Ireland’s answer to the Taj Mahal sits right here in Kilkenny

Regarded as one of Ireland's most beautiful private homes, Castletown Cox, located close to Piltown in South Kilkenny, sits on over 500 acres of land.

It is arguably the most expensive, beautiful and elegant residence in Ireland and is without doubt the best hidden heritage gem in Kilkenny City or county.

Yet outside of the area around Piltown and Owning, the general public often have never heard of it.

To appreciate this special place, imagine, Downtown Abbey from the hit BBC television series, and think of somewhere even posher.

It is really Ireland’s answer to the Taj Mahal and that is not an exaggeration. The gardens on their own are simply breathtaking and the house, it just opulence personified.

Architecturally, it is stunning and is the work of a Sardinian born canal engineer, who really came up with a design which has stood the test of time.

You elicit a gasp once you turn the corner after sneaking in the main entrance and see it for the first time, It is hard to get your head around it - the sheer scale of the complex symmetry of the entire structure is awesome.
 
Built in the baroque style and three stories high, it has pillars, huge windows and two wings which are placed at right angles to the main house, barely touching it. At the end of the wings are octagonal slated domes..

One of the most eye catching pieces is the gardens front with its blue Kilkenny limestone and dressed sandstone. Much of the plaster work inside was by Waterford’s Patrick Osborne and includes motifs of cherubs, fruit and flowers.

Built by Sardinian architect, Daviso De Arcort, (a canal builder) for Michael Cox, the then Archbishop of Cashel (who also built the Cashel Palace hotel in the centre of Cashel) it had the impact that Cox wanted, it wowed people and in the grounds, a wonderful dowager looking house with Italian strains to it, looks exquisite.

Castletown Cox was completed in 1775 and is said to be based on Villa La Rotunda, a Renaissance villa just outside Vicuña in northern Italy and on Buckingham House (not palace) in London.