The Hall

This impressive if rather stark mid-Georgian country house retains its original character and form. The classically-proportioned main elevations has graceful window openings that diminish in size from the ground floor to the high parapet, in contrast to the side elevations that are notable for the lack of openings. The austere main elevations are enlivened by the fine and elaborate doorcases, which are of high artistic merit, and to a lesser extent by the quoins to the corners and by the stringcourses. The round-headed quasi-Tuscan doorcase to the north-west elevation is flanked by square-headed sidelights with pronounced cornices over, which creates a Venetian arrangement that is characteristic of Palladian architecture in Ireland. This doorway is now partially screened by a charming wrought-iron porch, which was probably added during the first decades of the nineteenth century and is now sadly dilapidated. The elegant tall pedimented doorcase with lugged architrave surround to the north-west elevation may be a slighter later addition. This fine building forms the centrepiece of a large collection of related sites along with the complex of outbuildings (see 40847024) to the north-east, the former walled garden (see 40847026) to the north/north-west and with the entrance gateway (see 40847023) and attendant gate lodge (see 40847022) to the north, and is one of the more important elements of the built heritage of south County Donegal. This building was originally built for the Conyngham family, who had their main seat at Slane Castle in County Meath. The original construction date for The Hall is not known but it was in existence in 1777 (depicted on Taylor and Skinner road map of area when it was home to Right Honourable William Conyngham and possibly a Montgomery Esq.). There are hints in the Conyngham Papers (National Library of Ireland) that this building may have built around 1752/3 as there are records of ‘deeds of assignment’ advanced to Nathaniel Clements (1705 – 1777), a noted amateur architect and developer, particularly in the Dublin area in this period. 1753 was also the year that William Conyngham was advanced to the peerage of Ireland (Baron Conyngham of Mountcharles) and perhaps he built a new house around this time befitting his new status. The Conyngham family owned lands in the barony of Banagh (around Mountcharles) from 1704 at the latest (and possibly as early as the 1660s when Sir Albert Conyngham purchased lands in this part of Donegal) and owned lands in County Donegal from the Plantation period during the early seventeenth-century. The Conynghams were one of the largest landowners in Donegal by 1876 the third Marquis Conyngham and the wider family owned four separate estates in the county amounting to over 122,300 acres of land, as well as extensive landholdings in Clare (centred around Kilkee) and Meath (centred around Slane), and in Kent in the south-east of England. The Hall was the residence of a Colonel Pratt in 1837 (Lewis), a Charles W. Osbourne JP in 1881 (Slater’s Directory), and a James A. Pomeroy as well as the Marquis Conyngham in 1894 (Slater’s Directory), which suggests that the Conyngham family did not reside at The Hall during the nineteenth-century, or did some only for occasional periods.