Country house, Slieveroe, Co. Cork

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Country house, Slieveroe, Co. Cork

In a field to the south of this County Cork country house, a mausoleum sits quietly among the grass, belonging to a former owner of the estate.

It is not an uncommon thing to find a family burial place on old Irish landed property, but combined with a castellated gothic water tower added to the east wing in 1903, a farm courtyard with a bell-cote over its entrance arch, and a main house that presents a different number of bays depending on which side you approach from, the whole ensemble at Slieveroe has accumulated a pleasing architectural strangeness over time.

The core of the house dates from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, a two-storey structure built over a basement, with a hipped roof and a central valley between its slopes. On the northern, entrance front, three bays face outward, though the basement drops away from view and the original central doorway, which retains its semi-circular fanlight, is now obscured by a later porch. The southern front, which looks out over the grounds, presents four bays and the full height of the basement becomes visible. The farm courtyard to the north-west is a composition in its own right: the entrance façade carries a central pedimented archway and a small bell-cote, and a date stone inscribed 1840 sits on the pediment, suggesting the yard was laid out or substantially rebuilt at that point. The most theatrical addition came considerably later. In 1903, an ornate castellated gothic-style wing was attached to the east end of the house, complete with a water tower, a practical necessity dressed up in the vocabulary of medieval fantasy that was fashionable among Irish country house owners of the period. A single-storey extension to the west balances the composition without competing with it.

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Pete F
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