A Future for Irish Historic Houses - Irish Heritage Trust

3.4 Further Sources of Threat
3.4 (i) Income/Funding
The point has been made in Section 2 that the historic houses in this survey were built
by very wealthy families usually on the strength of very large rental incomes (or in
the case of Kylemore on the strength of mercantile wealth) that not only financed their
construction but also subsequently financed their upkeep.
The point has also earlier been made that houses of this nature that are sold on the
open market in the present-day can only be purchased by very wealthy individuals,
institutions or companies. Indeed, this has become something of a trend in Ireland in
recent years as Irish and foreign businessmen have bought houses such as Abbeyleix,
Ardbraccan, Ballynatray, Castlehyde, Castlemartin, Castletown Cox, Charleville,
Corbalton, Humewood, Lyons, Stackallen, and so on.
While historic houses are faced with a multitude of difficulties, the most pressing is
the financial burden involved in their day-to-day maintenance, conservation and
restoration:
- Of the twenty-five houses owned by the original families, thirteen are
maintained by farm income and/or private income. These are Barmeath,
Beaulieu, Birr, Borris, Curraghmore, Dunsany, Hamwood, Killadoon,
Kilruddery, Lambay, Lissadell, Mount Ievers and Stradbally.
- Some of these houses have comparatively large farms attached to them: for
example, Tullynally has a 750-acre farm. But while a large farm such as
this might be sufficient to provide a comfortable livelihood to an ordinary
farming family, the point needs to be made that it is not sufficient to
support the annual upkeep of such a large house, let alone to carry out the
necessary restoration and conservation work.
- Borris is supported by the income from the estate farm of around 270
acres, the woodlands of around 250 acres, a golf course and some property
rents. Again, farm income is simply not large enough to enable the owners
to carry out all the work they would like to do. Mount Ievers is supported
totally by a dairy farm, which has a quota of only 16,000 gallons, hardly
large enough to run a small farmhouse, let alone an historic house.
- The diminution of estates and farms (Enniscoe, for example, has only 160
acres) means that twelve of the twenty-five owners have had to seek
alternative means of raising income. This has taken a variety of forms. To
give some examples:
o There are a number of houses that double as
hotels/guesthouses/bed and breakfasts/restaurants. These include
Ballinlough, Bantry (up until this year), Castle Leslie, Clonalis,
Enniscoe, Glin, Hilton Park and Temple House.
o Lismore is let to paying guests who are willing to pay €3,500 per
night (for a group of twelve.)
o Slane Castle rents out conference suites, caters for weddings and
parties and is an established concert venue.
o Westport is open to the public and its outoffices and grounds have
been developed to provide recreational facilities for family groups.
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