Set at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains in the centre of Ireland, Ballyfin is a place of history and romance, of tranquility and great natural beauty. The site has been settled since ancient times and was ancestral home to the O’Mores, the Wellesley-Poles, and latterly, the Cootes; for much of the twentieth century Ballyfin was home to a much-loved school. The house has long been admired as the most lavish Regency mansion in Ireland, the work of the great Irish architects Richard and William Morrison. Over the last decade the magnificent estate has been painstakingly restored to become a small hotel like no other. This book explores the history of the house, landscape and people of Ballyfin. It celebrates the artists and craftsmen who created the house and its wondrous demesne and also those who have now brought it back to its original splendour. It tells the story of the rise, decline and rebirth of one of the most beautiful historic houses in Ireland.
‘Kevin Mulligan’s learned and beautiful account of this magnificent house does justice to the triumphant rescue of Ballyfin. Scholarship and conservation working together like this gives us all hope.’ (Edward McParland, Trinity College, Dublin)
