Stackpole Court

Description

Cellars of now demolished Stakepole Court may be part of former tower house.

The present mansion is largely reared upon the undercroft of an earlier house, and has preserved an example of ribbed barrel-vaulting similar to that in Monkton Old Hall (RCAHMW, 1925)

Before it yielded to the present noble edifice, had partly a castellated form, though it had been for a century before, by every addition and alteration it experienced, gradually losing its ancient and original baronial character, and moulding itself to the fashion of the times. However, there can be no doubt of its retaining much of its castle strength and massiveness at the time of the civil wars, as it was fortified and garrisoned for the King; for in the account given by the Parliament forces of the siege, they say: 'The walls were so strong that the ordnance did but little execution'; it surrendered on quarter, and sixty soldiers completely armed were found in the house. The mansion now occupying the site, of wrought lime-stone, was built by the grandfather of the present noble possessor, who was son of Sir Alexander Campbell, of Cawdor Castle in Scotland, the first of the name who settled here, by marrying Miss Lort, the sole heiress of this great property. (Fenton, 1811 quoted in RCAHMW, 1925)

Stackpole Court was situated 500m to the west of Stackpole village (the other side of the lake), off a minor road running towards Merrion. Stackpole, which was the seat of the Campbell family (Lords of Cawdor in Scotland), was a large mansion built in 1735-6, and enlarged in the 19th century. It was built upon the undercroft of a much earlier house the original hall of which, with a groined and vaulted roof, was later used as a cellar. The Stackpoles had owned the estate since the early 12th century and the old castellated house may date from the 13th century or before. There are references to a house here owned by the Stackpools by Gerald of Wales in 1188. From the mid-16th century the estate was owned by the Lort family, and later passed to the Campbells by marriage in the early 18th century. The mansion was demolished in April 1963, after Cawdor had taken out the best internal features and moved them to a new house he had built on the Estate the previous year. (Coflein)