Temple House

Classificazione: Maniero
Paese: Irlanda
Regione: County Sligo
Indirizzo: Temple House, Ballymote, F56 NN50, Sligo
Periodo / stile: Classical, mid-nineteenth century

Temple House, near Ballymote in County Sligo, overlooks a Templar's castle and a large lake from the centre of a heavily timbered estate. The classical cut stone house dates from the mid-nineteenth century but the earlier house can be identified in the centre of the east front. The interior has a superb suite of very large, grand rooms, lit by serried ranks of plate-glass windows. There are lofty ceilings (the vestibule rises to almost 32 feet) and decoration reminiscent of the grander London clubs, while much of the furniture was commissioned for the house. The estate takes its name from the Knights Templar, the wealthiest of the three military orders founded during the crusades. The knights reached Ireland with the Normans and built a castle at Temple House in County Sligo, their most westerly foundation, shortly after 1200. Following the Pope's suppression of the order in 1312, the property was transferred to the Knights Hospitallers. The O'Haras subsequently reoccupied the site and built a new castle beside the lake in 1360. In 1565 William Crofton acquired Temple House, which later passed to his great-granddaughter Mary upon her marriage to George Perceval. By the 1760s, descendants replaced the thatched dwelling with a new house, further extended in 1825. The family were ruined by the Famine and the estate was sold. A younger son, Alexander, amassed wealth in Hong Kong and returned to repurchase the ancestral estate, tripling the size of the house in 1864 with classical cut-stone cladding. He died in 1866 from sun-stroke while fishing. Today the estate comprises 1,200 acres of pasture, woodland, lake, river and bog, and is home to the thirteenth and fourteenth generations in almost continuous occupation since the late sixteenth century. Open to groups by arrangement from April to November, available as a film location, and offering country sports and special family celebrations, meetings and receptions.

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