What is recorded here

Indicated is a ruined workhouse near Mitchelstown, County Cork, built in 1851 and lost to fire and demolition before the 1940s. Its limestone wall still stands around seven and a half acres of pasture, marking rooms where hunger, fever and death were ordered into routine. The arched entrance and buried foundations remain visible, testifying that the state once measured human worth in labour and discarded the failure in brick.

To N of road, c. 1km E of Mitchelstown. Indicated on 1905 OS 6-inch map and named 'Union Workhouse'; complex of buildings shown including hospital, chapel and mortuary in typical workhouse layout (see McCullough and Mulvin 1987, 114-5); separate fever hospital indicated in SE corner of site; graveyard (14598) outside N wall at E end. Workhouse opened in 1851 in walled area enclosing 7.5 acres (Power 1996, 63), closed in 1916, burnt in 1920s and demolished in 1940s (pers. comm. B. Power). High perimeter wall of random-rubble limestone still encloses site. Area now in pasture; foundation of walls discernible in places; some parch marks also indicate outlines of buildings. Arched cut-limestone entrance with pediment, in S wall; flanked by smaller arched doorway on either side; blank shield-shaped plaque in pediment. Piered entrance in centre of N wall. Circular iron horse-driven drive-shaft of water pump survives in NW quadrant. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.