Geograph - photograph every grid square

Glynch House, Newbliss, and its history

In the ancient parish of Killeevan just outside the little Irish post-town of Newbliss stands Glynch House. An imposing residence, it was built during the Napoleonic wars in the style of a classical villa with Grecian porch and Doric columns by that master architect Richard Morrison. The old Irish name for Newbliss means "nook of the oaks", and indeed Glynch has old oaks and beeches in profusion under which the visitor can rest and enjoy the views across the lush meadows and streams of the Finn river. In the 17th century came the English and Scottish landlords, some of whose names are remembered still in Killeevan – Corry, Nicholson, Stevenson, Ker, Rogers. They were in the main enlightened men who succeeded in producing much needed growth in the local economy. Newbliss was established as a village by Robert Ker by about 1750, and by 1800 the linen trade was thriving here.
The awful famine nearly fifty years later not only caused widespread distress and depopulation but started an economic decline from which the parish has never really recovered. In that wretched time the owner of Glynch was one Richard Mayne, a land agent. Richard, on finding that twenty of his tenants and their families (a total of 77 people) were in penury and unable to pay their rents, "graciously forgave them every penny of arrears, clothed them, paid their passage to America and fed them during the voyage". His generous spirit can still be felt at Glynch in the warm welcome given to visitors by the present owners whose family has been settled in this beautiful place for over seventy years. See Link. For other members of Richard Mayne's family see H5916 : Freame Mount, Cootehill, and its early history and H6331 : Brandrum House, Monaghan.