woodlawn house, galway

[magicbastarder]

does anyone know much about this place?
i was there on monday last, and managed to get in - all i really garnered from local knowledge is that it was occupied till the seventies, and featured impressive gardens. the house is as intact as you might expect - some fire damage inside, which has gone through some floors, and the roof has come in in one section, with the expected damage beneath. but it's still in relatively good nick, considering.
it's a photographer's wet dream, though - all i had was one roll of 120 left, however.


should give an idea of the scale of the place - the worker's living quarters out the back are like a small village.













i have found these links, not a huge amount of help:

http://homepage.eircom.net/~williamfinnerty/wh/index.html
http://www.grantonline.com/grant-family-genealogy/Records/woodlawn.htm

[Praxiteles]

At Kilconnell, Co. Galway, a refaced three story house enlarged in the 1860/70 by J.F. Kempster of Ballinasloe. Originally built for Lord Ashdown and sold to the Le Poer Trenches c. 1950. The house was re sold in 1974.

[Paul Clerkin]

Lovely staircase!

[Paul Clerkin]

I cannot help feeling that there was a mention of that place before on here, but I cannot find it.

[magicbastarder]

i was raging that i didn't have more film, and a tripod.

[PVC King]

There was nearly a deal done on Woodlawn 5 years ago; it is still available at a reduced price should anyone wish to restore it and the accompanying parkland. Country Club uses will not be considered.

[phil]

They are very nice images. They really convey a feeling of the present condition of the house.

[ctesiphon]

Agreed, phil. I don't know what you're complaining about, magicbastarder.
And I particularly like those cast iron cornucopia features on the bases of the bannisters, affixed to the stair ends- most unusual.

For more info, there was a survey done of Co Galway by the NIAH in 1999 or so, but I just checked the website (http://www.buildingsofireland.ie) and it seems not to have been published yet, at least online. There might be a paper version of it lying around in the NIAH offices, but they might be reluctant to admit this to the public owing to the time elapsed since the survey was done.

[magicbastarder]

it is still available at a reduced price

how much is a 'reduced price'?

[PVC King]

Send me a PM and I will forward you the relevant contact details of the person who put the aborted deal together the last time

[magicbastarder]

cheers, but it was only idle curiosity.

[Paul Clerkin]

Now I'd love that house.

[GrahamH]

What a fantastic place - lovely pictures mb.

It is indeed available at a reduced price. I remember this being advertised in property supplements five years ago, astonished at the knock-down price it was going for. I still have the cuttings somewhere if I can find them...

Of course were it to be restored it'd just be another pile of Victoriana - much better to leave it as a crumbling romantic pile
Not at all, but one can never help feeling that with any restoration, the mystique and faded grandeur that makes a place so worthy of restoration in the first place is paradoxically often completely wiped out upon the work getting underway.
The inherent potential of a decrepit building can be more satisfying than its realisation.

What a stunning staircase.

[magicbastarder]

i'd just be curious at what sort of use you could put the restored house to - at a rough guess, it's well over 30,000 square foot. it's about twelve miles northwest of ballinasloe, and if the conditions exclude a country club, what's left?

[Paul Clerkin]

a house of debauchery... upmarket whorehouse for international jetsetting whitetrash

[PVC King]

I saw a file from last year for a nine bed new build half way up the side of Nephin with 21 car spaces and my first reaction was Paul's intended use for east end lowlife.

Should really be held in trust given its quality but in the absence of a properly funded national trust one can only hope that a philanthropic minded individual with deep pockets may be seeking a country home.

[magicbastarder]

anyone got martin naughton's phone number?

[GrahamH]

*checks little black book*

I've Dermot Desmond....Sir Anthony O'Reilly....Denis O'Brien is here too - just not Naughton I'm afraid
Bah - so close.


The ad. Not generally in the habit of hoarding things, but I still have this from The Irish Times, Thursday September 13th
2001:



What a bargain.

[magicbastarder]

that was about 8k an acre for the land alone.

[ctesiphon]

anyone got martin naughton's phone number?

Yes. But he's not shopping at the moment.

a house of debauchery... upmarket whorehouse for international jetsetting whitetrash

Well it has 26 bedrooms- one for every ****** in the Republic?

[alexaia]

Here's a link yo some photos I came across a while back.


http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/woodlawngway/album?.dir=7a12&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

[GrahamH]

Great stuff alexaia - thanks for posting. What a place! What's interesting about Victorian piles like this is the sheer scale of the places. Whereas Georgian mansions accommodated a small amount of large rooms, Victorian houses featured a large amount of small rooms! - in many ways the precurser of the modern-day detached house with its myriad ill-proportioned boxy rooms. Woodlawn is just unbeliveably large - as if built just for the sake of holding as many rooms as possible! It seems even the ancillary buildings far outstrip the grandeur of the house.

The extent to which the house is mass-produced is wonderful - a monument to the pattern books and off-the-shelf products of the Victorian age. This extraordinary image says it all




Interesting that Georgian sashes were used to the rear as late as 1885 - nice little cost-cutting measure. Plate glass may still have been quite expensive in rural/western areas. The plate sashes to the front are also quite small. I love this little addition to the rear




What bizarre proportions to the portico columns too!




The interior in many ways is reminiscent of the great neoclassical mansions of America from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This hallway could be taken straight out of the house in Jumanji



Some very strange design concepts going on there...





Surely this would cost at least €3 million to restore?

[PVC King]

Growing interest in protecting Irish heritage
Monday, 23 July 2007 09:03
A new study on the value people in Ireland place on heritage shows that the public are becoming increasingly concerned about the need to safeguard traditions.

The study also found that a majority of those surveyed called for increased funding, and that they placed heritage protection as the fifth most important priority for public spending.

The research was carried out by Lansdowne Market Research.

AdvertisementThe Chief Executive of the Heritage Council, Michael Starrett, will present the full findings of the study at the Royal Irish Academy later today

A local grass roots project could deliver on similar scales

[worms]

Hi All,

About 3 years ago, I was involved with a venture capalist whom was in the process of purchasing Woodlawn. We where engaged to do a complete survey of the building in both photographic terms and also drawing format.
The deal did go not go ahead for some strange reason which I wasnt privy to and the last known owner (Michael Lally - I believe) has since passed on.
An Taisce and Galway County Council and ourselves had site visits with a view to renovating the property and grounds. I have plenty of information, drawings & photographs of the property should anyone like to have a look.

[tomredwest]

can you post them up worms.