Kevin V Mulligan assesses the architectural vision of Richard Castle together with the contributions of his successors at Westport House
There is a spellbinding quality to the landscape of Clew Bay as it is slowly unveiled on approaches to Westport from the east. Most visitors to the town in the 19th century were struck by the improving qualities of the scenery after traversing the monotonous boggy tracts of the midlands. Amongst those most impressed was William Thackeray, whose arrival here during his four-month Irish tour in 1842, published in The Irish Sketchbook, elicited a rapturous description of it as ‘the finest of the many beautiful views in the world.’ Here the numerous beauty of the Reek dominates on the south side of the bay
