This work is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License.  Photograph from the Ellen F O'Connor Collection. 

Runnymede              

NAME                             Runnymede/Dun Emer                                   

AREA LOCATION         Dun Emer Drive, Dundrum
​
 
MAP LOCATION           OSI maps of 1838-1845 and 1898-1913 place it in the townland of
                                         Balally and it is annotated as Runnymede and Dun Emer respectively.
                                     
GENERAL                       The house was owned by William Ridgeway in 1810.  When William died
in 1817, the house was up for lease until his son William reached his majority.  It was on 33
acres in 1818 and 8 acres in 1887.  Evelyn Gleeson took Runnymede in 1902 and the name
was changed to Dun Emer.  She invited the Yeats sisters to join her at Dun Emer Guild but the
sisters did not live at the house.  The house had 6 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms.  There
were two servants rooms, a greenhouse, stabling ​and a gatelodge.

YEAR BUILT                   circa 1760    
 
VALUATION                  In 1847 the valuation was 91 pounds and in the 1911 census it is noted as
​                                         having 18 rooms occupied by family.
​         
ARCHITECT                    Unknown           
 
SOURCES                        Thom's, contemporaneous newspapers, NAI Census & Wills, OSI Maps
  
OCCUPANTS

1810 - 1817                     William Ridgeway
1837                                 J Fitzpatrick
1838 - 1841                     William Ridgeway
1843 - 1855                     John Mayne 
1855 - 1861                     Dorothea Mayne
1861 - 1876                     Anthony Fox 
1879                                 Richard Perrin
1880 - 1886                     William Freeman
1887                                 Mrs Freeman          
1888 - 1900                     John Malcolm Gillies
1902 - 1944                     Miss Evelyn Gleeson of Dun Emer Guild

STAFF
​
1849                                 William Grace - Gateporter
1911                                 Mary Kirley - Secretary
                                          Frances Fendon - Cook
                                          Martha Hatch - Housemaid
1916                                 Martha Nolan
1917                                 Joseph Mason - Labourer (wife Margaret Doyle - see birth of son)
​
CURRENT
STATUS                           No longer extant

CONTRIBUTOR             ©​ June Bow & Karen Poff
DATE                                February 2023