Restoring An Irish Treasure

Chilstone supply handcrafted architectural stonework and garden ornaments around the world. In Ireland we work very closely with  Simonstown Architectural to provide the best solutions for clients in a professional and cost effective way. Caroline Pilkington, who runs Simonstown Architectural, is very experienced and has a wide knowledge of Chilstone products. One of the most prestigious projects we worked on together was the restoration of the iconic Westport House. Read about it here.

An Iconic Historical Treasure

Nestled into a sheltered bay on Ireland’s west coast, lies the beautiful, historic Westport House. It is often referred to as one of Ireland’s National treasures. Full of history and romance, its legendary beginnings date back to Pirate Queen of Connacht Grace O’Malley, who lived in the sixteenth century. The remnants of her castle forms the foundations of the current house.

Westpost House in Ireland has a wide range of detailed stonework featured on the property and in the garden hard landscaping.

For 300 years the property had remained privately owned by the Browne family. In 2017 it was sold to a local Westport business family who undertook this huge restoration project. They wanted to conserve the unique historical features of the house and grounds,so they could open up this iconic estate to the public.

A Classic Cracked, in Disrepair

Westport resides in a 455 acre estate with many unique period features. Many of these needed to be restored on the house and in the gardens. On the West side of the house, overlooking the lake and sea, balustraded terraces lead down to the water.  The terraces feature beautiful swags with lions heads and garlands of fruit with round and oval patera.

The grounds at Westport House had damaged hard landscaping features, including swagged balustrading and steps.

These had been produced a long time ago using a cast stone or roman concrete formed around an iron structure. Over time, the metal inside had rusted and expanded. This pressure cracked the structure of the stone around it, slowly disintegrating over the years. The same had happened to many of the balusters and half balusters.

A wall with damaged swagged stone details that were sent to Chilstone for restoration.

On the East and front of the house, four urns were situated on the roof pediment, above the front door.  These had badly disintegrated and were held together in situ with chicken wire.

The original decorative urns were covered in chicken wire to hold them together. Chilstone carefully copied and replicated the detailed stone urns.

Remodeled by Hand

Simonstown Architectural took one of the urns, a baluster and portions of the swags, lions heads and garlands to Chilstone.  Moulds were made of the baluster, swags and lions heads and new copies were hand made and colour matched to the originals.  The urn had to be completely remodelled by hand as it fell apart once the chicken wire was taken off. This was carefully reconfigured to cast the mould so new urns could be made to replicate the originals.

An ornate finial during the restoration process by Chilstone.

Chilstone’s restorations were made by hand to last. Our experienced craftspeople carefully retained and repaired the fine details from the original stonework. Iron has been removed from building regulations for some decades, so the replicated stone will not be effected by rust pressure, which is particularly important in costal areas, where rust erosion is accelerated by the salty water and weather conditions. Our stonework is regularly independently tested for quality and strength and we can use stainless steel to strengthen our stone when required.

The finials restored by Chilstone look wonderful and there’s no need for any ugly chicken wire!

These finials and unique features were made bespoke to bring these historical features back to life. Once the pieces were replicated they were shipped and installed at Westport House. The restoration was completed and the house was transformed to its former glory.

The fine stone details were brought back to their former glory by Chilstone.

Chilstone has been making fine cast stone by hand for seventy years, with a wealth of experience working on prestigious restorations. This was a fascinating project in collaboration with Simonstown Architectural. It is wonderful to see this Irish treasure retain its historical features to be enjoyed by visitors for years to come.

The fine stone details were crafted by hand by Chilstone from the damaged original features.

Experienced in Restorations

At Chilstone, we have restored many stately homes and iconic buildings over our seventy years in business, from Kew Gardens to Hever Castle and Kensington Palace Gardens.

The urns that adorn the Temperate House at Kew Gardens were replicated and handmade by Chilstone.

From garden ornaments, to balustrades, architectural stone and period features, our experienced team can offer cost effective solutions for your heritage or restoration projects. Contact our team to see how we can help. We have a number of case studies to browse and we make bespoke stonework on request. You can visit us for advice or to see some examples of our work.

Chilstone supplied Kensington Palace planters made to order as part of a restoration resign for the Sunken Garden.