My wife's ancestors - Fitzwilliam - Contents

Mount Merrion House, Co.Dublin

• References:
  • MOUNT MERRION in [Ball, vol.2, 1903]

  • The Story of Mount Merrion, Sir Neville Wilkinson, The Irish Times, 11th Sept 1925. This was repub in:
    • Booklet advertising Mount Merrion Estates, 1925-26.
    • Mount Merrion, the old and the new, ed. J.Anthony Gaughan, 1981.

  • "Mount Merrion House" in [Flanagan, 1991].
  • Mount Merrion: The Early Years - Reminiscences of early residents, Don Cockburn, 2007, [Stillorgan library, 941.83].

• Sources yet to be consulted:
  • "Mount Merrion and its History", Francis Elrington Ball, Journal of RSAI, pre-1903.
  • "To All and Sundry", book by Sir Neville Wilkinson.
  • Short history of Mt Merrion House, Emma Donoghue, 1976. Referred to in [Flanagan, 1991].
  • The Church on the Hill: The story of a parish, 2000, Mt Merrion Church Bookshop.

  • Mount Merrion is described in:
    • Bishop Pococke's "Tour in Ireland", ed. G.T. Stokes, p.163.
    • "Phoenix Park, a poem by the Author of Killarney" (John Leslie), pub 1772.

The lands of Mount Merrion came into the possession of Fitzwilliam of Dundrum in the mid-late 14th cent.
Their seat was at Merrion Castle, and they used ride up to the hill here to hunt the deer. Eventually they built their new seat up here.

Mount Merrion House was built in 1711 as a new seat by the 5th Viscount Fitzwilliam on the hill at Mount Merrion,
at the top of what is now the tree-lined Sycamore Crescent (the old E avenue).
The Lodge and the stables were built in 1711.
The family left for England c.1726.
At some point between then and 1762 the main block was built.
The family returned to Mount Merrion sporadically, rented it out other times.
They landscaped the Deer Park behind it.

The Fitzwilliam estates were inherited by the 11th Earl of Pembroke, 1816.
Mount Merrion was occupied for a time by Sidney Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Lea,
and later by Sir Neville Wilkinson 1903 to 1914.
He planted on the lawn there cuttings from the cedars of Lebanon at the Herbert's ancestral home Wilton House.

The estate at Mount Merrion started to be sold off to property developers 1918.
[Mount Merrion Estates booklet, 1925-26] shows the new housing estate being planned, as this area of Dublin rapidly built up with suburban housing in mid-20th century. Think first houses not built until early 1930s.
Mount Merrion House itself was sold to the Catholic church 1935.
The Lodge was converted for use as a Catholic church for the new local population, opened 1936.
It was replaced by the grand new Catholic church 1956.

The main block is gone.
The Lodge and the stables survive, beside the grand new Catholic church.

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Mount Merrion House - Map

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Mount Merrion House - Video

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• The landscape painter William Ashford made a number of views of Mount Merrion in 1806. These are now at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

• Mount Merrion

• Parish of Mount Merrion (St.Therese's RC church)
  • History

• Scoil San Treasa (St.Therese's RC primary school)

• The pub "Mount Merrion House"
  • The pub across the road (on Deerpark Road) was called "Mount Merrion House".
  • It is now "Kielys of Mount Merrion" (also here).

• "Mount Merrion" house, Stillorgan Rd
  • The Fitzwilliam house is not to be confused with "Mount Merrion", a 19th century house down on the Stillorgan Rd, where Stillorgan Park Hotel now is, which was demolished 1986.
  • The original video for the song "Pour Some Sugar on Me", by the band Def Leppard, was shot in 1986 at the demolition of "Mount Merrion" on the Stillorgan Rd, while the band pretend to play inside (they are being filmed somewhere else).