Crofton House, Co. Roscommon

Crofton House

It clearly was an imposing structure and reflects the influence of neo-classicism prevalent at this time. This style emphasizes for the first time a sense of permanence and security among the landowning class.

The house was the most impressive of its type built in Co. Roscommon, the others of this period being located at Runnamoat near Ballymoe, and Sandford House in Castlerea.

The house was originally an irregular two-storey-over-basement house, which the architect Richard Morrison more than doubled in size by adding six bays and an extra storey. It had a deep hall with a screen of columns, beyond which a door flanked by niches led into an oval library in the bow on the garden front.

Lion Gate

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The gardens contained many fine architectural features, some of which are still intact. Perhaps the most splendid surviving feature is the original entrance gate consisting of a Doric triumphal arch surmounted by a lion with screen walls linking it to a pair of identical lodges.

The Lodge - It has been suggested that this was designed by James Gandon, although others have pointed out that while this certainly is feasible, certain elements, most notably the head and keystone of the arch, appear to be of a later date and have a provincial character.

It is worth mentioning at this stage the work of Augusta Crofton . She was a renowned amateur photographer and honoured with an O.B.E. in 1920. At present the National Library of Ireland are restoring over 3,000 negatives of her photographs taken between 1880-1920. Many of these deal with daily life on the Crofton estate and we owe her a debt for capturing for posterity many events otherwise lost.

It is clear that the house enjoyed its heyday in the century after its completion. It is hard to build an exact picture of its importance socially however because of the reluctance of the Crofton's in their papers to comment on matters not directly concerned with business and these papers rarely venture beyond the mundane into the personal.

This is most evident in the diaries of Lady Georgiana Crofton written during the Great Famine which display no insight into the worst aspects of the suffering involved but concentrates on various aspects of daily life with little if any personal comment. It also overlooks the fact that her father paid regular philanthropic visits to the poorhouse and infirmary.

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