Kilfane Glen and Waterfall

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That this venue was resorted to by many visitors in the early years of the 19th century is evidenced also by a letter by Louisa Beaufort in 1819.

The survival of a series of sketches and watercolours of the principal features in this landscape, i.e., the cottage, the waterfall and surrounding woodlands, gives a clear view of the place as it existed in 1805. From the above description, it is clear that the planting was completely in keeping with the wooded setting and was contrived to heighten the natural rustic atmosphere. The introduced shrubs, apart from those mentioned, were large scale plantings of prunus laurescerus and the then highly fashionable and newly available rhododendron ponticum. The subsequent (post 1830) spread of laurel and rhododendron and the consequent loss of light at ground level, eliminated most of the ancillary plantings. In a few areas, patches of woodland plants (bluebell, campanula, wood anemones and ferns) survived, indicating that they must have formed a most significant feature in the initial stages.

A contemporary and neighbouring undertaking, so similar as to suggest the hand of the same designer, was created in the Woodstock Demesne, seat of the Tighe family in Co. Kilkenny. However, neither there nor at Belview in Co. Wicklow (where another rustic cottage orne is known to have existed) was the intense sense of drama, seclusion and enclosure in the highly charged and remarkably intimate setting achieved.

The death of the creators of the place and indeed the changing fashions in Ireland at the time caused the abandonment of the glen and fortunes of this fragile creation quickly waned. In a short time, the cottage fell into ruin, paths were lost under scrub, the waterfall dried up as the feeder canal was breached and broken and the cave collapsed.

Fortunately, the siting at the edge of the demesne or park, well away from subsequent 19th and early 20th century domestic and agricultural activities, ensured that the dilapidated site was not meddled nor interfered with, so that now this very compact and most articulate and Romantic concept, - the very finest in the country, - is being rescued and conserved in an absolutely strict and truthful manner. Return

Wednesday Mr. B, Pa Ma and I in the inside jaunting car and Richard on horseback all went to Kilfayne, Mr. Power's, a very pretty place, ...we were to walk to a cottage on the mountain side, having no notion of the length of the way, my father set out, he got on beautifully for some time, but his tormenting heart made him pause; we ladies went on and Richard stayed with my father and was most kind and good natured and patient, talking and beguiling the way ...All the beginning of the walk very ugly, latter part very pretty by a stream ...rushing over large beds of rocks, the beeches high and well planted and the ground blue with harebells the cottage is prettyish, somewhat of a has-been but stands in a tiny lawn near the stream and opposite to a cataract which rushes down the opposite rock -- ...Mr. Butler and I scrambled up and down every rock and bank and had much amusement..."

Louisa Beaufort to Sophy Edgeworth, 1819