Killakee House

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.

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 (Samuel) 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, ironically, when it started to decline. By the time Lord Massy died in 1915, the estate was hopelessly in debt to the bank.

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