From Rebellion to Renewal

A House Shaped by History

Originally owned by Thomas Hugo, a prominent Protestant landlord infamous for his anti-Irish leanings, the original main house was razed during the 1798 Rebellion and a collection of 2-story farm houses were erected in its place.

Thomas Johnston Barton bought the property in 1838 with his wife, Frances Erskine, the granddaughter of Thomas Erskine, 1st Lord Erskine, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and barrister who famously defended Thomas Paine's ‘The Rights of Man’.

Charles William Barton later extended the main house to accommodate his children and those of his sister and brother-in-law who had died of TB. Thus, it became the home of Robert Erskine Childers and Robert Childers Barton, both later becoming delegates to England during negotiations for the Anglo-Irish Treaty.

Robert Childers Barton farmed the property benevolently, building in features such as the famous water gardens and the county’s first flushable lavatories.

Lives That Shaped a Nation

Espionage, Revolution, Legacy

Robert Erskine Childers, famous for his part in the Howth Gunrunning, in which he smuggled arms into Ireland aboard his yacht, ‘The Asgard’, authored ‘The Riddle of the Sands’ at Gendalough House, an endeavour considered by many as being the world’s first spy novel.

In 1922, Robert Erskine Childers was executed by the Irish Free State Army for the possession of a sidearm gifted to him by General Michael Collins.

Robert Erskine Childers’ son, Erskine Hamilton Childers, grew up at Glendalough House, served over 30 years as a TD in the Dail before becoming the 4th President of Ireland.

Before his death in 1975, Robert Childers Barton, the last surviving signatory of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, made “Glan”, as the property was affectionately known, over to Robert Alden “Bobby” Childers, Robert Erskine Childers's son and younger brother of Erskine Hamilton Childers.

A New Chapter at Glendalough House

In 1986, Katrina Johnson, sole grandchild of the English industrialist, Willie Emmott, famed for building the global car parts manufacturing giant Automotive Products, acquired the property as a private country sporting lodge for entertaining her family and business associates.

Today, Katrina, her elder son, Kazimierz “Kaz” Balinski-Jundzill and his wife, the former supermodel Sophie Anderton, live at Glan. It is their combined development of Sophie’s vision for Glendalough House that brings Anam Kara Wellness and further tourism and entertainment related products to the Wicklow Mountains.

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