Duckett's Grove

Duckett's Grove is a ruined nineteenth century great house and former estate in the townland of Rainstown, County Carlow, Ireland, about ten kilometers from Carlow town and nine kilometers from Tullow. A Georgian house had stood on the site from around 1745, but from the mid-1820s John Dawson Duckett had it remodeled in castellated Gothic Revival style by the English architect Thomas Cobden, adding the towers and turrets that give the house its castle-like appearance; William Duckett, who died in 1908, was the last male heir of the family. The house's interior was destroyed by fire on April 20, 1933, leaving it a shell that is now inaccessible. Carlow County Council acquired the property in 2005 and restored the walled gardens, which reopened as a free public park in September 2007, while the ruined house itself stands within the grounds.