Local history: Breaffy House opened as hotel in 1963
PART TWO
By Tom Gillespie
CONTINUING Tom Higgins' history of the Brownes of Breaffy we turn to the Ordinance Survey maps of Breaffy for the next chapter of the story of Dominick Andrew Browne, who is now, once again, and certainly by 1880, back in Breaffy House and very much in control of affairs.
The three maps in question are from the 1837, 1900 and 1929 Ordnance Survey of Ireland. Comparisons between the three, detailing the Demesne, shed a lot of light on the Brownes during that period.
The Demesne, which was only 182 acres in 1838, by 1900 is enlarged to 285 acres, extending from the Cottage Road to Lisgowal. This probably took place after the Famine.
In the 1927 map we find two new avenues leading into the house from the Castlebar road, with a new gate lodge at each entrance. One of the lodges was at Lally’s house, the other lodge was removed when the new road was built.
There is a new farmyard and farm buildings, fruit and vegetables gardens. The area between the two gate lodges and up as far as the stream is a newly planted woodland of deciduous trees, with some conifers.
We find a new man-made pond to the right of the bridge on the avenue into the house, dug after 1900.
On the other side of the bridge the stream leads on to a saw mill with mill stream and sluice gates. Obviously, in order to obtain sufficient water power for the mill turbine the sluice gates would be closed, thus building up a reservoir of water in the new man-made pond.
There are two lime kilns marked on the map and these together with the extensive farm buildings show evidence of increased farming activity.
The vegetable gardens and glasshouse extend down from the stream to the main gate.
The horse stables and water tanks are situated to the east of the house, a road leading down from them to the farm buildings.
The kennels where the beadles were kept were at the back of the gate lodge (Lally’s house). All of the areas are linked by a network of tracks and paths.
The racecourse which is marked on the 1838 map is not on the 1900 map or any subsequent map because racing had ceased in Breaffy.
But most important is the new Breaghwy Lodge, built between 1881 and 1900, and the new house is clearly marked on the 1900 map.
The new Breaffy House
The style of the architecture is obviously Victorian. No place here for the even skyline and straight facades which would be a feature of the Georgian style.
Instead, we have the typical rambling asymmetrical style of the 19th century. It is as if the architect was more concerned with giving free rein to his imagination than in producing an orderly plan.
It was the age of romanticism. You tried to create the world of the medieval castle and the Gothic cathedral all in one.
All of these features we find in Breaffy House - a varied skyline, boldly recessed facades, polygonal corner turrets with battlements and pointed roof, a second battlemented turrets set at an obtuse angle to the facade, stepped gables and mullioned windows (since changed). The above features on the garden front. The entrance front has a single storey battlemented porch. Above it all are tall slender chimneys and dormer windows on the roof.
What was the thinking behind all of this?
If you were a landowner of any consequence in the 19th century your first step to the high peak of society was to build an impressive baronial mansion. You would use the house to transact business. It would have to be large enough to entertain many guests and to accommodate and employ a large number of servants, each with his of her clearly defined function and place in the hierarchy of the household. It was all a great display of wealth and power and privilege.
So where did this wealth originate?
There are various probable sources. First of all, Dominick Andrew Browne, although educated in the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, does not seem to have held an officer rank in the British Army, as was the case with most other first sons of the family.
Neither was there any pressing need for a high ranking army career at that time. Europe was at peace in the 19th century and England had no wars to fight, so Dominick Andrew was able to devote his whole energy to farming and estate improvements.
The 1850s and 1860s were prosperous for Irish agriculture. There was a larger volume of food on the market than ever before due to the higher productivity of the post-Famine tenants.
Not only that, but prices of farm produce were rising, especially so in the case of cattle and butter. Landlord and tenant alike shared the benefits.
Then there was the Jamaican connection. Dominick Andrew’s father had married Frances Jane Hawthorn in 1823, daughter of a sugar cane plantation owner in Jamaica. It is well known that sugar plantations in Jamaica were run on African slave labour.
During the 19th century large English landowners financed the building of lavish Victorian mansions out of their incomes from the African slave trade. With increasing trade and prosperity during the century it is possible that income from the Jamaican estates was considerable.
When Dominick Andrew died in 1902, his eldest son Dominick Sidney (Major), born in 1866, succeeded him in Breaffy.
Dominick Sidney served in the Boer War (1899-1901) and in the First World War (1914-1918). He died in 1927 and was succeeded by Brigadier Dominick Andrew Sidney Browne, C.B.E., O.B.E., the last of the Brownes of Breaffy.
He married Iris Kathleen Deane of Littleton House, North Winchester, in 1930. They had four children, Peter Dominick, Miriam Dominica, Fiona Naomi, and Anne Patricia.
Dominick Andrew Sidney commanded the Royal Scotts Fusiliers in 1924. He served in Sicily and Italy and in north west Europe, 1944-’45. He retired from the army after the war in 1945. He was joint master of the Galway Hounds (the Blazers) 1933-’36. He was educated at Eaton and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
The final chapter
Since early in the century, pressure was mounting on the landlords to sell out the estates to their tenants. Provision for buying out the landlords was made in the various land reforms enacted by the British Parliament up to 1900, especially the Wydham Land Act of 1903. These acts provided the finance which enabled the tenants to buy out their landlords and repay the government loans provided for this purpose over a number of years.
In 1928 most of the villages of the Browne estate, except the Demesne and the townland of Cottage, were sold to the tenants under the terms as outlined in last week’s article.
In 1961 the remaining part of the estate - 400 acres, including the house, was sold to the Land Commission for division among local farmers.
Part of the lands went to the Forestry Department and in 1962 the house and 40 acres was bought by Una and Michael Lee. The house was opened as a grade A hotel in 1963.
It was destroyed in a fire in 1969 and rebuilt with additions for an expanded hotel. In 1984 the hotel was bought by a group of investors.
In times past, people who breached the high walls of the Demesne or otherwise gained entry to the hallowed grounds were either trespassing or under suspicion as poachers.
Today the gates are open, the high walls are down and all who go in there, whether the school children to do their nature study or tourists from all over the world, are welcome to savour the beauty and tranquillity of a place and time which has left an indelible imprint on the history of Breaffy.