The Cottages

Detached three-bay single-storey with attic former almshouse, built c.1830, with gable-fronted end bay. Currently in use as private house. Pitched slate roofs with brick chimneystacks having platbands, timber bargeboards to gables and projecting eaves with cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast-rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with cast-iron diamond pane pivot windows set in timber frames. Oriel window to attic with four-paned timber casement window. Square-headed door opening with tongue-and-grooved timber door and stone threshold. Set back from road with rockface to rear. Wrought-iron railings on rendered plinth and square-profile piers with wrought-iron gate to road front.

This house is an important example of landlord-built housing from the early nineteenth century. One of a group of three, the group is an eye-catching roadside addition, which retains much of its historic character and fabric intact. The houses are linked the Colthurst-Bart family of Blarney Castle, who apparently built them as almshouses. The family was prominent in nineteenth century Cork charitable institutions, and held significant tracts of land to the north of the city.