The early origins of the house are unclear, with some claiming that the building was first built as a convent, perhaps dating as far back as the 16th century. The central section of the house dates from the 18th century and the sections that face the east remain unchanged, were built by the St George family. Most of these changes to the house were to reverse it to face a newly built road. During the 1780s, Benjamin Burton Doyle the High Sheriff of Carlow lived at the house. In the 1840s the Dawson Borrer family refurbished and altered the house and gardens, adding the lake that was dug as relief work for the local population during the Irish famine.