The restoration at Ballyfin in Co.Laois is a long-term project aiming to transform with sensitivity a house built in the 1820s into a 50-room hotel of international standing for new owners, Ballyfin Demesne Limited. When the works are completed, Ballyfin will join an elite band of major Irish country houses restored in the last decade, reversing a trend of decline and decay once considered irreversible.
The house and surrounding parkland have major historic and cultural significance in Ireland. The main mansion was built between 1821 and 1826 to the design of architects Sir Richard Morrison and his son William Vitruvius Morrison. They extended the main elevation, enriched the interior and added a giant four-column Greek Ionic portico ' one of the earliest uses of this neo-classical feature in Ireland . The house is also set in one of the best surviving examples of eighteenth century parkland in the country.
Since 1928, the major buildings at Ballyfin have been in institutional use. It has been ' and still is in part ' a school run by a Catholic teaching order, the Patrician Brothers. Ballyfin's survival as an intact estate owes much to its occupation by the Brothers. Yet the conservation of all the historic buildings at Ballyfin had become an enormous financial undertaking and, in 2002, the estate was sold to Ballyfin Demesne Ltd.
Purcell Miller Tritton were appointed, liaising with Dublin-based architectural consultant John O'Connell, because of our recognized expertise in tackling large scale historic building projects. At the outset, we were commissioned to prepare a conservation plan for the demesne (estate) and a condition survey of the mansion house. We then prepared a strategic plan for the development of the estate looking at access, views, roads, gates and uses for all the parkland and farm buildings. Planning permission for the repair and development of all the buildings was obtained. Purcell Miller Tritton Partner Jane Kennedy led the work with Martin Stancliffe as consultant.
Architect Paul Prentice has just completed supervising the restoration of the exterior of the main house; the restoration and cleaning of stonework, renewal of roof coverings and the rainwater disposal system, and the repair and redecoration of external joinery.
Paul Prentice explained, 'The next phase of our work is to adapt the interior to hotel use. We will also begin to conserve the smaller historic buildings in the parkland which are at risk ' the follies and grottos, garden buildings and gate lodges'. He continued, 'When the school's lease has come to an end and the building is fully vacant, we can then focus on amalgamating the large 1928 accommodation block and the stable wings successfully with the main house before the major alterations to all the interiors'.
