Villierstown

Villierstown is one of the estate villages in Ireland that was built in the mid-18th century by John Fitzgerald Villiers, 5^th Viscount and 1st Earl Grandison to house the weavers and other personnel needed for his new linen industry. The village was initially populated with linen-weavers, some of whom were from Lurgan in Co.Armagh. There were to be twenty-four houses in all, each with a garden, and also a school house for boys and girls as well as a church, a rectory, a court house, a police barracks and a quay on the river. All of these buildings are still in the village today, the church has been converted to a community hall, on its grounds is the Villiers-Stuart’s family burial vault where many of its ancestors are buried.

It is charming, peaceful place with the houses built on either side of a very wide street which had lodges and gates at either end and forms almost a processional way into the demesne of Dromana House, Lord Grandison’s residence.