30,000sqft of period property, 115 acres of estate, Stables, Greenhouses, Gatehouse and a Railway Station. Woodlawn is the largest restoration project with the biggest potential on the island of Ireland
The House
Woodlawn House, about 19 km (12 mi) north-west of Ballinasloe, is the former seat of the Trench family, see Baron Ashtown. This large Italianate building was built in the late 18th Century by Frederic Trench, 1st Baron Ashtown and extended and remodelled in the mid-19th Century, following the marriage of Frederic Mason Trench, 2nd Baron Ashtown to his second wife, Elizabeth Oliver Gascoigne of Castle Oliver, Limerick.
The Estate
Lord Ashtown’s building programme included many other fine buildings of architectural beauty that still stand today including a Protestant Church, Gamekeepers Lodge, a family Mausoleum, a Ice House, artisan cottages and above all Woodlawn House itself. In fact over 150 years later, there are few other buildings of note in the area. The railway was diverted through the estate so that Woodlawn could have it’s own station.
The Family
The Trench family at Woodlawn were one of a number of Trench families who came to prominence in county Galway in the 17th century. They were all descended from Frederick Trench who came to Ireland early in the 1600s. Much of the Woodlawn estate was originally Martin and Barnewall lands which were purchased by the Trenches in the early eighteenth century. Lord Ashtown is recorded as a non-resident proprietor in 1824.
