Townley Hall
Townley Hall is a Georgian country house which stands in parkland at Tullyallen some 5 km west of Drogheda, County Louth in the Republic of Ireland. It was designed by Irish architect Francis Johnston for the Townley Balfour family and built between 1794 and 1798.
The House
Originally the house was to be designed by Playfair who prepared plans which were rejected by the Blayney family.
The house is four stories high. The lowest floor is below ground and contains what would originally have been servants quarters, which are planned around a central rotunda which has a central column which originally held some of the few running water taps in the building. Allegedly lady Balfour Blayney brought her coach and horses into this hall instead of stopping outside the front door.[1] Access to the basement is by means of the servants stairs on the north side of the house.
The ground floor has the most decorative rooms. A rectangular entrance hall leading to the central stairhall. The main rooms on the south side are the library and withdrawing room.
The first floor is accessed by the main staircase which leads to suites of bedrooms.
The second floor consists of servants quarters, nursery and schoolroom.
The two-storey house is 27 metres (90 feet) square, built in local stone with simple neoclassical lines, broken only by a Doric portico. The interior is dominated by a spiral staircase in a domed rotunda. The building replaced a previous house which once stood some 100 metres (300 feet) to the north of the present building.
Other Buildings on the site designed by Johnston
1. Entrance gates
2. Gate lodge
3. Kitchens (attached to back of the rectangular house).
4. Dove cote (Formerly located in kitchen yard, drawings available for inspection in IAA)
5. Walled garden.
6. Farmyard.
7. farmyard houses.
History
The Townley estate had belonged to the Townley family since Cromwellian times. Blayney Townley, MP had inherited the wealth of his nephew, William Balfour, in 1739 and added Balfour to his surname. The Townley estate passed to his grandson, also Blayney Townley Balfour, later the MP for Belturbet, who in 1794 commissioned Francis Johnston to design the present house. Mrs Townley Balfour, wife of the grandson of Blayney jnr, died childless in 1955 and the property passed to her cousin David Crichton. He sold the house and 350 hectares (850 acres) of land in 1957 to Trinity College, Dublin for used as an agricultural school. In 1969 the college sold 200 hectares (500 acres) of farmland to the Land Commission and 150 hectares (350 acres) of woodland to the Forestry Department.
In 1967 Professor Frank Mitchell of Trinity College bought the house with some 25 hectares (60 acres) of surrounding land and ran it as a study centre for several years.
The house is now owned by the School of Philosophy and Economic Science, a registered charity based in Ballsbridge Dublin, who use it as a residential study centre.
The house and grounds are private and access is strictly by appointment.
References
- ↑ Conversation with Professor Mitchell
- "Townley Hall- History of the house". Retrieved 26 June 2014.
Coordinates: 53°43′46″N 6°26′50″W / 53.7294°N 6.4472°W