Richard Cassels

Cassels' first solo commission was The Printing House of Trinity College, designed to resemble a temple complete with a doric portico.

But as Cassels' work matured he tended to merely hint at a portico by placing semi-engaged columns supporting a pediment as the focal point of a facade.

Perhaps he felt the huge Italian porticos that provided shelter from the sun were not requisite for houses in the less clement Ireland.

The untimely death of Sir Edward Lovett Pearce, aged 34, in 1733, made Cassels Ireland's leading architect working in the sought-after Palladian style.

[4] He immediately assumed all of Pearce's commissions and thus began designing a series of lavish country houses.

Following the completion of the Houses of Parliament, there seemed to have been a rush by the aristocracy to build a series of new townhouses in the same style and Cassels was often the first choice for architect.

Walls were covered in stucco reliefs, ceilings medallions and motifs of plaster, segmental mouldings, and carvings, in an almost rococo style peculiar to Ireland.

[5] (Dates often vary from one source to the other) Summerhill House was a vast Palladian mansion in County Meath originally designed by Pearce, who died before the project was commenced.

This perfect small doric temple, was completed in 1734 and is thought to be Cassels' first major solo work.

The great garden facade is terminated by Venetian windows at each end, while in the centre, a single-storey portico is so unostentatious as to be almost a porch.

Cassels designed this Dublin townhouse for Marcus Beresford, Earl of Tyrone, in Marlborough Street between 1740 and 1745.

The central Venetian window above the principal entrance is the sole example of decoration or flamboyance in this dramatically severe facade.

The principal feature of the interiors are the rococo plaster-work and the ceilings, again by the master stuccoists Paul and Philip Lanfrachini; and ornate carved marble fireplaces, all contrasting with the austerity of the exterior.

On a commanding hilltop position, Cassels deviated slightly from his usual sombre style, to give the house something of what John Vanbrugh would have called the 'castle air' – a severe Palladian facade terminated by two circular domed towers.

In the 1830s, the house was the venue for a number of conferences on unfulfilled Bible prophecies, which were attended by men such as John Nelson Darby and Edward Irving.

Cassels work includes a pigeon house (which is almost identical to the Killiney Hill obelisk), walled gardens, a farmyard, and a grotto.