Bantry House

In addition to the ruins and the castles and the abbeys, we visited a few "great houses" of Ireland. These are the enormous rural seats of the powerful families of the past. This one was started in 1700 and gradually improved as the Bantry family's fortunes rose from the grant of minor nobility and lands, up to a hereditary earldom.



Part of the house is now a B&B and a cafe serving high tea. The rest is a house museum and is open to the public for self-guided tours. The flyer for the Bantry House advertises "B&B - circular beds on the north side." This caused a moment of confusion before my brain associated the tantalising promise of "circular beds" with the photograph of round flowerbeds in the front lawn.



What sticks in my mind most about these houses is not their opulence, or the vast army of servants that must have been required to keep them. What I remember most vividly is smell of dust and damp coming off the tapestry and rugs. These rooms smell old and, I image, smelled much the same and perhaps rather worse in their own time. Don't misunderstand, the houses are carefully preserved and kept scrupulously clean. The distinctive smell of dust and slow decay is in the nature of such things.

If the modern eye is deprived of the sumptuous art and elaborate decor of the past, then the modern nose is repaid a thousandfold by being spared the stink.

I'd prefer to have one tiny, cream-tiled flushing toilet than all the red libraries and blue dining rooms of the landed gentry.

No wonder the Bantry's had such elaborate gardens. They needed the fresh cut flowers to stop themselves from sneezing.