History
Built 1727. In our care since 1991.
A handsome early Georgian house, a corbelled rococo ceiling, and a Louth County Council listing that calls it ‘finely-balanced’.
At a glance
Four families, three centuries, one Georgian house.
Ghan House is one of the oldest private houses of its type still standing in Ireland — and one of the most quietly grand. The bones are the original 1727 build; what’s inside is most of what was there in 1727, just lovingly looked after.
Carlingford itself is older still — the Vikings, then the Normans, then the medieval town. Ghan House sits a tree length from those medieval streets, in three acres of walled gardens with eight acres of stables and horse fields beyond.
1727
William Stannus built it. Two Italian plasterers finished it.
William Stannus put the house up in 1727 — a fine example of early Georgian architecture, with the classical proportions and large amount of original fabric that Louth County Council later picked out in its listing.
The Drawing Room ceiling is the showstopper: a corbelled rococo, said to be more ornate than the house otherwise warrants, decorated by two Italian plasterers who happened to be travelling Ireland at the time of construction. Lucky timing — and the ceiling has been there ever since.
1991 — restoration
The Carrolls bought it. A perilous state, lovingly restored.
By the time John and Joyce Carroll bought Ghan House in 1991, it had passed through roughly four families and many years of neglect. The fireplaces, architraves, doorways, ceilings and walls all needed work. Four years later, in 1995, the house opened as a country house hotel.
Today the house is as close to the original as it can be — the kind of restoration where most of the work happened twenty-five years ago and the rest is keeping it that way. The next family, eventually, will inherit a house in better shape than it’s been in for a century.
What guests say
“Finely-balanced elegant classical proportions — a handsome representative of architectural developments during the Georgian era. It retains a large amount of original and early fabric, including handsome boundary walls, corner tower and carriage arch.”
– Louth County Council, listing
Come and see
The Drawing Room is still in service.
Stay in one of the eleven bedrooms, dine in the Rococo-ceilinged Drawing Room, or take the whole house on exclusive use. The ceiling’s not going anywhere.