In 2008 Tarquin Blake found his first abandoned “Big House” and so began exploring the lost architecture of Ireland. These mansions were built in the mid-eighteenth century onward and were gradually abandoned and forgotten. Here, Blake documents what is left of fifty mansion houses with brief histories and beautiful photographs of the haunting ruins.
Included in the book are Mountpelier Lodge (Dublin Hellfire Club), the birthplaces of Daniel O’Connell and the Duke of Wellington, and the one-time homes of Grace O’Malley and the Smithwick brewing family of Kilkenny.