Kenmare House is located on the east shore of

Lough Leane Lough Leane (; ) is the largest of the three lakes of Killarney, in County Kerry. The River Laune flows from the lake into the Dingle Bay to the northwest. Etymology and history The lake's name means "lake of learning" probably in reference ...

and was the principal residence of the Brownes of Killarney,

Earls of Kenmare The title of Earl of Kenmare was created in the Peerage of Ireland in 1801. It became extinct upon the death of the 7th Earl in 1952. All of the Earls bore the subsidiary titles of Viscount Castlerosse (1801), Viscount Kenmare (1798), and Baron ...

History

Sir Valentine Browne Sir Valentine Browne (died 1589), of Croft, Lincolnshire, was auditor, treasurer and victualler of Berwick-upon-Tweed. He acquired large estates in Ireland during the Plantation of Munster, in particular the seignory of Molahiffe. He lived at R ...

and his son, also Valentine Browne, were the first members of the family to settle in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

being appointed Surveyor General of Ireland in 1559. Sir Valentine Browne made an agreement with MacCarty Mór for a lease on the lands of Coshmang and Ross in 1588, the year of the Armada. Unlike most of the English settlers since the Reformation, the Brownes soon reverted to the old religion and the family continued to be given the royal title "Viscounts Kenmare" by

King James II of England James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

in 1689. It may be remarked here that this title is derived from Kenmare Castle, near

Hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

, part of the County Limerick estate of the Browne family, and not, as might naturally be supposed, from the town of that name, which is not actually on the Browne estate. The family's first residence in Killarney was

Ross Castle Ross Castle ( ga, Caisleán an Rois) is a 15th-century tower house and keep on the edge of Lough Leane, in Killarney National Park, County Kerry, Ireland. It is the ancestral home of the Chiefs of the Clan O'Donoghue, later associated with th ...

. The original Kenmare House was built in 1726, after the estates were recovered by the 5th Baronet and 3rd Viscount Kenmare. It was a grandiose structure with the characteristics of a French chateau, perhaps influenced by the Brownes' time spent in France with King James II in exile at

Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a former royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the ''département'' of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris, France. Today, it houses the ''musée d'Archéologie nationale'' (Nati ...

. The house was part of the 137,000-acre estate of the Brownes, who remarkably retained their lands during the Penal Laws as Catholics. Viscount Kenmare designed the house himself. The house was two stories high and had dormered attics and steep, slated roofs. There were thirteen bays in front of the house, with three bays on each side of the centre breaking forward. A servants' wing was added around 1775. It is the 4th

Viscount Kenmare A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. In many countries a viscount, and its historical equivalents, was a non-hereditary, administrative or judicial ...

, Thomas Browne, who is credited with bringing tourism to Killarney. He was also the head of the Catholic Committee. In the years that followed poets such as

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

and

Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

, and, writers such as Sir

Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...

and

Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...

all visited Killarney. Early writers praised the house: Smith (1756) praised the seat and gardens as did Coquebert (1790), who mentioned that the chimneys were made of marble (rose-coloured and grey and black). O'Donovan (1846) thought it a handsome house, beautifully shaded with trees and shrubs. On 26 August 1861, Valentine, Lord Castlerosse played host to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

and Prince Albert at Killarney. The royal visit put Killarney on the map as a tourist resort and set the scene for the prosperity and popularity it enjoys today. It must also have been the Queen and Prince's last tour together, as the Prince died in December 1861. During the visit of Queen Victoria to Kenmare House, she chose the site of

Killarney House Killarney House is an Irish country home in Killarney, County Kerry, which was built as a replacement for Kenmare House (1726) as the seat of the Earls of Kenmare. The site was chosen by Queen Victoria on her visit to Ireland in 1861. First K ...

, a vast Victorian-Tudor mansion, which was the successor to Kenmare House. In June 1866

King Leopold II * german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor , house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , father = Leopold I of Belgium , mother = Louise of Orléans , birth_date = , birth_place = Brussels, Belgium , death_date = ...

of Belgium visited the Kenmares at Killarney. The original house was demolished in 1872 by the fourth Earl. The succeeding house was accidentally destroyed by fire in 1913 and never rebuilt; instead, the stable block of the original Kenmare House was converted into the present Killarney House, although the Brownes called it Kenmare House. During this time

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

and

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King ...

and, later,

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. Born duri ...

and Queen Mary paid visits to the Kenmares in the years before the First World War. Sir

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

(the architect for Lady Kenmare's brother, the 3rd Lord Revelstoke, at Lambay Castle on

Lambay Island Lambay Island ( ga, Reachrainn), often simply Lambay, is an island in the Irish Sea off the coast of north County Dublin, Ireland. The largest island off the east coast of Ireland, it is offshore from the headland at Portrane, and is the eas ...

, County Dublin) advised Lord Kenmare to build the second Kenmare House in 1915. This house was later abandoned and sold in 1956 to

John McShain John McShain (December 21, 1896 – September 9, 1989) was a American building contractor known as "The Man Who Built Washington". Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Irish immigrants, McShain graduated from St. Joseph's Preparatory S ...

when a new Kenmare House was built by the heir to the Browne estates, Beatrice Grosvenor (granddaughter of the

Duke of Westminster Duke of Westminster is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster. It is the most recent dukedom conferred on someone not related to the ...

). In 1974, the new manor which was constructed on the site of the former Killarney House by Grosvenor in 1956 was replaced. This last Kenmare House was built on the Killorglin Road, beside the Killarney golf course and the Castlerosse Hotel. The sale of Kenmare House in 1985 to Denis Kelleher marked the end of the Kenmare family's proprietary connection with Killarney after 450 years. A €7 million restoration was announced by

Leo Varadkar Leo Eric Varadkar ( ; born 18 January 1979) is an Irish politician who has served as Taoiseach since December 2022, and previously from 2017 to 2020. He served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to De ...

in 2011.Lucey, Anne
"Killarney House to be restored"
''The Irish Times''. Retrieved 30 July 2011.

References

External links

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland: "Introduction Kenmare Papers", November 2007

{{Historic Irish houses Buildings and structures in County Kerry Killarney