WHERE ARE WE AT?

After at least 500 years of private history, Killyon Manor has been open for just fifteen years - these days we concentrate mostly on nature-based activities and events - wild lore, traditional land crafts, nature-related arts and quirky ceremonials in the woods – a sweet coming-together of people in this magical part of Meath. Around us, on the land, with the help of National Parks of Ireland, we’ve let Nature take the lead more and more, and these sixty acres today are fizzing with native wildlife – birds, bumblebees, butterflies, buttercups and beyond..

Whatever it is, we’re bringing you all closer: Nature helping people, People helping Nature. Join us while we find new meaning for the Irish Big House.

SPACE FOR NATURE

Increasingly, we've found the land is best left to its own devices here,  and with Nature firmly in charge, the Killyon Manor estate is wilding itself and being shaped by these natural processes into a  sanctuary for our violently threatened native flora and fauna. 

While others around us use the wonderfully fertile Meath land for raising sheep and cattle, growing crops and vegetables, we cultivate Nature, becoming a refuge for the pollinators, wild plants and animal life that have a huge part to play in sustaining and both human, agricultural and natural systems on our Earth.

Have a look around the estate to see what's being created here for all of us to discover. 

then, and now

There’s over a thousand years of tales that can be told of the area now defined by Killyon Manor. Pagans, Celts, colonisers, even  Vikings have left their traces on this land. From jilted brides, mad priests and soldier ghosts, hidden treasure and secret tunnels, their history is buried in the earth, written in the trees, hidden in scattered ruins – and passed down still by word of mouth by people whose families have known this place for centuries.  

The manor house, mostly built in Georgian times, is the most visible symbol of the past, with its quirky, beautiful architecture and spaces, and the people who now come within these walls represent the writing of a new era  - a more open age, acted out in a  Big House for the way we live now. 

our family

The Purcell family are relative newcomers to the Manor – a mere thirty years. When Roland, Zoe and the kids arrived to take the reins ten years ago, it took them quite a while to get their heads around it. Their comfort zone was the Tanzanian wilderness. More used to tents and elephants than granite and sheep, they looked outwards for support and inspiration, and found it in droves. 

Now a much bigger family is at home here… naturalists, musicians, chefs, artists, yogis – a loosely formed community of idealists, oddballs and entertainers, united by a love of the land and recognition of what a special spot this is. These places are defined, ultimately, by their people, so if something here inspires you too, please join in through this website.