{"id":58111,"date":"2013-04-01T00:05:45","date_gmt":"2013-03-31T23:05:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/?post_type=building-otm&p=58111"},"modified":"2022-08-20T16:38:05","modified_gmt":"2022-08-20T15:38:05","slug":"howard-mausoleum-kilbride-kilbride-td-arklow-county-wicklow","status":"publish","type":"building-otm","link":"https:\/\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/ga\/building-of-the-month\/howard-mausoleum-kilbride-kilbride-td-arklow-county-wicklow\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard Mausoleum, KILBRIDE (Kilbride) Td., Arklow, County Wicklow"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Figure 1: A view of the pyramid erected in 1785 as a mausoleum for the Howard family of nearby Shelton Abbey. Described in 2001 as a valuable piece of heritage at risk of being lost through neglect and decay, the pyramid was adopted as a project by the Arklow Marine and Heritage Committee who, in partnership with T\u00daS, have begun a careful restoration of the mausoleum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sitting on a small rise a mile north of Arklow, overlooking the Avoca River, is a monument described by Sir John Betjeman (1906-84) as the largest pyramid tomb ‘beyond the banks of the Nile’ (fig. 1<\/em>)<\/strong>. \u00a0It stands on the highest position in the ancient cemetery of Kilbride, dwarfing the ruins of the adjacent medieval church, and is easily seen from most points within a two-mile radius.<\/p>\n

When Ralph Howard (1726-86) of Shelton Abbey was made first Viscount Wicklow in 1785, he decided that no longer would a departed Howard be buried in cold clay; their bodies would be housed in an edifice more befitting aristocracy. \u00a0Philosophical Enlightenment was at its height and to speak of Athenian, Egyptian or Roman architecture was to display not only education but good taste. \u00a0The new mausoleum, Howard decided, would be a pyramid.<\/p>\n

The design is believed to be the work of the English sculptor and stonecutter, Simon Vierpyl (c<\/em>.1725\u20131810), although he is not specifically named in Account of costs and materials for the building of a mausoleum at Kilbride\u2026commissioned by Lord Wicklow<\/em> (16th<\/sup> December 1785) [NLI MS 38,575\/4 (2)] . \u00a0Vierpyl was well acquainted with Enlightenment taste having spent almost a decade in Rome producing souvenir copies of ancient sculpture for the well-heeled on their Grand Tour. \u00a0He was brought to Ireland by James Caulfeild (1728-99), fourth Viscount Charlemont, and soon became known for his designs based on ancient civilisations. \u00a0He worked closely with Sir William Chambers (1723-96) on the Casino (1758-76) at Marino; Castletown (1759; 1766) in County Kildare; and Charlemont House (1763-75) in Rutland Square [Parnell Square], Dublin. \u00a0According to The Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720-1940<\/em><\/a>\u00a0he appears to ‘have done relatively little purely sculptural work’ in Ireland, being employed chiefly as a stone-carver, mason and clerk of works.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 2: A view of the sarcophagus inscribed: Within the walls of the adjoining Church lie interr’d the Remains of\/M. Dorothea Howard otherwise Hassels Relict of John Howard Esq.\/Who Departed this Life at Shelton in December 1684 to Whose\/Memory and that of their Descendants and as a place\/of Burial for his Family Ralph Viscount Wicklow\/has caused this Monument to be Erected\/in the year of our Lord 1785<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The outer skin of the pyramid is of finely-cut silver-grey granite ashlar. \u00a0The base is approximately twenty-seven feet square, the walls are perpendicular to the height of six feet, at which level the slopes begin, meeting at the pinnacle some thirty feet above ground level. \u00a0A sarcophagus on the north side records that the monument was erected in memory of an earlier Howard and as a place of burial for the family (fig. 2<\/em>)<\/strong>. \u00a0North of the pyramid is a small Egyptian-style structure with a temple front that is often taken for part of the mausoleum: this, however, leads to a second chamber housing the remains of a minor branch of the Howard family (fig. 3<\/em>)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Figure 3: Writing in Mausolea Hibernica (1999) Maurice Craig described the Howard Mausoleum as ‘one of the most romantic and mysterious of Irish mausolea\u2026 The mystery is that below and in front of [the pyramid] is the curious fa\u00e7ade in granite with more than a whiff of the Egyptian taste about it, which must surely be later and is even perhaps of a different family’<\/figcaption><\/figure>Access to the inside was gained by a small door in the north wall \u2014 now sealed \u2014 from which a narrow corridor of about eight or nine feet leads to a chamber ten feet square. \u00a0This has a domed brick roof, about fifteen feet from the floor at its highest point. \u00a0The wall facing the short corridor, and the walls to the left and right, each contain nine niches arranged in three rows of three.\u00a0 The coffins were inserted lengthwise so that each niche opening is only two feet six inches square: a slab, on which the biographical details of the interred was carved, was fitted to seal the niche. \u00a0The fourth wall has only six niches, three placed vertically on either side of the chamber entrance, making for a total of thirty-three niches.\u00a0 Only eighteen are occupied.<\/p>\n

The first interment was of Ralph Howard’s daughter, Isabella, who was nineteen when she died in December 1784. \u00a0As the pyramid was not built until the following year, it is reasonable to assume that Isabella was buried in the graveyard and, on its completion, was exhumed and re-interred. \u00a0The last interment for which we have a record took place in 1823 but folklore states that there was another. \u00a0For weeks following the interment of an infant family member, tenants living at Kilbride reported the sound of a child crying at night. \u00a0The body was, we are told, removed and interred elsewhere, after which the crying is said to have stopped. \u00a0The pyramid was sealed and never used again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FURTHER READING<\/strong><\/p>\n

Craig, Maurice and Craig, Michael, Mausolea Hibernica<\/em><\/strong> (Dublin: The Lilliput Press, 1999)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":58112,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"county":[],"class_list":["post-58111","building-otm","type-building-otm","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHoward Mausoleum, KILBRIDE (Kilbride) Td., Arklow, County Wicklow - Buildings of Ireland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/ga\/building-of-the-month\/howard-mausoleum-kilbride-kilbride-td-arklow-county-wicklow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Howard Mausoleum, KILBRIDE (Kilbride) Td., Arklow, County Wicklow - Buildings of Ireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sitting on a small rise a mile north of Arklow, overlooking the Avoca River, is a monument described by Sir John Betjeman (1906-84) as the largest pyramid tomb ‘beyond the banks of the Nile’ (fig. 1). \u00a0It stands on the highest position in the ancient cemetery of Kilbride, dwarfing the ruins of the adjacent medieval\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/ga\/building-of-the-month\/howard-mausoleum-kilbride-kilbride-td-arklow-county-wicklow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Buildings of Ireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-20T15:38:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/app\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Howard-Mausoleum-01-Representative-View-1200x900.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/ga\/building-of-the-month\/howard-mausoleum-kilbride-kilbride-td-arklow-county-wicklow\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.buildingsofireland.ie\/ga\/building-of-the-month\/howard-mausoleum-kilbride-kilbride-td-arklow-county-wicklow\/\",\"name\":\"Howard Mausoleum, KILBRIDE (Kilbride) Td., Arklow, County Wicklow - 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