Ducketts Grove - Carlow

19/05/2024

The magnificent gardens of Ducketts Grove and what a view!

19/05/2024

19/05/2024

The magnificent gargoyles above the master bedroom below the Ducketts Coat of Arms

23/04/2024

The unseen and unphotographed interior of the mansion holds a mysterious fascination, with much of its grandeur shrouded in secrecy. Yet, despite this veil of mystery, the mere presence of the building exerts a profound influence on the surrounding area. Here is another fine example of previously unseen furnishings, now revealed for the first time ever, adding to the mystique of Duckett's Grove.

ANDREA SOLARIO
Milanese: c. 1450-1522

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG LADY. Half-length figure in a crimson square-necked gown with a white guimpe embroidered in black and gold, the gray and black brocaded slashed sleeves puffed with white lawn. Landscape background of hills and cultivated fields bordering a blue sea at right, a house and an equestrian figure appearing nearer the foreground. Cradled panel: Height 21½ inches; width 16⅝ inches

With letters by Dr. Georg Gronau dated London, July 22, 1936, and by Dr. August L. Mayer dated Sept. 24, 1936. The latter writes (translation) - an excellent and authentic work A Andrea Solario. The dress and style indicate that it originated shortly after 1500. As is usual with Solario, here also we find northern influences mixed with the purely Italian elements, but the strongest influences are Venetian (Antonello da Messina and Carpaccio). This picture is of about the same period as the celebrated signed portrait of Cristoforo Longono in the National Gallery, London.

Painted about 1505, this collection of Mrs. Marie Duckett, De Windesore, Dublin, and Ducketts Grove, Co. Carlow, from M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York Exhibition of Venetian Paintings of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1938, no. 15, Illustrated in the catalogue Illustrated in Apollo, April 1938,

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, contributed by Parke-Bernet Galleries
Credit: Gothic and Renaissance paintings and British XVIII century portraits
Date: 1940
Image enhanced: A. Heaney

23/04/2024

Miss Brady's Animal Sanctuary and the Haunted Castle

Mrs. Brady, possibly the only known photo of her, was an avid animal lover, of all creatures great and small. She surrounded herself with animals of all descriptions: wolfhounds, horses, dogs, cats, chickens—the numbers seemed endless. Local children helped her to look after the animals.

Mrs. Brady once talked about the ghostly music that she had heard at Ducketts which seemed to emanate from the very walls themselves. She spoke of how the music had a sad and plaintive melody and was played on either an organ or harmonium. She had heard it both during the day and at night.

There is an urban legend told to me that is said that in the eighteenth century, one of the daughters of the house fell in love with a musician but her parents disapproved of the match, and she died of a broken heart. It was said that her lover still serenaded her. Local people also said that the music was even heard by intruders when the house lay empty and abandoned after.

23/04/2024

Regal Echoes: Queen Victoria's Influence at Duckett's Grove in County Carlow

At Duckett's Grove in County Carlow, William Duckett, Esquire, Deputy Lieutenant, a prominent Anglo-Irish landlord, marked the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee with grand festivities. The Union Jack proudly fluttered from a turret of the imposing mansion, while the gardens were adorned with colorful bunting, and trestle tables draped in white cloths adorned the scene. The tenantry, clad in scrubbed white frocks, mingled with the presiding gentry, their ribbons adding a splash of color to the affair.

An al fresco dinner, hearty and nourishing, awaited the estate employees and their families, numbering 150 souls in total. Many had dedicated their lives to the Duckett service, and all were granted a holiday for the occasion, with full wages. Toasts were raised in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Duckett, along with Miss Olive Thompson, affectionately known locally as "The Children's Friend."

Plaques bearing engraved portraits of Queen Victoria were bestowed upon the young attendees, while games filled the afternoon on the well-manicured lawn. Meanwhile, elderly guests reminisced in the shade, recalling past jubilees, celebrations following the Crimean War, and the Queen's Coronation sixty years prior. Fond memories were shared of Mr. Duckett's youthful vigor, particularly the joyous festivities surrounding his marriage to his new bride and her daughter, Miss Olive Thompson.

As evening descended, locals from neighboring villages converged upon Duckett's Grove for the eagerly anticipated fireworks display. They arrived on foot and in donkey-carts, dressed in their finest attire, grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Duckett and Miss Olive Thompson for the festivities to come. A great tar barrel blazed as dusk fell, illuminating the scene, while rockets soared into the County Carlow sky.

Mrs. Duckett captivated the audience with a magic lantern lecture in the coachhouse, adding to the enchantment of the evening. Revelers danced until midnight, bidding farewell to Duckett's Grove as they returned to their lodges, gatehouses, and whitewashed cottages. Meanwhile, Mr. Duckett, Mrs. Duckett, and the beloved Children's Friend ensured that the flag was ceremoniously lowered before retiring along the mansion's polished corridors, bringing an end to a day of jubilant celebration.

In the 1920s the late Fred Thompson, head of thompsons bought the mansion. (Quoted from "Pax Britannica - The Climax of an Empire" by James Morris, Faber and Faber, 1968.)

23/04/2024

The Legacy Fades: Duckett's Grove in Decline

Following Mr. Duckett's demise, disputes arose over his will, prolonging the settlement process. Eventually, the estate found new ownership through sale, and the grand house stood deserted, void of its former occupants.

Amidst the turbulent era known as "The Troubles," troops took temporary residence within its walls for approximately a year. Subsequently, the Land Commission intervened, overseeing the division of the estate. Tragedy struck when a fire, likely accidental, engulfed the Grove, hastening its descent into ruin.

Over the decades, the relentless passage of time, harsh weather, and the destructive acts of vandals contribute to the estate's gradual decay. Much of its gothic architecture, constructed from wood and plaster, has succumbed to rot. Only remnants remain, with all but one of the free-standing statues vanished.

There was once a solitary figure, a headless classical female, who sat desolately amidst the remnants of tree stumps, a somber reminder of the estate's former grandeur, she has been lost to the ravages of time.

Today, the grounds are being restored and cared for, making it a popular tourist spot.

23/04/2024

Once Majestic: The Decline of Duckett's Grove

Duckett's Grove, nestled a few miles from Carlow, off the Hacketstown and Baltinglass road, boasted a unique charm among the mansions of the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy. Its fairy-tale, castellated architecture, adorned with rich ornamentation, set it apart. The grounds were once graced with a striking array of classical statue replicas, marking the avenue on both sides, creating an impressive approach to the mansion.

However, the glory days waned, and by the mid-1920s, Duckett's Grove faced decline and ruin. With the advent of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the land underwent transformation as it was acquired and divided by the Land Commission. The mansion's furnishings, both indoor and outdoor, met their end at auction.

Today, the ruined mansion still stands, a poignant reminder of its former grandeur. Interestingly, the gatehouse found new life as a public house, which has also since vanished and almost forgotten, all a testament to the ever-changing landscape of history.

23/04/2024

Duckett's Grove: A Legacy of Grandeur and Celebration

DISRUPTING a peaceful rural scene at Palatine, some miles north of Carlow, is the great mock-Gothic skeleton of Duckett's Grove, the ruined home of the once-important Ducketts. That family claimed descent from William the Conqueror and the house of de la Poer. There was a relationship with both the earls of Ormonde and Kildare. The first Duckett arrived in Ireland in 1695, but the family mansion in Carlow was not established until the 18th century.

Early in the following century the house was gothicised by the architect Thomas A. Cobden, who also designed Carlow Cathedral. The resulting fairy-tale Castle was fantastic, as can be seen from the illustrations. Soaring towers, turrets, arches, niches, crenellations, loops, high stacks of chimneys, and oriel windows and a portcullis buried the original Georgian structure.

To complete the fantasy, countless pieces of statuary and urns were dotted around the facade and the grounds. Some of these were pine; plaster, others stone were or cast yellow in carved from bronze and copper. Subjects ranged from the royal lion and unicorn to griffons, centurions, classical figures and rather Germanic-type females. Grotesque heads, in the hiberno-romanesque manner, decorated the towers and the windowheads, while an ox-head was appropriately put over the farmyard entrance.

In 1897, to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, Duckett's Grove enjoyed what may have been its last, though one of its greatest, hours. This is how it was described by an old retainer Mr. James Gaynor, almost seventy years later: "The Union Jack flew from the turret, the gardens were gay with bunting, white cloths on trestle tables, the scrubbed white frocks of the tenantry and the ribbons of the presiding gentry. There was a nourishing al fresco dinner for the estate employees and their families, 150 souls in all, many of them in the Duckett service all their lives, and all of them given a holiday that day with full wages. The health was drunk of Mr. and Mrs. Duckett. Plaques were distributed among the young people, engraved with portraits of Queen Victoria. There were games all afternoon on the lawn. Old ladies sat chatting in the shade, remembering the Jubilee of '87, the celebrations at the end of the Crimean War, the Queen's Coronation sixty years before."

23/04/2024

Pre-Treaty I.R.A. Occupied Duckett's Grove Mansion

Officer in charge of the I.R.A. forces garrisoned at Duckett's Grove, Carlow, during the truce before the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed was Liam Stack. Stack had been working undercover in Carlow for a number of years as a chemist's assistant in Frank McNally's pharmacy on Dublin Street and was known under the name of Mr. Leahy. Liam Stack, who later married Sarah Reynolds from the Courthouse in Carlow, later became a Chief Superintendent of the newly-formed Garda Síochána. Soldiers are soldiers. Many of the vast collection of outdoor classical statues at Duckett's Grave were used by the troops for target practice. Remaining statues were sold at the auction which took place after the Irish troops vacated the estate.

The land was divided by the Irish Land Commission. An auction of the furniture, fittings, and outdoor effects was conducted by the late C. Berlin, auctioneer, 53 Dublin Street, Carlow, together with a Dublin auctioneering firm. The organ in Duckett's Grove house was purchased by the then Parish Priest of Graiguecullen, V. Rev. For Bolger, and erected in the former church, now St. Fine's Hall. It was later removed to the new church in Graiguecullen, St. Clare's. This church had been moved by the then Parish Priest, V. Rev. Fr. Fogarty. He bought the church on its original site of Athy Road, Carlow. Formerly the Breen Memorial Church, it was taken stone-by-stone across the Barrow and re-erected beside the Poor Clare Convent.

Several of the statues from Duckett's Grove still survive in many gardens around the country. The most prominent one in the vicinity is that of Joan of Arc, which stands in front of the house in Castledermot of the late Francis P. Aylmer, former Chief Reporter with The Nationalist.

After the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in London by Michael Collins and the Irish delegation, the pre-Treaty I.R.A. forces, who had occupied Duckett's Grove, were disbanded. There was a stand-down held at the old Polo Grounds on the Fenagh Road, Carlow, of both the I.R.A. and the Cumann na mBan. Duckett's Grove House was purchased by Fred Thompson of Thomas Thompson and Sons, Carlow. Hence the two horses heads and stag's head since erected over the gate of Thompson's Hanover Works, formerly Carlow Jail.

-L.D. Bergin.

23/04/2024

An IRA training camp at Duckett’s Grove, Carlow,

Image: Courtesy of the Irish Volunteers website
Source: Carlow Museum
Image enhanced by A. Heaney

Members of the I.R.A. stand outside the northeastern door of Duckett’s Grove Mansion. They are: Sweeney, Carroll, Barry, Delaney, Thomas Ryan (Intelligence Officer Fourth Battalion Carlow Brigade), Hynes, Shaw, Murphy, Nolan, Connor, Liam Stack (Officer in Command, front left – appointed by the I.R.A. as Liaison Officer in July 1921 for the counties of Carlow, Kildare, Laois, and Offaly), James Byrne (Adjutant Carlow Brigade, front second from left), Dunphy, Michael Doorley (Commanding Officer First Battalion Carlow Brigade), Connor, and Patrick Kane.

22/04/2024

During the War of Independence and throughout The Truce, Duckett's Grove Mansion and its expansive grounds served as a central location for Irish Republican Army members in need of refresher training.

Date: Around 1921
Source: Carlow Museum
Image Enhancement: A. Heaney