Country house

The National Monuments Service's description

Immediately E of Churchtown. Two-storey house over basement, built in early 19th century on foundations of late 17th-century house known as 'Burton House'. Entrance front (W) of 7 bays, central 1-storey porch entrance approached by short flight of steps (see photo Grove White 1905-25, vol. 1, opp. 30). Plate glass sash windows with plaster surrounds and pediments. Hipped roof behind balustraded parapet broken by 3 gablets. Two large chimneys off-center. Walls of basement noticeably thick and probably contain core of 17th-century house. Castellated entrance gateway with lodge to NW. Walled garden to E, known as 'the bowling green'. Two stone-lined tunnels (H c. 1m; Wth c. 0.6m) recently discovered immediately W and N of house.Burton came into possession of Percival family in 1630s (Loeber 1992, 111). Work on house begun by Sir John Percival 'not long before his death in 1665' (ibid.); plans for house are 'in his (Percival's) hand' but site work supervised by architect William Kenn (ibid., 117). Percival's death halted work for five years but work then resumed using slightly modified version of original plan (ibid., 118-9). House 'emerged from the scaffolds' (ibid.) in early 1670s. Craig (1982, 142) describes house as 'a double pile with a massive row of stacks...a very large staircase to one side of the plan, behind a hall which is still sub-medieval in form and function...and a long gallery' (see plan ibid., 141; Loeber 1992, 119; and reconstruction drawing in Loeber 1973, 26). Much information also survives about layout of grounds which Craig (ibid.) describes as 'set symmetrically within a great system of courtyards, walled gardens and subsidiary buildings, with six spur-footed defensive turrets, the whole 496 feet by 248 feet exclusive of the flankers, totaling nearly three acres' (see Loeber 1973, opp. 1, 26; Loeber 1992; de Breffny & ffolliott 1975, 66-71). House burnt in 1689 and though plans were drawn up in 1707 for a replacement classical house (Loeber 1979, 52), financial difficulties prevented its execution (ibid., 59). In 1750 Smith (1750, vol. 1, 308) noted 'walls of the house still remaining, which show it to have been a large elegant building, mostly of hewn stone'. House subsequently rebuilt as 'a new 2-storey house...in the late-Georgian period' (Bence-Jones 1978, 50). Later acquired by Purcell family who 'refaced it in Victorian cement and gave it a high roof with curvilinear dormer-gables' (ibid.); this work probably carried out by Matthew Purcell (1852-1904), who restored house according to Grove White (1905-25, vol.1, 333). House now occupied by Ryan-Purcell family.

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