The Farm at Lisnavagh

The Bunburys started farming at Lisnavagh in 1676 when they rented the land from the Earl of Arran (a brother of the Earl of Ormonde). In 1696, they erected a farmhouse and farm buildings. In February 1708, Benjamin Bunbury purchased the title to Lisnavagh for his son William Bunbury.

Although there were plans to build a new house at Lisnavagh in 1778, it was not until 1847 that work began to replace the existing farmhouse & farm buildings. The new house that was built is Lisnavagh House as it stands today, although it was originally much larger.

The Farmyard

The brand new set of cut stone granite & slate farm buildings was constructed about 1 km south east of the “new house” and was probably completed during the 1850s.

An article published in 1897 in Bailly’s Magazine of Sports & Pastimes mentions: "...the magnificent farm buildings at Lisnavagh in stone, on four sides of a square, with water in a huge circular basin in the middle, and which are probably the finest in Leinster. They stand on what the late Mr. William Johnson of Prumplestown, the agent, used to remember as a bog, for he had shot snipe on it when a young man."

As a model farmyard, the buildings served the farm extremely well for many years and were constantly being adapted to suit more and more modern farming methods, although the basic structure is more-or-less exactly as they were built over 150 years ago.