Killakee House, Killakee, County Dublin, Ireland, was a country house built in c.1806 for Luke White, an Irish politician and bookseller. It was the centerpiece of the 3,400-acre estate, but was demolished in 1941 after many years of vacancy.
History
In 1800 Luke White purchased land at Killakee from the wealthy Conolly family. Around 1806 White built Killakee House, a two-storey, thirty-six roomed stucco-faced house. It had a Tuscan-columned entrance and large three-windowed bows on the back and sides. After Luke White died, his son inherited the house and estate in 1824. In 1838, he engaged the services of Sir Ninian Niven, former director of the Botanic Gardens in Dublin. Niven laid out two Victorian formal gardens of gravel walks, terraces and exotic trees decorated with statues of Greek and Roman gods. Adjacent to the house was a terraced rose garden with a statue of Neptune. A second walled garden in a vale in the woods below the house contained more fountains and a range of glasshouses designed by Richard Turner. When Samuel White's widow, Anne, died in 1880, she bequeathed the estate to her late husband's nephew, John Thomas, 6th Baron Massy. The Massys were a Protestant Ascendancy family who had come to Ireland in 1641 and owned extensive lands in Counties Limerick, Leitrim and Tipperary. He used the house to entertain visitors while shooting game at Cruagh and Glendoo and to host parties where long lines of guest’s carriages could be seen stretched along the road leading to the house. Lord Massy employed a small army of staff, ranging from coachmen, stablemen, house servants, gardeners, cooks, and gamekeepers. During shooting expeditions, large dining shelters would be set up in the woods, where shooting parties would adjourn for lunch. Tables would be laid out there with the finest tableware, and food would be transported in pony carts from Killakee House. It was during this time that the family’s riches reached its peak, and when it started to decline. By the time Lord Massy died in 1915, the estate was hopelessly in debt to the bank. John Thomas’s grandson, Hugh Hamon Massy, next inherited Killakee. Hamon Massy was faced with a serious crisis, with the magnificent gardens alone requiring a large number of outdoor workers and gardeners. Massy still attended social events and drove around in the last of his grandfather’s motor cars, but by 1919, huge quantities of silver plates, jewellery, furniture, and a large art collection were sold in an auction that lasted several days. It soon became clear to the bank that the family were unable to deal with their financial problems. In May 1924 an officer and two assistants arrived to take possession of Killakee House. Massey, who was unwell, was lifted out of the house on his mattress and deposited on the nearby public road. The incident was widely reported in the national newspapers and the bank soon placed a caretaker in the house. By agreement with the bank, the family was later permitted to take possession of Beehive Cottage, a three-roomed gate lodge located near the gate to Killakee House. For thirty-four years following his eviction he was regularly seen collecting timber for his kitchen fire in the nearby woods. In 1941 the bank, unable to find a buyer, sold the house to a builder who salvaged what was left of the Killakee House. Having removed the slates, timbers and floors, the builder demolished the house, in the sight of Hamon Massy who was still living in the nearby gate house. The woods were taken over by the forestry department and Massy was employed in a charcoal making business in the nearby forest.
Current status
Nothing now remains of Killakee House, and the gardens are now in a state of total dereliction. Had they survived, they would undoubtedly be regarded as a national treasure and placed in State care. Beehive Cottage, among the other gate-lodges, survive today. The lands were eventually acquired by the State and opened to the public. In the late 1930s, the Director of Forestry, laid out the area as a forest, sometimes known as Lord Massey's Wood. The Killakee Woods are now in the care ofCoillte. The woods are a good place to look for Ireland's newest breeding bird, the Great Spotted Woodpecker. Other species recorded there which are rare breeders in Ireland include the common redstart and the wood warbler.
