Bishops Palace — Gardens (kilkenny City By., St. Canice Par.)

The former palace of the Bishop of Ossory, since 2008 the headquarters of the Heritage Council, is situated within its own grounds 45m NE of St Canice's Cathedral (KK019-026029-) on an elevated site on the N side of the Irishtown of Kilkenny. Prior to construction of this residence in the mid 1300s the Bishop’s Palace was on the site of the later Common Hall, 40m to the E of the Cathedral: Ware records that Bishop St. Ledger (1246-60) gave up his ‘manse and lodging’ to the vicars (Ware 1739-46, 406). It is unclear where the bishop had his residence immediately subsequent to this but it is known that the See held land throughout Ossory and several houses were built such as at Freshford and Durrow (Murphy 2006, 9). There may also have been a house in the vicinity of Irishtown as an inquisition from 1398 lists an ‘Oldcourt’ belonging to the bishop of Ossory here (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 173). Unfortunately we do not know the exact location of Oldcourt, though it is referred to as being covered with water which may indicate an area near the Breagagh or the Nore (Murphy 2006, 9). The bishop’s move to the site of the current Bishop’s Palace occurred during the episcopacy of Richard Ledred (1317-c. 1361) who replaced the Oldcourt with the Nova Curai or New Court and famously knocked three suburban churches to provide building materials for his new residence (Carrigan 1905, vol. 1, 281; Murphy 2006, 13). The architecture of Ledred’s palace is poorly understood but it most likely comprised a rectangular (Wth. 5m x L 13m) vaulted hall. This forms most of the S side of the ground floor of the present Georgianised residence. In the early 16th century a square tower house or solar was added to the E of Ledred's hall, probably by Bishop Milo Baron (Murphy 2006, 15). The palace became the headquarters of the Protestant bishops of Ossory following the Reformation, apart from during a short period in the 1640s when the Catholic bishop, David Rothe, was in residence (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 173-4). In May 1642 Rothe hosted the Confederate ecclesiastical conference at the palace, a contemporary account of which implies that fine gardens were attached to the residence, ‘as soon as each meal was over, the assembled ecclesiastics walked for an hour in the bishop's garden, after which the discussion on the present crisis was resumed’ (Carrigan 1905, vol. 1, 100). The 1654 Civil Survey describes the heavily dilapidated palace at this time (Simington 1942, vol. 6, 543), 'A house called ye bishops Court Cont At ye north East Corner of wh joynes a small Castle Cont ye lower rooms are onely fit for Cattle. A yard Cont 40 pches and one Garden on ye back sid of ye house 133 pches small measure. A parcel of Ground belonging to ye sd house being severall Gardens and wast Ground Cont 1 acre 34 pches and one orchard 55 pches small measure. On which wast ground stands a house fit for a small family which ye walls are Stone pt and pt wattles and clay and the ruffe Thatch Cont. There is likewise upon ye Ground 4 other small thatch Cabbins wherein lives poor people'. With just seven rooms it was still quite a modest building, particularly in relation to contemporary town houses like that of John Rothe fitzPiers with 26, and it accords well with Bishop John Parry’s 1672-7 description of it as ‘being very small’ (Integrated Conservation Group 2003, 37). The description in the Civil Survey of the extensive grounds around the palace indicates it included a large garden to the rear/N of the house which is recorded as having measured 0.8 acres. This tallies well with the extent of the grounds - 0.9 acres – between the palace and the former Drysdal’s lane that ran to its N and suggests that it is the location of the garden. According to Blighe (1963, 46-7) the palace underwent extensive repairs following its sacking by the Cromwellian forces and in 1661 the Protestant bishop, Griffith Williams, recorded how he had found the, ‘house all ruined, and nothing standing but the bare walls, without roofs, without windows, but with holes, and without doors’ (Integrated Conservation Group 2003, 37). During the five years of his episcopacy between 1672-7 Bishop John Parry invested heavily in the residence, to the tune of 4,000 shillings - forty times its valuation at the time of the Civil Survey (Integrated Conservation Group 2003, 37). A building contract between Parry and a group of carpenters dated 1672 records a range of works to be executed at palace and importantly for this study, demonstrates that the rear (N) garden was an orchard at this time (NLI De Vescy papers MS 38,881/1; reproduced in Murphy 2006, Appendix 3). Further ‘improvements’ to the palace were made by bishops Hartsonge (c.1693) and Vessey (c.1714) and the NE service range excavated by Ian Doyle could be attributed to either of their tenures (Doyle 2006, 12; Integrated Conservation Group 2003, 38). Pratt’s 1708 view of Kilkenny presents the palace with a more Georgian façade and, interestingly, appears to show Ledred’s medieval tower as freestanding. Before he was translated to the See of Waterford in 1740 Bishop Charles Este (1735-40) undertook substantial works to the building. These included the addition of four apartments and a main staircase at a cost of £1956 (Ledwich 1781, 460) and it has been suggested that a set of undated plans of the building (but not of the grounds) may have been executed following the completion of this campaign (RCB library, D11/1/9, quoted in Murphy 2006, 21). Harris’ Ware shows the Palace following Este’s work and also states that the bishop carried out modifications ‘both within side and without’ (Harris 1739, 433). Nothing is known of what he did externally but this presumably included a new garden. A quote from Chetwood’s 1748 tour of Ireland referred to the palace thus, ‘The Bishop’s Palace is new built, inclosed with a high Wall, with two Gates, one of which leads out of the Church-yard, and the other into a back Street. It is a very handsome building, but whitened on the Southside, which, to me, glares a Meanness I do not like; but every one to their own Fancy. The present Person that fills this bishoprick is Docotr C---x [Cox], newly translated there’ (Chetwood and Luckomber 1748, 178). Bishop Michael Cox, writing in 1750, noted that ‘the mansion house of the see of Ossory, situated near the Cathedral church of the said see, has within these last few years past been enlarged and greatly improved by myself and my predecessors’ (RCB library, D11/1/1). John Rocque’s ‘Survey of the city of Kilkenny’, published in 1758, provides the first accurate map of the Bishop’s Palace and although much of the landscaping shown is probably rather schematic, there is no reason to doubt but that there was an ornamental Georgian garden on the site. Rocque surveyed the site shortly after Richard Pococke (1756-65) was elevated to the position of bishop of Ossory in 1756. Shortly following his appointment he described his new abode thus: ‘every one as well as myself thinks I have got the sweetest situation in Ireland, a most exceeding good house, a pleasant garden, wt, we call a noble Cathedral, and good neighbourhood, in a fine country, with a good river running through it’ (Warwickshire County Record Office 125B/798, quoted in Finnegan 2008, 23). Shortly after he arrived as the new bishop of Ossory in 1775 William Newcome (1775-9) wrote a letter to his brother in London, in which he describes the bishop’s residence and its surrounding grounds in some considerable detail, ‘In the front of the house is a court planted with trees large enough for carriages to turn in and adjoining to the rear is a pleasant garden, well walled in and well planted with shrubs and well laid down with gravel walks and lawn, as any one would wish to be master of. In the garden is a summer-house of a very good size with a fireplace, fit for drinking tea or a glass of wine and from this room a covered way leads to the best Cathedral in Irel