Hillcourt

Internal features include a hall richly ornamented with a monochrome painted frieze showing Arcadian landscapes, and a Greek key pattern.

The newel posts on the staircase are decorated with a monogram S, representing the Synnott family who lived in the house from 1869 to 1919.

WP Toone invited Gladys and Phyllis Palmer, two sisters then teaching science and English at Cheltenham Ladies College, to come to Ireland to take charge of academic and pastoral matters at the new school.

[2] [3] Once some necessary alterations had been made to the building to accommodate the incoming girls, Hillcourt opened in May 1919, with 32 pupils, learning, along with their core academic subjects, gymnastics, dancing, art, piano, French and German, and playing tennis, lacrosse, and hockey.

Eileen Palmer, who had been looking after Geoffrey as multiple sclerosis kept him increasingly confined to a wheelchair, died suddenly in 1949, and Gladys had to retire to take her place in their house in Sandycove.