Airfield Estate

Airfield Estate is a agritourism site in Dublin, Ireland. Describing itself as "Dublin's only urban working farm and gardens," it incorporates Airfield House, an Anglo-Irish big house,[1] and welcomes visitors to learn about farming and the site's history. As of 2016, it had 75 employees and 280,000 annual visitors.[2]

Airfield Estate
Airfield Estate is located in Dublin
Airfield Estate
Town/CityOverend Avenue, Dundrum
StateDún Laoghaire–Rathdown
CountryIreland
Coordinates53°17′19″N 6°14′04″W
Establishedc. 1830 (Airfield House built)
1894 (Overend family arrive, establish dairy herd)
1974 (Airfield Trust)
OwnerDromartin Estates Company and Airfield Trust
Area38 acres (15 ha)
Producesmilk, vegetables, meat
Websiteairfield.ie

History

The estate is located in the townland of Drummartin (Irish: Droim Máirtín, "Martin's ridge.").[3] The house was built in circa 1830 by Thomas Mackey Scully,[4] of a wealthy Anglo-Irish family from Naas, and named Bess Mount; in 1836 it became Airfield. Scully was a barrister and supported Daniel O'Connell and Repeal.[5] Around 1830 he had married Elizabeth Walsh, a merchant's daughter from Summerhill, Dublin.[6]

The Scullys were one of many landowning families who lost financially in the Great Famine (1845–50); in 1852 Airfield was in the hands of the Encumbered Estates' Court, who sold it to the printer Thomas Cranfield.[7] In 1862 he sold it to the artist Francis Reynolds, who sold it to the Jury family of hoteliers in 1864.[8][9]

In 1894 the house was sold to the Overend family; Trevor Overend was from a County Down grain-dealing family, but he became a solicitor and moved to Airfield with his wife Lily. They had three daughters: Letitia (1880–1977),[10] Constance (who died in infancy) and Naomi (1900–1993).[11][12] Letitia and Naomi were noted for their philanthropic work with the Children's Sunshine Home, St John Ambulance, DSPCA and National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; breeding of Jersey cattle; their world travelling; and their fondness for classic cars. When Trevor died in 1919 he, unusually for the time, left almost all his money to the women of the house, allowing them financial independence. The two daughters never married and were often regarded as eccentrics, driving their pre-war cars and refusing to sell their land for development, instead maintaining a Victorian-era farm in the midst of a suburbanising region.[13][14][15]

In 1974 the Overend family left Airfield in trust for the Irish people.[16][17]

In 2012, shortly after Apple Maps launched, the area was mistaken for being an airport simply titled "Airfield".[18][19]

Description

Farm and Garden

The farm raises animals including Jersey cattle; Jacob sheep; Oxford Sandy and Black pigs; Saanen goats; Rhode Island Red chickens; and donkeys.[20] The farm also practises organic farming and soil regeneration.[21]

From 2013 Kitty Scully and Colm O’Driscoll led the food and ornamental gardens. With Colm taking over head gardener of the estate from 2017-2022, he has led the eight acres of biodiverse, organically managed gardens. Continually evolving, they make the most of the temperate local climate. The ornamental gardens include a walled garden with generous borders and decorative pergola, as well as tropical borders, a shade garden, glasshouses and pollinator-friendly plantings. In the three-acre organic food garden there is always a bounty of seasonal crops to explore.[22]

Lily Overend's Peugeot

The three cars driven by the Overend women are preserved:

Airfield House

The house was refurbished in 2014.[25] Its original entrance piers, railings and gates, as well as the house itself, a three-bay, two-storey Victorian structure.[26]

Cultural references

Airfield is mentioned in the 2021 Ross O'Carroll-Kelly novel, Normal Sheeple.[27]

References
  1. "Heritage".
  2. "Cute Chicken = Meat: Irish Farm Teaches Reality to Urbanites". Culture. 5 September 2016.
  3. "Droim Máirtín/Drummartin". logainm.ie.
  4. "Dublin Almanac and General Register of Ireland". Pettigrew & Oulton. 1 June 1847 – via Google Books.
  5. Slater, Isaac (1 June 1846). "Slater's National Commercial Directory of Ireland; Including in Addition to the Trades' Lists, Alphebetical Directories of Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. To which are Added Classified Directories of the Important English Towns of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Leeds, Sheffield and Bristol, and in Scotland, Those of Glasgow and Paisley". I. Slater – via Google Books.
  6. "Scully of Airfield". YouWho?.
  7. "Collections Online | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org.
  8. "Jury of Airfield". YouWho?.
  9. "Airfield". YouWho?.
  10. Walsh, Fionnuala (16 July 2020). Irish Women and the Great War. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108871679 – via Google Books.
  11. McNally, Frank (1 June 2016). 111 Places in Dublin that you must not miss. Emons Verlag. ISBN 9783960410263 – via Google Books.
  12. "Lives Less Ordinary - the Women of Airfield" (PDF). Maynooth University.
  13. Planet, Lonely; Wilson, Neil; Davenport, Fionn; Harper, Damian; Nevez, Catherine Le; Albiston, Isabel (1 May 2018). Lonely Planet Best of Ireland. Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781787018952 – via Google Books.
  14. Collections, Special. "Letitia and Naomi". MU Library Treasures.
  15. Lennox-Boyd, Arabella (15 April 2021). Gardens in My Life. Head of Zeus Ltd. ISBN 9781789545692 – via Google Books.
  16. Ingle, Ann (23 September 2021). Openhearted: Eighty Years of Love, Loss, Laughter and Letting Go. Penguin UK. ISBN 9781844885725 – via Google Books.
  17. "Women's Museum of Ireland | Articles | The Overend Women". womensmuseumofireland.ie.
  18. "Apple map glitch relocates Dublin Airport to farm". BBC News. 21 September 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  19. "Apple's new iOS6 mapping feature misnames Airfield city farm in Dublin an air strip/airport — City Farmer News". cityfarmer.info. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  20. "Beautiful Airfield | An Urban Farm in Dundrum Dublin". www.fun.ie.
  21. "On The Farm".
  22. "Airfield Ornamental Gardens". Dublin Garden Trail.
  23. "Women were a driving force". The Irish Times.
  24. O'Sullivan, Jim (Spring 2014). "Airfield" (PDF). The IVVCC Journal.
  25. "Historic Airfield House Reopens Following €11m Revamp". External Works Index.
  26. "Historic Airfield House Reopens Following €11m Revamp". GCON.
  27. O'Carroll-Kelly, Ross (19 August 2021). Normal Sheeple. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 9781844885510 – via Google Books.
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