Country house, Castlerichard, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Main Houses

Country house, Castlerichard, Co. Cork

The walls of this country house at Castlerichard are roughly a metre thick, and the roofline sits lower than it once did.

Window sills visible below the eaves on the rear elevation make it plain that the building was taller at some point in its history, reduced to its current two storeys during alterations that appear to have taken place in the nineteenth century. It is the kind of quiet physical evidence that rewards a careful look, a building that has been edited over time and carries the traces of each intervention.

The house dates to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century and sits just north of Inchicrenagh castle, an older fortified structure whose presence suggests this corner of County Cork had been a place of some consequence for several centuries before the house was built. The plan is rectangular, measuring roughly fourteen metres east to west and just over seven metres north to south, with a base batter along the external walls, meaning the walls flare slightly outward at their base, a feature more often associated with defensive or early vernacular construction than with polite domestic architecture. The entrance front faces north across three bays, centred on a wide elliptically-headed opening containing a nineteenth-century door with a fanlight and sidelights, now blocked, all incorporated into the original frame. Above it, an elliptical window echoes the arch below. The chimney arrangements are worth noting: the west gable carries a projecting stack divided into two flues, while the east gable stack serves three, a small asymmetry that hints at different heating requirements or phased construction within the building's long history.

Rated 0 out of 5

Visitor Notes

Review type for post source and places source type not found
Added by
Picture of Pete F
Pete F
IrishHistory.com is passionate about helping people discover and connect with the rich stories of their local communities.
Please use the form below to submit any photos you may have of Country house, Castlerichard, Co. Cork. We're happy to take any suggested edits you may have too. Please be advised it will take us some time to get to these submissions. Thank you.
Name
Email
Message
Upload images/documents
Maximum file size: 100 MB
If you'd like to add an image or a PDF please do it here.

Advertisement