Killarney House, Co. Kerry

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It’s September and it’s time to go on a little holiday to Kerry. What a wonderful building. I look forward to hearing all about it, I do hope it is still standing. I really like that window to the right of the doorway, the configuration of 5 in a row, is something you don't usually associate with Kerry!

Photographer: Robert French

Collection: Lawrence Photograph Collection

Date: Circa ~~1865~~ 1877-1914 (thanks Niall McAuley)

NLI Ref: L_ROY_02024

You can also view this image, and many thousands of others, on the NLI’s catalogue at catalogue.nli.ie

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Owner: National Library of Ireland on The Commons
Source: Flickr Commons
Views: 10667

robertfrench williamlawrence lawrencecollection lawrencephotographicstudio glassnegative nationallibraryofireland kerry cokerry munster killarney killarneyhouse gardens lawrencephotographcollection

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derangedlemur
- 08/Sep/2020 05:54:44
Bad news for those hoping it's still standing, I'm afraid: bit.ly/2R72M7H
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 07:39:11
Lots of history in the comments for nearby (but also gone) Kenmare House:
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 07:42:44
This house was built in 1872, burned down in 1913. Queen Victoria, visiting the estate in 1861, is supposed to have chosen the site for this house.
cargeofg
- 08/Sep/2020 07:53:43
Looking back at the research done on these houses and history of fires it is worth noting the permanently fitted ladders beside the chimneys. In Sweden you are required by law to have a steel ladder fitted to your house roof if there are chimneys.
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 07:56:15
The DIA dates the house to 1877-78.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
- 08/Sep/2020 07:58:33
Seems to be the south east facade (see 25" map). Looks like a chapel on the right with an extraordinary onion spire and a sputnik thingie on top.
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 08:00:36
Moo!
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
- 08/Sep/2020 08:12:50
A little to the left - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000324372 And the south west facade - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000324376
sharon.corbet
- 08/Sep/2020 08:38:20
There's a picture here from 1913 showing the valuables saved from the house during the fire all over the garden.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
- 08/Sep/2020 09:20:14
Flickr is sometimes . . . "Copyright 1902" via [https://www.flickr.com/photos/hwmobs/] www.flickr.com/photos/hwmobs/7649410248/in/photostream/ Comparison with - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000324376 - which was first?
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 09:59:35
It apparently burned down twice, once in 1879 just after it was built, and then again in 1913.
Bernard Healy
- 08/Sep/2020 10:00:05
Here's a link to a relic of Killarney House - also known as Kenmare House - in the Cathedral in Killarney. The Brownes (the Earls of Kenmare) have an interesting family history. Some of you might have studied a satirical poem in Irlsh by the 18th Century poet Aogán Ó Rathaile wherein he mocks Vailintín Brún (Valentine Browne) for being an inadequate replacement for the noble and generous Irish Lords who preceded him in the Killarney area. The Brownes had the title Earl of Kenmare and were that unusual thing - Catholic peers in Ireland. As such, the 2nd Earl of Kenmare (I think) gave the land for the Cathedral in Killarney, as well as the nearby convents and schools. This gift meant that the Bishops of Kerry moved from Tralee to Killarney. His status meant that the Earls of Kenmare also had the right to nominate the Parish Priests of Fossa and of Kilcummin, parishes adjacent to Killarney itself. Indeed, well into the 20th century, the last of the family Mrs Beatrice Grosvenor - herself an extraordinary character and worthy of study - had the right to have one of the priests from St Brendan's College come and say Mass for her and her household every Sunday morning when she was resident in Killarney. Anyway, when the Chapel of Killarney House (also Kenmare House) was being built, Bishop David Moriarty of Kerry laid the foundation stone in 1877. However, he seems to have had a stroke during the ceremony & died shortly afterwards. (Moriarty deserves to be better known as well - one of the most accomplished and far-sighted of the 19th Century Irish hierarchy, he is nowadays only remembered for his hostility to the Fenians. He famously condemned the leaders of the Fenians as follows: ‘Eternity is not long enough nor Hell hot enough for such miscreants.’ That being said, he later stepped back somewhat from his vehemence & it's often forgotten that he had a sympathy for the New Irelanders, so his political outlook is more complicated than he is usually given credit for.) Anyway, after the fire in Killarney House, this mosaic image of the Good Shepherd which had been erected in the chapel of Killarney House to the memory of Bishop Moriarty was moved to the porch nearest the sacristy of the Cathedral. (Much of the above is from memory, but I'm pretty sure I have the significant details correct.)
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 10:06:36
Collen, the company that built it back in the 1870s, are still going, and have a photo which overlaps this one on the project page. OK, it looks like they are using nearby L_ROY_02026
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 10:20:44
Getty images have a view from the house out over the lakes.
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
- 08/Sep/2020 10:27:16
Via Trove, this facade was almost completely covered by that ivy at the time of the 1913 fire, which "broke out in a room on the top floor" - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/88772468?searchTerm=%2... . So this photo is likely to be a good deal earlier than 1913. Edit - And before July 1907 - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/169885470?searchTerm=%...
John Spooner
- 08/Sep/2020 10:48:10
One of the reasons the fire was so destructive was that the hose couplings of the equipment Inspector Cheeseman and his men brought to put it out weren't compatible with those of the private water supply at the House.
Bernard Healy
- 08/Sep/2020 11:27:31
Here's a little blogpost about the statue in the right foreground. davidhicksbook.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-moving-statue-of-...
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 11:28:36
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] That 1907 article is phrased as a quote from "Ireland in Pictures", which I think is probably this 1897 book: Ireland in Pictures a Grand Collection of Over 500 Magnificent photographs of the beauties of the Green Isle Comprising Views of the Most Famous Buildings Historic Places Romantic Scenery Venerable Ruins Rich Art Treasures Etc. Etc. Finerty, John F. Published by The International Photographic Publishing Co., Chicago, 1897 Or maybe 1898: Killarney House That edition is 400 magnificent etc. dated 1898, digitized by Boston College.
suckindeesel
- 08/Sep/2020 11:42:49
This Elizabethan Revival monstrosity was built for Valentine Augustus Browne, 4th Earl of Kenmare (16 May 1825 – 9 February 1905) His widow died the same year as the fire of 1913
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 11:47:29
That browseable book is very bad news: now I have to check all 400 pics to see if they date anything in the nli's stream.
Niall McAuley
- 08/Sep/2020 11:52:56
The pattern of creeper growth and even the pattern of open windows in today's shot matches the one in that 1898 book, I think they were taken on the same visit. We are before 1898.
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
- 08/Sep/2020 12:53:21
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley Sure what else do you have to be doing, Niall?! :)
suckindeesel
- 08/Sep/2020 16:21:41
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia] South west facade again, but earlier NLI LROY2023 catalogue.nli.ie/Search/Results?lookfor=LROY2023&type...
Architecture of Dublin
- 08/Sep/2020 16:32:26
[babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=bc.ark:/13960/t78t0q73r&am...] Page 24, 38, 53, 73, 139 for Vandaleur evictions photographs
ɹǝqɯoɔɥɔɐǝq
- 08/Sep/2020 20:51:03
Relieved to know I am not the only ivy creeper and open window peeper! We have come across that 1898 'Ireland in Pictures' book previously; can't remember where ... Still fascinated by that sputnik thingie on the spire. It looks very mock Elizabethan and is probably full of fantastic symbolism. Or just an elaborate pigeon scarer. Better seen here - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000324373
suckindeesel
- 08/Sep/2020 22:47:34
https://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcomberaustralia Probably used for catching lighting strikes for use in the dungeon. The onion thing very likely was an accumulator for storing the charge. Well, just as likely as spending the modern equivalent of over £9,000,000 to build it in the first place, letting it burn down, and promptly rebuilding it, not once but twice! These people must have been fabulously wealthy and the gap between them and the peasants would have been enormous. Of course, the family did own in excess of 100,000 acres, mostly in Kerry.
suckindeesel
- 08/Sep/2020 23:57:30
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected] I think the book's author, Mr. Finerty, and his sister, appear in one of the eviction pictures. Look for a well dressed couple observing the proceedings. Most people mistake them for the landlords, but they wouldn't be present having plenty of others to do their dirty work.
BlueisCoool
- 11/Sep/2020 15:55:24
Very impressive!
Niall McAuley
- 19/Nov/2020 14:40:20
In the archive, this Morgan aerial shot of the ruins: NPA MOR241
National Library of Ireland on The Commons
- 19/Nov/2020 17:05:29
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gnmcauley Thanks Niall.
[email protected]
- 21/Apr/2021 06:47:08
It is with the greatest of pleasure to invite you to join 17 BEAUTIFUL GARDEN PORTFOLIO group along with your excellent photos of the place featured that is within one of the listed counties. Thank you and have a great day.
Architecture of Dublin
- 28/May/2021 16:13:33
https://www.flickr.com/photos/foundin_a_attic/40137697563/