Jealousy is one of the oldest concepts known to humanity, from Cain slaying Abel, Zeus'
wife Hera slaying his lover Lamia, the play Othello, or the fall of Troy.
It has pervaded religion, literature and the history of cultures across the world and lives
on in our everyday existence.
The wall before you is a central part of a sordid tale of familial envy, hatred, imprisonment
and murder that
spans generations and plays out across the rich estates this 180 foot long and 60 foot
tall wall still separates today.
Join us as we explore the tale of a wall built on jealousy and explore the abandoned mansion
of an envious brother.
The story of this family's rise to power began with Colonel James "Prime Iron" Rochfort,
who fought on the side of Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War.
He rose to some measure of power, at the time living in a sizable but dated mansion where
in 1652 he challenged a Major Turner to a duel in which Turner died from blunt force
trauma.
James was tried and executed for the murder just days before his son Richard Rochfort
was born.
James' wife fled the mansion, but her other son Robert Rochfort was to return to the mansion
and increased the family's fortunes by becoming a lawyer
who was elevated to the ranks of Attorney General of Ireland and Speaker of the Irish
House of Commons.
The family's power continued to grow until finally his grandson, also named Robert Rochfort
was made Baron Belfield
and become a favorite of King George the Second in England where he would spend much of his
time.
The three proud Rochfort brothers, Robert, Arthur, and George, were quarrelsome and fond
of duels, somehow not learning from the family tragedy of James Rochfort's execution.
In 1746 the eldest, Robert entered a duel over a debt with Richard Herbert.
Robert was shot but hit Herbert in the eye with the bullet exiting his head, though by
a miracle Herbert survived.
The youngest brother, Arthur Rochfort was a justice of the peace, who in 1737 entered
a duel with Thomas Nugent over a servant's poaching.
The next year he also entered a duel against Dillon Hampson Pollard, a Freemason.
Dillon was shot but luckily survived.
At the time, young Robert known for his selfishness still lived in the ancient family castle,
which was half renovated as a mansion.
Poet and writer, Jonathan Swift who had been a frequent guest there of his father, George,
had written on it, urging him to restore it or replace it:
'Tis so ugly, so useful, so big and so little,
'Tis so staunch, and so crazy, so strong and so brittle,
'Tis at one time, so hot and another so cold,
'Tis part of the new and part of the old,
'Tis just half a blessing and just half a curse,
I wish then George, it was better or worse.
This was not to last as the brother's father George died in 1730 and at the age of just
23 Robert became Baron Belfield and inherited the family titles and most of the land.
From then on brother Arthur lived at a nearby smaller house called Belfield,
and both George and Robert who had been childhood enemies competed by spending decades and vast
sums each building larger a new mansion near to one another.
During these decades Robert took a wife who died in just a year of smallpox,
and then married a reluctant but beautiful young heiress named Mary Molesworth over the
objections of his mother who died that same year.
They did not get along and their marriage became noted for acrimony, as few could stand
the selfish Baron.
Likewise Mary and George Rochfort became enemies, and Mary was to often visit Arthur's house
to seek conversation and company.
In 1737 Mary had a daughter Jane, which upset Robert, who spent even more time abroad, though
he briefly became happy at the birth of a son, George in 1738.
Despite this he spent most of his time away at court or at leisure abroad and even with
two more sons, their time together was mostly spent in loud arguments.
In time a maid who Robert was having an affair with claimed that Mary had been unfaithful
to him with Arthur.
George Rochfort claimed to have the love letters and been a witness.
Arthur denied wrongdoing but Mary admitted to the affair, some claiming under force or
to hasten a divorce.
Robert then shot Arthur who fled the country and was put on trial in absentia and charged
a huge 2,000 pound fine for a form adultery called Criminal Conversation.
Mary was also charged and the court allowed Robert to do what he would with her,
which led him to lock her up in a room at the old family mansion, forbidding her contact
with anyone outside, her children or even the servants.
She was allowed to leave the room briefly by applying by letter to walk the grounds,
where she would be followed by a servant ringing a bell and throwing curses at her.
Time went on and a full thirteen years later she finally escaped her prison fleeing to
Dublin to secretly meet Arthur and sail to France.
However, all her secret letters she had sent him had been read by jealous Robert who had
been given them by a female servant, who he also may have been involved with.
Robert then had Arthur arrested and Mary sent back to her confinement, but she tricked the
coachman into thinking that George's mansion was Robert's.
When she reached George's mansion she was again betrayed as he handed her over quickly
to Robert.
Mary then was again locked away in the mansion room where she began to talk to herself and
portraits on the mansion's gallery wall outside of the room.
Arthur was then thrown into Marshalsea Debtor's Prison after still being unable unable to
pay his fine.
There he was to die and neither his brother Robert or George expressed any grief at his
passing.
In time Robert had moved to his new mansion Belvedere House, completed in 1740 and near
to his brother George's slightly newer mansion.
In 1757 Robert was made Earl of Belvedere.
By 1760 his selfish nature caused a growing jealousy of his brother George's larger, newer
mansion and their relations were strained by arguments.
Robert had a famous architect Barradotte build the fake ruined wall we showed you today to
block his brother's mansion from view and
he was to claim to visitors that it was the wall of an old ruined family church.
Over the years Robert, by then known as the Wicked Earl finally began to consider releasing
Mary.
However, his brother George spoke against the idea and she was not to be freed until
1774, when Robert who had dispossessed his nine nieces and nephews finally died.
In varying accounts he either was beaten to death on the lakeshore by men who came across
on a boat in the middle of the night, or he fell and was killed by wild dogs late at night
while near the lakeshore.
It was then, finally, Mary was released from the mansion bedroom by her son George after
31 long years of confinement with no human contact.
She looked far older than her days, seemed always frightened and only spoke in a low
whisper.
George was instructed by her to demolish the old house she had been imprisoned in, and
burn everything that belonged to Robert.
She then moved with her daughter Jane to a new smaller house on the site,
and later on to France to become a nun where she eventually was to die swearing an oath
of innocence on her deathbed.
In time her son George built up his wicked father�s house with gardens, statues, and
follies you can still visit today.
Before his death in 1814 the Second Earl became county Sheriff and Grandmaster of the Freemasons.
Yet he was to die without an heir and his titles became extinct.
He had married a Jane who split the inheritance with his sister Jane who was now Lady Lanesborough.
But what became of the elder George, the enemy of Robert, whose larger mansion caused the
building of the wall, and who had twice betrayed Mary leading to her long captivity?
The older George had died with no heir, having just one daughter, Anne.
His nephew George, now Earl Belvedere inherited the house, but in turn when George died heirless
the land also went to the two Janes.
Lady Lanesborough herself died in 1828 and it was then sold to a Sir Hopkins in 1836.
It is here one last tragic occurrence was to happen.
Brian Seery, a farmer tenant renting from Sir Hopkins fell behind in his payments and
was evicted during the Potato Famine years.
A few days later Sir Hopkins was attacked at the mansion by an unknown man.
He managed to grab him but he escaped leaving behind his coat in Hopkin's hand.
When the guards showed up Hopkins told them he thought it could be Brian, who they then
called upon at a friend's house.
The owners told the police he wasn't there as they knew Brian owed money, but the police
searched the house and found Brian working in the fields.
He admitted the coat was his but denied the crime.
An investigated showed he could have reached the house in the time since the attack.
At the trial the jury did not agree with his guilt, but the judge decided to try him again
anyway, and he was sentenced to death.
He was hung in 1846 and buried in the jail yard.
The man who actually committed the crime, confessed to the local Bishop on the evening
before Brian's execution and was told to say nothing or he would be hung too,
as they never took back a judgement even if it was proven false.
When the cruel Sir Hopkins died he left the house to his sister Anna Maria.
George Rochfort's old mansion at the time was a large three story limestone building
with a columned front.
On the first floor were 8 bedrooms, on the second floor a gallery with more bedrooms,
a great hall, state rooms, billiards room, gun room and a library all with neo-classical
plasterwork.
In the back were staff rooms and a school room.
A main stair led upwards and was topped with huge stained glass windows.
Above all this was a huge stained glass dome.
Giant portraits of Anna Maria, Oliver Cromwell, and Charles the 1st adorned the fireplaces
and walls.
In World War 2 it was used as a hospital for soldiers.
The house was burned heavily by a fire in 1958 following being stripped after use by
the army
and the mansion then remained abandoned and slowly faded into the overgrowth.
Today, from the Wicked Earl's house one can still see the ruined mansion of George, if
you stand at certain points like atop this ruined hillfort.
(photo)
We have tried a number of times to film it, and it has become a sort of nemesis to us,
as we're always never able to fully do so.
The mansion was recently sold and is fenced off and watched.
Today is no different, but we would like to show you a bit of this house from the overgrown
grounds, and from above as it is so central to much of this sordid family tale.
The jealous brother's mansion still sits amidst it's once 800 acres of land and is now home
to birds and overgrown plant life.
It still bears much of the ornate stonework on its limestone surfaces that drove the Wicked
Earl to build the wall of jealousy you can see in the distance, still blocking it from
view 200 years later.
A lasting testament to the power of emotions, the wonton cruelness of a man, and a reminder
of Mary's tragic end.
The last site we explore today from above is...
The Spinster's Castle:
The last explore today is more lighthearted as it lacks a story of jealousy or betrayal
but this mansion remains one of the most stunning abandoned houses of Ireland one can visit
to this day.
The manor house was built upon the base of a Norman 12th Century castle.
First owned by John De Birmingham, whose son was accused of treason, it was seized by Richard
II and given to the Earls of Ormonde, who in 1558 gave it to the Aylmer family.
The main tower is the oldest part still existing being built in 1624.
Gerald Aylmer was to become the first Baronet of Donadea.
The Aylmers were involved with many conflicts by 1626, with the castle damaged in the 1641
Rebellion.
Gerald Aylmer restored the medieval Church in Donadea and built a new mausoleum.
There was then a serious fracture in the family during the rebellion of 1798.
Yet, in the 1800s Gerald George, 8th Baronet constructed tall walls, gatehouses, and in
1827 they gothicized the front of the castle
and added new wings and a new tower.
Donadea was then seen as one of the finest estates in the nation and was 16,000 acres
in size.
Caroline Aylmer was the last person to live in the mansion and she died alone in 1935.
She left the estate to the Church of Ireland in her will, and they in turn gave it to the
state.
The roof was removed in the 1950s to avoid taxes and this grand ruined mansion became
attached to a parkland.
This is one of the rare places you can go yourself today and see an amazing example
of an abandoned mansion.
If you get the chance, I recommend it, though the windows and doors are barred or bricked
up completely.
We can still show you what is left from above.
We hope you've enjoyed this tale of jealousy, betrayal and murder and these two grand abandoned
mansions from the air.
Join us next time in our last abandoned Ireland exploration as we take you to a ruinous and
picturesque church and cemetery.