Curraghmore House | |
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![]() A view of the back of Curraghmore House | |
General information | |
Status | Private dwelling house |
Type | House |
Architectural style | Georgian |
Town or city | Portlaw, County Waterford |
Country | Ireland |
Coordinates | 52°17′20″N7°21′36″W / 52.289°N 7.360°W |
Completed | 1755 (Prior structures from 1654 and 1700) |
Renovated | 1875 |
Owner | Henry Beresford, 9th Marquess of Waterford |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | John Roberts (1775) James Wyatt - interiors (1780) William Tinsley - farm and stable buildings (1850) Samuel Usher Roberts - remodelling (1875) |
Developer | Beresford-Power family |
Other designers | Paolo and Filippo Lafranchini - billiard room ceiling (1746) John van Nost the younger - statue of Catherine, Countess of Tyrone (1754) Peter DeGree - Circular medallions in drawing room ceiling and oval panels in dining room (1787) Joseph Edgar Boehm - family crest on tower and pediment (1870) |
Website | |
curraghmorehouse | |
References | |
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Curraghmore near Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland, is a historic house and estate and the seat of the Marquess of Waterford. The estate was part of the grant of land made to Sir Roger le Puher (la Poer) by Henry II in 1177 after the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. [3] Since then, the De La Poer Beresford family has owned these estates. It is the oldest family home in Ireland.
Curraghmore House is the De La Poer Beresford family estate that once covered around 39,000 acres. The family remain amongst the largest land owners in all Ireland. Curraghmore near Waterford in South East Ireland, had stables for 100 horses and employed 600 people. The family has been heavily involved in hunting throughout the centuries, to the point where members of the family have been killed in riding accidents. On the south drive spanning over the river Clodagh is King John's Bridge, built for the King's arrival in 1205. It is Ireland's oldest bridge. The mediaeval park is surrounded by a fourteen-mile famine relief boundary wall, making it the world's longest estate wall. Before the 5th Marquess removed it, the fountain in front of the house was the tallest in Europe. Now surrounded by c.3,500 acres of formal gardens, woodland and grazing fields. This makes it Ireland's largest private demesne. [4]
The estate was owned by the la Poer (Power) family for over 500 years, during which time the family gained the titles Baron la Poer (1535), and Viscount Decies and Earl of Tyrone (1673, second creation). However, in 1704 the male line of the la Poers became extinct. The estate was inherited by Lady Catherine la Poer who married Sir Marcus Beresford in 1717. He was elevated to the peerage in 1720 as Baron Beresford and Viscount Tyrone, and in 1746 he was created 1st Earl of Tyrone (third creation). The Beresford-Power family have held the estate ever since. The 1st Earl's eldest son George was created 1st Marquess of Waterford in 1789. The current Lord Waterford, Henry Nicholas de la Poer Beresford, 9th Marquess of Waterford inherited the title on the death of his father John Hubert de La Poer Beresford, 8th Marquess of Waterford in February 2015 and moved into Curraghmore. Lord and Lady Waterford plan to develop the estate, promote tourism and open the house more regularly. [5] Gerrit van Honthorst, Rubens, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Joshua Reynolds, and Thomas Gainsborough are among the artists represented within the house. A special family treasure is a pearl necklace that was once owned by Mary Queen of Scots, who gave it to Mary Hamilton the night before the Queen's execution.
It is believed that a castle was erected on the site in the twelfth century, [6] however the core of the current house is a medieval tower-house. This was extended in 1700 when a house was built around a court with the medieval tower-house incorporated at the north-eastern side. A forecourt with stables was added in the 1750s or 1760s and the house was refurbished in the 1780s. [7] Samuel Usher Roberts, a grandson of the Waterford architect John Roberts, is credited with encasing the main block of the house in the late 19th century. [8] The forecourt, flanked by ranges of outbuildings, is described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as “without precedent or parallel in Ireland”. [9]
Starting in 2018, the estate had held the All Together Now music festival in the grounds of the estate on the August bank holiday weekend. [10] The event took place on the August Bank Holiday weekend in 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Marquess of Waterford is a title in the Peerage of Ireland and the premier marquessate in that peerage. It was created in 1789 for the Anglo-Irish politician George Beresford, 2nd Earl of Tyrone. The title is presently held by Henry Beresford, 9th Marquess of Waterford.
Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church is a Roman Catholic church in Dublin, Ireland maintained by the Carmelite order. The church is noted for having the relics of Saint Valentine, which were donated to the church in the 19th century by Pope Gregory XVI from their previous location in the cemetery of St. Hippolytus in Rome.
Baron Decies, of Decies in the County of Waterford, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1812 for the Right Reverend William Beresford, Archbishop of Tuam from 1794 to 1819. He was the third son of Marcus Beresford, 1st Earl of Tyrone, and the younger brother of George Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford. His son, the second Baron, married Charlotta Philadelphia Horsley, the only daughter and heiress of Robert Horsley (1749-1809) of Bolam Hall in Northumberland, which he built on the estate purchased in 1727 by his father John Horsley. In accordance with the terms of his wife's inheritance he assumed the additional surname of Horsley in 1810. However, none of the subsequent barons have held this surname. His grandson, the fifth Baron, was a Major in the Army and also sat in the House of Lords as an Irish representative peer from 1912 to 1944. As of 2013 the title is held by his grandson, the seventh Baron, who succeeded his father in 1992.
Henry de la Poer Beresford, 3rd Marquess of Waterford,, styled Lord Henry Beresford before 1824 and Earl of Tyrone between 1824 and 1826, was an Irish peer. Referred to as the "Mad Marquis", he is also remembered as an eccentric.
Baron Beresford is a title that was created three times for the Beresford family, one in the Peerage of Ireland and later also two in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In all instances it was created for men who were eminent politicians or soldiers. The first creation still exists as a subsidiary title, but the latter two became extinct at the death of their original holder.
John de la Poer Beresford, PC, PC (Ire) was an Anglo-Irish statesman.
John Henry de la Poer Beresford, 5th Marquess of Waterford,, styled Earl of Tyrone from 1859 to 1866, was an Irish peer and Conservative politician. He served as Master of the Buckhounds under Lord Salisbury from 1885 to 1886.
Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby, born Charlotte de La Trémoille, is famous for her robust defence of Lathom House during the English Civil War.
John Hubert de la Poer Beresford, 8th Marquess of Waterford was an Irish peer. He succeeded to the marquessate in 1934. He was educated at Eton, and later served as a lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards' Supplementary Reserve.
George de la Poer Beresford, 1st Marquess of Waterford, KP, PC (Ire), styled Earl of Tyrone from 1763 to 1789, was an Anglo-Irish politician.
William Beresford, 1st Baron Decies was an Anglo-Irish clergyman.
Portlaw is a town in County Waterford, Ireland. It is also a parish in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore. It is situated approximately 14 km west-north-west of Waterford City, where the Clodiagh meets the Suir.
Baron La Poer, de la Poer, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland held by the Marquess of Waterford. Its creation is the sole instance in the law of the Kingdom of Ireland recognising a peerage by writ.
Henry de la Poer Beresford, 2nd Marquess of Waterford, KP, PC (Ire) styled Lord Le Poer from 1783 until 1789 and Earl of Tyrone from 1789 to 1800, was an Irish peer.
Henry de la Poer Beresford, 6th Marquess of Waterford,, styled Earl of Tyrone until 1895, was an Irish peer and soldier.
John Cochran or Cochrane was a Scottish portrait miniaturist, a stipple and line engraver and a painter of watercolours. Cochran exhibited his portraits at the Royal Academy between 1821 and 1823, and at the Suffolk Street Gallery from 1821 to 1827.
John Charles de la Poer Beresford, 7th Marquess of Waterford, styled Earl of Tyrone until 1911, was an Irish peer and soldier.
Gurteen de la Poer, or Gurteen le Poer, is an Elizabethan Revival house in County Waterford, Ireland, situated on the south bank of the River Suir, close to Kilsheelan and about 8 km east of Clonmel.
Lady Clodagh de la Poer Beresford, was an Anglo-Irish philanthropist, writer and aristocrat.
Thomas Cobbe (1733–1814), of the Newbridge Demesne in north County Dublin, was an Irish politician.