Main Record - County Laois

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Emo Court, Emo Court Demesne, County Laois
12800871
Representative view
Reg. No.12800871
Date1780 - 1800
Previous NameN/A
TownlandEMO PARK
CountyCounty Laois
Coordinates253836, 206556
Categories of Special InterestARCHITECTURAL ARTISTIC HISTORICAL SOCIAL
RatingRegional
Original Usecountry house
In Use Ascountry house
 
Description
Detached nine-bay two- and three-storey over basement Neo-Classical house, begun 1790, comprising two-storey central block with prostyle tetrastyle pedimented portico and three-storey advanced end bays. Designed by James Gandon. Built as seat of the Earls of Portarlington. Renovated, c.1835, with garden front and interior completed. Designed by Lewis Vulliamy. Renovated, c.1860, with rotunda completed. Designed by William Caldbeck. Double-pitched slate roof hidden behind balustraded parapet with rolled lead ridge tiles, copper-clad hemispherical dome with central light. Nap rendered walls with ruled and lined detail, rusticated to basement, with rendered quoins and granite entablature with modillion cornice. Coade stone panels to parapet. Limestone columns with Coade stone Ionic capitals. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills, rendered architraves, some with pediments, and six-over-six timber sash windows. Bath stone prostyle tetrastyle pedimented Ionic portico with bath stone doorcase with consoles having cornice over and a glazed timber panelled double door. Entrance Hall with apsidal niches; trompe l'oeil detaining, c.1970; decorative plaster ceiling; Rotunda (partly reconstructed, c.1970, replacing wall demolished to accommodate use as private chapel) with inlaid floor; marble pilasters; dome to ceiling. Stair Hall with cantilevered Portland stone staircase having brass balusters. Dining Room with marble fireplace; decorative plaster ceiling, c.1835. Library with high relief fireplace, c.1835, having putti and vines. Drawing Room with Connemara marble screen walls. House is set back from road in own grounds; landscaped grounds to site; tarmacadam drive and forecourt to approach. Formal garden to site with flights of stone steps; statuary and urns.
 
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