Fortified houses in Ireland

'Fortified Houses' were often rectangular, or sometimes U or L-shaped, three-storey structures with high gables and chimney stacks and large windows with hood mouldings.

Over the past six decades studies concerning Irish 'Fortified Houses' have identified them as a transitional genre that emerged at the end of the sixteenth century and acted as an architectural bridge between the Irish medieval tower-house and the country manor house of the late seventeenth century.

The social, political and military changes that took place from the 1580s-1650s were to play a major role in the development of this unique Irish structure.

These houses provided a comfortable living space for the elite of early seventeenth-century Irish society.

They represented a long term investment in their owner’s regional future and were monuments to an aspiration for an English and Continental house style suited to local Irish conditions.