1763 – Browne’s Hill, Carlow, Co. Carlow

Built in 1763, Browne’s Hill is one of the few surviving Georgian mansions in the Carlow and originally comprised a detached six-bay, three-storey, over-basement structure, built in the Neo-Classical style with a granite ashlar façade. It was probably designed by the Georgian landscape architect, Matthew Peters. The house ‘quickly became the flagship seat in the county and the property which all others tried to emulate or outbuild’. It was renovated by Thomas A. Cobden in the 1830s, with a pedimented central breakfront added on the front and a full-height canted bay extended to the rear.

After the estate was sold to an English consortium by the Clayton Browne family, there was a period of agitation among the local community who felt the estate should have been split up and sold to local farmers. Eventually the house went back on the market, where it sat. Around this time, there were firms who would buy large houses and dismantle them for their materials, and there was a genuine fear for Browne’s Hill.

“is to be demolished if a buyer does not come forward within the next month. Situated in a large park with fine timber, Browne’s Hill is in first-rate structural repair and would make a lovely, easily run family home. Although it is on top of a hill with panoramic views, it is not remote, the town of Carlow being only 1 ½ miles away, and Dublin 50 miles.

The house was built in 1763 by an architect named Peters for Robert Browne, in whose family it remained until recently. The three reception rooms have rich plaster ceilings and the original mantlepieces, the front hall is paved with black and white squares, and the kitchen (with Aga) is on the ground floor. The grand staircase leads up to ten bedrooms of various sizes, he principal one being octagonal with windows facing in three directions. There are two bathrooms, three lavatories, oil fired central heating and E.S.B. main electricity.

The courtyard comprises 15 stables, garages, loose boxes, dairy and groom’s house with excellent living accommodation, approximately 5,000 square feet of lofting, all in good condition. For permission to view, apply to – William Mulhall, Auctioneer and Valuer, 60 Dublin St., Carlow.
Price £2,500 with five acres. A further 68 acres is available, if required, £7,000.”
Irish Georgian Society Bulletin, April-June 1961

After a period of uncertainty and fears of demolition, the house was bought by a local family as a home and was recently on the market again after almost sixty years in that family’s ownership.

The original Georgian entrance gates to the Browne’s Hill estate, which took the form of a fine triumphal arch, featuring 10 ft. high granite gates and 61 ft. of curved railings, was put up for sale in May 1963. It was purchased by University College Dublin, removed, and erected at the entrance to the Lyons estate, then owned by the college and later home to the late Tony Ryan of Guinness Peat Aviation / Ryanair.