About Us
The Newlands Demesne
Before it became a Golf Course
Newlands Golf Club was established on the Newlands Demesne in 1926. Up to that time, the demesne lands had remained substantially within the same parameters laid out in the late 17th century by Sir John Cole, who is credited with establishing the demesne. With the exception of land taken for road-widening on both the Naas Road and the Belgard Road boundaries, the acreage and shape of the golf course is still much as it was then. This can be confirmed by comparison of today’s map of Newlands Golf Course with the earliest Ordnance Survey map of 1837 and with a manuscript map drawn up for Lord Kilwarden in 1802. Many of the features appearing in these early maps are still evident in the landscape of the golf course today.
Before the demesne was laid out by Sir John Cole, there was a house at Newlands as early as 1577, when the surrounding lands were in the possession of the James Stanihurst, Recorder of the City of Dublin and Speaker of the Irish Parliaments of Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I. Newland was subsequently the country seat of Daniel Molyneux, Ulster King of Arms 1597-1632. Cole got possession of these lands about 1658 and sometime between then and his death in 1693 the Demesne as we know it today was laid out Some of the original oak trees planted at that period still survive on the golf course today. Cole’s son, Arthur, was ennobled as Baron Ranelagh but died without issue in 1754. The Earls of Enniskillen were descended from Sir John Cole through his daughter, Elizabeth.
The demesne was purchased by Arthur Wolfe, a prominent lawyer and MP, in 1776. Wolfe subsequently became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Kilwarden. He had the misfortune to be assassinated on his way from Newlands to the city by some out-of-control insurgents during Robert Emmett’s rebellion in 1803.
After Kilwarden’s death, Newlands was rented by George Ponsonby for a couple of years when he was Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1806/07. He subsequently became Leader of the Whig party in the British House of Commons.
The White Quakers, under their leader, Joshua Jacob, occupied the Demesne from 1845 to 1851 and cultivated food crops on the land for their own consumption.
The last great jurist to occupy Newlands was Lord O’Brien of Kilfenora, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, 1889-1913, who was in residence at the turn of the 20th century.
E Dowling 15-11-2004