Permission has been granted for the reconstruction of a well-known house near Loughrea that was built in the middle of the 1700s. It involves major restoration works.

However, there was some considerable opposition to the part demolition of the protected structure known locally as Dalystown House at Kylebrack, Loughrea despite its poor state.

There were a total of 26 submissions and observations to the application on the grounds that it would relate to unauthorised works to the protected structure.

The property was built for the Daly family in the mid-18th century, but it later became the seat of Charles O’Farrell.

In the 1870s Charles O’Farrell was the owner of over 5,000 acres in County Galway and by 1906 he held over 500 acres of untenanted demesne and a mansion house at Dalystown.

The property was stripped of its fittings in the early 1960s and is now a ruin.

Crossbaun burial ground located nearby contains the mausoleum of Denis and Charlotte Bowes Daly.

A planning application has been lodged to Galway County Council to bring nearly three-century-old Dalyston House back to life.

The planning application was lodged by current owner Flan Frawley, seeking the reconstruction of Dalyston House, a designated protected structure at Dalystown Demesne in Kylebrack, Loughrea.

The application’s Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment reads it is believed the house was built around 1730 by the Daly family.

“The importance of the Daly family in the town of Galway is established in Hardiman’s history of Galway where he records that members of the Daly family were Mayors of the town for many years between 1762 and 1769, and almost every year from 1772 until 1819, the year Hardiman was writing his history.”

Originally a three-bay, three-storey over basement house, the basement of the house is the only substantial part of the building interior which survives, while almost nothing remains of the features of the upper floors of the building.

However, the ruins that remain “merit detailed examination” according to the Architectural Heritage Impact Assessment.

The report continues: “The spaces in the largely intact basement with their vaulted ceilings are quite beautiful. The skill of the craftspeople who made them was outstanding. The same can be said of the extant cut stonework, which, though scarce, provides adequate templates for the planned reconstruction.”

It then concludes: “If the proposed reconstruction is done in a sympathetic and careful way as outlined above, the works would be deemed in line with good conservation practice.”

Galway County Council granted planning permission for the development.

Pictured: Dalystown in ruins as it is today