House - 17th century, Coolfadda, Co. Cork

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House

House – 17th century, Coolfadda, Co. Cork

Behind an ordinary terrace frontage on North Main Street in Bandon, Co. Cork, an early-17th century oak frame is still standing inside what looks, from the outside, like an unremarkable three-storey townhouse.

Timber-framed construction of this kind, common enough in England during the same period, is exceptionally rare in an Irish urban context, which makes No. 83 a quietly significant survival. The frame is not hidden away in a single corner; it runs through all three floors, most visibly along the internal spine wall that divides the larger front rooms from the smaller rear rooms and staircase, and it continues up into the support structure of the sprocketed roof at the back.

The detail preserved within the building is considerable. A masonry chimney stack, roughly one metre square, is built into that same spine wall at ground and first-floor level, though it does not extend to the second floor, suggesting either an original design feature or a later truncation. Wide butt-jointed oak floorboards survive on the second floor, and an iron hinge bracket, known as a pintle, remains set into an oak structural post at a first-floor door opening. Brick infill panels are visible between the structural timbers in several locations, a construction technique in which brickwork is used to fill the gaps in a timber frame rather than as a load-bearing material. A detached six-panel raised and fielded door of apparent late-17th century date sits in storage on the second floor; where it originally hung is not known. Later interventions are layered on top of all this: a replacement double-pitch roof, sheeted timber partitions, plaster and lath ceilings. The dog-leg stair with its half landing at the rear appears to date from the late 18th century, added perhaps when the building was updated for new occupants or uses.

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