House - 16th century

The National Monuments Service's description

In the Dublin RMP (1998) this record was listed as 'dwelling possible' and refers to the house annotated 'Kill Abbey' on the historic OSi maps to the W of Kill of the Grange church (DU023-015001-) and graveyard (DU023-015002-). The house was described in 1896 as; 'the “Abbey" a picturesque and venerable residence of the Espinasse family dating from the sixteenth century' (Wakeman 1896, 407). According to Ball (1902, 47, 50), 'the house called Kill Abbey, which, though it has lost its original characteristics, bears the date 1595 [DU023-015011-], and is surrounded by yew trees of extreme age. The house known as Kill Abbey was, doubtless, built in 1595, the date it bears, by George Ussher, a merchant of Dublin, to whom was leased, in 1592, by the Chapter of the Cathedral [Christchurch]'. The house was described in 1869 as; 'Within a few yards of the gate of the church-yard stands Kill Abbey, the residence of Richard Espinasse, Esq., J.P. one of the oldest houses perhaps in Ireland, for according to the date over the entrance door it was erected or repaired in the year 1595, Queen Elizabeth's reign, the house is of peculiar construction, consisting of a group of pointed gables, each of them terminating with a finial or pinnacle of a granite ball; most of the doors and windows are lancet-shaped, which give the building an ecclesiastical appearance. The vaults under Kill Abbey are very extensive' (Gaskin 1869, 201).
Kill Abbey (NIAH reg. No. 60230126) was described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) as a; 'Detached two-bay two-storey double-pile over basement house with half-dormer attic, extant 1740, on a staggered square plan; single-bay (single-bay deep) two-storey lower return (north). Staggered pitched double-pile (M-profile) slate roof; pitched slate roof (north), clay ridge tiles, roughcast central chimney stack having corbelled stepped capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta tapered pots, rendered coping to gable (north) with roughcast chimney stack to apex having corbelled stepped capping supporting yellow terracotta tapered pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on roughcast eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal hoppers and downpipes. Roughcast walls centred on weathered coat of arms. A house representing an integral component of the domestic built heritage of south County Dublin with the architectural value of the composition, one allegedly repurposing a house erected (1595) by John Ussher on a plot of ground leased (1592) from the Chapter of Christ Church Cathedral (Ball 1902, 50), suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form; the diminishing in scale of the widely spaced openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with a later surface finish allegedly concealing evidence of blocked-up corresponding openings; the weathered coat of arms showing a griffin rampant; and the high pitched roof. Having been reasonably well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, including crown or cylinder glazing panels in hornless sash frames: meanwhile, a 'complete [and] very wide' staircase showing Solomonic timber work (Pearson 1998, 150) confirms the late seventeenth- or early eighteenth-century origins of a house having historic connections with the Espinasse family including Richard Espinasse (d. 1842), 'Barrister-at-Law of Kill Abbey' (The Gentleman's Magazine 1842, 110); and his nephew, Richard Espinasse (d. 1874), 'late of Kill Abbey County Dublin' (Calendars of Wills and Administrations 1874, 187)' (https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/60230126/kill-abbey-kill-lane-kill-of-the-grange-dublin).

See attached black and white photograph of Kill Abbey taken by Thomas Mason, from Ball 1902, 50 and colour photograph taken by Paddy Healy, © South Dublin Libraries, Local Studies Collection, https://hdl.handle.net/10599/1924

Wakeman, W.F. 1896 Proceedings - Descriptive Sketch of Places Visited. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 26, 403-18.

Gaskin, J. 1869 Varieties of Irish History: From Ancient and Modern Sources and Original Documents. Dublin. W.B. Kelly.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 12 January 2023

References

Ball, E.F. 1902-20 (Reprint 1979) A history of the County Dublin, 6 vols. Dublin. Gill and Macmillan.