Duckett's Grove

OVERVIEW

A ruined nineteenth-century great house in County Carlow, the focal point of a 12,000-acre estate that dominated the local landscape for more than two centuries. The Duckett family left in 1916; the interior was destroyed by a major fire in the 1930s and the house is now an empty Gothic shell, inaccessible inside. The walled gardens around it have been restored and the grounds are a public park run by Carlow County Council, with free admission.

HISTORY

The Ducketts held the estate from the seventeenth century. After the death of William Duckett in 1908 his widow Maria remained until 1916, when she left for Dublin; the land was divided among tenants in 1921 and the house burned in the 1930s.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Local tradition attaches a banshee to the house and to the Duckett family — the cry heard before a death, in the form recorded across Ireland for old families. On 17 March 2011 Syfy's Destination Truth broadcast a four-hour live investigation from the ruins specifically to look for it. The entry records a local tradition and a televised investigation; the ruin is otherwise an ordinary and well-kept public park.

VISITING

Grounds and walled gardens open free of charge; tea rooms in season. The house itself is a stabilised ruin and cannot be entered.