Survey Data

Reg No

14916028


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural


Original Use

Grotto


Date

1720 - 1760


Coordinates

231018, 223388


Date Recorded

15/09/2004


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached limestone grotto, built c.1740, next to the Clodiagh River. Comprising of a long passage terminating in a circular room with fireplace. Random rubble stone walls with random rubble corbelling to interior roof. Window openings with cast-iron tracery glazing bars. Tooled limestone door surround, now overgrown.

Appraisal

Designed by Lady Charleville and built with considerable expense to give employment to the poor peasantry in a season of scarcity. The magnificence of this structure is captured in a description by Sir Charles Coote, in 1801, when he describes it as 'finished in true rustic style with a venerable appearance of antiquity'. The architectural significance of the grotto is reflected in its elaborate form and attention to detailing in the window glazing bars and door surround which is unusual for a structure of apparently modest form.