Glassan or Glasson () is a small village in rural
County Westmeath
County Westmeath (; or simply ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Eastern and Midland Region. It formed part of the historic Kingdom of ...
, Ireland.
It is north of
Athlone
Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midland Region, Ir ...
, on the
N55 national secondary road
A national secondary road () is a category of road in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. These roads form an important part of the national route network but are secondary to the main arterial routes which are classified as national primary roads. Nat ...
, not far from the shores of
Lough Ree
Lough Ree (), translated to English as ''King's Lake'' or ''King Lake'', is a lake in the midlands of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the second of the three major lakes on the River Shannon. Lough Ree is the second largest lake on the Shannon af ...
. As of the
2022 census, Glassan had a population of 218.
History and layout
The village, sometimes known as "the village of the roses",
was established and laid out to serve Waterstown House, the remnants of which is located on a hill south east of the village. The Harris-Temple family lived in Waterstown House which was built in the 1740s.
The village was laid out as a straight street without a central square or common. At the south end the school was built to educate the children of the employees of the big house. This school was built for Isabella Harris who believed that education was one of the elements which could prevent the repetition of the distress experienced during the
Great Famine of the 1840s.
The core of the village consists of a late 18th/early 19th century terrace of two-storey rose-covered houses. Modern residential developments took place on all approaches to the village in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
A small river, the
River Tullaghan, flows through the northern end of the village and then flows south to
Killinure Lough, a part of Lough Ree. The village is overlooked by
Caraun Hill.
Close to the village, in an area which was originally the deer park of the Waterstown demesne, is Wine Port - so named because wine was brought from France and Spain by boat and landed here, and brought to the cellars under the house by cart.
Amenities
Services and businesses in the village include two pubs, both with restaurants, a restaurant in the old
Garda barracks, a hairdresser, Garda station, automotive sales and repair garages, a heritage/community centre (in the old school house), service station and supermarket, a number of B&Bs, a concrete works, a stonemason's workshop, a defunct
petty sessions
Courts of petty session, established from around the 1730s, were local courts consisting of magistrates, held for each petty sessional division (usually based on the county divisions known as hundreds) in England, Wales, and Ireland. The session ...
court house, a former
Royal Irish Constabulary
The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the island was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom. A sep ...
barracks, a dispensary operated by the
Health Board.
Glassan also hosts two
fox hunts; namely the Glassan Farmers Hunt and the South Westmeath Harriers.
Waterston House
The village of Glasson was built to service Waterston House, home of the Temple-Harris family. It is one of a number of Irish villages which were built to service an estate, or 'Big House'. Other examples include
Celbridge
Celbridge (; ) is a town and townland on the River Liffey in County Kildare, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is west of Dublin. Both a local centre and a commuter town within the Greater Dublin Area, it is located at the intersection of the ...
(associated with
Castletown House),
Westport (
Westport House
Westport House in Westport, County Mayo, Westport, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, is a Georgian architecture, Georgian country house, historically the family seat of the Marquess of Sligo and the Brownes. The house was designed by ...
) and
Durrow (Durrow Castle).
[Irish Architectural archive]
All that remains of Waterston House is a corner of two of the original facades, the remains of the house basement, the farmyard, the walled garden, a pigeon loft and some minor structures. What is lost is the rest of the house, the decorative terraced gardens, the castle on an island on the lake, the canals, woods, and shipyards.
See also
*
List of towns and villages in Ireland
References
{{County Westmeath
Towns and villages in County Westmeath