25 Mar Strokestown Park House
Many Irish towns and villages reveal their Georgian origins in wide streets, but Strokestown’s is certainly exceptional. Originally modelled on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, which had greatly impressed one of the local landowners, it is said to be the widest provincial main street in Ireland. The village is little more than an adjunct to the fine Palladian Strokestown Park House, which lies beyond the Gothic triple arch on this main street. It is most famouse (and infamous) proprietor was Major Denis Mahon, who presided over the Strokestown estate during the unproductive Famine years, and found himself so short of cash that he pressed his tenants to emigrate to the New World. Rumours spread that he was chartering the dreaded ‘coffin ships’ in which so many Irish emigrants perished, and Mahon was shot dead near Strokestown in 1847.
See all this on your tour of Ireland with Ireland Luxury Tours…..