Rossyvera House

A country house representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the deliberate alignment maximising on panoramic vistas overlooking Rockfleet Bay; the cruciform plan form centred on a restrained doorcase; the construction in a local fieldstone offset by "sparrow pecked" limestone dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings on each floor with the principal "apartments" defined by a polygonal bow: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the continued development or "improvement" of the country house in the twentieth century with 'the whole effect [being] of an old castle enlarged and modernised in the eighteenth century' (Bence-Jones 1978, 243). Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thus upholding the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, an adjoining walled garden (extant 1897); and lengthy outbuildings (extant 1897), all continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained estate having historic connections with Captain Alexander Wadham Wyndham (1799-1869) of West Lodge, Dorset (NUIG); James Butler Stoney JP (1814-97); William Frederick Ormsby (1858-1941; NA 1911); the O'Malley family including Sir Owen St. Clair O'Malley KCMG (1887-1974) and Mary Dolling Sanders O'Malley (1889-1974), alias Ann Bridge, author of "Frontier Passage" (published 1942) and "The Dark Moment" (published 1952); and Walter Joseph Patrick Curley II (b. 1922), one-time American Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ireland (fl. 1975-7).