Country house, Ballinvonear, Co. Cork

Co. Cork |

Main Houses

Country house, Ballinvonear, Co. Cork

Above the entrance door of this mid-eighteenth century north Cork country house, set into a classical surround, sits an armorial plaque carrying two dates that have nothing to do with the building itself.

The first, 'OH 1595', predates the house by a century and a half; the second, 'IC 1693', by more than fifty years. Both inscriptions travelled here from Pennywell House in Limerick city, another property once associated with the Harold-Barry family, and their presence on a building constructed generations later gives the facade an oddly layered quality, as though the house is wearing somebody else's credentials at the front door.

The house itself is a composed, rectangular structure of three storeys over a basement, five bays wide on its south-facing entrance front, with cut limestone quoins and a cornice running beneath the eaves. A hipped roof, which pitches inward on all sides rather than ending in gables, sits above two off-centre chimneys, and the central door is framed by sidelights and a block-and-start surround, a form of decorative moulding composed of alternating projecting blocks, topped by a cornice over a flat arch with fanlight glazing above. The Harold-Barry family built the house and, as of the late 1970s at least, still lived there. A hipped two-storey wing extends the west elevation, later additions cluster at the rear to the east, and a three-sided courtyard of farm buildings sits to the north. The ornamental lake to the northeast, visible from the grounds, was not a landscaping luxury but a product of necessity: it was created as relief work around 1847, during the years of the Famine, when landlords and public works schemes channelled labour into projects of this kind as a means of providing wages to those who would otherwise have had nothing.

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, Ballinvonear, 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