Sold!

probably a good thing too….the last thing we need is another Farmleigh

a great pity, the northwest has such beautiful cooutryside, but not enough by way of museums etc.

what’s so wrong with Farmleigh, what do you wish happened to it, a hotel and golf club?

I meant more from a cost point of view than anything else although I appreciate that Lissadel is important for historical reasons and that cost should not always be the paramount concern when it come to our heritage.

And as for Farmleigh I still remain to be convinced of our need for a state guesthouse/ alternative cabinet venue/ general not in use/ occasional open to the public curiosity.

So long as the people involved aren’t going to demolish Lissadell – whats wrong with people using the building for what it was intended for – a house. The last thing this country needs is another sterile dead museum

do we have many sterile dead museums?

Some have worked quite well…. Muckross House in Kilarney springs to mind, or Newbridge House. But my local attraction is the Casino Marino which left me quite underwhelmed when I last visited. It was in dire need to a lick of paint. There are very few visitors and the staff just seem to be bored rigid, and the OPW made a balls of the ground when they were sold off for housing years ago. Its a real shame.

What was so annoying over this, yet again, was the lack of clarity from the Government – will we, won’t we, what do we want it for, will it win us an extra seat in the European Elections….

My greatest shame is never to have been to Castletown, I have to go, I’ve learned so much about it and looked at countless images, yet have never been to the place!
I’ve seen Connolly’s Folly though from the main road and wow!

Castletown is fab…absolutely stunning. The main staircase alone is a gem.

The other Connolly architectural gem (the Wonderful Barn) is likely to become State (or Leixlip Town Council to be exact) property in the near future as part of a planning permission deal.

As a youth I climbed Connolly’s Folly, there is a stairway on one of the arches – sometimes the door was open – facinating place. Mariga Guinness (of Irish Georgian Soc and 50 Mountjoy Square fame) is buried under one of the other wings (don’t ask me how they got permission for that).

I knew some people who lived in one of the wings of Castletown as caretakers before it was taken over by the OPW – alas they got the boot. What’s wrong with people living in houses?

Mmm! I was sorry to discover that Frank Lloyd Wrights ‘Falling Water’ is no longer lived in but is open as an attraction. I remember seeing images of it when I was younger and imagining how great it would be to live in a house like that.
You might say that more people have access to it now but I don’t think thousands of tourists trundling through a show house corralled by those protective rails is very inspiring!

Castletown’s staircase has to be the most beautiful in Ireland, if not ‘in these islands’ to use a cliche, indeed the hall itself is awe inspiring.

Its interesting that nearly 300 years since the house was concieved, after all the progress and wealth created since, it still remains the largest private house ever built in Ireland.

In the late 18th century, the house consumed no less than 300 tons of coal a year, at least 10 trees worth of wood for it’s 90 fireplaces, and it’s household staff and family ate no less than 20,400 pounds of oxen every year!
And other facts about produce on the estate is equally amazing – not very architectural though so I’ll shut up.