Dovecote

The National Monuments Service's description

Immediately W of the entrance piers to Killarney House. Indicated on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map as a circular structure behind a small rectangular building, probably a gatehouse. Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 488) notes that as a result of the Cromwellian confiscations in 1650 Killarney, ‘together with Rathduff and parts of Ballylinch and Legan, was granted to a Cromwellian soldier named Robert Myhill. Myhill lived in Killarney Ho. … His descendant, another Robert Myhill, lived here during the first half of the 18th century’. Sometime after Killarney House, which probably dated from the mid to late 17th century, appears to have fallen into disrepair and was eventually demolished as it is not indicated on the 1st ed. map (Phelan 1981, 272-3). The wide avenue (Wth c. 30m) which lead up to the house survives, though only a narrow strip on the E side remains in use as an avenue to a later house and farmyard.
The circular structure appears to be a dovecote, likely to be associated with the original Killarney House. It is described by Phelan (1981, 271) as, ’11 ft [3.35m], in diameter, is built upright to 5 [c. 1.5m] or 6 ft. [c. 1.8m] (ground levels vary) and then is corbelled to a total of 15 feet [4.5m]. The walls average 2 feet [0.6m] in thickness, a string course marking the beginning of the ‘corbelling’. This corbelling is in perfect condition inside and out and incorporates some brick. The whole structure is lavishly covered with mortar outside; inside it is plastered to the level of the string course’. It seems that when the structure went out of use as a dovecote it was converted into a folly or teahouse. This would have involved removing the nesting boxes and covering the hole at the apex of the roof.

See attached photographs by Stasia Clancy, taken 19 July 2015
KK028-106----_01 Exterior
KK028-106----_02 Corbelled roof

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 23 November 2020

References

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.

Phelan, M. 1981 Entrance structures at Killarney House. Old Kilkenny Review New Series 2, no. 3, 271-3.