The vernacular house at Stumphill in County Cork is one such survivor, still roofed in thatch and still in use, which places it in a category that grows smaller with each passing decade.

The building presents a four-bay north-facing front, with the doorway positioned off-centre to the right rather than at the midpoint as might be expected. This asymmetry is a fairly common feature of Irish vernacular building, where internal room arrangements took priority over external symmetry. The hipped roof, meaning a roof that slopes down on all four sides rather than ending in a vertical gable, is thatched, and a brick chimney rises off-centre to the right in a way that mirrors the placement of the door. Behind the main block the house extends to form an L-shape, with a lean-to structure attached at the left. This kind of organic rear extension, added as households grew or needs changed, is typical of rural domestic building across Munster.