Ballyvireen Fortified House
OS 143:2:4;
OD 50-80ft. West county Cork.
Ballyvireen is a Y-shaped fortified house
with three storeys and an attic. It is situated close to the bank of the Roury river and is located within
a valley. It is comprised of a main rectangular block 22m east-west and 8m north-south with two square corner
towers approximately 8m by 8m situated on the northeast and northwest corners. There is a rectangular stairs
projection on the centre of the south wall of the main rectangular block; it is 5m north-south and 8m east-west. This south
tower contained the stairwell. The majority of window surrounds are poorly preserved. There are a number
of window surrounds surviving on the southern gable of the south projection. They are transom and mullion
divisions and have hood-mouldings with stepped terminals. The main block is accessed by all of the corner-towers
with doors at each level. It is also accessed by the stairs projection with two doors at every level. There
may have been a partition or a lobby between the door pairings at each level. The house was well supplied
with fireplaces and nine gun loops at ground level, some are doubled up. Four of the original seven chimney stacks survive.
There is a semi-basement in the northeast corner-tower. Five sets of machicolations cover most of the external walls. There
is a shallow garden wall keyed out of the northwest and northeast corner-tower for a few meters east and west, both turn north
and form a square enclosed area (appx.) 25m x25m. The remains of an ancillary building are located along the
west wall with surviving traces of a large fireplace with bread oven. The house was built by Sir Walter
Coppinger in the early in seventeenth century and burnt in the 1640s.
;-)
