10.11.2020, 18:30 P.M.

This talk is the sixth in the Irish Country House Architecture nine week on-line lecture series presented by the Irish Georgian Society, in association with the Centre for the Study of Historic Irish Houses and Estates (CSHIHE), University of Maynooth.

Regency Gothic Revival Country House (Slane Castle, Charleville Castle, Birr Castle, Tullynally, Lough Cutra, Knockdrin, Killeen Castle) by Dr Judith Hill

When Slane Castle was built in the 1780s it was an outlier in a country where classicism was regarded as the conduit for projecting social status. However, by the mid-nineteenth century the castle style had succeeded in becoming a significant alternative to classicism for domestic architecture in Ireland. This talk will consider how the Gothic Revival castle style became fashionable by looking at the cultural influences that underpinned its use and by examining the successful work of architects such as Francis Johnston, Richard Morrison and James Shiel, and the English architect, John Nash.

Dr Judith Hill is an architect, architectural historian and author. She holds an MA in History of Art from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from Trinity College Dublin, where her thesis examined ‘Perceptions and uses of Gothic in Irish domestic and ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland, 1800–1815’. She has written and published widely on Irish architecture and culture including publications in Architectural History, Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies, The Georgian Group Journal, Country Life, the Irish Arts Review and the Times Literary Supplement and contributions to the Yale University Press, Art & Architecture of Ireland, a study of Irish Public Sculpture and a biography of Lady Gregory.

Book for this pre-recorded online Zoom talk.

Acknowledgments

Irish Country House Architecture lectures have been inspired by the late Hon. Desmond Guinness who was a tireless champion of the Irish country house, through the establishment of the Irish Georgian Society, the saving of Castletown house for the nation, and the writing of publications that celebrated the Irish country house, such as Irish Houses and Castles (1973) and Great Irish Houses and Castles (1992).

Irish Country House Architecture lectures form part of the IGS's Conservation Education Programme, which is supported by Merrion Properties and Heather and John Picerne. The Society also wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the London Chapter of the Irish Georgian Society and Ecclesiastical Insurance in sponsoring the Irish Country House Architecture lecture series.

Attendance at the lectures is recognised as formal CPD by the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland.

Image: Birr Castle, County Offaly, photograph courtesy of Dr Judith Hill