Beechmount, Rathkeale, Co Limerick 

Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London

p. 35. “(Lloyd/IFR) A three storey five bay Georgian house with single-storey five bay C19 wings, one of them being a conservatory. Triple window in centre of two upper storeys, above C19 glazed porch; solid roof parapets.” 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21902908/beechmount-house-beechmount-demesne-co-limerick

Detached five-bay two-storey H-plan house, built c. 1780. Hipped slate roof with overhanging eaves, brackets and rendered chimneystacks. Rendered walls with limestone plinth course. Square-headed openings to first floor having bipartite four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows and limestone sills. Square-headed openings to ground floor with bipartite four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows having geometric multiple-pane overlights and limestone sills. Square-headed opening with concrete surround and timber battened door. Limestone threshold to entrance. Rubble limestone walls to south with square-plan rubble limestone outbuilding having hipped slate roof and cast-iron finial. Square-profile rubble limestone gate lodge to north having stepped crenellations and hipped slate roof. Pointed arch openings with replacement uPVC windows and concrete sills. Those to ground floor having brick voussoirs. Remains of gate lodge to north-west. No roof. Rubble limestone walls with remains of window and door openings. Pair of square-profile cut limestone piers to north having carved caps, plinth and double-leaf spear-headed cast-iron gates. Rubble limestone walls with cast-iron railings terminating in second pair of piers. 

Appraisal 

This impressive country house, possibly originally H-plan, has many interesting eighteenth-century and later nineteenth-century features. Of particular interest are the projecting end bays, a common feature of high status buildings of this period. The façade is enlivened by the decorative bipartite windows, with ornate multiple-pane overlights to the ground floor windows. The outbuildings and gate lodges complete this attractive group.