Irish Tour
Dr Pococke .  1752
Bishop of Kilkenny and a famous traveller. Visits the house ("Furnace") in 1752.

A Tour in Ireland
Arthur Young FRS etc   Cadell & Dodsley, London 1780 .
Pages 343 to 347 - detailed notes on his visit in 1777 to Furness; its tenants and their land usage, economics, tenure and lifestyles. Admired the owner Richard Nevill MP as a progressive landlord, even by English standards.

A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland
Samuel Lewis . S Lewis & Co, London 1837
Page 637, Vol. I. "Furnaughts" mentioned; townland of 765 acres. Tithes £46 pa.
"Beauman, W, Esq", then owned Furness, and subscribed to the dictionary. "Some remains of the old church still exist, and at Furness there is a rath."

Guide through Ireland
James Fraser .  Curry & Co, Dublin , 1838
Page 52. Furness belongs to "Beauman, E, Esq". "Their extensive plantations add much to the appearance of the beautifully diversified country. . ."

Irish Names of Places
PW Joyce LLD .  Phoenix Publishers, Dublin 1869
"Fornocht" is a bare or exposed hill. Plural because the parish was split into two, soon after 1200AD, into Great and Little Forenaughts.

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The Yew-Trees of Great Britain and Ireland .
John Lowe MD .  Macmillan & Co, London 1897 .
Page 93 - The "Fornace" yew listed with all Irish yews with a girth of more than 10 feet. The tree is also in Fraser's Handbook for Ireland 1860 at page 66.

Kildare Archaeological Journal Vol 1
Pages 200 & 269. KAS 1890's .
Ashe or Ayshe family the owners of Furness from the late C16.

Kildare Archaeological Journal Vol 2
Rev. Denis Murphy SJ .  KAS 1900 .
Page 452; article on the stained glass window in the North Wing. Thought by PNN Synnott in Vol 14 to be a C19 frame and glass with some C17 ovals in it.

Kildare  Archaeological Journal Vol 3
Pages 453 to 468 by NJ Synnott - Notes on Furness or Great Forenaughts.
KAS 1902 .  Not as much data as in his son's article in Vol. 14 below. Lots on the genealogy of former owners. The author bought the house in 1895.

A History of the Kildare Hunt
The Earl of Mayo KP . St Catherine's Press, London 1913 .
Page 103 - Picture of the Black Wood towards Naas, and descriptions of the area.

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Georgian Mansions in Ireland .
Thomas Sadleir MRIA and Page L Dickinson .  Dublin University Press 1915 .
Pages 76 to 79 - comment on the history and decorative features of the main house, with 3 photographs. Not entirely accurate.

A Bronze Age interment near Naas.
Macalister, Armstrong and Praeger . Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. XXX section C No 15.  Hodges, Figgis & Co, Dublin 1913 .
Pages 351 to 360 of text; 3 pages of plates.  The definitive archaeological report on the important Bronze Age Longstone Rath at Furness, the cist grave and its contents.

Irish Churches and Monastic Buildings
Harold Leask MRIA etc .  Dundalgan Press, 1958
Vol. 2, page 149. The OPW's Inspector of National Monuments. The tufa stone door and window surrounds and the leper window in the church are unique in Ireland.

Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society Vol. 14 .
JKAS 1969 .
Pages 457 to 472 by PNN Synnott on Furness Church . Describes the church and updates his father's article in Vol 3 above. Written just after its restoration by the OPW in 1968. The church door and window surrounds of tufa stone may be pre-Norman. The granite tombstone dates from pre-650 AD; Its Coptic-style cross perhaps copied from imported jewellery.

Astral Doorways
JH Brennan Aquarian Press, London 1971.
Pages 26-33. Author's 'astral planing' and colour-card spiritual experiments at Furness and in the Longstone Rath.

Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society Vol. 15 No. 5.
 JKAS 1975-76
Pages 448 to 467 by PNN Synnott on Richard Nevill MP, owner of Furness during the 1798 rebellion, and his correspondence.
Pages 496 to 501 - report by Elisabeth Shee on the Furness whorl stone ("Rock Art")  decorated before 1500 BC, with a drawing of it.

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Ireland in Prehistory.
M Herity and G Eogan .  Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1977 .
Pages 124 to 128 on the Longstone Rath, comparing it with similar Irish sites.
ISBN 0-7100-8413-7.

The Netterville Monument and Family
PNN Synnott . Privately printed, 1970's .
A 29-page booklet on the Netterville monument at Furness, brought there from Dowth, Co Meath by Mr Synnott (descended from the Nettervilles) in the 1970's, when he was President of the Order of Malta in Ireland .

Irish Art and Architecture
Harbison, Potterton & Sheehy Thames & Hudson, London 1978
Pages 136,137 - Francis Bindon was the likely architect of Furness. Photo of the house with a C19 addition touched out to show the 1780s outline. Wrongly suggests that the stables and kitchen yard buildings are centred on the house in the C18 (one was extended in the C19).

Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society Vol. 16 No. 4.  
JKAS 1983 - 84 .
Pages 298 to 316 - report by Eoin Grogan on an Iron Age (c. 410 AD) burial mound at Furness, with maps and many photographs.
Page 390 - obituary of Pierce Synnott , owner of Furness 1920-1982, and President of the KAS 1971-82 and of the Irish Order of Malta; Commander of the Bath (CB).

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Standing Stones and other Monuments of early Ireland
Kenneth McNally .  Appletree Press, Belfast   1984.  ISBN 0 86281 121 X.
Page 58 - Picture and comment on the Longstone rath, "properly interpreted as a ritual enclosure in the henge tradition".

A Guide to Irish Country Houses
Mark Bence-Jones .  Constable & Co, London 1988 .  ISBN 0 09 468750 1.
Page 129 - Furness listed with two exterior photos. All the essential points on its architectural details.

Young Betjeman.
Bevis Hillier .  John Murray Ltd, London 1988 .
Pages 197 to 203 et al. on John Betjeman's visit to Furness and friendship with its owner Pierce Synnott in 1920's. They were at Oxford together.

A List of Gardens and Parks of International and National Significance in the Republic of Ireland
P Bowe and E Nelson for An Taisce Heritage Gardens Committee.  An Taisce, Dublin 1988
List 2. - Gardens and Parks of National importance .  Furness is awarded 4 out of a maximum 7 stars for ancient monuments, landscape park, late formal gardens, buildings & artefacts. Comment: "Lake and C18 column; formal garden with C18 fruit wall and rare 2-storey orangery". 2 other Irish properties were awarded 4 stars in this category; none were awarded more.

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Guide to Kildare and West Wicklow
Colonel Con Costello Leinster Leader, Naas 1991. ISBN 0-9501758-5-4.
Pages 59-60 on Furness and Forenaughts. Good historical summary from Co. Kildare's leading historian.

John Betjeman   Letters Vol. 1 1926 - 1951
Edited by Candida Lycett-Green .  Methuen, London 1994 . ISBN 0 413 66950 5.
Pages 19 to 37 - letters on John Betjeman's visits to Furness. It was Betjeman's first stay in a country house - the first of many - and his first visit to Ireland, about which he wrote many poems.

Pagan Celtic Ireland
Barry Raftery .  Thames & Hudson 1994 . ISBN 0 500 05072 4.
Page 189 mentions the Furness Iron Age burial mound of "430-580AD". It has to be much earlier than 580 as the graves are not aligned east-west in the Christian manner. Before 500 I believe.

Kill Parish Christmas Newsletter, 1994
Fr. Coughlan C.C.  Pictures of the old church and the Longstone Rath.

Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society Vol. 18, part 2. 1994-95.
Charles Mount "The environmental siting of Early Bronze Age burials in County Kildare".
Pages 118,119 & 124 mention the Furness Longstone Rath.

The Hidden Houses of Ireland
Marianne Heron   Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1999   ISBN 0 7171 2730 3.
pp. 120, 126 - 127. "one of the loveliest of small-scale Palladian houses".

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History of Dublin City Vol. 1.

by Warburton, Whitelaw & Walsh. Cadell & Davies, London 1818. pp. 328-329: (re Furness church) Concerning the Abbey of St. Thomas in Dublin; Grants by Adam de Hereford to the Church in 1210 included this sub-grant: 'John de Hesse granted the church of Farnathbeg [now Forenaghts Little townland] as did Richard de Hesse the church at Farnath [now Furness, or Forenaghts Great townland].'

p. 340: Surrender of the Abbey in Dublin by Abbot Henry Duffe to the Crown in July 1538. p.343: The Dublin property of the abbey at Thomas Court was sold to William Brabazon, ancestor of the earls of Meath in 1545 (and so the Liberties were named the Earl of Meath's Liberty). Duffe accepted a pension of £42p.a. and the former abbot was given £10 p.a.

Iron Age Burial Practices in Leinster: Continuity and Change.

Dr. Elizabeth O'Brien. 1990 in Emania Vol. 7 p. 41:

'Despite many major changes in burial practices in the early centuries AD, some sectors of the indigenous population still held on to ancient customs or rites into the fifth century as is evidenced at Furness, Co. Kildare (Grogan 1983-84). Excavation at this site revealed a low stone mound with central core and outer kerb. Two cremation deposits were discovered between the central core and the kerb and a further cremation in a pit was located outside the kerb. A stake hole located in a central position beneath the core contained charcoal which yielded a radiocarbon date of 1540+/-30 BP (c.430-600 AD, GrN-10472). A portion of a light blue glass bracelet was also recovered from beneath the central core.'

Burial practices in Ireland: First to Seventh centuries AD.

in Downes, J. and Ritchie, A. (eds) Sea Change: Orkney and Northern Europe in the later Iron Age AD 300-800. 2003 The Pinkfoot Press, Angus. Dr. Elizabeth O'Brien at p. 65:

' The rite of crouched inhumation did not supersede the rite of cremation in Iron Age Ireland, indeed the excavation of a ring-cairn at Furness in Co. Kildare (Grogan 1984, 298-316) produced radiocarbon evidence that cremation was still being practised, probably by a small minority, up to as late as the fifth century AD" in some parts of the country.'

Champion Trees A selection of Ireland's great trees

Tree Council of Ireland 2005 The Furness yew tree (Taxus baccata) is 4.4m girth x 18.5m height. ISBN 0-9519147-9-0 at p.32. With thanks to Aubrey Fennell.

The Medieval Parish Churches of Kildare

by Michael O'Neill. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 2005 Vol. XIX Part III p. 406. ISSN 0332-0782. Magisterial coverage of the churches in the county, including a ground plan of Furness Church.

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