Bellevue House, County Wicklow

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Bellevue House
Ireland adm location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location within Ireland
Former namesBallydonagh Estate
General information
Locationnear Delgany, County Wicklow
CountryIreland
Coordinates 53°08′24″N6°06′50″W / 53.140°N 6.114°W / 53.140; -6.114
Ownerdemolished in the early 1950s

Bellevue House was an 18th-century country house set in its own 300 acre (120 ha) demesne, in the village of Delgany, County Wicklow. It is 25 km (16 miles) south of the Dublin. The house was built on an estate originally called Ballydonagh, after the townland which borders it to the south west. It was demolished in the 1950s. Delgany Golf Club is now located on the estate.

The house had extensive gardens with winding paths, large glasshouses and panoramic views across the Glen of the Downs (a wooded valley to the west) and across farmland eastward to the Irish Sea.

History

The Ballydonagh demesne was bought in 1753 by David La Touche, a rich banker from Dublin of Huguenot extraction from his friend, Richard Chevenix Trench, the Anglican Archbishop of Dublin. He built a house between 1754 and 1756 at a cost of £30,000 and named it Bellevue. In 1785 it was inherited by his son Peter, who moved in after in 1786 his wife Rebecca Vicars died and he married her cousin Elizabeth Vicars. Peter La Touche built the church in Delgany in 1789 and his wife opened an orphanage and school for female children in the grounds of Bellevue. He died in 1828.

The estate was inherited by his nephew Peter La Touche, of Marley, County Dublin and previously the Member of Parliament for County Leitrim. Peter died two years later and it passed to his eldest son Peter David, who donated land to build St Patrick's church in nearby Greystones. Peter David died in 1857 and Bellevue then passed to his brother William Robert who lived until 1892. After William Robert the estate went to his brother Octavius and then to Octavius' son Peter, a major in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. He died in 1904 and the estate was divided between his widow and his three sisters, one of whom, Frances, moved into Bellevue with her husband Dr Archer.

The family then ran into financial difficulties and finally left Bellevue in 1913 after which the house fell into decay and was pulled down in the early 1950s. Part of the land was taken over by the Forestry Division of the Department of Lands.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greystones</span> Town in County Wicklow, Ireland

Greystones is a coastal town and seaside resort in County Wicklow, Ireland. It lies on Ireland's east coast, 3.5 km (2.2 mi) south of Bray and 24 km (15 mi) south of Dublin city centre and has a population of 22,009, according to the 2022 census. The town is bordered by the Irish Sea to the east, Bray Head to the north and the Wicklow Mountains to the west. It is the second largest town in County Wicklow.

Ballyfin is a village and parish in the Slieve Bloom Mountains in County Laois, Ireland. It is around 8 km west of Portlaoise, on the L21121 local road which joins the R423 regional road between Mountrath and Mountmellick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belvedere House and Gardens</span> Country house in Ireland

Belvedere House and Gardens is a country house located approximately 8 kilometres (5 mi) from Mullingar, County Westmeath in Ireland on the north-east shore of Lough Ennell. It was built in 1740 as a hunting lodge for Robert Rochfort, 1st Earl of Belvedere by architect Richard Cassels, one of Ireland's foremost Palladian architects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carton House</span> Large country house in Maynooth, Ireland

Carton House is a country house and surrounding demesne that was the ancestral seat of the Earls of Kildare and Dukes of Leinster for over 700 years. Located 23 km west of Dublin, in Maynooth, County Kildare, the Carton Demesne is a 1,100 acres estate, from an original estate of 70,000 acres. For two hundred years, the Carton Demesne was the finest example in Ireland of a Georgian-created parkland landscape. In the 2000s, much of the demesne was redeveloped into two golf courses and the house into a hotel complex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Belfast Castle</span> Castle on the slopes of Cavehill Country Park, Belfast, Northern Ireland

Belfast Castle is a mansion located in Cave Hill Country Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in a prominent position 400 feet (120 m) above sea level. Its location provides unobstructed views over the City of Belfast and Belfast Lough. There have been several structures called "Belfast Castle" over the centuries, located on different sites. The current "castle" is a Victorian structure, built between 1867 and 1870 on the slopes of Cave Hill, and is Grade A listed. The main entrance into the Belfast Castle Demesne is now where Innisfayle Park meets Downview Park West, just off the Antrim Road. The original main entrance into the current demesne was formerly on the Antrim Road itself, where Strathmore Park now meets the Antrim Road.

Eyrecourt Castle was an Irish 17th century country house in Galway which became a ruin in the 20th century. The house, the surrounding estate, and the nearby small town of Eyrecourt all took their name from Colonel the Right Hon. John Eyre, an Englishman who was granted a large parcel of land in recognition of his part in the military campaign in Galway during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. There was an earlier fortified house or castle on the same land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlay Park</span> Suburban public park in Rathfarnham in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland

Marlay Park is an 86 hectares suburban public park located in Rathfarnham in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown, Ireland. Lying about nine kilometres from Dublin city centre, the parkland comprises woodlands, ponds and walks. Recreational spaces include a nine-hole, par-three golf course, tennis courts, six soccer pitches, five GAA pitches, a cricket pitch,a dog park, two children's playgrounds and a miniature railway run by the Dublin Society of Model and Experimental Engineers. There is also a craft courtyard with home craft shops and a coffee shop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ardgillan Castle</span> Country house and demesne near Balbriggan, north of Dublin, Ireland

Ardgillan Castle is a country house near Balbriggan, County Dublin, Ireland. It is set in the 200-acre (0.81 km2) Ardgillan Demesne, a public park in the jurisdiction of Fingal County Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delgany</span> Village in County Wicklow, Ireland

Delgany is a small rural village in County Wicklow in Ireland, located on the R762 road which connects to the N11 road at the Glen of the Downs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bailieborough Castle</span> Former castle in County Cavan, Ireland

Bailieborough Castle was located in Bailieborough, County Cavan, Ireland. It was built in an enclosed demesne by 1629. Also known as Castle House, Lisgar House, or simply 'The Castle', the country house was located just to the south-west of Castle Lough in what is now known as Bailieborough Demesne, on the north-western edge of the town. It was largely destroyed by fire in the early 20th century and is now totally demolished.

Sir Maurice FitzGerald, 18th Knight of Kerry was an hereditary knight and an Irish Whig politician.

Michael Stapleton is regarded as having been the most skilled stuccodore working in the neoclassical or "Adam" style that dominated Dublin interior decoration in the final decades of the 18th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glen of the Downs</span> Nature reserve in glacial valley in Ireland

The Glen of the Downs is a 2 km long wooded glacial valley with steep sides rising to almost 250m on the east coast of Ireland. It contains a designated Nature Reserve comprising 59 ha, and is a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).

Peter La Touche was a landowner and Irish politician.

John Hickey (1751–1795) was an Irish sculptor.

Thomas Marlay was an Irish politician and judge, who ended his career as Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. He is remembered chiefly for beginning the rebuilding of Celbridge Abbey, and as the grandfather of the statesman Henry Grattan.

Sir Peter George FitzGerald, 1st Baronet, 19th Knight of Kerry was an Anglo-Irish nobleman.

Lyons Demesne, also Lyons Estate, is a country house and estate in Lyons Hill, County Kildare, Ireland. It is located near Newcastle Demesne and Celbridge, to the northeast of Tipperstown, 24.8 kilometres (15.4 mi) west of the city centre of Dublin. The Georgian house, completed in 1797 under architect Oliver Grace, is set in 600 acres (240 ha). Historically, Lyons was the setting of a notable duel between Daniel O'Connell and John D'Esterre. University College Dublin, Lyons Research Farm consists of a portion of the original Lyons Estate and is used by the School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine for teaching and research activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirwan House</span> Former Protetant orphanage for females in Dublin, Ireland

Kirwan House or The Female Orphan House was a Church of Ireland-run female orphanage initially at 42 Prussia Street (1790-93), next on Dublin's North Circular Road (1793-1959) and latterly at 134 Sandford Road in Ranelagh (1959-87).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santry Court</span> House in County Dublin, Ireland

Santry Court was a Georgian house and demesne in Santry, north County Dublin built between 1703-09 on the site of an earlier medieval residence.

References

    53°08′24″N6°06′50″W / 53.140°N 6.114°W / 53.140; -6.114