Muckross House was completed in 1843 for Henry Arthur Herbert and his Scottish wife Mary Balfour. Situated close to the eastern shore of Muckross Lake, the House was designed by the well-known Victorian architect William Burn of Edinburgh.

 

The Herbert family hosted the English Queen Victoria, with members of her family, at Muckross, in August 1861. However, by the end of the 19th century the Herbert family was bankrupt.​

 

In 1899 Muckross House and its Estate was purchased by Lord Ardilaun, a member of the Guinness brewing family. Over the following decade the property was rented out annually for its hunting, shooting and fishing.​

 

In 1911 Muckross was purchased by a wealthy American, William Bowers Bourn.  He and his wife Agnes presented it as a wedding present to their daughter Maud and her husband Arthur Rose Vincent of Clonlara, County Clare.

 

​Maud died unexpectedly in 1929. Three years later her husband and parents presented Muckross House and its Estate to the Irish Nation.  Muckross became Ireland’s very first National Park on 1 January, 1933.