Architectural historian Maurice Craig's book on middle-sized Irish houses makes an important contribution to Irish heritage, writes Eileen Battersby
It looks a fine residence, situated on a slight rise. The foreground consists of a gently-sloping meadow. Tall trees reach towards a sky in which the daylight is threatened by an ominous smudge of cloud. Although this view is a photograph, not a painting, there is a painterly feel to it as well as a sense of period. Plain but imposing, Wilton, outside Urlingford in Co Kilkenny, was a fine mid- to late-18th-century house, which no doubt had its share of stories, its own history.
But as the caption, written in 1976, reads: "Now regrettably derelict." Worse was to follow. Wilton, in common with Mantua in Swords, Co Dublin, no longer exists. Fortunately though, it, along with many other important, stylistically and culturally interesting buildings, has been recorded for posterity thanks to the subtle, scholarly crusade of the Belfast-born self-taught architectural historian Maurice Craig, now 86 and a national institution.
Just as the 18th-century Huguenot artist Gabriel Beranger's watercolours recorded for posterity a heritage that was already disappearing, so too has Craig recorded - and in his case helped heighten awareness - with his photographs. An exhibition of part of his photographic collection opened earlier this week at the Irish Architectural Archive in Merrion Square, Dublin.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the publication of one of his several contributions to Irish heritage, Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size. Initially published by the Architectural Press in London, the US edition appeared the following year. It has been out of print for the past 15 years and this new edition is its first Irish publication.
In a report added to the original text, Craig includes a roll call of some 16 houses which were discussed in the original book, but have now "for one reason or another, disappeared, either engulfed in expanding suburbs, or losing their role and their attraction because they have lost their land".
In addition to Wilton is Kilmacurragh, Bowen's Court, Bloomfield, Windy Arbour, Platten, Alenton, Mantua, Killininny, Bellevue, Annaghlee, Crannagh, Ballynure, Ballyowen Cottage, Delaford and Beech Park.
The photographs, all black and white, are remarkably eloquent. Craig makes no attempt to provide an anecdotal narrative. There are useful asides - as well as instances when the reader has to pause and reconsider observations made in 1976 and wonder whether they stand the test of time - such as: are houses in the possession of the original families in 1976 still owned by them?
Essentially, however, the emphasis is on design and defining features such as bows and round ends, materials, roofs, stacks, vaulting, basements, wings, door cases, the cornice.
The fascinating thing about this most practical book is that it testifies to a house as a statement and also emphasises that always strangely evocative occurrence - the death of a house.
Whether a ruined stone cottage or castle, every derelict residence retains its human relevance - who lived there? What family settled in it and eventually died out? Craig attempts no lamentation, yet this is an elegiac volume that also happens to contain extensive hard fact.
IN ADDITION TO the recording of buildings no longer in existence, he is also alert to what can at times be a fate worse even than obliteration - that of zealous over-restoration. In the case of Beechlawn in Rathgar, Co Dublin, which is believed to have been built around 1816 and has been credited to Francis Johnston, he notes "a new house has been planted directly in front of the old one".
When the book was first written, a new conservation awareness - bringing with it the reality of survival as compromise - had emerged, motivated in part by the presence of concerned commentators such as Craig. As early as 1952 he had published his now classic architectural history of Georgian Dublin, Dublin 1660-1860.
During the 24 intervening years prior to the publication of Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size, he had had extensive experience of watching the destruction of an architectural heritage. Looking at the photographs here, some of the houses - most obviously Gloster or Glasterrymore in Shinrone, Co Offaly - do appear, even in their neglected form, as rather grander than one might think merits inclusion in such a volume.
But the emphasis is on a design transition, the move from fortified dwelling to house. He deliberately excluded the "great houses" and the more obvious vernacular rural house and concentrated on what would have been intended as the homes of the minor gentry. He notes that some of the larger 16th- and 17th-century houses are of the expanded tower house-type.
The text is divided into specific periods - the early 17th century represented by Brazeel House, north Co Dublin, which was built in the 1630s for a lord chancellor of Ireland, and is photographed on page 66. It shared architectural detail of finish with the earlier Portumna Castle in Co Galway. Looking at Brazeel, even in its ruined state, it is possible to see a house, and not a castle. However Brazeel House is no more, "supposedly under government protection when its owner destroyed it, reportedly".
It moves on to the later 17th century and an entry which includes Goresgrove, Co Kilkenny, an example of where the house was added to the existing tower house instead of replacing it. The section on the early 18th century is arguably the most exciting, and opens with an impressive study of Shannongrove, in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick which includes a detail from the north doorcase.
Kilmacurragh in Rathdrum, Co Wicklow is shown and it is sad to consider that it is no more. On the facing page featuring Buncrana Castle, a manorial home dating from 1716, is a doorcase with a tablet commemorating Wolfe Tone's landing at Lough Swilly in 1798.
Among the most beautiful houses is Newcastle rectory in Co Dublin, built by Archdeacon Smyth in 1727 and described as typically Irish in that it lacks a cornice. Craig, an admirer of Sir Edward Lovett Pearce makes a strong case for Pearce having designed Woodlands, in Santry, Co Dublin.
"Woodlands is perhaps the most interesting small house of the early 18th century in the whole of Ireland," wrote Craig in the 1970s, adding, "although still privately occupied, it is menaced by the tide of the north Dublin suburbs, beginning to lap at its gates."
CUBA COURT, BANAGHER, Co Offaly, "is, or rather was, perhaps the most splendidly masculine house in the whole country", notes Craig in an entry that also quotes novelist Charlotte Brontë, who spent her honeymoon in the house as her husband, the Rev Mr Nicholls, had been raised there by his uncle.
Ledwithstown, Ballymahon, Co Longford, near Lough Ree is a subtle example of Georgian design at its most elegant and accessible. The photograph in the book dates from 1959 and even in what was a poor state, this most lovely of houses retains its beauty.
There is also a happy ending - Craig notes it has since been rescued by its owners, and judging by the colour photograph on the jacket, Ledwithstown, attributed to Richard Castles, continues to flourish. Some contemporary elevations are included and it is interesting to discover that although relatively small, the house has two staircases and there are windows on all four fronts.
Described as a being the result of a "botched" or "re-botched" plan, is Drumcondra House, now All Hallows College, certainly one of the least attractive - and least typical, with the exception of Gloster - of the houses featured. The mid 18th century is dominated by Belvedere House on Lough Ennell, Co Westmeath. For all its length, nearly 100ft, it is not particularly large, intended as it was to be a gentleman's sporting residence. Richard Castles designed it and it marks the beginning of the Irish "round-ended" house design.
Only 19km away, at Delvin, Co Westmeath, stands Dysart.It dates from 1757, but in this modern photograph it looks like a family residence, with two cars parked outside.
Kilcarty, Kilmessan, Co Meath, opens the late 18th-century section and claims a three-page entry. Designed by Thomas Ivory, it was built about 1770-1780. "More perhaps than any other building, Kilcarty occupies a pivotal position on the frontier between the farmhouse and the mansion. Its central block, deprived of its wings, would simply be another gable-ended farmhouse . . . the everyday dress and vernacular affinities of Kilcarty cloak a design of exceptional subtlety and refinement."
Craig's admiration for this wonderfully cohesive achievement is clear.
"The moral," he writes, "I suppose, is that when real thought has gone into the making of any building, there is no limit to the number of times one can, and should, look at it."
SO MANY HOUSES, so many lives. Halston, Co Westmeath dates from the early 19th century. In a photograph taken from the garden there are two old-style tricycles. It could be the 1950s or the 1970s. The two figures could be two children, or perhaps a woman minding a child. A second picture shows the graceful, formal front entrance.
Elsewhere Bloomfield in Rathfarnham, Co Dublin, an early 19th-century double bow fronted house, is glimpsed through bare branches. That house no longer exists. However, many others, such as Syngefield in Birr, Co Offaly, built in the mid-18th century for an ancestor of playwright JM Synge, have managed to defy time, human neglect, politics and developers, to survive along with their stories and their ghosts.
Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size by Maurice Craig is republished by Ashfield Press (€25)
A free public lecture series, Maurice Craig - 50 Years of Photographing Architecture, runs at the Irish Architectural Archive, 45 Merrion Square, Dublin, on Tuesdays at 1.15pm throughout May. Booking essential. Contact Simon Lincoln at 01-6633046 or slincoln@iarc.ie An exhibition of Maurice Craig photographs is also on display at the archive, which is open Tues-Fri, 10am-5pm