The History of Burtown A family estate shaped by more than three centuries of life, work and change.

The Early Years

Burtown House was built in the early eighteenth century for Robert Power and appears on early maps as Power’s Grove.

The house lies close to Ballitore, one of Ireland’s most important historic Quaker settlements, and over subsequent generations Burtown became closely connected with several Quaker families in the area.

The original house was relatively modest and only one room deep. Over successive generations it was enlarged and altered, with wings, a bow-fronted dining room, drawing room, kitchen and staircase gradually added.

Rather than being the work of a single architectural moment, the house evolved with the generations who lived here — something that remains very much part of its character today.

A Working Family Estate

For much of its history, Burtown was first and foremost a working farm.

The wider family estate once extended to around 2,000 acres, and agriculture shaped both the landscape and the lives of the families who lived here.

Fields, farmyards, stable buildings, orchards and the walled kitchen garden all formed part of the working life of Burtown. Many remain in use today, although their purpose has evolved.

The Stable Yard is now home to guests. Old agricultural buildings have found new lives. The walled kitchen garden, which has been cultivated for more than 150 years, continues to produce fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers for the kitchens and tables at Burtown.

The estate changes, but the connection between land and everyday life remains.

Generations of Gardeners

The gardens surrounding Burtown House have evolved in much the same way as the house itself — gradually, and through the hands of successive generations.

Isabel Shackleton, who married into the family at Burtown, was responsible for much of the original layout of the gardens as we know them today.

Later, the botanical artist Wendy Walsh brought many rare and unusual plants from her garden in Lusk to Burtown. Some became subjects for her botanical paintings and continue to grow here today.

In more recent generations, Lesley Fennell and James Fennell enlarged and reclaimed areas of the gardens, restoring the flower gardens, vegetable garden and woodland garden while allowing Burtown to continue evolving rather than recreating a particular historical period.

Discover the Gardens

Art at Burtown

Art and creativity have long been part of life at Burtown.

Botanical artists, painters and photographers within the family have repeatedly found inspiration in the gardens and surrounding landscape, while paintings, drawings, photographs and sculpture have accumulated throughout the house and estate over generations.

Today, art continues to sit naturally alongside gardening, food, interiors and the landscape rather than existing separately from them.

Discover Art at Burtown

The Shackleton Connection

Burtown’s history is closely intertwined with the wider Shackleton family, whose roots in this part of County Kildare stretch back generations.

The connection includes the botanical artist Lydia Shackleton and Isabel Shackleton, who married into the family at Burtown and played an important role in shaping the gardens.

Isabel was a first cousin of the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, creating a direct family connection between Burtown and one of the most remarkable figures of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

The story extends beyond Burtown into nearby Ballitore and the wider Quaker community from which the families emerged.

Discover Ernest Shackleton & the Burtown Connection

A House That Remained a Home

Perhaps the most important thing about Burtown is that it never stopped being lived in.

The house was not preserved as a museum or frozen at a particular moment. Furniture moved, rooms changed, gardens grew and contracted, children were born, buildings found new purposes and each generation adapted Burtown to suit its own life.

That continuity is part of what gives the estate its character today.

Old and new sit alongside one another because they have accumulated naturally over time.

Burtown Today

More than three centuries after the house was built, Burtown remains a living family estate.

The gardens are still gardened. The land is still worked. Produce travels from the kitchen garden to the kitchens. Old buildings continue to find new purposes, while art, food, hospitality and landscape have become part of the estate’s next chapter.

Burtown’s history is important to us not because we wish to recreate the past, but because it provides the foundations for what comes next.