Russborough House: An Eighteenth-Century Palladian Country House in Ireland
Site at a Glance
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- 4.6
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- Ireland
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Irish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Elite Residence
On this page12 sections
History
Russborough House is an eighteenth-century Georgian Palladian country house near Blessington and the Blessington Lakes in County Wicklow, Ireland. Joseph Leeson, later the 1st Earl of Milltown, acquired land at Russelltown and commissioned the house, which was designed by Richard Castle, with Francis Bindon also associated with its design, and built between 1741 and 1755. Its unusually long frontage and carefully planned interiors made it one of Ireland’s notable Palladian residences.
Construction and the Milltown family
While Russborough was being built, Leeson undertook two Grand Tours, extended educational journeys through continental Europe that wealthy young members of the British and Irish elite often used to study art and acquire cultural objects. He purchased paintings, sculpture, and furnishings, while Castle engaged leading Irish and European craftsmen to complete the interior. Leeson entered the Irish Parliament and became Earl of Milltown in 1763. Russborough remained with the Earls of Milltown for six generations, apart from a brief occupation by the British Army around 1800.
The earlier Milltown art collection left Russborough before the house changed ownership. Lady Geraldine Milltown donated it to the National Gallery of Ireland in 1902. After the death of the last Milltown earl’s widow in 1914, the property passed to her nephew Edmund Turton. Turton rarely lived there, and his widow sold the house in 1931 to Captain Denis Bowes Daly and his family.
Changing ownership and the reservoir
Between 1937 and 1940, the Liffey valley in front of the house was flooded to create Poulaphouca Reservoir, also known as the Blessington Lakes. Sir Alfred Beit bought Russborough from Captain Daly in 1952 because his previous London residence could not contain his extensive collection of art and antiques. The collection included works inherited from his uncle Alfred Beit, whose wealth came from South African diamond mining.
Sir Alfred and Clementine, Lady Beit, established the Alfred Beit Foundation as a registered charity in 1976 to safeguard Russborough and its collections. The house opened to the Irish public as a museum and visitor attraction in 1978. After Lady Beit’s death in 2005, the foundation became responsible for the property. Part of the Beit collection was transferred to the National Gallery of Ireland, including seventeen paintings donated in 1987, while other valuable works were moved there for security.
Robberies, fire, and contested sales
Russborough experienced several art robberies. In 1974, an Irish Republican Army group, including Rose Dugdale, stole nineteen paintings, all of which were eventually recovered. Martin Cahill stole eighteen paintings in 1986, and sixteen were recovered. Two paintings stolen in 2001 were recovered the following year, while Cahill’s associate Martin Foley stole five paintings in 2002, all of which were later recovered.
Gainsborough’s Madame Bacelli and Vermeer’s Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid were each stolen twice and subsequently recovered. Goya’s Portrait of Dona Antonia Zárate was recovered in 1993. By February 2025, two paintings by Francesco Guardi depicting Venetian landscapes remained unrecovered.
A fire on 7 February 2010 severely damaged the west wing and caused part of its roof to collapse. The art and furniture had already been removed for restoration work, so no artworks were damaged. An electrical fault in roof wiring was considered a possible cause. In 2015, a proposed Christie’s auction of nine paintings, including works attributed to Peter Paul Rubens, David Teniers the Younger, and Francesco Guardi, was postponed after public protest in Ireland. The stated aim was to keep the works in Ireland, following earlier sales of artworks that had also attracted attention.
Remains
Exterior and estate landscape
Russborough is a three-storey granite villa arranged as a central block with two wings extending east and west. The central block held the principal rooms, while the wings contained servants’ quarters and stable facilities. Its frontage extends for approximately 210 metres and has been described as the longest facade in Ireland. Doric colonnades lead toward a main entrance flanked by Corinthian columns, which support a fused portico decorated with floral swags. A flight of granite steps rises to the doorway, with heraldic lions bearing the Leeson arms positioned at the foot.
The 200-acre estate preserves elements of its original eighteenth-century formal design, including remnants of extensive lawns and terraces and a shaped pond north of the house. South of the building, the grounds become more naturalistic, with rolling fields, winding serpentine lakes, and mature woodland. A demesne, the managed estate around a country house, could include gardens, farmland, woodland, water features, and service buildings. Historic features at Russborough include a walled garden, an ice-house, and a lime kiln. The grounds also contain a two-kilometre maze and a craft courtyard with artisan studios.
Principal rooms and decoration
Central block and room arrangement
The central block contains seven principal ground-floor rooms arranged symmetrically. The Entrance Hall occupies the centre of the south front, with the Saloon directly to its north. Two Drawing Rooms, two Dining Rooms, and a Music Room complete the original arrangement. This organization places the principal reception and entertainment rooms within the central part of the house.
Stucco decoration
Several ceilings and the main stair hall carry elaborate stucco work attributed to the Swiss-Italian stuccodores Paolo and Filippo Lafrancini. A stuccodore is a craftsman specializing in ornamental plasterwork for ceilings, cornices, and related architectural decoration. The ornate interior plasterwork contrasts with the relatively austere granite exterior.
Collections and displayed objects
Paintings and decorative arts
The house has displayed the Beit collection of paintings, furniture, silver, porcelain, sculpture, and other decorative arts. It includes eighteenth-century French and English furniture, paintings dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, and examples of eighteenth-century silver and porcelain from Meissen and Sèvres. Four landscape paintings by Claude Joseph Vernet, titled Morning, Midday, Sunset, and Night, were painted specifically for Russborough in the 1750s and remained in the house for most of the following 260 years.
Other works associated with the displayed collection include two landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough, an animal painting by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, and paintings by Francisco Goya, Johannes Vermeer, and Peter Paul Rubens. The Beit wing is associated with works including Gainsborough’s Madame Bacelli, Frans Hals’s The Lute Player, Goya’s Dona Antonia Zárate, and Vermeer’s Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid. Some of the most valuable paintings are held by the National Gallery of Ireland for security reasons.
Furniture and historic objects
Objects displayed in the house include seventeenth-century Chinese vases, a bed associated with Sir Richard Arkwright, and a microscope traditionally believed to have been given to Marie Antoinette as a wedding gift by inhabitants of Parma. The collection also includes a sixteenth-century stone statue of Mary Magdalene from Burgundy, extending the range of the house’s interiors beyond paintings and furniture.
