irishtourist

“Lady Anne returned to Castlecomer to live, and began a major reconstruction of the town, church, and manor house. The new Castlecomer House, completed in 1802, was much larger and grander than the original. The house had 365 windows, one for each day of the year”

familynibbles.com/2022/08/17/234-castlecomer-and-the-wand...

'Monkey' swung by in November 1956 - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000737720

Calendar houses were popular. So we’re there 52 rooms, and maybe 12 chimney stacks, or 12 staircases?

www.countrylife.co.uk/property/country-houses-for-sale-an....

suckindeesel Quite Adept I think this is our first (knowing) encounter with a calendar house?

Evidently Adare Manor is also a calendar house ...
"... The building is a calendar house, featuring 365 windows and 52 chimneys, among some other design characteristics. Along the top of the building an extract of psalm 127:1 is made from carved stone: "Except the Lord build the house, then labour is but lost that built it"."
via - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adare_Manor

Read All About It, via 'The Irish Sod' - theirishsod.blogspot.com/2012/12/irelands-bethlehem.html

Google Satellite - maps.app.goo.gl/a84JpjT8F4ysgCGz9
53.540924, -7.871162

There is a record at the NIAH which agrees with the beachcombers source: occupied for just 10 years until burnt in 1642, after which the nuns moved to Athlone.

A Madonna statue of bog oak from the convent survives in Galway: poorclares.ie/our-lady-of-bethlehem-athlone-madonna

The building was featured in a full-page article in the Evening Herald (Dublin) Thursday 24 December 1992.

Last year. Poor Clare nuns from around the world visited the ivy -clad ruins in Co Westmeath when the order celebrated the 350th anniversary of the flight of the nuns who escaped to Galway by taking to boats on Lough Ree.

It also mentions the Streven family, on whose farm it stands, who had cleared the ivy and received many letters from nuns who had visited.

Another duchas.ie connection ... "At Ballilngarry, about 5 miles from Rathkeale Co. Limerick lived "The Great O'Baggot". He was a School Master and a great classical scholar as well. He was one of the "United Irishmen". Lord Edward Fitzgerald visited him in 1798. During the Emmett Rising he attempted to capture Limerick Castle in 1803. He was arrested and imprisoned and died at Charleville Co. Cork in 1806. He is buried in Kilmacow Churchyard near Knockfierna (which is beside Ballingarry) and 7 miles from Rathkeale. ... ..." From - www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4921973/4914519/4937272

And another - www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922007/4917647

Horse-apple view (?) - maps.app.goo.gl/hpNFZLxqTFj1TecTA Flickr is sometimes amazing! In August 2023 -

Worth a read - leitrimannals.com/tag/1798-rebellion/

running dog !