AN HEIRESS Sarah Welcome to Dorothy’s Dream. Here we tell you how a young heiress transformed a medieval castle into a classical dream palace. Dorothy Rowley is my heroine. Anthony She married another Richard Wingfield in 1727. Her dowry totaled £10,000. Alex Wow Anthony! That’s something like €20 million today.Sarah Wicklow was a wilderness to this elegant young woman. The castle was dingy and its furnishings outdated.She sold-off the entire contents. Alex The bills of sale included sheep, cattle, plough horses and iron cooking spits. Sarah I don’t imagine this heiress had plans for herding livestock. Alex Never mind cooking on medieval iron spits! RICHARD CASSELL Sarah The couple hired the architect Richard Cassell to create Dorothy’s vision of a house befitting their status.He was the German assistant of Ireland’s greatest architect - Sir Edward Lovett Pearce. Anthony Pearce had designed the palatial Castletown House in Kildare. He also built Dublin’s finest building, the Parliament House on College Green. It is now the Bank of Ireland. Sarah Cassell took nine years to transform the castle into an Italian palazzo. The north front was inspired by the Villa Pisani near Venice. Anthony Powerscourt was a big break for Cassell. He went on to design many other great Irish houses that can be visited such as;- Leinster House; Russborough; Belvedere; and Westport House. THE BALLROOM Sarah The grand ballroom here was one of the most magnificent rooms in Ireland. Anthony You can see it in the movie Barry Lyndon. Stanley Kubrick shot it here, just before the fire in 1974 so we have a record of how it once looked. Sarah As a child I remember hiding on the balcony to watch the adults partying below. When the ballroom was empty I would skate around the polished floor in my socks at high speed. Alex That is the one grand space that we have restored. Sarah Today we use it for a wide range of events and celebrations.