Home of the Quin family (later Earls of Dunraven) since the mid-17th century, the building underwent a dramatic transformation. James and George Richard Pain provided the initial drawings, but the 2nd Earl’s personal interest in design soon inspired him to become his own architect. He and his Welsh wife, Caroline Wyndham spent some twenty years traveling collecting ideas and inspiration. The house was completed in the 1850s and 1860s by the 3rd Earl of Dunraven with the assistance of Philip Charles Hardwick. Portraits were lost at sea and panels warped by damp; a cholera epidemic swept away masons; and the Great Famine brought the family close to bankruptcy. Yet the building works continued to create of a house without parallel in Ireland.
