Famine Cottages

Uragh Stone Circle and Famine Cottage, County Kerry, Ireland

Very well summarized at https://skibbheritage.com/famine-era-housing-of-the-poor/, The remnants of “Famine Cottages” can be found all over the historical landscape of Ireland. These houses were often dwellings of the poor and consisted of rustic dwellings in miserable locations. Many of the structures lacked windows and chimneys, very dark and dank dwellings often subterranean or half built into a hillside. These were remnant famine-era Ireland dwellings. In 1841, the Irish census divided Irish housing into four categories. The famine houses were considered type 4: “The Fourth Class comprising of all mud cabins having only one room, the third, a better description of cottage, still built of mud, but varying from two to four rooms with windows; the second – a good farmhouse or in towns a house in a small street having from 5-9 rooms with windows; and the fist all houses a better description than the preceding ones.” Over 40% of rural families at this time lived in one-roomed cabins, including those living in the Skibbereen Poor Law Union. Families lived cohesively together in one room, and the accommodations were often depicted as a pig-stye, with some families having a pig dwell within the dwelling.

The dwellings were built of materials locally and immediately found by the location – raw earth, clay or stone walls, timbers dug from the bog, thatch harvested from the fields. Flat stones were laid at the corners to layout location of the building, and a smaller stone was placed atop left overnight. If the stones were still in place the following day, they would begin construction. This was done in honor and caution of faeries or slua shi, to ensure they were not building over the edge of a fairy path which could lead havock in the future should they had made that mistake. The most cost effective construction method was sod-wall cabins consisting of large grassy clumps of earth placed atop a foundation of loose stones with the trimmed sods piled up to form the wall. While the walls were weak and apt to subside, they would mash together the materials with clay to make it stick. Windows and doors were made by hacking out suitable space once built and roof supported by corner posts.

Remnants dot the landscape, but most were abandoned by the end of the Famine. By 1901 this method of construction was rare to find.

(The cabin juxtaposed with the older buildings of UCC, which were visited by Queen Victoria during the Great Famine in 1849.)

The reconstructed cabin also serves as a tribute to our ancestors, the forgotten poor who suffered so much during the Great Famine in Ireland. Congratulations and well done to Ross and all involved in this very worthwhile project at UCC.

(Skibbereen native, Ross O’Donovan of Carrigfadda, inside the cabin)

© Terri Kearney, Skibbereen Heritage Centre

References:

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