Mount Juliet is a mid to late 18th century house built by the 1st Earl of Carrick in Co Kilkenny. It was sold to the McCalmonts in 1914 and a ballroom was added in the 1920s.
Burke’s Guide to Country Houses, Volume I – Ireland, by Mark Bence-Jones is my source. He also praises the demesne, singling out the magnificent hardwoods. In 1987 the estate was sold and became a luxury hotel and golf course.
Mount Jewel is an entirely fictional Big House in Uncle Jack, a novel by Peter Somerville-Large published by Somerville Press. I have just read it and found it hugely entertaining. The entirely fictional Mount Jewel is located far from Kilkenny, in fact in Co Louth between Drogheda and Dundalk, as it happens the location of Barmeath, my brother’s house. There the resemblance ends.
The eponymous Uncle Jack marries his Filipino nurse who turns the estate into a luxury hotel and golf course, chopping down a lot of the woods in the process. There are plenty of good jokes and a dollop of poignancy too. The editing is a bit sloppy. For instance, Lloyds for Lloyd’s throughout and an unfortunate typo, Mount Juliet for Mount Jewel on page 186. It has ever been thus. Rupert Hart-Davis, who was employed by William Heinemann, wrote this in 1961.
Someone is threatening to sue for libel if I publish a novel which is now in proof. I don’t think they’ve got much of a case, but it will mean interviews with lawyers and much fuss. So far I have been very lucky in that respect: it’s too expensive to insure against libel, so one simply has to be as careful as possible and trust to luck.