Curraghchase

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  • Aspects of Limerick



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.

Curraghchase House was first built in the seventeenth century and still holds much presence and grandeur.

Patrick J. O'Dwyer's excellent drawing

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.

  of Curraghchase House in 1937 gives us an idea of how beautiful and imposing a building it was.

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!

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.