The Argory

Acetylene Gas Lighting System

The Argory's most distinctive feature is its original acetylene gas lighting system, installed in 1906 and still operational today. The gas plant, housed in a purpose-built outbuilding, generates acetylene by dripping water onto calcium carbide. Gas is piped throughout the house to elegant brass fittings in every room, producing a warm, flickering light quite unlike electric illumination.

The National Trust maintains the system in working order, and guided tours often conclude with a demonstration of the gas lights being turned on, creating an atmospheric experience that transports visitors back to the Edwardian era. The Argory is believed to be one of the last houses in the British Isles still lit by its original gas system, making this a genuinely rare piece of domestic technological heritage.

The Drawing Room and Steinway Welté Piano

The elegant drawing room houses The Argory's most prized possession: a Steinway Welté reproducing piano dating from the early 20th century. This remarkable instrument can play itself using perforated paper rolls, reproducing the performances of famous pianists with extraordinary fidelity. Only a small number of these pianos survive worldwide, and The Argory's example remains in working condition.

The drawing room itself exemplifies comfortable Irish gentry taste, with fine plasterwork, family portraits, and furnishings accumulated over generations. The room retains its original curtains, carpet, and arrangement, giving the authentic impression of a family room that has been continuously used rather than curated for display.

Visitors on guided tours may hear the Welté piano demonstrated, its ghostly self-playing mechanism a captivating blend of Victorian ingenuity and musical artistry.

The Barrel-Vaulted Staircase Hall

The Argory's entrance hall and cantilevered staircase form the architectural centrepiece of the house. A graceful barrel-vaulted ceiling spans the hall, creating a sense of spaciousness and grandeur that belies the house's otherwise modest scale. The staircase rises through the full height of the building, its stone steps cantilevered from the walls without visible support, demonstrating the structural confidence of the early 19th-century builders.

Family portraits line the staircase walls, creating a chronological gallery of the McGeough and McGeough-Bond families who inhabited the house for nearly two centuries. The hall's restrained Neoclassical decoration, with clean lines and geometric plasterwork, sets the tone for the rest of the house: elegant but not ostentatious, reflecting the taste of substantial but not extravagantly wealthy Irish landed gentry.

The Study and Gentleman's Library

The study preserves the private domain of the McGeough-Bond gentlemen, where estate business was conducted, correspondence written, and leisure hours spent reading and smoking. Original bookshelves line the walls, holding the family's personal library spanning literature, history, agriculture, and theology.

The desk retains writing implements, letter racks, and personal items that create an intimate portrait of daily domestic routines.

Estate maps, account books, and farming records reveal the practical responsibilities of managing a 320-acre property with tenant farmers and employees. The room's atmosphere is distinctly masculine in the Victorian tradition, with leather furnishings, dark wood panelling, and hunting prints reflecting the sporting interests of successive generations.

The study provides particularly valuable social history insight into the life of the minor Irish gentry class that occupied a distinctive position between the great aristocratic families and the ordinary population.