Survey Data
Reg No
13402606
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical
Original Use
House
In Use As
House
Date
1770 - 1830
Coordinates
214333, 257501
Date Recorded
11/08/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c. 1770 and extensively remodelled c. 1822, having projecting single-bay single-storey flat-roofed porch to the centre of the front elevation (south) and two-storey returns to the rear (north). Advanced single-bay two-storey extension, c. 1851, attached to west side of the front elevation (south). Shallow hipped natural slate roof with overhanging eaves having cut stone eaves course and cut stone brackets, and with rendered chimneystacks with cut stone coping. Raised parapet with cut stone coping to block to east. Roughcast rendered walls over projecting dressed limestone plinth and with flush ashlar limestone block-and-start quoins to the corners of main block and to block to the west. Square-headed window openings, tripartite to main block, having cut stone sills and mainly replacement fittings. Six-over-three pane timber sash window survives to block to east at first floor level. Square-headed door opening to the east face of projecting porch having cut stone surround with architrave and timber panelled door. Earlier round-headed doorway with fanlight over survives behind porch. Set back from road in extensive mature grounds to the southwest of Ballymahon. Complex of outbuildings arranged around a courtyard to the north. Main entrance gateway (13402605) to the northeast.
Appraisal
This fine house retains its early form and character. It also retains much of its early fabric, both to the interior and exterior, despite the recent replacement of some of the window fittings. It probably originally dates to c. 1770 but was extensively remodelled during the early-nineteenth century and now has a predominately late-Georgian architectural character to the principal block. This building was probably originally built as a symmetrical building, having a central block with recessed two-storey blocks to either side. The wide tripartite/Wyatt-window openings and the shallow hipped slate roof are characteristic features of many middle-sized houses built in Ireland c. 1810 – 1820. The two-storey wing to the southwest corner of the house was built c. 1851 to designs by James Bell (c. 1794 – 1872), a Longford architect who was much patronized by the Edgeworth family in Edgeworthstown, c. 1830, and who was appointed County Surveyor for Longford in 1834. This house was originally built by the Shuldham family, who developed much of nearby Ballymahon during the early-nineteenth century, and funded the construction of the market house/court house (13316010) in the town c. 1826. The Shuldham family also lived at Ballymulvey House to the east to Ballymahon, now demolished, from the early-to-mid part of the eighteenth century. A Pooley Shuldham (who lived at Ballymulvey House, near Ballymahon) of Moigh House died in 1793. He was married in 1768, and may have built a new house at Moygh/Moigh shortly afterwards. A John Brady Shoulham (1782 – 1832) of Moigh (and Ballymulvey) served as High Sheriff of Longford in 1823/4, and he was responsible for the extensive remodelling of the house in 1822. His brother, Molyneux William, served as High Sheriff in 1827 and died at Moigh House in 1846. A John Shuldham (1826 - 91) of Moigh served as High Sheriff from 1848 - 50, and he probably commissioned the construction of the wing to the southwest in 1851. He later moved to Dublin to take up residence at a house called Gortmore, later serving as Deputy Lieutenant and High Sheriff of County Dublin. The Shuldham family seem to have sold or leased out Moigh House from c. 1870? It was the residence of a William Bond and/or of John Shuldham in 1881 (Slater’s Directory) and was later the residence of the District Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary (Mortimer Geraghty?), based at Ballymahon, from 1892 to 1898. It was later in the ownership of a Mr. Bryan Mulvihill. This building forms the centrepiece of an interesting collection of related structures along with the now ruinous complex of outbuildings to the rear (north) and the main entrance gateway (13402605) to the northeast. It is an integral element of the built heritage and social history of the Ballymahon area.