Rosepenna Ho in Ruins — Machaire Loiscthe

Lord Boyne, also known as Gustavus Hamilton built his demesne house known as Rosepenna in the townland of Rosepenna on the Rosguill peninsula in North West Donegal, c. 1694 (OS Memoirs 1997, vol. 38 part 1, 58). Sir Ralph Bingley was granted, among others, the townland of Magherilosky alias Rosapenna, and was granted “Liberty to hold a Court Baron at the Town of Magherilosky in Rossquill” (Hill 2004, 326). The storms of 1785-1786. covered the village of Rosepenna with sand and partially buried Lord Boyne's house in the same townland, by up to 6m in some places (Shrubsole 1908, 39). In 1786. The house was occupied by Mr John Dennison. It was at this point that the sand began to drift and the lower portion of the house became uninhabitable. The Revd Mr. Porter resided in the first floor until 1808. Workmen had fought to impede the sand for a long time, until it finally had to be abandoned in 1808. (Gwynn 1902, 168). However, when the sand had buried the lower storey and the garden it was completely abandoned (OS Memoirs 1997, vol. 38 part 1, 58). In 1798 Dr. Hamilton described Rosepenna House as 'For the age wherein it was built, and the style of architecture of that day, the mansion of Rosapenna may well be called elegant. The approach was from a level green on the shore, through a succession of embattled courts and hanging terraces, rising in order one above the other, and adorned with marble piers of no mean design and workmanship. The rear was ornamented with gardens laid out and planted in the fashion of the last century; and the parks and fields of the demesne seem to have been well divided and enclosed' (Hamilton 1798, 385). In 1827 Rev. Caesar Otway described the house 'an old fashioned manorial house and gardens, planted and laid out in the taste of the time , with avenues, terraces, hedges and statutes, surrounded by walled parks, and altogether a first rate residence of a nobleman. Now not a vestige of this is to be seen; one common waste of sand one undistinguished ruin covers all. Where is the house? - under the sand where the trees, the walks the terraces, the green parks and sheep walks? All under the sand. Lately the top of the house was visible, and the country people used to descend by the roof into some of the apartments that were not filled up; but now nothing is to be seen' (Otway 1839, 15). A drawing of the house from 1798 in the Hamilton papers depicts a H-plan house standing one storey high with a gable fronted entrance porch with a square headed doorway flanked on either side by square headed narrow tall sash windows (pers. comm. M. Coyle). A square tower projects beyond the front of the house on both ends of the central block and both of these towers stand one storey high with a tall square headed sash window in the centre of the S wall. Both of these towers are roofed with a tall conical like roof which is surmounted by a rectangular chimney stack. The central block is orienated on a NE-SW axis and gable ended chimney stacks are shown on either gable of this central block. The 1834 edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map depicts an H-plan house with flanking towers on the NE and SW ends of the house which project N and S from both ends of the central block forming the H-Plan. On this map the house is situated within a walled garden located to the N of the house and has a second walled garden with entrance avenue on the S side. 90m to the NW are the remains of a high mound on which was situated a gazebo or summer house depicted as 'Summer Seat' on the 1834 edition of the OS 6-inch map and as a mound on the current 1900 edition. An old relict roadway which is depicted on the 1900 edition of the Ordnance Survey map can still be seen in the fields 170m to the W of the house. Today one can see the low wall footings of the outline of this H-plan of late 17th century or early 18th century house (ext. dims. c. 23.8m NE-SW by 8.2m NW-SE) and the wall footings of the walled gardens to the N and S of the house. The mound on which the summer house was located may have been an earlier artificial mound that was later modified when a summer house was constructed on top. In the central part of the house the red brick wall of the ground floor which appears to have been partially sunken beneath the surface giving it a basement like appearance still survives approx. 16 courses high. The red brick appears to be early in its appearance and may date from the late 17th or early years of the 18th century. This brick wall may represent a second building phase which was added to the late 17th century house. The walls of the walled garden measure 0.7m thick while the red brick wall of the house has bricks which measure 9.5" x 2.25" x 4.5". The narrow bricks have a slight lip running around the edge which appears to be related to the moulds in which they were made. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload/revision: : 31 May 2010