1607 – Browne Mansion, Galway
The house in Lower Abbeygate Street was derelict in 1905 and was about to be demolished when the Galway Archeological and Historical Society rescued it and had it removed carefully to Eyre Square where it became the entrance into the park.
“Among the ancient buildings Lynch’s Castle and the old Browne Mansion, both at the corner of Abbey Gate Street, are the most important, and a view of the latter which is published this week will give a better idea of the character of the work than any verbal description. This house is a three storey building which has in later times been divided into shops and tenements, but which has its upper floors still £ntered by the external staircase from a courtyard in the rear which is so Spanish a characteristic of all the large houses in the town. The house was built in 1554, as shown by the date carved in the spandril of the basement door, and was erected by the Brownes, the Lords of Cranmore, as their town house. It is shown in the 1651 map very much as it now stands, but with battlemented parapets round the high-pitched roof; it is also mentioned on the plan as the house of Martin Browne. The drawing of this house will show some of the singularities of the Galway work. It will be seen that all the hoodmoulds terminate with a double return, and that the weatherings of the internal angles are filled up with carving or with a weathering of a higher pitch. The underside of the hoodmoulds where horizontal is deeply carved, the vertical portions being only moulded. The carving in the Spandrils is of a sharp crisp character, though in low relief, but some in, Lynch’s Castle opposite of the same date is quite natural in its treatment. Another speciality of the style, not shown in this drawing, is the termination of the hoodmould beyond the double twist mentioned above, with a spray of natural foliage, carved with but slight projection. Beside this should be noticed the quantity of armorial bearings, which distinguish the buildings even to a much later period than the date of these houses. The great number of gargoyles remaining in the cornices of the church and those houses still retaining their old parapets is very noticeable; and they are often found spaced out within two or three feet of each other, the perfectly plain and the richly carved ones apparently mixed together without any method. The Brownes who inhabited the house illustrated were of one of the ancient tribes of Galway, and in the church is a tomb to a Dominick Browne, who died in 1596, and who doubtless lived here. The house is also mentioned among the fourteen great houses of the town. The buildings have recently been damaged by fire, and for some time they were in risk of being removed altogether to make place for a more modern and less interesting structure, but we are glad to say that they are now under careful restoration.” The Architect, July 27 1878.
Published March 4, 2014 | Last Updated October 23, 2024