Middleton Park House is a mid 19th-century country house in

Castletown-Geoghegan Castletown Geoghegan () is a village in County Westmeath, Ireland, and lies south west of Lough Ennell near the county town of Mullingar. It is around 13 km south-west of Mullingar and 19 km north of Tullamore. Castletown was the se ...

, County Westmeath It stands on a gentle hill on a kilometre-long avenue looking towards Lough Ennell. It is a detached six-bay two-storey building with the central two bays slightly projecting from the façade. It has a slate roof and a projecting single-storey limestone Ionic entrance portico. Other features of the house are its under-floor heating system, stone bifurcated staircase leading to the Gallery Landing and three-storey-high atrium lantern located in the Main Hall. At one end of the house is a cast-iron conservatory, one of only a few Richard Turner conservatories to be found in Ireland. After many years of disrepair, the house was restored in mid-2007 and opened to the public as a commercial entity specialising in corporate events and private weddings and as a restaurant. This venture closed in 2016, with the house rapidly falling back in to disrepair. Restoration work to return it to use as family home began in 2019 and has been featured on an

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

TV series ''Great House Revival''.

History

Middleton Park House was built c. 1850 by George Boyd-Rochfort, who commissioned architect

George Papworth George Papworth (1781–1855) was a British architect who practised mainly in Ireland during the nineteenth century. Early life and career Papworth was born in London in 1781 and was the third son of the English stuccoist John Papworth (1750–1 ...

to design it and oversee its construction. Drawings of part of the interior were exhibited by Papworth during the Royal Hibernian Annual Exhibition of 1850. The

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious decoration of the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British decorations system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British ...

-winning soldier

George Boyd-Rochfort George Arthur Boyd-Rochfort VC (1 January 1880 – 7 August 1940) was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forc ...

and his younger brother, racehorse trainer

Cecil Boyd-Rochfort Sir Cecil Charles Boyd-Rochfort KCVO (188718 March 1983) was an Irish thoroughbred racehorse trainer who was British flat racing Champion Trainer five times. Background Cecil was the son of Rochfort Hamilton Boyd-Rochfort and the grandson ...

, were born at Middleton Park. The house was host to a number of celebrities in the 1930s and 1940s, such as

Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer, and Pin-up model, pin-up girl. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of ...

(who married

Prince Aly Khan Prince Aly Salomone Khan (13 June 1911 – 12 May 1960), known as Aly Khan, was an Ismaili sayyid, socialite and ambassador for Pakistan. He was the son of the Aga Khan III, and the father of Aga Khan IV. A socialite, racehorse owner and jocke ...

in 1949). The House and estate remained in the Boyd-Rochfort family until the early 1960s when it was sold. Since then it has seen many owners, including gambler

Barney Curley Bernard Joseph Curley (5 October 1939 – 23 May 2021) was a racehorse trainer, gambler and founder of the Zambian charity DAFA from Northern Ireland Biography Bernard Joseph (Barney) Curley was born one of six children to Kathleen and Charlie ...

who raffled the House in 1986.

References

External links

Middleton Park House website
{{coord, 53.435, -7.472, type:landmark_region:IE, display=title Houses in County Westmeath