House - 18th/19th century, Laherfineen, Co. Cork

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House

House – 18th/19th century, Laherfineen, Co. Cork

At Laherfineen near Innishannon in County Cork, a pair of semi-detached two-storey houses from the eighteenth century sit side by side in a configuration that was never especially common in rural Ireland.

Semi-detached domestic buildings of this period tend to be associated with planned urban streetscapes or estate villages rather than the countryside, which makes their presence here quietly anomalous.

The two houses share a symmetrical five-bay north-facing front, each with a central round-headed doorway set within a cut-stone surround, a detail that signals a degree of ambition and craftsmanship beyond simple vernacular building. The sash windows of the eastern house have shallow reveals, meaning the glazing sits close to the outer face of the wall rather than being set back deeply into it, a small but telling detail about construction method and period. Both houses are gable-ended and finished with brick chimneys, including a central brick chimney, the use of brick being a material that in eighteenth-century Cork would have indicated a certain level of resource, since it was typically imported or produced at some cost. By the time records were compiled, the eastern house had fallen vacant, leaving the pair in an uneven state of use that only adds to their slightly melancholy character.

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