Who Was Richard Castle?
Richard Castle — also spelled Cassels, and the name is the same architect — was born in 1690 in Kassel, Germany, into a family of French Huguenot descent with architects in its line. He trained and worked in the orbit of the Palladian revival that Lord Burlington was driving in London, and came to Ireland in 1728 at the invitation of Sir Gustavus Hume, to design a house on the shores of Lough Erne in County Fermanagh.
He never left. From the early 1730s until his death in 1751, Castle was the pre-eminent country-house architect in Ireland — the man the aristocracy commissioned when they wanted a serious Palladian house. Working alongside (and after) Edward Lovett Pearce, he did more than anyone to establish the classical, symmetrical, Italian-derived style that defines the Irish Georgian country house.
Belvedere: A Small Jewel in a Big Catalogue
Around 1740, Robert Rochfort — later the Earl of Belvedere, and the man history remembers as the "Wicked Earl" — commissioned Castle to design a villa on the shore of Lough Ennell. Belvedere is not one of Castle's vast mansions; it's a compact, beautifully proportioned lakeside villa, designed for the view and for entertaining rather than for sheer scale. That restraint is part of why it works so well: every room was placed to command the lake. You can read the full story of the house and the family in our history of Belvedere — including the spite that produced the Jealous Wall.
The Richard Castle Heritage Trail
If Belvedere gives you a taste for Castle's work, you can follow it across Ireland. Several of his greatest houses are open to visitors. Here are the ones to build a heritage trail around:
Belvedere House
Mullingar, Co. Westmeath · c.1740The lakeside villa for Robert Rochfort, overlooking Lough Ennell. Castle's gift for siting a house in its landscape, at intimate scale. Open as Belvedere House, Gardens & Park. Plan your visit →
Powerscourt
Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow · 1730–41Castle rebuilt a 13th-century castle into one of the grandest houses in Ireland, set above the celebrated Powerscourt gardens with the Wicklow mountains behind. One of the country's most visited estates.
Westport House
Westport, Co. Mayo · 1731–40A grand house on the edge of Clew Bay, begun by Castle for the Browne family. A landmark of the west of Ireland, open to visitors with grounds and attractions.
Russborough House
Blessington, Co. Wicklow · commissioned 1741Commissioned by Joseph Leeson (later Earl of Milltown), Russborough is the quintessential Irish Palladian house — long, low and beautifully balanced. Begun by Castle and completed after his death; open to visitors.
Carton House
Maynooth, Co. Kildare · 1730sCastle remodelled Carton for the Earls of Kildare into one of Ireland's foremost Palladian demesnes. Now a hotel and golf resort, with the historic house and parkland at its heart.
Leinster House
Kildare Street, Dublin · 1745–51The grandest town house Castle built, for the Earl of Kildare — and since the 1920s the seat of Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament. Visible from Kildare Street and open for pre-booked tours.
How to Recognise a Richard Castle House
Castle's houses share a Palladian vocabulary worth knowing before you visit:
- Symmetry and proportion — a central block with balanced wings, organised around classical mathematical ratios rather than picturesque irregularity.
- A piano nobile — the principal reception rooms raised onto the first floor above a service ground floor, for the best light and views.
- Restrained classical detail — pediments, columns and string courses used with discipline; the impact comes from proportion, not ornament.
- Houses sited for landscape — Castle placed buildings to command a view, as Belvedere commands Lough Ennell.
He's often described as a talented consolidator rather than a radical innovator — the architect who took the Palladian idea and made it the established language of the Irish country house. Standing in front of Belvedere, that's exactly what you're looking at.
Start the trail at Belvedere
See Castle's lakeside villa, the largest folly in Ireland and the Lough Ennell views the whole house was designed around.
Plan Your Visit →Plan Your Visit to Belvedere
Belvedere House is on the R392, about 5 km south of Mullingar, roughly 90 minutes from Dublin via the N4/M4. Free parking on-site. See the visitor information page for hours and admission, the history of the house for the full Rochfort story, and the things to do guide to pair Belvedere with other Westmeath heritage.