Waterston House,

Co. Westmeath.

Documenting our Heritage

In the fifteenth century John Dillon, son of Sir Robert Dillon, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland built a castle at Waterstown. The castle was occupied by the Dillon family until it was confiscated during Cromwell’s re-conquering of Ireland and granted to William Handcock.

In 1725 Gustavus Handcock married Elizabeth Temple and as a condition to inheriting the Temple family estate, took the additional name of Temple, becoming Gustavus Handcock-Temple.

Around 1745 Gustavus and his wife Elizabeth commissioned the architect Richard Castle to build a large country house on his Waterston estate. The house was complete in 1749, three stories high over a basement, seven bays at the front and constructed of brick faced with cut limestone. Many additional outbuildings were also built including stables, a coach house, a dairy, various barns, a potato house, a turf house and a pigeon house. Homes were also built on the estate for the coachman, gamekeeper and gatekeeper. Magnificent gardens were landscaped around the house and a vast walled garden constructed a short distance away.

On the 28 May 1824, Isabella Helena Handcock-Temple, the heir of the estate married Lieutenant General William George Harris, the 2nd Baron Harris. Their first child was named Robert Reginald Temple Harris. Three more children followed, though one son, Charles died at the age of three.

In 1851 as a condition to inheriting his mother’s estate, Robert Reginald Harris assumed the additional surname of Temple, becoming Robert Reginald Temple Harris-Temple.

During the 1850s the Great Famine took its toll and the estates financial position became precarious. For the remainder of the 19th century the Harris-Temple family continued to live beyond their means. Robert Reginald Temple Harris-Temple died on 24 February 1900 and his brother Arthur inherited the estate, also taking the additional surname of Temple. Arthur made an attempt at restoring the estate’s finances by selling off the deer park and various other stretches of land.

The 1901 Census records the occupants of Waterston as Arthur, his wife Clare, daughter Nilah, two visitors and six domestic servants; a butler, a cook, a nurse, two house maids and a kitchen maid.

For the next few decades the family’s financial position continued to decline and in 1923 the house was abandoned. The Harris-Temples moved to another family home in London. By 1928 the house was in an advanced stage of dilapidation and anything of value had been scavenged by locals. The house was sold by the Land Commission to a Mr Balfe of Glynwood House (Glynwood was also later  abandoned). Mr Balfe dismantled the house and sold off anything of value. The fine Gibbsian doorcase was bought and re-erected at Lissglassick House, Co. Longford and the Waterston estate gates found a new home at Longford Cathedral.

Arthur Reginald Harris-Temple died in London on 28 October 1928.

Today only a few scant remains of the house walls remain.

It is said that on the darkest of winter nights, the ghosts of forgotten ballroom parties can still be seen dancing around the crumbling walls.