House - 16th/17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

On the quayside W of Collet's Lane and at the rear of No. 31-32 O'Connell Street (Emerald Garden Chinese Restaurant). Lyons (1954-5, 26) relates a popular tradition that this building was associated with a monastic order, however, there is no historical documentation to support this contention. Long, rectangular two-storey building (dims. 17.9m x 4.55m; wall T 1.1m) of which only the S wall, S end of E gable and badly overgrown W gable are upstanding. The greater part of the S wall which faces onto the river is ivy-clad and continuous burning of rubbish against the base of the wall at it W end has caused blackening and fracturing of masonry. Constructed of well mortared roughly coursed sandstone rubble with large roughly cut sandstone quoins employed at the SE and SW angles. There is a discreet base-batter and the lower quoins are slightly rounded. It was entered at ground-floor leval via a rectangular sandstone doorway at the W end of the S wall. The jambstones are chamfered and a fragment of hood-moulding with label stop survives. The three remaining ground-floor opes were broken through in more recent times. Extant features of the building include an intra-mural garderobe positioned at the E end of the S wall on the first floor, lit by a small rectangular ope with the garderobe outlet at the base of the external wall face. There are the remains of eight large crudely executed water spouts in the upper masonry courses of the S wall. There appear to have been originally four windows at first-floor level, however, only the remains of a former two-light rectangular window survive, comprising rudimentary mullion and fractured hood-moulding. Internally the ground floor appears to have had four vaulted embrasures. Three corbels project out of the S wall internally at first-floor level. The extant masonry of the E gable is featureless and the W gable is so badly overgrown that none of its features were discernible, except a large fireplace at first-floor level, only the S jamb of which survives (Holland 1992, 201). (Farrelly and FitzPatrick 1993, 72-3).

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 26 August 2011

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 6/2001).

References

Farrelly, J. and FitzPatrick, E. 1993 Urban archaeological survey - county Tipperary (South Riding) (2 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Lyons, P. 1954-5 The burgh of Clonmel. Journal of the Clonmel Historical and Archaeological Society, 3, 20-27.

Holland, P. 1994 Late medieval structures in Clonmel: further remarks. Tipperary Historical Journal, 175-7.

Holland, P. 1992 A carved stone and other late medieval fragments in Clonmel. Tipperary Historical Journal, 197-201.