Castletown House, Ireland's finest Palladian country house, is an imposing building built in 1722 for William Connolly, the Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. The main block was designed by Italian architect by Alessandro Galilei and the wings were added by Edward Lovett Pearce in 1724. A villa with a superimposed portico, from Book IV of Palladios I Quattro Libri dellArchitettura, in a modestly priced English translation published in London, 1736. ... Sir Edward Lovett Pearce (1699 - 1733) was an Irish architect, and the chief exponent of palladianism in Ireland. ...
The house was inherited by Tom Connolly in 1758 and the interior decoration was finished by his wife Lady Louisa (great-grand-daughter of Charles II of England and Louise de Keroualle) during the 1760s and 1770s. Much of the work was carried out to designs of William Chambers. Lady Louisa Lennox (1743-1821) was the third of the four Lennox sisters immortalised in Stella Tillyards book Aristocrats and the BBC television series based on it. ... Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 30 January 1649 (de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ... Louise Renée de Penancoët de Kérouaille (1649-1734), mistress of Charles II of England and Duchess of Portsmouth. ... Sir William Chambers (1723-1796) was a Scottish architect, (though born in Stockholm where his father was a merchant). ...
Two particular features of Castletown is the Long Gallery, an 80 foot long room decorated in the Pompeian manner in blue and gold and the main staircase, which is cantilevered and made of white Portland stone. This is a gallery of a few very interesting images and objects from ancient Pompeii, preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. Erotic images and a discussion there of can be found in a separate article. ... Portland Stone is limestone from the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. ...
CastletownHouse is an early-nineteenth-century farmhouse set in scenic surroundings on a 200-acre beef and sheep farm, on which the ruins of a Norman castle remain (approached through open fields of grazing sheep).
The house was completely renovated in 1979, at which time the 30-inch-thick outer walls were raised by 18 inches.
CastletownHouse was the recipient of a regional Agri-Tourism award.
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