Harristown House, County Kildare

The townland of Harristown, on the edge of the Pale, was originally the site of a castle owned by the Eustace family since at least the 1470s, The castle later came into the ownership of the Chetwood family. An ornamental canal (a popular feature of country estate houses in the late 1600s) and formal garden existed in the vicinity of the castle. An account of the castle and ornamental canal, under the ownership of the Chetwoods, was recorded by a visitor to Harristown in 1748: (It was) a large dwelling with a noble court before it, that bore the face of venerable antiquity (but yet no decay appeared in any part of its form). The situation is on the summit of an hill (sic), and the front looks down from an high (sic) eminence into the River Liffey; but what charmed us beyond imagination was a vast body of water, in an artificial bed of a large extent, where we saw a ship completely furnished, as if ready to make a long voyage by sea; her sails spread, her colours flying, anchors weighed, guns firing, and the sailors neatly dressed, everyone in their proper function, with their usual sea terms. In a neat pleasure-boat we were conveyed on board... This artificial canal was stocked with carp and tench "whose taste equal(ed) those of Hampton Court" according to the visitor. The "ruins of Harristown Castle and artificial waterway" are listed on the Record of Protected Structures for County Kildare. According to the National Monuments Service, the castle was "largely thrown down for building materials" in 1884, and as of 1902 only "a very small fragment" of it remained. In 1912, the castle was described as "now demolished" but in 2012, it was noted that a 1-metre-high section of wall remained standing onsite. The footprint of where the castle once stood is located some 1.5km to the north east of where the modern Harristown House would eventually be built. ==Construction of Harristown House==

Some sources claim that Sir Maurice Eustace built the present-day house in 1662. It is known that the demesne's private seven-arch bridge, which crosses the River Liffey 340m to the south of the house "probably dates from the second half of the 17th-century" according to an assessment by the National Monuments Service. at Kilcullen, some kilometres downstream of Harristown In 1681, Eustace obtained a charter from King Charles II "constituting his estates (at Harristown) a manor, with power to hold courts leet and baron (and) to hold a market and two fairs at Carnallaway", a nearby townland. When Eustace died in 1704 with no male heir, the estate was inherited by his three daughters and divided into three parts - Harristown, Mullacash and Carnalway, however the La Touches didn't buy the estate until 1768. A map dating from 1752 depicts the village of Brannockstown (spelt 'Brenockstown') as a network of small roads and houses with a larger house to the north, which the VDS recognised as possibly representing the Harristown demesne. Catholic priests, who had been outlawed from practicing Catholicism during the penal times, celebrated Mass in secret at Harristown House. These laws which had existed from the 1600s, began to be repealed from 1771 onwards. It was not specified why or how they came to use Harristown House for this function. ==La Touche ownership==

La Touche family background The La Touches, or Latouches, were a prominent Huguenot family, In 1753, David La Touche the Second (1703-1785), a successful banker, bought land at Ballydonagh, County Wicklow, upon which he constructed a large house from 1754-1756 which he named Bellevue. ==1768 purchase of Harristown estate==

Approximately twelve years after the completion of Bellevue, in 1768, David La Touche II purchased the Harristown estate from the Eustace family (whose head had been Lord Portlester). A turn of the century article in the Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society, however, put the date of this purchase at about 1783. La Touche II did not take up residence at Harristown upon buying the property. and did take up residence. however his entry in the Dictionary of Irish Biography makes no such reference, only to various improvements he made upon the estate: John La Touche set about improving Harristown from c.1785; he walled his demesne, built a new bridge, and secured an act of parliament to change the route of the Naas to Dunlavin road. He also resided at town houses on Merrion Square and Ely Place, Dublin. ==Improvements to estate==

Historian Thomas Sadleir, writing in 1912, noted that John David La Touche had "built a fine mansion at Harristown, and greatly improved the demesne" giving credence to the concept that it may have been built during his tenure. Irish architectural historian Edward McParland notes that Whitmore Davis, the architect of the initial three-storey iteration of Harristown House, was "much patronized by the La Touche family for whom he built Harristown House in Co. Kildare and who engaged him to build the Female Orphan House in Dublin (in 1792)". Little much else is known of Davis, but in 1789 it appears he "advertised in the newspapers his intention to publish engravings of some Irish country houses", although nothing ultimately came of this project. The About Us section of the Harristown House official website maintains that the house was constructed after the La Touche purchase of 1768, noting: "Harristown demesne was purchased by the La Touche family in 1768 and a spacious Georgian mansion was erected by Whitmore Davis in a dominant position overlooking the River Liffey." , winter 2009 The enclosing of the estate by a boundary wall in the 1780s necessitated the deviating of the route of the original Naas to Dunlavin turnpike road, which until that point had passed right in front of the house, crossing the Liffey by the old 1600s bridge. The bridge was named the New Bridge on account of its having replaced the older one, and is still known locally as such, but is also known as the La Touche bridge, or Carnalway bridge and forms part of the modern R412 road. La Touche re-routed the road by power of an Act of the Irish Parliament. ==Later 18th century==

Paintings of John La Touche and his wife Gertrude FitzGerald (daughter of Robert Uniacke Fitzgerald), as painted by the Swiss artist Angelica Kauffman remained hanging on the walls of Harristown House as of 1912. Young describes the pair being "attired in fancy dress, and must have been painted soon after their marriage (in 1763) (which) show them to be a goodlooking pair of young people". During the 1798 Rebellion, a battle was fought at Nineteen-mile-house in the adjoining parish of Carnalway, between a party of United Irishmen and a detachment of British cavalry. A more substantial engagement took place in the churchyard of nearby Old Kilcullen on 24 May 1798 during the Battle of Kilcullen, in which 22 Crown forces were killed, including two captains named Cooke and Erskine. Many of the rebel United Irishmen who took part in the battle were subsequently massacred a few days later at the Gibbet Rath executions while attempting to surrender. A tablet was later installed at Carnalway church in memory of the deceased captain, Charles Cooke, sculpted by Charles Regnart. The Acts of Union in 1800 changed the political landscape of Ireland forever, and the borough constituency of Harristown was disenfranchised. £15,000 compensation was paid to its patron on account of its disenfranchisement. From its purchase in 1768, descendants of the La Touche family would continue to occupy Harristown uninterrupted until 1921. ==St Patrick's church, Carnalway==

During the tenure of John David La Touche, around the year 1798, he built a church named St Patrick's to function as a Church of Ireland church for Harristown estate. In his A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland in 1837, Samuel Lewis made the following observations about the church: The church, a very neat edifice with a tower and spire, was built by the late John La Touche, Esq. and contains a tablet to the memory of Capt. Cooke, who fell while charging the insurgents at Kilcullen bridge, in 1798. The late Board of First Fruits granted £100, in 1810, towards the erection of a glebe-house, attached to which are 10 acres of glebe. Following an 1891 redesign, the tower from the 1798 church is the only part of the original building remaining. ==19th century==

Thomas Rawson, in his 1807 Statistical Survey of the County of Kildare, assessed the trees planted on the estate: At Harristown, near Kilcullen, that very great improver John La Touche, Esq. has formed within a few years most magnificent and extensive plantations; he has adopted very much the plan of grouping each kind by itself, which prevents their injuring each other, as they invariably do, when planted promiscuously; in group plantations, if executed with taste, you have an immediate dotted carpet of various hues. John David La Touche died in 1810, His son John, who succeeded him, He died in 1822. which was closed down by the presiding La Touche owing to the fact that he "thought that the Irish were too industrious". It was not specified which La Touche had supposedly been involved in these acts. John "The Master" La Touche (1814–1904) inherited the house in 1844 and lived there for the next 62 years alongside his wife, the novelist Maria Catherine Price La Touche. Maria La Touche wrote two novels, "The Clintons" (1853), and "Lady Willoughby" (1855), both published in London. She was adverse to blood sports, and often complained about the neighbouring gentry who engaged in fox hunting. Rose became the object of the "crazed infatuation" of writer John Ruskin, though his offers of marriage were refused. The family had met Ruskin in London in 1858. During the Great Irish Famine (1845-1852), John was sympathetic to the suffering of his tenants, "allowing no white bread or pastry to be made, and only the simplest dishes to appear on his table. The deer-park at Harristown ceased at this time to have any deer in it; all were made into food for the starving people." Around 1870, La Touche initiated Bible studying classes in Harristown House, which became the start of a local Baptist church group, who later convened in Rose Cottage, Brannockstown, named after John's youngest daughter. He also started becoming involved in Christian relief projects in London, raising money to support "fallen women", and was instrumental in the founding of the London City Mission. According to Richard Blayney, the pastor of Brannockstown Baptist Church in 2021, "there is a lingering question of whether tenants and employees of the Master of Harristown were expected to attend the (religious) services in Brannockstown. In the years since then, some have even maintained that regular attendance of the Baptist church was a condition of employment at Harristown". As of 2021, the church was still in use, drawing regular attendees from as far as 40 kilometres away. puts the date at 1864. A railway station was opened at Harristown, although it was much closer to the site of the ruined Harristown Castle than to Harristown House. A dedicated station master (and family) lived onsite at Harristown station. The increasing popularity of the motorcar at the time meant that ultimately passenger numbers on the route began to decline, and the last regular passenger service was withdrawn in January 1947. The line eventually closed completely in 1959. It was under John La Touche's direction that the majority of the remains of Portlester Castle (aka Harristown Castle) were knocked down in 1884 in order to build a national school from the rubble at Brannockstown, which opened in 1885. The school survived for twenty years, but under his son, Percy, the pupils moved to the national school at Carnalway. ==1891 fire==

The original house was "destroyed" in 1891 following a fire, and was rebuilt by architect James Franklin Fuller, one of "the most prolific builders of country seats in the late 19th century" according to the Leinster Leader. A folk memory relating to the fire was recorded in the 1930s by the Irish Folklore Commission. A local child named Jennie Ffrench relayed information about the event from her mother, who incorrectly recalled 1888 as the year in which the event happened: In the year 1888, Harristown house, the residence of John La Touche Esq. which is about four miles from Kilcullen, was burned to the ground. The fire broke out in a maid's rooms and spread through the whole house. The only victim was a cat owned by the housekeeper, who buried it near the ruins and put a small tombstone over it, bearing the words - "In remembrance of Stella who was a victim of the fire". The tombstone can be seen to this day in the grounds of the present Harristown house, now owned by Dr Graham. St Patricks church redesign The Reverend William Somerville-Large was appointed to Carnalway in 1887, whereupon an evangelical member of the La Touche banking family "attempted to block his appointment", and "got his agent to urge the church wardens to lock the new Rector out of his church, whilst a fellow minister sent a letter round the parish denouncing Somerville–Large's opinions". Soon after his arrival, Somerville-Large began attempts at 'beautifying' the church. The official Harristown House website states that Fuller "rebuilt it in the Hiberno Romanesque style similar to that of his masterpiece at Millicent." The new church was eventually consecrated on 22 December 1892. In his memoir, Somerville–Large recalled the situation when workmen, "in digging new foundations disturbed several graves and desecrated the remains". The matter was brought before the Naas Petty Sessions, where Somerville–Large was acquitted. ==Final La Touche years==

John "The Master" La Touche died in 1904 at the age of 90, after which Mrs. La Touche left Kildare to reside in Dublin, where she too died in 1906. The estate passed to their son Percy, who was a figure in high society and a favourite of King Edward VII. The 1911 census of Ireland was taken on the evening of 2 April 1911, during which it was noted that 64 year old 'Robert Percy O'Connor La Touche' was head of the household at Harristown; alongside his wife Annette Louisa, 66, their 27-year-old nephew Samuel Treherne Bassett Saunderson, ten-year-old grand-nephew Adrian Clements Gore, and a complement of seven domestic workers, including a butler, cook, lady's maid, pair of housemaids, kitchen maid, and footman. All but one of the domestic workers had been born in Great Britain. Percy La Touche's occupation was noted as "D.L.T.P. Co Kildare", an abbreviation that could possibly indicate "Does not like to profess". and was installed in late 1921. On a number of occasions, An Post have released postage stamps featuring details of the window. ==Beaumont ownership==

Upon acquiring the property in 1946, MW Beaumont "completely renovated" and restored the house, "installing furniture, pictures and Carrara marble fireplaces from their former home Wotton in Buckinghamshire", the interior of which had been designed by Sir John Soane. According to the official Harristown House website: Doreen Beaumont brought some of the Soanian influence to bear on her new home and thus the colours she used are not those traditionally associated with an Irish Georgian house. Further there are other finishes and artefacts that reflect a more eclectic approach to interior design. In the 1940s, the kitchen in the house was relocated from the basement upstairs to the sitting room at ground level, a room with a deep bow window that was described as a "homely country kitchen" by the Irish Times. In 1953, whilst ploughing a field north of Harristown House, local man Robert H. Smith unearthed a gold hair-ring (lock ring), which was noted in the Review of the Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society. ==Chinoiserie==

Two rooms at Harristown were noted to have been decorated with Chinese wallpaper as of 1957 (following the chinoiserie aesthetic). The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland explained at the time that the rooms: ...represent very recent additions indeed to the list of examples in Ireland. In several ways, however, they are of exceptional interest. Thus the specimen in the drawing room, with its very lovely "bird-and-plant" forms on a pale green ground had never been utilised at all until it was put up at Harristown by Major and Mrs. M. Beaumont in 1949, for it had been kept, unused, since the original importation into England a little over two hundred years ago. As can be seen from the illustration in Plate XVIII it is rather more elaborate than most early specimens of that style - a possible explanation being that it is supposed to have come from the East through a Dutch trading company and to have received some additional ornamentation in Holland. Incidentally preservation for so long, unused, thought (sic) certainly rare, is not unique. Chinese rice papers were so fine that they took up very little space, and moreover were not mounted onto the strong lining papers until they were actually about to be put up. Though also beautiful, the second example at Harristown House belongs to the more ordinary "bird-and-plant" form type of the later eighteenth century - some of the birds again being applied. Unlike the paper in the drawing room, this one was removed from the house in England (Wotton), and the result says almost as much for the quality of the material as for the skill of those who accomplished the transfer. The official Harristown House website describes the "16th Century Chinese Wallpaper in a sitting room leading off the drawing room which depicts birds in strong vibrant colours" as "the best kept secret" of the house. at Stowe, in 2012 Also in 1957, Beaumont transported an early-18th century decorative construction known as The Chinese House from his Wotton estate to Harristown. Built pre-1738, originally at Stowe Gardens in Buckinghamshire, it was the first known building in England to have been built in the Chinese style, and even one of the first in the West. A small structure made of pine wood, measuring 12 by 10 feet, it was painted inside and out on canvas by the Italian painter Francesco Sleter (1685-1775), intended as a curio for a pond setting. In 1992, the house was purchased by the National Trust in the UK and returned to Stowe. ==Modern era==

The ground floor of the house consists of three main reception rooms, a library, a drawing room and a dining room, which all have 18-foot high ceilings. In 1998, a "major restoration programme" began at St Patrick's Church, Carnalway to remedy serious structural faults in the building. It was recorded that by December 1998, parishioners of the Newbridge union of parishes had already spent £13,500 on conservation works, and expected to spend another £15,000 in the immediate future. In 2000, Halverstown Cricket Club (originally founded on the grounds of Halverstown House, Kilcullen in 1885) moved to a new location on the grounds of Harristown estate, where they have remained since. According to the club's official website, its training grounds at Harristown are "nestled among ancient oaks and broad-leafed trees, creating a true oasis for cricket lovers". The house also offered exam preparation, in group or individual classes, for teens/adults preparing for the English language tests of IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge Assessment English and MFL. Filming location As of April 2025, the house (including internal décor and furnishings) had been used for productions including Aristocrats (1999), ''Foyle's War (2015), Sacrifice (2016), Quantico (2018), and Vita & Virginia'' (2018). In addition to the house, the "unchanged" 18th century farm buildings and stables have been used in Frankie Starlight (1995) and ''Black '47'' (2018), Ad hoc events In April 2016, the Kildare and West Wicklow Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (KWWSPCA) held a 'Bridge Day' at the house to raise money for their cause. Noella and Hubert Beaumont were thanked for their hospitality in receiving the group. In July 2024, members of the Irish Georgian Society visited the house as part of a day tour entitled 'Houses and Gardens of Leinster'. ==Maintenance and future==

In September 2016, the house and demesne of 750 acres were put on sale with an asking price of €25 million. Kildare News reported that "Harristown House is one of 170 houses, gardens and buildings of interest which welcome visitors for 60 days a year under the Section 482 scheme that allows owners off-set renovation and maintenance costs against income tax." As of , the Harristown estate remains in the ownership of the Beaumont family. ==Location and access==

The house admits public visitors as part of open days on occasion. ==Local stud farms==

The area of County Kildare in which the house is located is known for the quality of its limestone soil, and success in breeding successful racehorses. Nearby stud farms include those owned by the Aga Khan IV (Gilltown and Sallymount - home of Sea the Stars), Prince Khalid Abdullah's New Abbey Stud as well as the Ardenode Stud, Hollyhill Stud, Newberry Stud and Ragusa Stud. ==See also==