Curraghchase Forest Park is a 500 acre estate in Co. Limerick, four miles from the town of Askeaton. Today it is very popular with tourists and locals for its walks, scenery, picnic areas and lakes.
Side View of Curraghchase House, Co. Limerick
This photo of Curraghchase House shows the bricked up windows and doors of the once-great house. While the grounds of Curraghchase are open to the public, the house itself is inaccessible.
© Limerick County Library.Side View of Curraghchase House, Co. Limerick
© Limerick County Library.
© Limerick County Library.
Side View of Curraghchase House, Co. Limerick
This photo of Curraghchase House shows the bricked up windows and doors of the once-great house. While the grounds of Curraghchase are open to the public, the house itself is inaccessible.
© Limerick County Library.Curraghchase House was first built in the seventeenth century and still holds much presence and grandeur.
Patrick J. O'Dwyer's excellent drawing
of Curraghchase House in 1937 gives us an idea of how beautiful and imposing a building it was.
Drawing of Curraghchase House, Co. Limerick
P.J. O'Dwyer's drawing of Curraghchase House shows how the building would have looked in the 1930s. The large, two-storey house was erected over the basement in the late eighteenth century. Aubrey de Vere added the longer façade in the 1820s.
P. J. O'Dwyer, Dip Arch. M.I.G.S., Limerick County Council.
John Hunt was granted the estate in the mid-1600s and he and his family settled into living in Ireland, becoming involved in politics and local life. They built the house and developed the estate, adding a number of lakes. These are ideal for boating but be careful of the swans, as they can get very cross!
Bridge at Curraghchase House, Co. Limerick
This photo shows the bridge and part of the vast lawns, forest and one of the lakes around the house at Curraghchase. The lakes were added in the late 1800s. Aubrey de Vere, writing in 1897, remembers this area as a meadow.
© Limerick County Library.Bridge at Curraghchase House, Co. Limerick
© Limerick County Library.
© Limerick County Library.
Bridge at Curraghchase House, Co. Limerick
This photo shows the bridge and part of the vast lawns, forest and one of the lakes around the house at Curraghchase. The lakes were added in the late 1800s. Aubrey de Vere, writing in 1897, remembers this area as a meadow.
© Limerick County Library.Aubrey de Vere
The poet Aubrey de Vere grew up in Curraghchase. He inherited the estate in 1846 and is remembered as a caring landlord.
He had a retreat on the estate that he called Little Heaven, where he went to write his poetry. He was active in nineteenth-century literary circles and was quite successful as a poet.
He included Wordsworth, Tennyson and Newman among his friends. Wordsworth called his sonnets the most perfect of the age.
Aubrey de Vere's work was influenced by his conversion from the Church of Ireland to Catholicism in 1851.
Poetry of Aubrey de Vere
Aubrey De Vere's Medieval Records and Sonnets was first published in 1893. He published a number of titles and was part of literary circle that included Wordsworth, Tennyson and Browning. Tennyson visited Curraghchase in 1848.
© Limerick Studies Collection.Poetry of Aubrey de Vere
© Limerick Studies Collection.
© Limerick Studies Collection.
Poetry of Aubrey de Vere
Aubrey De Vere's Medieval Records and Sonnets was first published in 1893. He published a number of titles and was part of literary circle that included Wordsworth, Tennyson and Browning. Tennyson visited Curraghchase in 1848.
© Limerick Studies Collection.He was a prolific writer, and his Poetical Works were published in six volumes in 1884.
Aubrey de Vere is best known for Inisfail: A Lyrical Chronicle of Ireland (1862) and his pro-emigration Famine relief tract, English Misrule and Irish Misdeeds (1848).