House — 16th/17th century in Kilmallock

National monument No. 680. The Medieval Mansion is situated on the W side of Sarsfield Street to the south of King John’s Castle (LI047-022008-). It was one of several houses built along Sarsfield Street from the late 15th century onwards. The mansion may be represented on Joanes’s map of c. 1600 as a large square building situated to the SW of King John’s Castle (LI047-022008-) itself a National Monument in State ownership (173). It is a stone building, rectangular in shape, with a double pile plan, presenting a three bay elevation to the street front. It is currently two storeys high but would originally have comprised of three floors of accommodation below the roof. The ground floor of dressed limestone walling is punctured by four openings and displays a slight batter from ground floor upwards. A large flat-headed central double doorway, which is not original, is flanked two by original pointed-arched gothic doorways. The original entrance is likely to have had a dressed stone surround, arched like the existing doorways either side, or as a flat-headed opening surmounted by a hood moulding like the windows above. To the S of one of the gothic arches is a flat-headed window opening. Between the ground and first floor there is a plat band with regular corbels. There are three flat-headed windows at first floor level, each with a hood moulding above and unexpressed sills. It would appear that the stone mullions of these windows were sheared off to allow for replacement by larger windows. The roof was replaced in the 19th century. In the interior the ground floor of the front range leads through to the range behind without an intervening corridor, and thence to an adjoining storage building or barn behind which runs at right angles to the main block. A degraded wooden staircase is located at the N end of the front range and leads to the first floor. The above description is derived from Gifford and PLB, 2009 Kilmallock Town Walls Conservation and Management Plan, Limerick County Council, Limerick. Date of upload/revision: 7 September 2016