Country house, Glashacormick, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Main Houses
In the pastureland above the Clydagh River in County Kerry, a two-storey house sits empty on a steep north-facing slope, its walls still wearing a coat of pink limewash.
That colour is the first thing that sets it apart. Pink limewash, made by adding iron ochre or other pigments to the traditional lime render, was not unusual in rural Ireland, but it is rare enough now to stop a person in their tracks, particularly on a building that has otherwise been left to the slow work of abandonment.
The house is built of random rubble, meaning the stonework uses unshaped or only roughly shaped stones laid without a regular course, and the whole is rendered over to give a unified finish. The front elevation faces north toward the river and is arranged in three bays, with large rectangular window openings fitted with tripartite sash frames flanking a central one-storey lean-to porch. The remaining windows are smaller, also with sash frames. To the rear there is a further lean-to extension, and the roof is hipped, meaning it slopes down on all four sides rather than ending in gable walls, with two chimneys placed slightly off-centre. A stone-built coach house stands approximately two hundred metres to the west, suggesting the property once supported a household of some means, with animals, vehicles, and the staff to manage them. No date of construction or record of former occupants appears to survive in what is currently documented about the site.
The house is set in pasture on ground that falls sharply toward the river, which would make any approach on foot uneven underfoot. The coach house to the west is the clearest secondary feature worth looking for, and the pink render, though weathered, remains visible enough to distinguish the building from the surrounding landscape.