A Future for Irish Historic Houses - Irish Heritage Trust

Strokestown Park, Strokestown, Co. Roscommon.
Strokestown Park is located on the outskirts of Strokestown in Co. Roscommon.
Originally the home of the Mahon family, it is now owned by Westward Holdings
Ltd:
- Strokestown is a seventeenth-century Palladian mansion, regarded as one
of the finest of its type built in Ireland. Major remodelling of the original
house was carried out in the 1730s to the design of Richard Castle. It is
now the only surviving house of its type in Roscommon.
- Thomas Mahon, 2 nd Lord Hartland, was largely responsible for the
planning and development of Strokestown; its characteristic wide streets
were said to reflect his attempts to have a street wider than the Ringstrasse
in Vienna.
- The house remained in the Mahon family (later Pakenham Mahon) until
1979 when it was sold to its present owners. With financial assistance of
James Callary and under the guidance of Luke Dodd, the restoration of
Strokestown was amongst the largest privately funded restoration projects
in Ireland.
- The library, with its coved ceiling, has original early nineteenth-century
wallpaper and Chippendale bookcases.
- The original kitchen retains much of its historic integrity. Its balustraded
gallery is a major feature of Castle’s houses.
The house was opened to the public in 1987. The outoffices now house the National
Famine Museum that was opened in 1994. The restoration of the walled pleasure
gardens was completed in 1997 and that of the Georgian fruit and vegetable garden in
2000. The house and Famine museum projects have received substantial funding from
the EC, the Irish Georgian Society, Bord Failte, the Heritage Council and the Great
Gardens Restoration Scheme.
At its peak the house was attracting up to 70,000 visitors per annum. That number has
now declined to around 60,000 per annum.
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