Tyrone House

Tyrone House in County Galway is a ruined manor house, built in the 1770s on a promontory by the estuary of the Kilcolgan river, about 2 miles (3 km) from the village of Kilcolgan, County Galway, Ireland.

Not to be confused with Tyrone House, Dublin.

Tyrone House
Tyrone House is located in Ireland
Tyrone House
General information
TypeHouse
Architectural styleGeorgian, Palladian
ClassificationDerelict
Town or cityKilcolgan, County Galway
CountryIreland
Coordinates53.207019°N 8.909472°W / 53.207019; -8.909472
Estimated completion1779
Technical details
Materiallimestone
Floor count3 over basement
Design and construction
Architect(s)John Roberts
DeveloperChristopher St.George
Known forInspiration for the book by Edith Somerville, The Big House of Inver
[1]

The house was destroyed by the local Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit during the Irish War of Independence.

History

Tyrone House, County Galway, was built in 1779.[2] It should not be confused with Tyrone House, Marlborough Street, Dublin, a townhouse designed by Richard Cassels for The 1st Earl of Tyrone of the 3rd creation in 1740.[3]

Writing in the 1780s, Daniel Augustus Beaufort described the house as '‘large and new but very bleak and too high'.[4]

Its original owner was Christopher St. George, scion of an old Norman Galwegian family.[2] The house was reputedly designed by John Roberts (1712/14–1796) of Waterford, who also designed Moore Hall in County Mayo in a similar style.[5] The St. George family at the time owned much of the area around Kilcolgan.[6] Arthur French St. George was described as a resident proprietor in 1824.[7]

In 1912, Tyrone House was described as "rather dilapidated" by visitor Violet Martin. It served as an inspiration for the novel "The Big House at Inver" by Edith Somerville, published in 1925.[6]

The house was destroyed by the local IRA unit during the Irish War of Independence in 1920[6] due to rumours that it was going to be used by the Black and Tans as an infirmary. The house was uninhabited at the time, except for a bed-bound caretaker who was taken from the house in his bed and left in another building on the premises before the main house was set alight.

References
  1. "Tyrone House". The Irish Aesthete. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
  2. "National Inventory of Architectural Heritage - Tyrone House, County Galway". Department of Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  3. "Tyrone House (Department of Education), Marlborough Street, Dublin 1, DUBLIN". Buildings of Ireland. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  4. "Tyrone House exterior and interior – Irish Architectural Archive". www.iarc.ie. 25 November 2022. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  5. Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government (2011). An Introduction to the Architectural Heritage of County Galway. ISBN 978-1-4064-2534-5.
  6. Korff, Anne (1987). Kiltartan Country, South Galway - A Ramblers Guide and Map. Tir Eolas. ISBN 978-1-873821-11-4.
  7. "Landed Estate Database: Estate - St George (Tyrone House)". NUI Galway. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
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