Lost Buildings: Williamstown House, Co Meath

Williamstown House, Co. Meath - Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland
Williamstown House, Co. Meath – Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland

Williamstown is a Detached nine-bay three-storey house over basement, built c.1770, now derelict. Hipped slate roof with ashlar chimney stacks and parapet. Channeled limestone to entrance level, with string courses between floor and with ashlar limestone to basement and upper floors. Carved limestone dressings to window openings with timber sash windows. Carved limestone doorcase, flanked by Doric columns with entablature and pediment above. Pedimented window over porch.

Williamstown House, Co. Meath - Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland
Williamstown House, Co. Meath – Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland

Abandoned Ireland wrote up the history of the house a few years ago:

Williamstown House in County Meath was built around 1770 as a home for the Cuffe family. The Cuffe’s originated in Somerset, England. Originally they had a manor house at Rowlands, between Taunton and Yeovil which still stands today with a Great Hall, about 25-foot high, with mullioned windows and plasterwork dating from the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First. The family have a long history in Ireland from the time when Captain John Cuffe adventured to Ireland in 1561 during the Elizabethan age.

Lost Buildings Of Ireland - Williamstown House Meath 2
Williamstown House, Co. Meath – Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland

The house was built in a Palladian style and set on 280 acres. It was originally a three story house over basement with just five bays. It had a hipped-slate roof, carved limestone doorcase with Doric columns and an entablature with a pediment above and a pedimented window over the porch.

The house was modified around 1830 with two more bays being added to either side giving the house the nine-bay frontal appearance that we see today. The stonework is ashlar limestone and the four newer bays match the original structure perfectly. Williamstown House was once in a Parkland setting but this is now all farmland.

Williamstown House, Co. Meath - Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland
Williamstown House, Co. Meath – Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland

We understand that from the sixties or seventies onwards Williamstown House has been abandoned and today is a ruin. Within the last few years the roof has collapsed causing the whole middle section at the back of the house to cave in.

Williamstown House, Co. Meath - Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland
Williamstown House, Co. Meath – Photo: Colin Colleran, Lost Buildings Of Ireland