Bessborough House

Bessborough House is a large Georgian house near Piltown, County Kilkenny, and was the family seat of the Ponsonby dynasty, Earls of Bessborough.[1]

Bessborough House
1818 illustration of the house
General information
Type	House
Architectural style	Palladian
Town or city	Piltown
Country	Ireland
Coordinates	52.354125°N 7.3141555°W / 52.354125; -7.3141555
Current tenants	Kildalton Agricultural College (Teagasc)
Named for	Elizabeth Folliott, wife of Sir John Ponsonby
Construction started	1744
Renovated	1929 following arson in 1923
Owner	Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Height	30 m (98 ft)
Technical details
Material	limestone
Floor count	3
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Francis Bindon
Developer	Brabazon Ponsonby, 1st Earl of Bessborough

Originally built in the 1740s for the 1st Earl of Bessborough. It was designed by Francis Bindon.[2] The house was gutted by fire in February 1923, during the Irish Civil War.[3] However, it was rebuilt in late 1929 for The 9th Earl of Bessborough, who served as the 14th Governor General of Canada in the early 1930s.[4] The 9th Lord Bessborough sold the house in the late 1930s.

Kildalton Castle and estate were owned by the Dalton Family, and was awarded to Colonel John Ponsonby, one of the leaders of the Cromwellian invasion of Ireland.[5]

The Oblate Fathers who established a seminary there in 1941, over the following 30 years some 360 were ordained for the order there, they would study philosophy at UCD and theology at the Our Lady's Scholasticate in Bessbrough.

Bessborough House was sold by the Oblates in 1971 to the Department of Agriculture and was opened in 1980 as Kildalton Agricultural College.[6]