Airfield Estate
{{Short description|Urban farm, gardens and house, Dundrum, Dublin, Ireland}}
{{use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
{{use Hiberno-English|date=February 2023}}
{{Infobox farm
| name = Airfield Estate
| image = Airfield Estate, Dundrum, Ireland - Entrance.jpg
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| map_name = Dublin
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| location = Overend Avenue, Dundrum
| state = Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown
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| country = Ireland
| coordinates = {{Coord|53.28864888465214|-6.234443296916462|format=dms|display=it}}
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| established = {{Circa|1830}} (Airfield House built)
1894 (Overend family arrive, establish dairy herd)
1974 (Airfield Trust)
| disestablished =
| owner = Dromartin Estates Company and Airfield Trust
| area = {{cvt|38|acre}}
| produce = milk, vegetables, meat
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| website = {{url|airfield.ie}}
}}
Airfield Estate is a agritourism site in Dublin, Ireland. Describing itself as "Dublin's only urban working farm and gardens," it incorporates Airfield House, an Anglo-Irish big house,{{Cite web|url=https://www.airfield.ie/heritage/|title=Heritage}} and welcomes visitors to learn about farming and the site's history. As of 2016, it had 75 employees and 280,000 annual visitors.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/irish-farm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601203522/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/irish-farm|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 June 2022|title=Cute Chicken = Meat: Irish Farm Teaches Reality to Urbanites|date=September 5, 2016|website=Culture}}
History
The estate is located in the townland of Drummartin ({{Langx|ga|Droim Máirtín}}, "Martin's ridge.").{{Cite web|url=https://www.logainm.ie/en/1412123|title=Droim Máirtín/Drummartin|website=logainm.ie}} The house was built in circa 1830 by Thomas Mackey Scully,{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eBQ2AQAAMAAJ&dq=airfield+scully+dublin&pg=PA611|title=Dublin Almanac and General Register of Ireland|date=June 1, 1847|publisher=Pettigrew & Oulton.|via=Google Books}} of a wealthy Anglo-Irish family from Naas, and named Bess Mount; in 1836 it became Airfield. Scully was a barrister and supported Daniel O'Connell and Repeal.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2TZPAAAAYAAJ&dq=airfield+drummartin&pg=PA143|title=Slater's National Commercial Directory of Ireland; Including in Addition to the Trades' Lists, Alphebetical Directories of Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Limerick. To which are Added Classified Directories of the Important English Towns of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Leeds, Sheffield and Bristol, and in Scotland, Those of Glasgow and Paisley|first=Isaac|last=Slater|date=June 1, 1846|publisher=I. Slater|via=Google Books}} Around 1830 he had married Elizabeth Walsh, a merchant's daughter from Summerhill, Dublin.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youwho.ie/scully.html|title=Scully of Airfield|website=YouWho?}}
The Scullys were one of many landowning families who lost financially in the Great Famine (1845–50); in 1852 Airfield was in the hands of the Encumbered Estates' Court, who sold it to the printer Thomas Cranfield.{{Cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG161744|title=Collections Online | British Museum|website=www.britishmuseum.org}} In 1862 he sold it to the artist Francis Reynolds, who sold it to the Jury family of hoteliers in 1864.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youwho.ie/jury.html|title=Jury of Airfield|website=YouWho?}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.youwho.ie/airfield.html|title=Airfield|website=YouWho?}}
In 1894 the house was sold to the Overend family; Trevor Overend was from a County Down grain-dealing family, but he became a solicitor and moved to Airfield with his wife Lily. They had three daughters: Letitia (1880–1977),{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BU7yDwAAQBAJ&dq=Airfield+Estate+ireland&pg=PA1|title=Irish Women and the Great War|first=Fionnuala|last=Walsh|date=July 16, 2020|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108871679 |via=Google Books}} Constance (who died in infancy) and Naomi (1900–1993).{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=liGADQAAQBAJ&dq=%22Airfield%22+dublin+farm&pg=PT10|title=111 Places in Dublin that you must not miss|first=Frank|last=McNally|date=June 1, 2016|publisher=Emons Verlag|isbn=9783960410263 |via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/sites/default/files/filefield_paths/Lives%20Less%20Ordinary%20The%20Women%20of%20Airfield.pdf|title=Lives Less Ordinary - the Women of Airfield|website=Maynooth University}} Letitia and Naomi were noted for their philanthropic work with the Children's Sunshine Home, St John Ambulance, DSPCA and National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children; breeding of Jersey cattle; their world travelling; and their fondness for classic cars. When Trevor died in 1919 he, unusually for the time, left almost all his money to the women of the house, allowing them financial independence. The two daughters never married and were often regarded as eccentrics, driving their pre-war cars and refusing to sell their land for development, instead maintaining a Victorian-era farm in the midst of a suburbanising region.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VstaDwAAQBAJ&dq=overend+eccentric+Naomi+and+Letitia&pg=PT97|title=Lonely Planet Best of Ireland|first1=Lonely|last1=Planet|first2=Neil|last2=Wilson|first3=Fionn|last3=Davenport|first4=Damian|last4=Harper|first5=Catherine Le|last5=Nevez|first6=Isabel|last6=Albiston|date=May 1, 2018|publisher=Lonely Planet|isbn=9781787018952 |via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://mulibrarytreasures.wordpress.com/tag/letitia-and-naomi/|title=Letitia and Naomi|first=Special|last=Collections|website=MU Library Treasures}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ez7tDwAAQBAJ&dq=Airfield+Estate&pg=PT149|title=Gardens in My Life|first=Arabella|last=Lennox-Boyd|date=April 15, 2021|publisher=Head of Zeus Ltd|isbn=9781789545692 |via=Google Books}}
In 1974 the Overend family left Airfield in trust for the Irish people.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2gtEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Airfield+Estate%22&pg=PT25|title=Openhearted: Eighty Years of Love, Loss, Laughter and Letting Go|first=Ann|last=Ingle|date=September 23, 2021|publisher=Penguin UK|isbn=9781844885725 |via=Google Books}}{{Cite web|url=https://womensmuseumofireland.ie/articles/the-overend-women|title=Women's Museum of Ireland | Articles | The Overend Women|website=womensmuseumofireland.ie}}
In 2012, shortly after Apple Maps launched, the area was mistaken for being an airport simply titled "Airfield".{{Cite news |date=2012-09-21 |title=Apple map glitch relocates Dublin Airport to farm |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19676125 |access-date=2022-11-10}}{{Cite web |title=Apple's new iOS6 mapping feature misnames Airfield city farm in Dublin an air strip/airport — City Farmer News |url=https://cityfarmer.info/apples-new-ios6-mapping-feature-misnames-airfield-city-farm-in-dublin-an-air-stripairport/ |access-date=2022-11-10 |website=cityfarmer.info}}
Description
=Farm and Garden=
The farm raises animals including Jersey cattle; Jacob sheep; Oxford Sandy and Black pigs; Saanen goats; Rhode Island Red chickens; Irish Angus Cattle and donkeys.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fun.ie/airfield-estate|title=Beautiful Airfield | An Urban Farm in Dundrum Dublin|website=www.fun.ie}} The farm also practises organic farming and soil regeneration.{{Cite web|url=https://www.airfield.ie/farm/|title=On The Farm}}
From 2013 Kitty Scully and Colm O’Driscoll led the food and ornamental gardens. With Colm taking over head gardener of the estate from 2017-2022, he has led the eight acres of biodiverse, organically managed gardens. Continually evolving, they make the most of the temperate local climate. The ornamental gardens include a walled garden with generous borders and decorative pergola, as well as tropical borders, a shade garden, glasshouses and pollinator-friendly plantings. In the three-acre organic food garden there is always a bounty of seasonal crops to explore.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dublingardengroup.com/airfield-estate/|website=Dublin Garden Trail|title=Airfield Ornamental Gardens}}
File:Peugeot 172 Quadrellete.jpg
The three cars driven by the Overend women are preserved:
- Letitia's 1927 Rolls-Royce Twenty Tourer{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/women-were-a-driving-force-1.74756|title=Women were a driving force|newspaper=The Irish Times}}
- Naomi's 1936 Austin 18 Tickford
- Lily's 1923 Peugeot "Quadrilette" Type 161{{Cite web|url=https://www.ivvcc.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/IVVCC-SPRING-2014-WEB-1.pdf|title=Airfield|website=The IVVCC Journal|first=Jim|last=O'Sullivan|date=Spring 2014}}
=Airfield House=
The house was refurbished in 2014.{{Cite web|url=https://www.externalworksindex.co.uk/entry/124489/Tobermore/Historic-Airfield-House-Reopens-Following-11m-Revamp/|title=Historic Airfield House Reopens Following €11m Revamp|website=External Works Index}} Its original entrance piers,
railings and gates, as well as the house itself, a three-bay, two-storey Victorian structure, are protected structures.{{Cite web|url=https://gcon.ie/project-portfolio/airfield-estate/|website=GCON|title=Historic Airfield House Reopens Following €11m Revamp}}
Cultural references
Airfield is mentioned in the 2021 Ross O'Carroll-Kelly novel, Normal Sheeple.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VeMzEAAAQBAJ&dq=Airfield+Estate&pg=PT113|title=Normal Sheeple|first=Ross|last=O'Carroll-Kelly|date=August 19, 2021|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=9781844885510 |via=Google Books}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Official site|airfield.ie}}
- [https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=QK5r4xzByfE 3D Tour of Airfield House]
Category:Tourist attractions in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown