Woodbrook House, Wexford historic country house accommodation in an a heritage inn in Enniscorthy,Ireland

Woodbrook House
Beneath The Blackstairs Mountains and Mount Leinster,
at the centre of Carlow, Kilkenny, New Ross, Waterford & Wexford
Giles & Alexandra FitzHerbert
KILLANNE, ENNISCORTHY, CO WEXFORD
TEL (054) 55114 FAX (054)55671
B & B from €60 .00 per person sharing

Splendid, spacious & impressive Georgian house in rolling organic parkland, with cattle grazing peacefully in tree studded meadows, picturesquely set under the Blackstairs Mountains. It has a spectacular spiral flying staircase & a magnificent drawing room. One of the most impressive houses in Wexford.

A large walled garden produces vegetables for the house (the asparagus in the spring are especially prolific, as are the tomatoes in the summer). Lovely walks, challenging grass tennis court and good 18 hole golf course 8 miles away. Lots of books to read whilst curled up in front of the fire. Rosslare is an easy drive and from Enniscorthy there are regular trains to Dublin.
During the summer the Opera a la Carte Company puts on an inspiring weekend of country house opera.

Giles and Alexandra FitzHerbert and their four children have lived at Woodbrook since 1998, seeking to restore it to its pre-1914 glory and adding bathrooms and central heating where needed. He used to be an ambassador in South America & she is an Anglo-Italian-Irish-Chilean. They are both, therefore, well accustomed to entertaining guests from different parts of the world, which they do with style and flair.

A pre-1914 visitor from England writing in 1920 remembered Woodbrook as '...a large, square house-very comfortable, very solid, very unpretentious - it has an undulating park covered with fine old trees and beside it rise up the mountains as if in protection. There are beautiful woods there, full of huge beech trees and in some places near the river groves of silver birch. There are masses of. rhododendrons everywhere and a little later the ground is covered with bluebells. A little river runs through the woods gurgling over the stones you can hear its music sounding all down the valley.'

First built in the 1770s by the Jacob family, Woodbrook was substantially reconstructed by the Blacker family, who remained there till the 1980s.

4 large double rooms (everything here is on a generous scale), 3 en-suite, 1 with private bath.

B&B: €60 - €75

Single supplement: €15

Children welcome (no charge if under 10).

Open: May to September& for the Wexford Opera Festival in October

Credit Cards: Visa and Mastercard

Dinner €35 8pm, book by lunch time. Good wine list.

Directions: From Enniscorthy, R702 to Kiltealy, through village towards Rathnure for 1.7 miles, then left down small lane with tall beech trees. Entrance 300m on left down drive.

"Staying here has the intellectual quality of a house party from the novels of Waugh, the humour of Wodehouse, all overlaid with the spirit of Somerville & Ross's Irish R.M."

A member of Friendly Homes of Ireland.

Some Woodbrook Connections

CHARLES BLACKER VIGNOLES
(1793 - 1875) engineer

Son of an army ensign. As an infant he was taken prisoner by the French in the West Indies and to secure his release was gazetted as an ensign when eighteen months old and placed on half pay. Brought back to England, and entered Sandhurst Military Academy in 1810. After service in Europe and Canada he returned to England in 1816 and secured employment on the construction of railways and canals. He was Engineer-in-chief in 1832 of the first Irish railway, from Dublin to Dún Laoghaire, opened on 17 December 1834.

Giles and Alexandra FitzHerbert and their four children have lived at Woodbrook since 1998, seeking to restore it to its pre-1914 glory and adding bathrooms and central heating where needed. He used to be an ambassador in South America & she is an Anglo-Italian-Irish-Chilean. They are both, therefore, well accustomed to entertaining guests from different parts of the world, which they do with style and flair.	A pre-1914 visitor from England writing in 1920 remembered Woodbrook as '...a large, square house-very comfortable, very solid, very unpretentious - it has an undulating park covered with fine old trees and beside it rise up the mountains as if in protection. There are beautiful woods there, full of huge beech trees and in some places near the river groves of silver birch. There are masses of. rhododendrons everywhere and a little later the ground is covered with bluebells. A little river runs through the woods gurgling over the stones you can hear its music sounding all down the valley.'	First built in the 1770s by the Jacob family, Woodbrook was substantially reconstructed by the Blacker family, who remained there till the 1980s.
4 large double rooms (everything here is on a generous scale), 3 en-suite, 1 with private bath. B&B: €60 - €75 Single supplement: €15 Children welcome (no charge if under 10). Open: May to September& for the Wexford Opera Festival in October Credit Cards: Visa and Mastercard Dinner €35 8pm, book by lunch time. Good wine list.		Directions: From Enniscorthy, R702 to Kiltealy, through village towards Rathnure for 1.7 miles, then left down small lane with tall beech trees. Entrance 300m on left down drive.
	"Staying here has the intellectual quality of a house party from the novels of Waugh, the humour of Wodehouse, all overlaid with the spirit of Somerville & Ross's Irish R.M."