Merchant House, Kilmallock

This medieval mansion, in the heart of Kilmallock, was one of about thirty houses built 1571-87 along Sarsfield Street, south of King John’s Castle. Externally, the house is a stone building with a double pile plan, rectangular in shape, with a three bay elevation on the street front. Originally there was a third floor just below the roof, however today the house is two storey’s high.

On the ground level, the dressed limestone building has four openings, but has lost its original entrance between the two original pointed-arched gothic doorways. The original entrance is thought to have had a square headed opening with double-leaf timber battened doors. The window on the ground floor has a chamfered limestone surround, sill and timber. Externally, above the ground floor openings, and beneath the first floor, runs a bracketed plat band with regular corbels. The first floor has three windows, known as flat-headed windows because each window has a hood moulding and unexpressed sills. These first floor windows with their limestone hoods have timber casement windows. In the 19^th century the roof was replaced.

Internally, the front room/range leads through to the range behind without a corridor, which in turn leads to a storage building at the back. Access to the first floor was via a wooden staircase to the northern end of the front range.

Kilmallock, in the late medieval period was of considerable importance, being one of the main urban areas in Ireland. This building displays the general features of urban medieval dwellings expected by its wealthy merchant owners. The surviving architectural features are all characteristic of 16^th century Irish buildings, and its rarity is of national importance within Ireland.

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This national monument is protected in accordance with the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014