Irish Country Houses

A good architect can create design by observing their environment and thinking of ways

their creations would be best suitable for the community surrounding their space for creation. Sir

Edward Lovett Pearce was one of the most important Palladian architects working in Ireland. His

contributions to Ireland, one being his entrance-hall with columnar screen, served as later

designs for Irish country-houses (“Sir Edward Lovett Pearce,” Oxford Reference).

His first important commission, as stated on Oxford Reference’s website, seems to have

been the interior and wings at Castletown, Co Kildare. Castletown, Co Kildare stands almost as

the beginning of Irish country-house building, and, as so often happens in the history of art,

nothing quite so splendid was ever built again, said Maurice Craig, author of The Architecture of

Ireland: from the earliest times to 1880.

The sum of it is that in 1719 the Florentine Alessandro Galilei, who had been brought to

England and to Ireland by John Molesworth of Brackenstown, designed the elevations and

perhaps the plan also of the main block, said Craig, and may have even sketched out the general

conception of the curved colonnades and wings, and returned to Italy the same year.

The main house is built of a silvery white limestone, the wings are in a coarser limestone,

rich in subtle tints of pink, brown, and blue. The East wing contains the vaulted and palatial

stabling, the West the kitchen and allied services (Craig 182).

The building of Castletown is believed to be a patriotic action rather than a political one.

One could assume that the inspiration behind the building of the structure was like an ode to the

country of Ireland and its culture. It is almost like Pearce’s desire was to build a structure that

would have coherently depicted the beautiful assets of Irish culture.

 The mansion at Summerhill was also designed by Pearce, and completed by Richard

Cassels, in the Palladian style. Summerhill had an axil approach from the North and stood on top

of a hill. The mansion consisted of a center block and two wings, with an inset of Corinthian

columns. Summerhill was burned some time in the nineteenth century, and again during the

epidemic of 1922.

Pearce continued to design houses in his signature – Palladian style – like Drumcondra,

Cashel Palace, Bellamont Forest, Woodlands, Lismore, Gloster, and Cuba Court. His

architectural career in Ireland took place between 1726 and 1733 (Craig 77). By 1731 he was

well-known in London to be an accomplished house-designer (77).

 Works Cited

Craig, Maurice. Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size. Architectural Press, 1976. Print.

Craig, Maurice. The Architecture of Ireland: from the earliest times to 1880. Eason, 1982. Print.

“Sir Edward Lovett Pearce.” Oxford Reference. 2020. Available at:

https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100312910