Kilbride Manor

THE MOORES OWNED 8,730 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY WICKLOW

The family, which is of Scottish origin, settled in Ulster about 1650.

JOSEPH MOORE (c1775-1852), of Bond's Glen, Donemana, County Tyrone, farmer and merchant, married, in 1794, Anne, daughter of George Fletcher, of Tottenham, Middlesex, and had issue,

JOSEPH SCOTT;
George Fletcher (1798-1886).

Mr Moore was succeeded by his elder son,

JOSEPH SCOTT MOORE JP (1796-1884), of Manor Kilbride, near Blessington, County Wicklow, High Sheriff of County Wicklow, 1866, who wedded, in 1832, Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Browne, of Ardwick, near Manchester, and had issue, an only child,

JOSEPH FLETCHER MOORE JP DL (1835-1916), of Manor Kilbride, Barrister, High Sheriff of County Wicklow, 1894, who espoused, in 1861, Jane, daughter of James Atkinson, of Longford Terrace, Monkstown, and New South Wales, Australia, and had issue,

Thomas Brown (1865-95);
JOSEPH SCOTT, of whom hereafter;
George Fletcher;
Nithsdale Carleton Atkinson;
James Maxwell;
Emily Elizabeth; Bertha Mary; Ada Catherine.

Mr Moore was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

JOSEPH SCOTT MOORE JP (1866-1950), of Manor Kilbride, Colonel, Army Service Corps, High Sheriff of County Wicklow, 1921, who married, in 1902, Violet Grace Hastings Wheler, only daughter of Charles Wheler Wheler, of Ledston Hall, Yorkshire.

The Manor House, Kilbride (Image: Colliers)

KILBRIDE MANOR, County Wicklow, is a three-bay, two-storey, Tudor-Revival house of ca 1835. 

It has a single-bay, two-storey gabled entrance bay, four-bay two-storey garden front, and three-bay single-storey wing leading to serve and outbuildings ranges.

The manor house is set back from the main road with gravel drives and paths, and landscaped grounds.

The Courtyard (Image: Colliers)

In 1824 the Kilbride estate was purchased from George Ponsonby's widow by George Moore, barrister, MP for Dublin, 1826-31 and Registrar of Deeds until 1846.

The current house, designed by Thomas Cobden, was under construction when the Valuation House Books were being compiled in 1843.

It replaced or incorporated an earlier building, Kilbride House, depicted on the 1838 OS maps, possibly built before 1800.

George Moore was living in Kilbride Manor in 1844, when James Frazer noted 'a new mansion and other improvements are in progress'.

After Moore's death in 1847 his property passed to one of his sons, the Very Rev (William) Ogle Moore, Dean of Clogher, whose financial difficulties are described in the diaries of Elizabeth Smith.

In March, 1853, she noted:

“Ogle Moore has completed the preliminaries of his sale. A few weeks now will see him an independent man. All debts paid, his little income clear, and twenty thousand pounds to leave among his six daughters. He will educate and start his sons and they must make their own way.”

George Moore's Estate Act of 1853 allowed Elizabeth Brown and her husband, Joseph Scott Moore, to purchase the Kilbride estate.

Upon his death in 1884, he was succeeded by his son, Joseph Fletcher Moore, whose son, Colonel Joseph Scott Moore, died in 1950.

It has been the home of Cully family since the 1960s, and its large, sunny rooms afford wonderful views of the Wicklow Mountains as its backdrop.

The mansion is surrounded by 40 acres of private gardens and winding woodland paths, where guests can enjoy the private lake, stroll or fish along the banks of the river Brittas running through the grounds; or explore the beauty of the surrounding countryside.

The manor was for sale in January, 2021.

First published in January, 2018.