Sir Richard John Theodore Orpen

Re-built Ardtully Castle c 1858

Sir Richard John Theodore Orpen (1788-1876): Since 1868 Knight of Tully, was one of the principal lessors in the parishes of Kenmare and Kilgravan. In the 1870s his estate amounted to over 12,000 acres in county Kerry as well as 300 acres in county Cork. He built "Ardtully House" in 1847 outside Kilgarvan. Sir Orpen was a grandfather of the famous painter Sir William Orpen, the great uncle of the Irish historian Goddard Henry Orpen and a brother of Dr. Charles Edward Herbert Orpen (1791-1856) who founded the "Claremont Institution", the first Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in Ireland at Glasnevin near Dublin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilgarvan

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Co. Kerry

Kilgarvan, is called Cill Gharbhain in Gaelic, meaning 'Church of St. Garvan'. It is a small village situated in South West Kerry just 7 miles from Kenmare, and 20 miles from both Bantry and Killarney. It is a village where time appears to have stood still. Nestling among the mountains of Mangerton to the North, Bird Mountain to the South and Bar na Stooka, (Top of the Stack) to the East, with the wonderful Roughty Valley stretching westward toward Kenmare Bay. Travel at your ease through the countryside of the surrounding areas. The Roughty Valley is awash with the soothing sound of rivers. Here the happy angler can be guaranteed hours of restful pleasure. The Irish love of life and laughter (ceol agus craic) is legendary and the people of Kilgarvan are no exception. Drop into any of the pubs in the village and beyond, you will be entertained by local musicians and invited to take your ease. A visit to Kilgarvan will ensure you taste the best of Irish tradition in a natural setting with a variety of activities to cater for everyone.

Amid this wild and beautiful landscape one can find, the stone circle at Gurteen, the great wedgetomb at Knockanuaha, standing stones or gallans and boulder burial sites and wonderful views wherever your eyes should peer.

Ardtully Castle On the site of the present Ardtully Castle, now in ruins, for 300 years stood for a castle of the Mac Finneen McCarthy. It was here that Cardinal Rinnucini, the Papal Legate to the Confederation of Kilkenny, stayed for one week with his roman bodyguard while en route to Kilkenny after having landed at Killmackillogue, Co. Kerry. 300 men from Kilgarvan died defending the ford at Slane at the Battle of the Boyne. They were commanded by Donal Mac Finneen McCarthy of Ardtully and it is recorded that 300 riderless horses returned to Kilgarvan with the survivors. Donal himself was killed at the Battle of Aughrim exactly 12 months later and the McCarthy lands were forfeited to the invaders. The present castle was constructed in 1858 by Sir Richard Orpen, a Dublin based solicitor whose family had connections with these parts. The architect was called Dean and he was responsible for the design of University College Cork and Dromore Castle near Kenmare, Co. Kerry. The majority of the stone of the old Ardtully Castle was used to build a large Victorian walled garden at Ardtully, which still stand today. Ardtully was used by the extended Orpen family as a holiday home. The famous painter Sir William Orpen was a grandson of Sir Richard. He was the official war artist who recorded the Treaty of Versailles on canvas. Sir Richards's brother, Edward was a famous doctor who founded the institute for the deaf and mute at Glasnevin, Dublin. The Civil War saw the burning of Ardtully Castle in 1922. It was first looted and then set on fire and suffered the same fate as many great houses at the time.

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Ardtully House (H1805) Richard J.T. Orpen was leasing Ardtully House from John Croker at the time of Griffith's Valuation, when it was valued at £23 5s. In 1814 Leet records it as the seat of Richard O. Townsend while Lewis, in 1837 mentions Ardtully as "the ancient mansion of Richard Orpen Townsend". It was also the seat of the Orpen family in the 1770s and 1780s. Bary states that this property included an earlier castle, which was originally part of the McFineen McCarthy lands forfeited in the seventeenth century. It was granted by the Hollow Blade Company to the Conways but, later in the eighteenth century, the Orpens were occupying the house, subsequently replaced in the nineteenth century. Recorded, perhaps mistakenly, as the seat of R.H.M. Orpen and Sir. R.J.T Orpenm in 1894, in 1906 it was owned by Richard H.M. Orpen and valued at £40. The Scottish-baronial style house was burnt in 1921 but the ruins remain.

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http://www.abandonedireland.com/Ardtully.html

Tradition relates that stones from a thirteenth century monastery that formerly existed on this site were used to build a castle by the McFineen McCarthys, who held the surrounding lands until the arrival of Cromwell in Ireland. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Colonel Donough MacFineen forfeited the estate and the castle was destroyed during Cromwell's conquest.

The Ardtully estate, deriving its name from the Irish 'Ardtuillighe', came into the possession of the Orpen family at the end of the seventeenth century. Captain Richard Orpen fought in King William's army at the Boyne and later settled at Killowen, County Kerry where he was appointed a Magistrate.

The Orpen family later built a mansion house at Ardtully. This structure is shown on the first edition ordnance survey map, circa 1846, surrounded by four circular towers, probably the remains of the old McFineen McCarthy castle.

In 1837 this house was the residence of Richard Orpen Townsend, first son of Richard Orpen and Anna Townsend. He had assumed the additional name of Towsend as a condition to an inheritance from his mother's family. He had a daughter, Anna Sarah, but the Ardtully estate seems to have been inherited by a nephew, Sir Richard John Theodore Orpen (1788-1876).

In 1847, Sir Richard demolished the earlier house and the remains of the castle, replacing it with a fine five-bay two-storey Scottish-Baronial style house. The twenty-seven room mansion had a circular three-storey battlemented corner tower on the southeast corner and a three-storey corbelled circular turret on the east corner.

The 1901 census record the occupants of the house as Richard Hugh Millerd Orpen who was 71 years of age and a retired solicitor; his wife, Amy Noble Orpen age 52; there five daughters, Constance, Norah, Olive, Mary and Ida; and their son, Richard Hugh Orpen, who records his occupation as a Civil Engineer. The Orpens had a house staff of just two: Mary Connor, age 23, Cook and Mary O Sullivan, age 21, Parlour Maid.

Richard Hugh Orpen inherited the estate from his father, and when he died in 1911, the estate was inherited by his brother, Raymond William Orpen. Raymond was a doctor who had worked extensively in West Africa.

A sad end came to Ardtully in 1921. One night, during the Irish War of Independence, IRA irregulars broke into the house and after dousing the furniture with petrol, set the place alight. By the following morning it had been reduced to a smouldering wreck.

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http://www.sirwilliamorpen.com/the-orpens-of-ardtully-co-kerry/

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https://roaringwaterjournal.com/tag/orpen-family-ireland/

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