Restoration Tour of Westport House
Date: Wednesday 04 October
Time: 2pm tour – Duration 45 mins
Location: Westport House
Accessibility: Level access. Fully accessible throughout the ground floor. etc. – we have 18 steps to the entrance of the House
Summary
A tour describing the architecture of Westport House - the current restoration and plans for the House and the Estate.
Event Organiser: Kathryn Connolly
About
Westport House was built for John Browne, first Earl of Altamont, to a design (1731) by Richard Castle on the site of the earlier O’Malley tower house in the picturesque landscape of Clew Bay.
Other distinguished architects involved in the later improvement of the house included Thomas Ivory, who significantly extended the house as a quadrangle around an open courtyard.
In the 1780s, James Wyatt redesigned the interior of the house, and the north and south wings were added by his son Benjamin Dean Wyatt in 1819. Subsequently, the open courtyard was reconfigured to include an impressive staircase hall to a design (1857-9) by George Wilkinson, featuring an elegant Imperial staircase of fine Sicilian marble and cast ironwork supplied by Francis Skidmore of Coventry.