House - 17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the floodplain of the River Suir. Built by Alexander Power during the reign of James I, it was owned by Richard Power FitzAlexander in 1640 (Simington 1942, 101) but the house passed to Sir Thomas Stanley and then to Sir Nicholas Osborne during the Cromwellian settlement. The Osborne family lived here until they moved to Newtown Anner, Co. Tipperary, in the late 18th century (de la Paor 1898; Morrissey 1909; O'Flanagan 1929, 54-5).
This is a rectangular structure of three floors with an attic, and it has a four-bay W façade with two gables (ext. dims. 15.8m N-S; 9.2m E-W). A stairs tower (ext. dims. 5.3m N-S; 3.8m E-W) projects from the centre of the E wall. There are no internal divisions apart from one cross-wall at ground level placed towards the S gable. One garderobe chute is visible exiting on the external face of the N wall at the W end. There are small defensive windows of dressed sandstone at ground-floor level, except at W, and one lighting the stairs return has a musket loop. The upper floors have two- and three-light rectangular windows of dressed limestone with square hood-mouldings. The fireplaces number one on the ground floor in the N gable, two on the first floor in the N gable and E wall, four on the second floor where there is one on each wall, and one in the attic. They are provided with six plain chimneys, with another three chimneys over the stairs tower although two of these are false, and all rise to the same height. There is an external string course between the second floor and attic. The upper floors were supported by joists set directly into the walls. The house has been re-floored since its original abandonment, disregarding the original floor levels, and a large carriage entrance (Wth 2.85m) has been inserted in the W wall destroying the original doorway. (Craig and Garner 1977, 16)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload/revision: 10 September 2010

References

Morrissey, T.J. 1909 Tikencor and Derrinlaur castle. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 39, 269-70.

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1942 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol VI: county of Waterford. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Craig, M. and Garner, W. 1977 Revised report on areas of historic interest in Co. Waterford. An Foras Forbartha. Unpublished.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1929 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Waterford collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1841. Bray.

de la Poer, E. de P. 1898 Derrinlaur - Tickencor. Waterford Archaeological Journal, 4, 64-5.