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Return to Co. Limerick list |
Go to Prehistoric Alignments & Dials |
Go to Ancient Monastic Dials |
Go to Medieval Dials |
Go to Modern (1600+) Dials |
Go to Sundial Info.and Books |
 Adare Manor |
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Adare Manor was built on a 840-acre estate in the early 19th-century by the 2nd Earl of Dunraven and his wife, Lady Caroline Wyndham. It was purchased in 1987 by an Irish American Thomas Kane from Florida who renovated and converted it into the Adare Manor Hotel and Golf Resort. It was sold to Limerick business man J.P. McManus in 2005 who closed it in 2016 for a major extension and refurbishment. |
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The 5star luxury Adare Manor Golf Resort Hotel re-opened in 2018. The new extension, designed by Reardon Smith Architects Ltd., was built in the same style and with similar limestone as the original house and includes a sundial (shown inside red circle)15 metres high between the two towers on the new facade. |
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The bronze sundial, 890mm in diameter, is fixed to a Ross Limestone panel encircled by a 40mm wide Ross limestone ring. It does not face directly south but is at the visually imperceptible slight angle of 1° towards the east. The hour lines, labelled with Roman numerals, extend fully across the face. Half hour lines extend half way across the dial. |
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The sun reaches its highest point in the sky at noon at all places along the same North/South line of longitude. It follows that at that instant, in places to the east of the dial, noon has already passed, and in places to the west, noon has not yet arrived. When the sun reaches its highest point in the sky at Adare, the shadow of the gnomon lies vertically on the dial face, as shown on the picture to the left, and it is solar noon. Solar noon at Adare is not marked on the dial face in any way. |
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There is one hour of time difference for every 15 degrees of longitude difference. Adare Manor is 8 degrees 47 minutes of longitude west of the Greenwich London Observatory, which is equal to 35 minutes of time. When it is 12:00 noon sun time at Greenwich it is 11:25 A.M. sun time at Adare.The hour lines on the Adare dial have been offset to compensate for the longitude difference of 35 minutes of time between Adare and Greenwich. In other words when the shadow of the gnomon on the Adare dial lies along the XII line it is solar noon at Greenwich NOT solar noon at Adare. To convert solar time at Greenwich to 'Greenwich Mean Time' whch we use for our watches, requires the addition of a value known as the 'Equation of Time' to the indicated time on the dial. This varies daily between +14 mins in February and -16 mins in October. A further hour has to be added to above calculation, from the end of March to the end of October when summer time is in force, to give watch time. For more information on the Equation of Time see my webpage at https://www.sundials-ireland.com/links.htm |