Long bumpy drives, terriers racing out of a front door to greet you, worn granite steps, gleaming mahogany, that faint smell of damp and woodsmoke, windows looking out on a timbered landscape…
There is something evocative about the Irish house. It can be a mansion or a modest cottage. The living history of Irish houses yields vital clues to the understanding of a land and its people. In their isolation, Irish houses have evolved without design, so that the layers of the past remain. Aside from the big houses, there are country hideaways-stone cottages, Georgian structures, romantic Gothic revival castles, strongholds in the southwestern counties; and elegant residences in town designed to impress and there is the inevitable resident ghost.
But then they’ve seen it all before-from the Vikings to the 21th century tourist. As a sign on a remote Irish gateway puts it: BEWARE OF THE STALLION. SURVIVORS PLEASE CLOSE THE GATE.
