Scarteen, Knocklong, 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. 255. “(Ryan/IFR) A two storey gabled C19 house of mildly Tudor-Revival character. Mullioned windows with hood mouldings; single-storey7 shallow battlemented bows. Overhanging roofs with bargeboards, Victorian glazed porch Seat of the Ryan family, whose famous pack of foxhounds, the Scarteen Black and Tans, is kennelled here.” 

https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21904101/scarteen-scarteen-co-limerick

Detached three-bay two-storey country house, built c. 1820, with later nineteenth-century additions including a glazed porch. House comprising projecting gable-fronted bays, crenellated bay window and porch to front (south) elevation. Crenellated bay window, recessed crenellated bay and five-bay two-storey extension having gablets to west elevation. Pitched slate roof with timber bargeboards, finials and rendered chimneystacks. Hipped slate roof to extension. Single-pitched fishscale slate roof to porch. Roughcast rendered walls having render plinth course. Square-headed bipartite openings to first floor with render label mouldings and six-over-one pane timber casement windows. Square-headed opening to first floor, centre-bay having render label moulding and fixed window. Square-headed bipartite openings to ground floor with render label mouldings and bipartite four-over-one pane timber casement windows. Square-headed openings to extension, first floor having two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed openings to porch having inset pointed arch fixed windows with recessed spandrels. Square-headed opening to porch with half-glazed timber panelled door. Four-bay two-storey outbuilding to north having open work bellcote to north elevation and four-bay single-storey outbuilding to south gable. Pitched slate roof. Rubble limestone walls. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills. Square-headed openings having timber battened doors. Pitched slate roof to south outbuilding with rubble limestone walls. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills. Square-headed door opening. Nine-bay single-storey outbuilding to south having pitched slate roof and cast-iron rainwater goods. Rubble limestone walls with cast-iron patris plates. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills. Square-headed openings having timber battened doors. Three-bay single-storey former gate lodge to east. Hipped slate roof with timber bargeboards and rendered chimneystack. Roughcast rendered walls. Square-headed openings having bipartite four-over-one pane timber casement windows. Square-headed opening with replacement timber panelled door. Pair of square-profile rusticated limestone piers to east with carved caps, plinth course and rusticated limestone walls. 

Appraisal 

Scarteen, built by the Ryan family in different phases, displays a predominantly nineteenth-century Tudor Revival façade. Features of this style include gabled projections, crenellated bay windows and decorative features such as the hoodmouldings. The retention of the slate roof and timber bargeboards help maintain the original character of the house. The substantial outbuildings and Tudor Revival gate lodge enhance the composition and add context to the site. 

 
http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-list.jsp?letter=S 

Thaddeus R. Ryan was resident at nearby Castle Jane [Ryves Castle] in 1837 as recorded by Lewis and Scarteen was unoccupied. John Ryan was the occupier of Scarteen in the early 1850s when the house was valued at £30+. He held the property from William H. Ryves. His widow Alice owned 50 acres in county Limerick in the 1870s. The Ryans still live at Scarteen where the famous pack of hounds of that name is kennelled.  

In O’Hea O’Keeffe, Jane. Voices from the Great Houses: Cork and Kerry. Mercier Press, Cork, 2013.  

p. 64. Rosemary explains the Ryan-Purcell connection to the old house. “This was the home of my husband John’s mother, whose name was Anita Purcell. He was the younger son, and his elder brother inherited the Ryan family home at Scarteen in Knocklong, County Limerick. When we were first married, we lived at Scarteen, which was John’s childhood home. Later, he inherited Rich Hill near Annacotty, County Limerick, from his godfather, Dicky Howley, and we lived there for a short while. When John’s aunt, Louisa Purcell, died in the early 1960s, she left Burton Park to John, so we then came to live here and have been here ever since.