ARDFRY HOUSE

Описание: Ardrey House was built in 1770 by by Joseph Blake, who later gained the title of Lord Wallscourt. This title became synonymous with the house that has now fallen to ruins. The Wallscourts lived there until the second wife of the fourth Earl frittered away all the family money on gambling. She even sold the lead of every roof on the estate. The mansion was left empty and much of the contents stolen - a grand piano was later rescued from a barber's shop. In 1922 the Walscourt title became extinct, but in 1950 the three granddaughters of the fourth Earl succeeded in legally reclaiming the house and 33 acres of the family estate. These three Blake sisters, known locally as the three gay mice lived in an outhouse close to the ruin. The family coat of arms, rescued from the ruin reads VIRTUS SOLA NOBILITAT, Virtue Alone Enobles.


Ardfry was designed as a two-storey house with nine bays, a central pediment to the front and a raised roofed pavilion at either end. It was renovated in 1826 and updated with some gothic features including a pointed entrance doorway with pinnacles, battlements on the end pavilions and a gothic conservatory with stone piers.


Ardfry (which means The Height of the Heather) has had a colourful past, thanks to many of its eccentric owners, one of whom was known to walk around the house naked carrying a cowbell to forewarn the maids.


At the time of Griffith's Valuation it was being leased by the trustees of Lord Wallscourt's estate to Pierce Joyce when it was valued at £60.


Ardfry House was used in the Paul Newman film, The Mackintosh Man, when the house was re-roofed and re-windowed, and then burnt - destroying many remnants of the internal features.


The lands also contain the ruins of an earlier castle, previously home to the Blakes, one of the 14 `tribes' of Galway.




Roofless remains of detached two-storey over basement double-pile country house, built c.1780, renovated c.1820, now roofless. Comprising central block having nine bays to front and six bays to rear, having two-bay two-storey towers of c.1820 terminating each end, projecting slightly to front of front pile and having two-bay two-storey bows to front elevations. Further single-bay three-storey block to north-east re-entrant corner. Towers have crenellated parapets with quatrefoils to centre, and decorative carved stone pinnacles to corners. Rendered chimneystacks. Rendered rubble limestone walls with limestone render string course to eaves and moulded render eaves and sill courses to towers. Square-headed chamfered window openings with stone sills. Label-mouldings to windows of four westmost bays of rear elevation, and moulded quatrefoil opening above front entrance. No frames survive. Upper windows to north elevation have moulded heads and upper jambs of medieval limestone work, that to tower having decorative vegetal detailing. Pointed arch door opening with carved limestone doorcase and flaning clustered columns, with ogee detail above having decorative pinnacle, and with moulded lintel to doorway proper. Remains of courtyard to rear, with pseudo-three-centred arched carriage opening with cut-stone voussoirs to north wall. Set outside Oranmore village on a peninsula jutting into Galway Bay.
Appraisal

Built in the late eighteenth century on the site of an earlier castle owned by the Blakes, Ardfry House has been much altered and added to during its life. The first documented restoration was completed in 1826 when some features were added in the then fashionable Gothic Revival style, including pinnacles, crenellations and the quatrefoil window above the entrance door. The house was residence to Lord Wallscourt, about whom it is said that liked to roam naked and was made to wear a cowbell by his wife to warn the maids of his approach. The house received another brief facelift during the early 1970s when it was re-roofed and refenestrated for use in the Paul Newman film, 'The Mackintosh Man'. Now ruinous, it nonetheless creates an interesting eyecatcher in the landscape.