ARDFRY HOUSE

Ardfry Castle dates to approx. 1770 and was built by Joseph Blake, member of the famous Blake Family, who later gained the title of Lord Wallscourt.

Ardfry was designed as a two-storey house with nine bays but was later renovated in 1826 to include gothic features and became adjoined to an earlier medieval castle on the lands.

The Wallscourt title became synonymous with the house where the Wallscourts lived there until the second wife of the fourth Earl gambled away all the family money. It was told that she even sold the lead of every roof on the estate in order to feed her gambling problem.

The house fell to ruin and in 1922 the Wallscourt title became extinct. However in 1950, three granddaughters of the fourth Earl were successful in legally reclaiming the house. They were known locally as the three gay mice who lived in an outhouse close to the ruins.

In later years, Ardfry House was used in the Paul Newman film, The Mackintosh Man, where the house was temporarily rebuilt and then burnt, destroying many internal features which remained.