Rathdown House (Windgates Road)

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Old water colour image of Rathdown House

Introduction

Rathdown House was a simple though charming detached 2 storey, 3 bay house built c1800 or prior with gabled slate roof with central dormer window. It was located in the townland of Rathdown Lower near to the entrance of Rathdown Park off Windgates Road.

History

I refer to this house as Rathdown House Lower, as there were several houses in the surrounding area named Rathdown House. In researching this house the earliest residents, I could find were Lewis and his wife Eleanor Morris. They resided at Rathown at the end of the 18^th and start of the 19^th century.  Lewis died in 1822 and Eleanor in 1831. The next to reside at Rathdown was their son George, who was married to Elizabeth and their daughter Anne Fox inherited the house and left it to Mary Jane Hunter whose estate sold it in 1925 after Mary’s death. The house was occupied in the 1920’s by Miss Lavina Armstrong. By the 1930’s Rathdown House was occupied by the Darcy family.

Rathdown House was let out on various occasions and one of the families that rented Rathdown was Mrs. Synge and her family. This included her son the playwright John M Synge. Another family that rented the house was that of Robert William D’Escourt Ashe, Robert was a Collector and district magistrate in India and was later in 1912 assassinated while he was in India.