1850 – Middleton Park, Castletown Geoghegan, Co. Westmeath

Architect: George Papworth

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Middleton Park House was built by George Boyd-Rochfort in 1850 and designed by leading Irish architect George Papworth. Drawings of part of the interior were exhibited by Papworth during the Royal Hibernian Annual Exhibition of 1850. Amongst the finest features of the house are its under-floor heating system, stone bifurcated staircase leading to the Gallery Landing and three story high atrium lantern located in the Main Hall. It had its own gas-house where coal was converted to gas to fuel the house boilers, and a heating system buried in its walls, which circulated heated air. The house and estate remained in the Boyd-Rochfort family until the early 1960s when it was sold. Since then it has seen many owners, and it is now an hotel.