Swainstown

Classification: Manor
Country: Ireland
Region: County Meath
Address: Kilmessan, C15 Y60F, Kilmessan
Period / style: Mid-18th-century Georgian

Nathaniel Preston, the younger son of an alderman of Dublin who had acquired estates in Meath at the Restoration, was born in 1678 and was MP for Navan for 47 years. He married Anne Dawson, a niece of the developer of Dublin's Dawson Street, and completed his house at Swainstown around 1750, just as his brother was completing the larger and grander Bellinter about 10 miles off. There has long been speculation regarding architect Richard Castle's involvement, given that both properties feature symmetrical over-basement blocks joined to matching pavilions by curved quadrants. The main entrance features a swan-neck pediment that seems to have been rescued from a building of the 1720s, with an unusually tall and narrow doorcase for its facade. The arrangement of rooms is unusual, yet in a way Preston succeeded in his aims, for, unlike many other Irish houses, Swainstown is still the home of his descendants, successively soldiers or clerics and mainly called Arthur or Nathaniel. They still farm their ancestral lands, looking out over their tree-lined demesne from a fine mid-18th century house on a gentle eminence. House visits for individuals and groups by arrangement, hosting receptions and family celebrations, and available as a film location.

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