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Killiney History | October 14, 2024

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Kilmarnock House

Kilmarnock House
NameKilmarnock House
Previous NamesCenacle Convent, Kilmarnock Manor, Haldane Grange, Kilmarnock House
AddressMilitary Road
Year Builtc.1832
Exists todayYes
On 1888 mapYes
Last Modified: 12 Feb 2024 | author

Residents over the years from various sources

YearName of occcupantSourceName of property
1832Anketell Seton, Esq.Newspaper reportKilmarnock
1832-1837Lt. John Robert Baker RNBirth of son 1832, Watson’s Almanack 1834 & Lewis Directory 1837Kilmarnock
1842John Count O’ReillyMarriage notice in newspaperKilmarnock
1847-1850William PorterThom’s
1854Henry Baldwin, Esq., Q.C.Death NoticeKilmarnock
1856Denis Moylan, EsqNewspaper noticeKilmarnock
1858-1890Rt. Hon. J. D. Fitzgerald MP AG for Ireland (later Lord Fitzgerald)Thom’s (Killiney)
1892VacantThom’s (Ballybrack)Kilmarnock
1894James Gordon Oswald Esq.Thom’s (Ballybrack)Kilmarnock
1897-1898James Gordon Oswald Esq.Thom’s (Ballybrack)Haldane Grange
1900-1934Mrs. James Gordon OswaldThom’s (Ballybrack)Haldane Grange
1936-1947E. W. Talbot-CrosbieThom’s (Ballybrack)Haldane Grange
1950-1954Lt. Col. HudsonThom’s (Military Road)Kilmarnock Manor
1960Convent of Our Lady of the Cinacle [sic]Thom’s (Killiney)Kilmarnock Manor

As described by Peter Pearson in Between the Mountains and the Sea (1998)

Kilmarnock, which for many years was known as Haldene Grange, is yet another impressive house, situated originally on about nine acres. Dating from about 1830, the original house was greatly enlarged around 1860 by the Right Hon. David Fitzgerald, when a whole new series of spacious rooms and a grandiose Italianate facade to the front were added. The hipped roof with its bracketed eaves, projecting porch with its balcony, and all the stucco enrichments are typical of the work of architect Charles Geoghegan, who designed the additions.

Lion masks are a feature of the joints of the cast-iron gutters and also of the unusual railings which protect the area at the front of the house. Kilmarnock belonged to the Talbot Crosby family of Ardfert Abbey, County Kerry, until the 1940s. More recently it was known as the Cenacle Retreat House, during which period a large residential block was built to the rear.

Kilmarnock House and grounds as mapped by the Ordnance Survey in 1888. Sheet XXVI.17 “County Dublin,” held by Ordnance Survey Ireland. © Public domain. Digital content: © Ordnance Survey Ireland, published by UCD Library, University College Dublin

The original House as mapped in 1856

Map of 1856

A map was prepared by The Commissioners of the Incumbered Estates Court of the Estate of Thomas Oxley Esq. in 1856. Oxley was the owner of the adjoining property which at that time included Martello House and the vacant fields which would eventually house Ashurst and Killacoona (later to become the Holy Child Convent). The surveyor, J. McArthur of Capel Street, included an outline of Kilmarnock House which indicated a very simple layout consisting of a narrow rectangular house (with a bow end on the west gable) facing south to the view with a stable building of similar proportions to the rear creating an enclosed stable yard with walled garden behind backing onto Military Road. A sweeping driveway led from the entrance at the junction of Killiney Hill Road and Military Road. The 1888 map shows that this existing building was retained by subsumed by the major extensions which were built c.1860.

Dublin Daily Express 08 January 1864

Aerial view of 1956

The photograph below indicates that much of the original layout had survived up to that date including the stable block and outbuildings which were later demolished to make way for the bedroom accommodation built by the nuns to the rear of the old house c.1960.

Aerial view of Kilmarnock in 1956. Image courtesy of The National Library of Ireland

Some past residents

1832 Anketell Seton

Waterford Mail 22 December 1832

1842 John Count O’Reilly

Waterford Chronicle 22 October 1842

1854 Henry Baldwin QC

Bankrupt & Insolvent Calendar 29 May 1854
Saunders’s News-Letter 31 January 1854

Sales brochure 2013