How to date a stone cottage

Murray007

The house that we live in started off as a single room stone cottage. The original door and outline of the original cottage is very obvious from the size and shape of the stone compared with the rest of the cottage.

At some point the house was extended longways to three ground floor rooms.

In the early 1940's a previous generation of our family bought the cottage and extended it upwards by a little more than a half storey.

By the way, they were a family of 10 (2 adults and 8 kids) that moved from a two roomed cottage nearby that was then left to go derelict after the move. It puts into perspective how hard life was in rural communities - subsistence living.

The cottage is in Cavan.

What I would like help with is, how can I date the original part of the cottage, the single roomed cottage? Any ideas welcome.

robp

Murray007 wrote: »

The house that we live in started off as a single room stone cottage. The original door and outline of the original cottage is very obvious from the size and shape of the stone compared with the rest of the cottage.

At some point the house was extended longways to three ground floor rooms.

In the early 1940's a previous generation of our family bought the cottage and extended it upwards by a little more than a half storey.

By the way, they were a family of 10 (2 adults and 8 kids) that moved from a two roomed cottage nearby that was then left to go derelict after the move. It puts into perspective how hard life was in rural communities - subsistence living.

The cottage is in Cavan.

What I would like help with is, how can I date the original part of the cottage, the single roomed cottage? Any ideas welcome.

You could start my looking at historic maps in library or the online OSI Mapviewer - Ordnance Survey Ireland service. If you see the dwelling on them then you will be able to get a rough date. If the building predates the earliest comprehensive maps in 1841 then more detective work is needed.

Murray007

From the historical OSI maps, the extended ground floor and stone out buildings are there on the 1897-1913 map but nothing there on the 1829-1841 map. That has helped to pin down that it was built in the second half of the 1800's.

nuac

Check in the Valuation Office, 6 Ely Plce Dublin.

All houses were measured at time of valuation ( 1852 onwards ) with sketch map attached.