Carkeen Farmhouse

Carkeen Farmhouse

Farmhouse dating from circa early 17th century, remodelled in circa early 18th century and extended in mid-19th century. Built of stone rubble and cob with a rag slate roof featuring gable ends and catslide extensions over rear outshots. The house has projecting stone rubble end stacks with brick shafts, and a brick axial stack backing onto the passage near the centre. A further stone rubble end stack with brick shaft serves the rear outshot on the left.

The original plan is uncertain, but the house appears to have been laid out originally as a three-room plan with through passage. The ground slopes down to the right (east), with the house facing south. The larger hall kitchen occupies the left side where the ground rises. To the right, where the ground slopes down, a small central room is heated by an axial stack backing onto the passage, while the larger right-hand room is heated by an end stack.

In circa late 17th or early 18th century, the house underwent significant remodelling and extension. A back kitchen was added to the rear of the higher left-hand room, a stair was inserted to the rear of the passage (possibly replacing an earlier stair turret), and service rooms were added to the rear of the central and right-hand lower rooms. A corridor was created to provide access between the rear service rooms and the central front room to the larger room on the right. Further single-storey outshots were added across the rear in circa early 19th century.

The exterior presents a 2-storey asymmetrical south front with three windows. A 19th-century tripartite hornless sash lights the left side, a 20th-century gabled stone rubble porch with part-glazed door serves the centre, and an early 19th-century 12-pane hornless sash and 19th-century horned 16-pane sash light the central and right sections respectively. The first floor contains a 19th-century 20-pane horned sash on the left, and 12-pane and 20-pane horned sashes to the right. The rear elevation features the roof sweeping down in catslide over single-storey rear outshot extensions.

The interior is particularly complete with early 18th-century joinery. The large hall kitchen to the left retains at least three circa 17th-century unstopped chamfered ceiling beams. The fireplace has been partly blocked, but the timber lintel remains visible. A back stair to the right of the fireplace has been remodelled in late 19th and 20th centuries. Steps descend from the passage to the lower rooms on the right.

The central room features complete circa early 18th-century raised and fielded panelling with moulded cornice. The chimney-piece has been replaced in circa early 19th century. The right-hand room displays circa early 18th-century raised and fielded panelling on the east gable end wall with shaped shelves flanking china cupboards beside a bolection moulded chimney-piece (altered in the 20th century). The wall to the rear of the central and right-hand rooms was replaced with a timber partition when the house was extended to the rear in circa early 18th century.

An early 18th-century closed string stair features a deep moulded rail, square newels with moulded caps, and turned balusters on square bases. The central room on the first floor is panelled with raised and fielded work, and retains circa late 17th or early 18th-century hinges to a cupboard door and a circa early 19th-century chimney-piece. Almost complete 18th-century two-panel doors with raised and fielded panelling are throughout the house.

The roof structure is not accessible, though the front range appears to have at least one truss with a chamfered straight collar.

This is a particularly interesting house, notable for its unusual plan and the survival of substantial early 18th-century joinery.