page_title: County Carlow
section_title: Estates and Manor Houses
hierarchical_section_title: County Carlow / Places of interest / Landmarks / Estates and Manor Houses
caption_attribution_description: English: The Lisnavagh Estate lies just outside the village of Rathvilly in County Carlow, Ireland. Lisnavagh is the family seat of the McClintock-Bunbury family
context_page_description: County Carlow is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow County Council is the governing local authority.
  The county is named after the town of Carlow, which lies on the River Barrow and is both the county town and largest settlement, with over 40% of the county's population. Much of the remainder of the population also reside within the Barrow valley, in towns such as Leighlinbridge, Muine Bheag, Tinnahinch, Borris and St Mullins. Carlow shares a border with Kildare and Laois to the north, Kilkenny to the west, Wicklow to the east and Wexford to the southeast.
  Carlow is known as "The Dolmen County", a nickname based on the Brownshill Dolmen, a 6,000 year old megalithic portal tomb which is reputed to have the heaviest capstone in Europe, weighing over 100 metric tonnes. The town of Carlow was founded by the Normans in 1207 and the county was shired shortly thereafter, making it one of the oldest counties in Ireland.
context_section_description: Carlow was at the epicentre of the estates period of the late-18th and 19th century, and the county had a greater number of country houses and demesnes per hectare than any other rural county in Ireland.  These "Big Houses" and their occupants dominated the economic and political landscape until the turn of the 20th century. Although the term was never applied at the time, historian Jimmy O'Toole refers to Carlow as "the most gentrified county in Ireland" due to the concentration of aristocratic families and their grand estates within its borders.
  A valuation survey undertaken in 1876 revealed that just 21 families owned 34,031 ha (84,090 acres) - almost 40% of the entire county. Although not as prevalent as in other counties, absenteeism by the landholding class in Carlow was still common. Towards the end of the 19th century, anger at high-rents and the widespread eviction of tenant farmers in Ireland resulted in the Land War (1879-1882) and the formation of the Irish National Land League led by Charles Stewart Parnell, which heralded the end of the estates period.
  While as many as 300 Big Houses across Ireland were burned down during the revolutionary period, Carlow was left relatively untouched, losing just three Big Houses between 1919 and 1923, two of which were unoccupied. Éamon de Valera was against such burnings and addressed supporters at the gates of Browne's Hill House in January 1923, stating that "nothing was to be achieved by the burning or damaging of homes, big or small...raid for arms, yes, but leave them as they found them".
  Some of the most prominent Big Houses are currently in public ownership, such as Altamont House, Oak Park and Duckett's Grove. Several historically significant Big Houses such as Borris House, Huntington Castle and Dunleckney Manor are privately owned but open to tours and visitors at certain times of year. The majority of the surviving Big Houses within the county are in use as either private residences or hotels, while a small number have been abandoned and are in a derelict state.
caption: 19th-century Lisnavagh House, a typical Anglo-Irish big house
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 6D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2014:07:07 18:22:13", "Image Artist": "Philip Bentley", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "360", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[52, 20589/400, 0]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[6, 408889/10000, 0]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "1493/10", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[8, 22, 11]", "GPS GPSSatellites": "11", "GPS GPSStatus": "A", "GPS GPSMeasureMode": "3", "GPS GPSDOP": "11", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "GPS GPSDate": "2014:07:07", "Image GPSInfo": "9186", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "11076", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "12062", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "500", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "500", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:07:07 18:22:13", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:07:07 18:22:13", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "77/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "45/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "40", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5472", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3648", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "8958", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1368000/359", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "912000/239", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF CameraOwnerName": "", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "115026000128", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[40, 40, 0, 0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF40mm f/2.8 STM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "9231119993"}