatment of the yards has been interpreted as a metaphor for the superior status of the horse over agricultural/farmyard activity” http://www.buildingsofireland.ie/niah/search.jsp?type=record&county=LF®no=13401415.
On looking around it seems that some parts of the courtyards have been restored and others are probably destined to be holiday lets, although work stopped some time ago and none of it is in use, just decaying slowly in the damp Irish weather. The most interesting feature was the stables which look completely original.
Externals, starting with the more agricultural end and finishing with the stables, which are behind the red doors.
The remains of several sheep.
We were puzzled as to the function of the slots in a spiral staircase.
