durrow abbey co. offaly conservation plan - Offaly County Council

SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY HISTORY
The parish church of Durrow was recorded as
being in reasonable repair in the late seventeenth
century. The roof was shingled, there were two
glazed windows, a clay floor, a reading desk, a pulpit
and an unrailed communion table. On site is a finely
carved late medieval graveslab commemorating
Francis de Renzi of Tinnycross, a New English settler,
who died in 1665 23 .
In 1712 George Herber t, Third Baronet died and
was succeeded to the estate by his sister Frances
Herber t, who was married to Major Patrick Fox.
St Columba’s Church
It was under Frances Herber t that the church at
Durrow was rebuilt. An account of the Diocese
of 1733 made by Bishop Mant, states that the
Church at Durrow was out of repair ‘but ye said
Mrs Fox pulled it down and rebuilt it at her own
expense.’ 24
Durrow Park
In the eighteenth-century the house was known
as Durrow Park as a survey drawing surviving in
the Irish Architectural Archive indicates. At this
time the house was a seven bay, three storey plain
structure built in the classical style with regularly
spaced window openings and a centrally positioned
entrance with por tico. 25
The exact location of the eighteenth century house
is not known, however it is thought to have been
located on the site of the service block of the
curent building.
Demesne
Durrow Abbey demesne lies on the border between
Counties Offaly and Westmeath within the bogland
and moraine area of Ireland’s Central Lowland.
The landscape is underlain mainly by carboniferous
limestone formed by the deposits of a warm
ocean floor some 300 million years ago, covered
by a layer of relatively recent glacial deposits some
12,000 years old.
These glacial deposits in the form of drumlins and
eskers, formed by the sand and gravel deposits of
glacial meltwater, largely define the landform of
Durrow and the surrounding landscape. Between
the elevated, relatively well-drained drumlin hills
and esker ridges the low-lying areas have a tendency
to become waterlogged and peaty, requiring
ar tificial drainage for agricultural exploitation.
The Durrow Abbey demesne was most likely conceived
in the eighteenth century to provide a setting
for this imposing seven bay classical house. It
is a fine example of an historic designed landscape
in the natural style, which sought to respect and
enhance natural features, rather than forcing nature
into a rigid formality of clipped hedges and geometric
par terres.
St Columba’s Church, from south-west