Seafield House. Sligo.

On a sunny afternoon in May I paid a visit to Seafield House in County Sligo.  I didn't happen upon the house by chance, I had been trying to find it for a few years.  I didn't realise that I was driving past it nearly every week, so in the end finding it seemed almost easy. 

 

Seafield House.  Co. Sligo.

Seafield House and Knocknarea. 


 Seafield House or Lisheen House is well known.  Built in 1798 for the Phibbs family; it is rumoured to be haunted by a poltergeist.  The paranormal activity in the house was thought to be linked to some artifacts from the Middle East that were kept 
in a museum room in the house.

Seafield House before dereliction.  Image courtesy of landedestates.nuigalway.ie

Nowadays Seafield House is a ruined shell.  All that remains are the external walls.  Trees and vines are taking over the husk of the house in a really beautiful way.   

Even the graffiti around the inside of the house has it's own beauty.

Vines

Empty Shell

Looking up

Interior with Graffiti

I didn't visit Seafield in search of ghosts and I didn't find any.  Lots has been written about the house and the 

 paranormal activity that is reported to inhabit it.  

My experience on both  visits to the house was peaceful. I  visited with a friend and alone with my dog and I was happy enough whiling away the hours taking photographs.  

The only visitation I experienced was from a lady from Limerick who came to the house in search of paranormal activity.  We both agreed that Seafield House did not seem creepy in the slightest. 

  

Inside Seafield House

Nature takes over

The only thing that puzzles me is how the house has fallen apart so quickly in the 80 years since being dismantled. It is strange that it is so decayed.  I wonder if that is because it is built from brick and not stone.

For more information on Seafield House and to experience an amazing 360 degree view of the interior - visit

Tarquin Blake's abandonedireland.com/Seafield

James Flanagan's House

Taking photographs of abandoned spaces is a practice that comes with a moral dilemma.  On one hand it is trespassing on private space, possessions and memories.  On the other hand perhaps it is important to show these spaces because they are beautiful and because they are overlooked and ignored.   I feel that abandoned spaces need to be valued as they once were; their stories need to be told. 

James Flanagan's House

Documenting private spaces comes with a sense of responsibility and respect for dwellings and their past inhabitants. I was recently allowed access to photograph the former home of a old man who has since passed on.  

I will call him James Flanagan, 

though this is not his real name. 

 

James Flanagan's Chair

James Flanagan always sat in this chair next to the range in the back room.  He lived alone for many years.  

The other rooms in his cottage are preserved as 'best rooms' or 'parlours' and were little used.

Kept for Best

Mary

 

Places like these are  time capsules. They are spaces from the past that sit firmly in the present, if we care to look.  

A fascinating aspect of engaging with these spaces is that it can make you feel like you have travelled back in time.  This can evoke all kinds of feelings of nostalgia and also sadness for beautiful places that really are museums of a kind.  

Morphy Richards Radio

Blessing Plate

It is strange to experience a place without human existence.  Without human existence but with memories stored in the objects left behind.  

Though James Flanagan's house now lies empty it is still used to store fertiliser and farm equipment and sits at the heart of a working farm. 

 

Rooms

Paperwork and Possessions

 Abandonment of built spaces is all around and probably always will be.  Dereliction melts into the streets of our cities, towns and countryside, with spaces taken for granted and largely unvalued.  

Soon the vernacular buildings of the past and near past will disappear.   The 3 room roadside cottage is fast rotting into the ground to be replaced by the detached megalithic family home.  Small homes of the past are no longer practical for families of today, but I feel that it is important to 

preserve them in some way.

A photograph is an important social document; 

a snapshot in time.   

A Blessing

Gleniff Horseshoe.

A drive around Gleniff Horseshoe in Sligo reveals many old ruins.  Whilst nobody lives there now, people used to mine the mountain and many families used to live around the area.  Nowadays the old cottages and school house are used as sheep shearing pens.

 

 

 

 

 

Creepy House.

Creepy House. This derelict cottage is a teenage drinking spot in Maugherow, Sligo. It is not the chairs, used aerosols and wierd Slipknot inspired graffiti that unnerved me here, but the strange flashing lights I saw through the window as i approached the house. Nobody was inside. I have visited hundreds of derelict spaces, I suppose it is bound to happen that one time I will see something that I can't explain.

 

 

 

 

 

A Beautiful Cottage in Decay

A beautiful cottage, never vandalised, just decaying.  There are some wonderful things from past times inside.