Odellville, Historic Listed House, Gardens and Parkland in Ballingarry, Co. Limerick
Odellville was built by John Fitzcharles Odell in the late 1770s. He descended from the Odell Family that had settled
in Ballingarry as part of the Munster Plantation in the late 16th Century. Odellville passed down through the Odell family until the early 1900s when the property passed to the female line of the family. The final resident in this blood line was
our direct predecessor Mrs. Helen Allott.
The house and grounds include two gate lodges, a dovecote, farm buildings and a walled
The House
Odellville House is a late 18th Century five bay, two storey over basement
house. Originally a simple plan with a single room either side of the stair hall, the house has been substantially extended in the 19th century with a large rear return which has been demolished and rebuilt to provide additional accommodation at
all levels. The formal rooms and bedrooms of the original house have been returned their original purpose after our restoration work.
The Gardens and Parkland
Odellville is a significant
historical landscape that has survived well since its creation. It is a late 18th century (1770) demesne landscape with even older vegetation elements. It offers much diversity in its grounds and walled garden, its parkland and trees and woodland.
The 1841 (first edition) Ordnance Survey map depicts Odellville as a modest sized demesne. A carriage drive cuts through the demesne landscape in a gracious curve to the house front, ending in a carriage turn towards the stable yard with a route shown leading
from the stable yard along the western wall of the walled garden. One of the most significant features of Odellville’s landscape is its open parkland, in which there are notable specimen trees including a superb pollarded Spanish chestnut veteran oaks
and beech nearby.
Odellville is still sheltered and framed by its perimeter belts of mature trees and old woodland. Much of the plantings, especially the oaks, beech and limes have now matured sufficiently to achieve the landscape effect that
was originally intended when planted in the 18th and 19th century.
The massive proportions of the pollarded Spanish chestnut (Castanea sativa) dominates the east parkland and it
is likely to be a champion tree.
There are shrubberies in several areas of the grounds and gardens. There is an exceptionally fine specimen of Prunus serrula thibetica on the route to the walled garden and there are many fine specimen
shrubs throughout such as maples, laburnum, lilacs, many rhododendrons swathed in clematis, Tropaeolum speciosum and other beautiful creepers.
References
Brian de Breffny & Rosemary ffolliot; “The Houses of Ireland”, (London 1975)
Finola Reid, Historic Gardens Consultant, “Statement of Significance on Odellville”, 2009.
Open times
Odellville Historic House and Gardens in Ballingarry, Co. Limerick are open to the public for viewing on the following dates
and times
Open from 1st May – 30th June, including Heritage Week, at 10am – 2pm daily
Admittance: 7 euro/students and OAP 3 euro
Location
Ballingarry,
Co. Limerick,
Ireland.
in garden set on 60 acres. There are also a number of outbuildings in the courtyard (which was formerly cobbled).