The late seventeenth-century house at Clonmannan is something of an exception, a relatively rare example of early brick construction in the Irish countryside, complete with a pediment and pilasters, the latter being the shallow, decorative columns set against the rusticated lower storey. Rustication, in which the masonry is given a deliberately rough or deeply jointed surface, was a fashionable continental influence filtering into Irish architecture in this period, and its appearance here suggests a builder with some awareness of architectural fashion, and the means to indulge it.

The house sits in gently undulating terrain and dates to the latter part of the seventeenth century, placing its construction in a period of intense, if uneven, building activity in Ireland following the upheavals of the mid-century wars. What makes the Clonmannan house particularly interesting as a site is not just the main building but what survives beside it. Some 70 metres to the north-east stands a well-preserved brick kiln that is contemporary with the house itself. A brick kiln is a purpose-built structure for firing the clay bricks used in construction, and the survival of one so close to the house it presumably supplied is unusual. It suggests that bricks were manufactured on or near the site rather than transported from elsewhere, a practical arrangement in a period when road infrastructure was poor and bulk materials were difficult to move any distance. The pairing of the house and its kiln offers a glimpse of how such a building was actually produced, which surviving houses rarely do. The house itself has been restored in recent times.