The widespread tendency in this country to place a high value on heritage sites has meant these places can often assume an disproportionately sacrosanct character. A secondary result is that any alteration to the place in question will be perceived as an assault on its integrity. That this need not always be the case is shown by the of a restoration and building programme recent completed at Turlough Park in Co Mayo, which recently won a Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI) regional award in the Western region (over £2 million category). Designed to accommodate the State's Irish Folklife Museum - part of the National Museum's collection - it is an example of the addition being superior to the original structure.
Less than five miles to the east of Castlebar, Turlough is a spot place replete with history. Within the site of the present19th-century house are at least three ring forts, a medieval abbey and round tower, a tower house dating from 1456 and a ruined fortified house and bawn.
The main property was built from 1865 onwards for the Fitzgerald family, which had owned Turlough Park since the mid-17th century and remained in occupation until only a decade ago. The house replaced an earlier bow-fronted building, remains of which can still be seen in the demesne.
Quite why Charles Lionel Fitzgerald decided to replace his old home with a new structure must remain something of a mystery. The architect chosen for the job was Sir Thomas Newenham Deane, who, in the manner of his work with Benjamin Woodward, produced a design in the Venetian gothic manner. The result is frankly not altogether satisfactory, in part because the Irish parkland setting does not suit this essentially urban style of an Italianate building; - as a grandiose bank in the centre of a town, it would look far more comfortable. Turlough Park is a rather squat two-storey palazzo with a dormer attic set into the high-pitched roof. The sense of unattractive bulk is exacerbated by the use of grey limestone, its mass broken by horizontal bands, although regrettably these are in the same material. The only relief is provided by pink marble columns serving as the shafts of the great central stained-glass window above the gothic porch at the centre of the symmetrical facade.
Turlough has a distinctly institutional character, with only the adjoining ranges of service buildings providing a sense of the domestic. Internally, the house is also rather lumpen in its proportions; both the drawing- and dining-rooms are large, high-ceilinged and dull, but the library, which still retains its original bookcases, possesses a certain amount of charm. The stone-flagged hallway is indisputably the most interesting space, the cantilever stairs climbing up past the stained-glass window and around walls painted to look as though sheeted in yellow marble. On the first floor, the rooms revert once more to being functional rather than arresting in their design.
Turlough Park is one of the multitude of country houses built in the aftermath of the Famine period and it could have gone the way of so many others - towards decrepitude and eventual destruction. However, in the early 1990s, Mayo County Council acquired the estate from the Fitzgeralds and began to examine options for the place. Following feasibility studies begun in 1996, agreement was reached with the National Museum whereby that institution, which over decades had been seeking a permanent home for its very substantial folklife collection, would take over Turlough Park for this purpose. A programme of refurbishment work began in May 1999 with the local authority assuming responsibility for much of the task; in conjunction with the Great Gardens of Ireland group and F┴S, the county council has restored the roof of the main house, as well as renovating the terraced gardens and the lake, the 19th-century conservatories and the gate lodge.
The National Museum, having agreed to transfer its folklife collection to Turlough, had to consider the question of how best this material should be displayed and had to be considered. The house itself was never going to be adequate for this purpose; while some of the ground floor rooms will be open to the public, the upper storeys are too small to receive large numbers of visitors and will act as offices.
Similarly, most of the outbuildings are unsuited for exhibitions and will instead provide room for catering, retail and visitor reception. Between the house and its adjacent courtyards, the total ground area runs to just over 1,400 square metres - more than substantial enough as for a private home but quite insufficient for a national museum.
So, entirely new structures had to be created within the 40-acre park, in keeping with the old house and yet capable of absorbing large amounts of material and displaying much of it in an attractive fashion. That this ambition has been realised in a particularly striking manner is a tribute to the Office of Public Works architectural team, led by Des Byrne. Their solution was not to attempt pastiche - Turlough Park already has an abundance of that - but to highlight the neo-gothic follies of the older building by constructing a very pure, low-key block close by.
As seen now, the new museum and storage spaces represent a compromise on the original plans. These were budgeted at ££20 million, whereas the eventual bill is approximately ££8 million. One of the most obvious losses comes from the decision not to proceed with swinging part of the exhibition galleries out over the lake. Instead, they now stop a little short of the water's edge, thereby greatly diminishing the sense of drama from within the building.
Externally, however, it the house still makes a terrific first impression, as it comes coming into view across the lake from the old road that leads to Turlough Park's gate lodge. In the first set of plans, the museum's galleries would have been much closer to the main house than is now the case. This is probably an improvement, since it gives the whole complex a greater sense of spaciousness and allows a three-sided cloister to be created at the top of the terraces where old and new meet.
At 1,775 square metres, the new exhibition galleries are larger than all the old structures combined; - they also have the advantage of being purpose-built. The nature of the terraced site descending to the lake means that the museum comprises four storeys, the highest on the same level as the house, the lowest just a little above the waterline. The exterior is in pale Wicklow granite and therefore considerably lighter than the house's limestone. While this is the most immediately obvious disparity between the old and the new, the explanation offered by Des Byrne makes sense: the darker stone would have made the exhibition galleries appear too heavy and monolithic. Instead, they soar out in a lean line from the upper level, a delicately graceful curve slightly turning the front section of the building away from the lake.
The main facade contains remarkably few windows and those which have been incorporated are as long and slender as the building itself in order to increase the amount of exhibition space inside. On the topmost floor at the furthest remove, a triangular glazed bay has been inserted, providing views across the lake and road over to the far hill and its an ancient round tower. As befits the building's purpose, the interior is as simple as the exterior, with white plastered walls and oak floors. Oak is used also for low dado rails and for balustrades which permits the visitor to look down from one floor down to the next.
This feature of one section of the building leading into another continues at the lowest level, where the space nearest to the lake is transformed into a double-height hall with an end wall largely given over to full-length windows. A series of slender concrete columns helps to give this floor the atmosphere of a temple, albeit one dedicated to culture. Much of that character will be dissipated once the exhibits are installed and visitors begin to use the building. A mixture of natural and artificial lighting permits the display of a large range of items, some of which are subject to significant climatic controls.
Access to the new block from the old house can be achieved by traversing the central cloister courtyard. In bad weather, however, an alternative route leads via a single-storey link building with floor-to-ceiling windows looking over to the 19th-century block beyond a series of narrow columns supporting a covered outdoor walkway. Inside, a dropped section of the floor permits visitors to look over another balustrade down to exhibits, thereby further increasing the amount of space devoted to the museum's collections.
The link building does more than just bring visitors to the galleries; it also leads into almost 1,700 square metres of storage space which, despite its considerable size surprisingly, has been discreetly tucked into an area immediately east of the house. Whatever about achieving immediate visual appeal elsewhere in the park, here pragmatism and the need to find an economical solution to the demands of large-scale storage have been allowed to take precedence over everything else.
However, Des Byrne argues that the metal-framed structures covered by concrete breeze blocks and corrugated steel have their origins in the vernacular of Irish farm architecture and should not merely be seen as a cheap means of providing abundant space. In any case, this is the part of Turlough Park least likely to be seen by anyone other than those employed there. What matters considerably more is that the new public spaces enhance the site and that in many respects the additions are superior to the older buildings.
The Irish Folklife Museum in Turlough Park, Co Mayo, will open to the public this autumn