For Heritage Week 2025, the Society is delighted to present an exhibition of photographs dating from 1916-1919 of the gardens and demesne of Ardee House, better known today as St Joseph’s Hospital in Ardee.

Ardee House had a long association with the Ruxton family, who sold it in 1915 to John St Clair MacMillan. The MacMillan family remained only four years before the property was sold again and soon after opened as the hospital.

This exhibition, hosted in the Ardee Library, features photographs from an album assembled by the MacMillan family while living in Ardee House. The collection provides fascinating glimpses of the gardens at their height and uncovers new details about the demesne and its use.

The exhibition will be formally launched on Saturday 16 August at 2.30pm with a talk by local historian Bryan Rogers. Bryan will provide a background to the history of the house and its grounds and discuss in detail the photographs and what can be learned from them. Weather permitting, the talk will be followed by a short walk to view some remains of the Ardee House garden.

The exhibition can also be viewed during normal Ardee Library hours throughout Heritage Week (Tuesday 19 August – Saturday 23 August) and also the following week from Tuesday 26 August to Friday 29 August. For Library hours, please see Ardee Library

We are very grateful to Caroline Ballantyne for making this wonderful album available and to the Ardee Library for kindly hosting the exhibition.

Heritage Week launch listing: www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings/photographic-exhibition-launch-a-lost-ardee-landscape

Heritage Week exhibition listing: www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings/photographic-exhibition-a-lost-ardee-landscape

Ardee Library location and directions