Coppingers Court is a ruined four-storey fortified house dating from 1616, situated on private property approximately from the sea. It was built by

Sir Walter Coppinger Sir Walter Coppinger (died 1639) was a member of the Irish nobility from County Cork, Ireland, who was a magistrate of Cork city, a lawyer, and a landlord. Coppinger came from one of the most prominent families in Cork city; though himself of Hi ...

and located in Ballyvireen valley, west of Rosscarbery in County Cork, Ireland. The house has a rectangular centre flanked by two wings on the east and west, resulting in a total of 9 gables.

History

Sir Walter acquired the valley and surrounding lands from the previous owner, Fineen O'Driscoll, by foreclosing on a mortgage after advancing him a sum of money. The house was originally known as "Ballyverine Castle", and Sir Walter's original plans included transforming the immediate area into a market town, with the nearby Rowry river converted to a canal in order to navigate from nearby Milcove to his new town. Sir Walter died in 1639 and is buried in

Christ Church, Cork Christ Church, also known as Triskel Christchurch, is an early 18th century neo-classical Georgian church on South Main Street in Cork, Ireland. Now used as an arts and cultural venue, The church and its graveyard are included in the Record of Pr ...

. His surviving plans came to an end when the house was attacked during the

Irish Rebellion of 1641 The Irish Rebellion of 1641 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1641) was an uprising by Irish Catholics in the Kingdom of Ireland, who wanted an end to anti-Catholic discrimination, greater Irish self-governance, and to partially or fully reverse the plantatio ...

and badly damaged by fire. Despite having a number of sons, Sir Walter's brother, Dominic, took possession of his property. It was never restored and fell into ruins over the following years. It was purchased by Thomas Beecher in 1698, and later held by Henry Beecher. It is not mentioned in

Griffith's Valuation Griffith's Valuation was a boundary and land valuation survey of Ireland completed in 1868. Griffith's background Richard John Griffith started to value land in Scotland, where he spent two years in 1806-1807 valuing terrain through the examinati ...

in the mid-nineteenth century, when the surrounding land was leased by the Carbery estate.

Description

Coppinger's Court is built in the Elizabethan style, as was fashionable in Ireland in the 17th century. Older style fortified towers and castles gave way to more comfortable, warmer and better-lit fortified houses with innovations such as wooden stairs, better lighting and more rooms. After the rebellion in 1641 when a number of these newer style houses were burned and destroyed, their popularity waned. At the time, Coppinger Court was said to be one of the finest examples of fortified house in its day, and was said to have ''"a chimney for every month, a door for every week and a window for every day of the year"''.

References

{{coord, 51, 34, 16, N, 09, 4, 2, W, type:landmark_region:IE_source:dewiki, display=title Buildings and structures in County Cork Houses in the Republic of Ireland Ruins in the Republic of Ireland