Strokestown Park | Gazebo Tower
‘Listen in’ on the experiences of characters whose lives were linked with the Gazebo Tower in time’s past. View evocative photographs revealing the changing fortunes of the walled garden and tower. And whilst you’re there, soak up the simple architectural elegance of the 18th century tower interior with its beautifully framed views of garden and parkland.
Rising above the walled garden since the mid-18th century, the Gazebo Tower has long been a distinctive feature of the Strokestown Park landscape. Built in the 1700s, this elegant stone structure has witnessed generations of change, but what was its original purpose, and how has its role evolved over time?
The Gazebo Tower exhibition explores these questions and shares the stories connected to this intriguing building. The intention of this site-specific project is that visitors can discover stories associated with the building and wider demesne while enjoying views over the parkland.
For visitors who are unable to access the tower itself, this page offers an introduction to its history and significance. Inside the exhibition, the voices of residents, landlords, and workers being bring the tower and garden to life, revealing how closely their lives were intertwined with this place. Their experience reflect wider themes of social change, land use and estate life across the centuries.
Historic photographs chart the changing landscape over time. Together, these images and stories help us better understand how the landscape we today was shaped by those who lived and worked here.
The tower’s simple 18th-century interior, with its stone walls and carefully framed views, reminds us that this was a space designed for looking outward, for contemplating the ordered garden and wider estate beyond.
We are proud to share this new exhibition and the research behind it, made possible with the valued support of the Regional Museums Exhibition Grant Scheme from the Department of Communications, Culture & Sport, and Westward Holdings.
Whether experience in person or explored here online, the Gazebo Tower invites you to discover a new perspective on the estate’s past. On the surface of a large round table, images reflecting the 3 stories sit side by side with actual and replica tools and equipment used by the people as they tell their story. Around the edge of the table runs a brief history of the Walled Gardens and the Pakenham-Mahon family members who developed the garden over the centuries. On the table sits the manually operated amplifier. The visitor turns the handle and listens in to conversations about Georgian employment conditions, Victorian leisure culture, and mid-20th century rural life on the estate, through the voices of the land steward, Grace and Henrietta Mahon, and John Caldwell.
Discover the stories associated with the building and wider demesne below.
Click below to listen to Steward:
The land steward dealing with a labourer who turns up late to work – based on a document which outlines the steward’s role, written by Lord Hartland of Strokestown in 1822. This document is stored in the archives at Strokestown.
Click below to listen to: Grace & May
An imagined conversation between Henrietta Mahon and her daughter Grace Catherine, taking place during the summer of 1847, before Grace’s marriage to Henry Sanford Pakenham and the assassination of her father Majon Denis Mahon the later that year.
Click below to listen to: James Caldwell
John Caldwell, the former house carpenter who lived in the gazebo building in the 1930/ 40s with his wife and 2 young children, talks about the work he does while employed on the estate.