The Georgian House, prior to Adare Manor, in the 18th Century
Did you know that Adare Manor did not always look like the magnificent castle it is today? A much smaller Georgian house, built in the 1720s, occupied the landscape until the Second Earl of Dunraven and his wife, Lady Caroline Wyndham, decided to undertake its transformation.
The Manor ‘structurally’ as it exists today was not actually begun until 1832. The Earl had become crippled with gout (a painful form of arthritis) and was forced to give up the country pursuits of shooting and fishing that he so enjoyed. A gradual rebuilding of their home was considered by Lady Caroline to be the ideal way to occupy the Earl's mind.