Beara Farmhouse

Beara Farmhouse is a farmhouse, likely dating to the early 16th century, with substantial remodelling in the late 16th or early 17th century and later alterations in the 19th century. It is constructed of painted rendered stone rubble and cob, with a thatched roof that is half-hipped at the left end and gabled to the right. A rendered front lateral stack is positioned towards the lower left end, with offsets and a tall brick shaft. There are also an axial brick stack and a brick stack at the right end of the building.

The original layout comprised a hall, a cross-passage to the left, and an inner room to the right. The lower end appears to have been demolished, with the left end wall rebuilt entirely in stone rubble. The hall originally had an open roof, visible through a single-jointed cruck truss. In the late 16th or early 17th century the hall was ceiled, incorporating the hall stack. The inner room, originally heated by an axial stack, may also have been ceiled from the outset. A single room extension was added at the right, upper end, probably in the late 17th or 18th century, and was used as a cider house. The staircase is located to the rear of the inner room stack. A dairy outshut is attached to the rear of the hall and inner room.

The exterior is two storeys high, with a five-window front. A two-light casement with six panes per light sits above a plank door to the left of the hall stack, which has a slate bread oven projection. Two further two-light casements with six panes per light are above two 20th-century windows to the right. The extension at the right end features two half dormers, one above a 20th-century stable door and the other above a 20th-century two-light window.

Inside, the hall features a single deep chamfered cross ceiling beam with run-out stops. A partly exposed headrail of a screen remains visible on the partition between the hall and cross passage, suggesting an earlier screen may be concealed within. The front of the cross-passage has a flag floor. The hall fireplace has been concealed in a 20th-century alteration but retains a timber lintel. There is a probably 19th-century hall bench and window seat with panelled backs. Dairy fittings are largely intact. An 18th or early 19th-century dog-leg staircase is located beside the inner room stack, rising in two flights. 19th-century plank doors remain to the upper storey. The roofspace is inaccessible, but the hall retains a single side-pegged jointed cruck truss, with a front principal likely altered when the hall stack was added. The extension features heavy purlins carried entirely on partition and gable end walls.