House - 18th/19th century

The National Monuments Service's description

On a level landscape. An castle (RO028-172001-) of O'Conor Roe existed at Strokestown, and in 1683 the bawn and flankers survived, according to a contemporary account (O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 68-9). The location may have been where Strokestown Park House is now and a wall in the basement (T c. 3m) is thought to be part of it. Capt. Nicholas Mahon, and his son John, built a house on the site which may have been completed by 1696 and was commemorated in a date stone (Breffny and ffolliott 1975, 102-5).
In the 1730s the present house was built by Thomas Mahon to a design by Richard Castle on Palladian principles, and is a rectangular W-facing seven bay, three storey house over a basement which may be built around the earlier core. Two wings or pavillions of two storeys and four bays to the NW and SW of the house are connected to the house by curving walls with niches, that to the N being the kitchens, that to the S being stables with a groin-vaulted roof supported by a single line of Doric columns.
The house was altered in the early 19th century when Lord Hartland added a four column ionic portico entrance; he also re-designed the parkland and laid out the town of Strokestown in a grand manner. The house continued to be occupied by members of the Packenham Mahon family until 1981, and is now the Irish Famine Museum. The mausoleum of the Mahon family (RO029-024----) is c. 220m to the SSW. (Dodd 1988; Bence-Jones 1978, 267; Lennon, M 2013) For the Famine Museum see this web-page accessed on 21/07/2015 http://www.strokestownpark.ie/famine-museum

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 21 July 2015

References

Breffny, B. and Ffolliott, R. 1975 The Houses of Ireland. London. Thames and Hudson.

Dodd, L. 1988 Strokestown Park House. Roscommon Association Yearbook, 25-7. Dublin. Carlton Publishing.

Bence-Jones, M. 1978 Burke's Guide to Country Houses: Volume 1 Ireland. London. Burke's Peerage Ltd.

Lennon, M. 2013 The history of Strokestown's houses. Journal of the Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society 12, 64-6.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1931 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Roscommon collected during the progress of the
Ordnance Survey in 1837. Bray.