House - 16th/17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

Brazil House was built by Sir Richard Bolton, Lord Chancellor of Ireland in the reign of Charles Ic.1632-1640. It had a rectangular plan, rising to two storeys with multiple gables and projecting chimneys both in the gables. One had an oven. The chimney stacks were brick with arcading and decorative plaster pendants. The wall masonry was covered externally with thin plaster, lightly rough cast. On the quoins and around the openings, the plaster was brought to a finer surface with a block and start design. The multiple gables had fine brick skewbacks. The house was indicated on the First Edition OS maps as 'Brazil house in ruins'. It was damaged by fire in the 19th-century and finally demolished in 1977 (Anon 1918, 191, Pl XV; Knight of Glin, Griffin, D & Robinson, K, 1988).
Test excavation (Licence no. 07E0119) was undertaken in the area of the demolished house and a significant amount of structural debris related to the house identified. A substantial ditch was identified to the southwest. Aligned NW/SE the ditch (max. 5m w.) was not bottomed. Bone recovered from the fill but no diagnostic material (Ní Lionán 2007, 22).

Compiled by: Geraldine Stout

Updated by: Christine Baker

Date of upload: 09 January 2015

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 6/1977).

References

Ní Lionán, C. 2007 Archaeological Testing report, Brazil Farm, Swords, Co. Dublin (Licence no. 07E0119). Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.