Seapoint Manor

NAME                           Castle Byrne/Seapoint Manor - Work in Progress

AREA LOCATION       Corner of Seapoint Avenue and Newtown Avenue.
 
MAP LOCATION        OSI maps of 1838-1845 and 1898-1913 place it in the townland of Seapoint
                                      Temple Hill and it is annotated as Castle Byrne and Seapoint Manor respectively.                                    
 
GENERAL                    Described as a house with private seashore adjoining Sir Harcourt Lees house
with two sets of stables and coach house and the land extending as far as Seapoint House in 1813.
It was on 2 acres in 1880 but this had slipped to 1.5 Acres in 1919.  In 1900 it was for sale and
described as a 'Large Handsome house with 7 bedrooms, a conservatory, ​greenhouse and gardeners
​cottage, known as Tobernea cottage'.  It was at some point part of the Seapoint House Hotel Complex
which stretched from Blackrock House to The Point.  It is thought that this is the site of the long
demolished Newtown Castle and would have been Byrne territory from the late 17th century.  In
1880 it was for sale and included the commercial premises.  In 1991 it was again for sale excluding
the commercial premises but including two 2 bedroom mews houses.
​
YEAR BUILT               1810       
 
VALUATION              The valuation in 1878 was 76L and in the in the 1901 census it is noted as
                                     having 30 rooms.            
​         
ARCHITECT                 Unknown 
 
SOURCES                    Thom’s directories, contemporaneous newspapers, NAI Census & Wills
                                      and OSI Maps.
  
OCCUPANTS
1819                             Castle Byrne Boarding House
1839 - 1841                 Castle Byrne Boarding School - Principal - Julia Jacob
1842 - 1860                 Rented for the Summer season
1853                             Lady Adelaide Webber
1859                             William R Jones (child born)
1860 - 1862                 Francis Howard, Surgeon
1863 - 1870                 William James Howard
1871                             Arthur Jones
1872 - 1876                 Hon Chichester Thomas Skeffington 
1877 - 1878                 William J Burnside
1880                             For Sale            
1880 - 1886                 Edward De Selvier
1886                             For Sale
1886 - 1890                 James O'Connor (Seapoint Tragedy)
1890 - 1891                 Alpheus Edwin Smith 
1895 - 1899                 Caledon Radclyffe Dolling (Rattenbury murder)
1900                             For Sale
1902 - 1905                 William John Chetwode Crawley
1906                             For Sale
1919 - 1920                 For Sale on 1.5 acres suitable for 20 houses to be built
1920                             Éamon De Valera
1938                             Edward Crolly

Commercial premises

1880                              For sale
1928 - 1936                  Miss Kate Meany (brother of Laurence) ran boarding house at Seapoint House opposite                       
1940 - 1960                  Lawrence Meany 
1960 - 1991                  Meany's Shop

STAFF
1890                              Elizabeth Casey
CURRENT
STATUS                        Extant

CONTRIBUTOR           ©​ June Bow & Karen Poff
DATE                             January 2020