Gurteen Le Paor


A large Barional house of 1886 by Samuel Roberts built for Edmund 1st Count de la Poer and 18th Lord le Poer and Curaghmore to replace an earlier house which itself replaced an earlier house again. Gurrteen  le  Paor  is  in the  town land  of  Kilsheelin, Co.Tipperary.

In his design Roberts was probably influenced by William Burn for Gurteen is very much a down version of one Burns great Tudor-Baroniel mansions in Britain. 

The tower gives air to the entrance front, which faces across a forecourt of castled walls. The interior of Gurteen is spacious and satisfying. In the centre of the house is a galleried top lit great hall divided by a screen of Gothic arches behind which is a staircase. 

There are similar arches in the first floor gallery, which likes the staircase, has a balustrade of wrought Iron. The library-which is lined with bookcases and has walls the colour of faded calf bindings -the drawing room and ballroom open into each other along the garden front.

The dining room, on the other side of the hall, must be one of the most perfect Victorian Barional interiors in Ireland. The walls are faded red, above a dado of warm brown oak panelling. The chimney piece, of carved oak, is the Piece De resistance, with is heraldic angels holding shields of the family arms, and its head of St. Hubert's Stag-the family crest-complete with antlers and crucifix mounted on top of the mantle shelf like a trophy.