Dromana House in County Waterford enjoys wonderful views over the mighty Blackwater river, but the approach to the house crosses a tributary, the Finnisk, and there’s a surprise for anyone visiting for the first time. The road curves, and suddenly there is the most perfect of scenes: a tranquil river crossed by a bridge leading to a lodge built in a magnificent melange of the gothic and the oriental.

The bridge was originally a wooden structure, with a central drawbridge allowing boats to pass in the days when the river was navigable. Old postcards show that the bridge originally had ogee-arched railings to match the lodge, but even by 1928 the bridge was becoming worn ‘under the strain of heavy traffic’, and strengthening and safety works in the later twentieth century saw the wooden bridge and railings replaced with concrete and steel.

In the early nineteenth century Dromana was the seat of Henry Villiers Stuart (1803-1874), created 1st Baron de Decies in 1839. The tale is told that a papier-mâché arch was erected, where the lodge stands today, to welcome Stuart when he returned to Dromana with his new bride in 1826. The arch was said to have been fashioned in an indo-gothic style to help the happy couple remember their honeymoon in Brighton, where they would have seen George IV’s Royal Pavilion. Stuart and his wife were apparently so taken with the design that they decided to recreate it in a more substantial fashion.

No records can be found to corroborate this story (although such ephemeral celebratory arches were certainly in vogue in this period). In fact, the whole story of Villiers Stuart’s marriage is rather mysterious. He is said to have married Theresia Pauline Ott (c.1802-1867), a Viennese-born widow, in a Catholic ceremony in London in 1826, and a son, Henry, was born in 1827. In 1839 the marriage was solemnised in Christ Church, Marylebone, when the curate noted in the register that the couple had been ‘heretofore married in the city of Dublin according to the Ritual Ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church’, but crucially no date is given. No records of an 1826 marriage could be found after Lord de Decie’s death in 1874, making his son illegitimate, and therefore unable to inherit the title. This was a ’cause celebre‘ of the day, and the ‘exceptionally interesting peerage case’, filled the courtroom and the newspapers for some weeks in 1876.

Surprisingly few accounts of the lovely lodge can be found, but we do know it was extant by 1835 when a Scottish tourist, Robert Graham, saw a ‘remarkable bridge’ with a building with a ‘pear-shaped cupola’ at the end of it.* The ‘costly fanciful structure’ was noted by another writer in 1844, and in 1848 John Bernard Burke (of ‘Peerage’ fame) described it as ‘singularly fanciful and striking’ and ‘looking like some romantic scene in the Arabian Nights’.

The architect is thought to be Martin Day (?1797-?1860), who is known to have worked at Dromana in the correct period. Surviving drawings of the lodge by Day are dated 1849, suggesting that it was perhaps remodelled or renovated at that date. The inspiration behind the lodge remains a mystery – is the Brighton honeymoon story true (probably not – the court case suggests they went straight to Scotland after the wedding)? Had Villiers Stuart or his architect seen Oriental Scenery, the volumes of views of India produced by the Daniell brothers in 1795-1807 (above)? Were they aware of Sezincote, the Mughal palace in the Cotswolds built by Samuel Pepys Cockerell, with the assistance of Thomas Daniell, for his brother Charles in the first years of the nineteenth century? Wherever the idea came from, we should be grateful it did, and that this joyful structure survives today.

The Irish Georgian Society restored the decrepit lodge in 1968, and further repairs were made in the 1990s, but the lodge is once again in need of some care. In 2023 the IGS gave a grant to support the preparation of a building report to investigate how to ‘reinstate this structure to its former glory’.

The bridge and lodge are freely accessible. The house at Dromana was reduced to a more manageable size in the twentieth century and remains the home of the Villiers Stuart family. You can read more about the history and visiting here https://dromanahouse.com

That’s the last folly (for now, at least) from the Flâneuse’s recent Irish jaunt. If all goes to plan next week’s post will go off at a tasty tangent. Thank you for reading, and as ever you can share thoughts and comments at the foot of the page.

*This information is from J.A.K. Dean’s impressive gazetteer of the gate lodges of Ireland, and in particular the volume for the province of Munster.

In 1972 Mariga Guinness, or Mrs Desmond Guinness as she was known in more formal times, wrote an article on follies for Ireland of the Welcomes, a publication produced by the Irish Tourist Board to promote Ireland as a holiday destination. Launched in 1952, it is still published today and describes itself as ‘the largest and longest-running Irish interest magazine in the world’. Hermione Maria-Gabrielle von Urach (1932-1989), known as Mariga, married Desmond Guinness in 1954 and they moved to Ireland the following year. Mrs Guinness loved Ireland, and threw herself into preserving the architectural heritage – she and her husband co-founded the Irish Georgian Society in 1958. The couple first rented the Georgian mansion Carton House, and later bought Leixlip Castle, both home to garden ornaments, so Mrs Guinness was well-placed to write in praise of follies.

Accompanying the text is a delicious map which was drawn by Jan de Fouw (1929-2015), a Dutch-born graphic designer and illustrator who settled in Ireland in 1951. From 1952 to 1996 he was the freelance designer of Ireland of the Welcomes. As well as featuring in the magazine the map was published as a stand-alone guide to Irish follies, complete with a county-by-county list of what to see. Mrs Guinness didn’t give exact locations believing, as the Flâneuse does, that ‘Folly-hunting must be regarded as an exploratory adventure’.

Mrs Guinness opens her article with the assertion that ‘there are more follies to the acre in Ireland than anywhere else in the world’. The Flâneuse doubts that anyone has ever tried to prove or disprove this bold claim, but there is no denying that Ireland has both quantity and quality. Mrs Guinness thought that ‘folly-hunting appears to be a totally neglected facet of Irish travel’ and as Ireland of the Welcomes was mainly aimed at the U.S. market, one hopes that American tourists took up her challenge to explore Ireland’s arbours, grottoes, towers and shell-houses.

The first folly Mrs Guinness mentions in her text is the Conolly Folly in County Kildare. This unique structure was built by Katherine Conolly (1662-1752, born Conyngham) in 1740 to terminate a vista, and to provide work and food for the local population in a time of need.

It is attributed to the architect Richard Castle (d.1751) and stood on high ground in the Castletown demesne – or rather it stood near the Castletown estate. Apparently Mrs Conolly (widow of William, reputedly the richest commoner in Ireland) discovered too late that she didn’t own the plot on which the obelisk was built: it was just over the Castletown demesne boundary, and was actually on Carton estate land. Marked on a mid-eighteenth century map as ‘Obelisk’, it soon became known as the Conolly Folly or Conolly’s Folly.

Carton was Mariga Guinness’s first Irish home, and although she moved to other properties it would become her last: she was buried beneath the folly in 1989. Her memory lives on in the many properties and follies she actively campaigned to save, and in the ongoing work of the Irish Georgian Society. And 52 years after it was first published, her article recently guided the Folly Flâneuse on a fabulous flit around some of the follies of Ireland (watch this space).

The Conolly Folly is now a national monument in the care of the state. It was among the first buildings to be restored by the Irish Georgian Society in 1962, and was adopted as their logo. There is public access, but unlike the contented visitors in the early photograph above, you will not be able to get up close: ugly security fencing protects the monument from vandals.

The view to the Conolly Folly is now obstructed by mature trees, but the tip of the obelisk can be seen peeking above the verdure from some distance.

For a wonderful tribute to Mariga Guinness see https://theirishaesthete.com/2014/05/05/marvellous-mariga/

There’s more on Ireland of the Welcomes here https://irelandofthewelcomes.com

Regular readers might remember that the Flâneuse is a huge fan of artist Ed Kluz. If you are anywhere near Bath before the 22nd of June go and see his new sculptural pieces at Berdoulat at 8 St Margaret’s Buildings in the city centre. Here’s a taste of what you might see, and more works can be seen at https://www.edkluz.co.uk

Thank you for reading. As ever, your thoughts are very welcome. Please scroll down to the comments box to get in touch. Please note that only your name will appear – your email address remains private.