Bunratty Farm Houses, Ireland

The Bunratty Folk Park has several examples of farm houses used in different areas and at different times in Ireland. Here are a few of the few simple homes of the simple Irish folk.

First is the Byre Dwelling, a simple home from County Mayo that sheltered a family and their milking cows. The kitchen is a simple fireplace with a few implements to support it. The cupboard looks quite nice.

Byre Dwelling

Simple fireplace

The dishes

The bedroom is fairly simple and occupies the space behind the fireplace, probably to provide warmth for the family.

Byre bedroom

Just off the picture of the fireplace is a small alcove built into the wall that looked like a sleeping area for the older children. So they got the warmth directly from the fireplace. They also got the warmth from the cow's sleeping area just opposite the fireplace.

Cows' sleeping area

The Mountain Farmhouse shows how a poor farmer would live up on the borders of counties Limerick and Kerry. The cows' room is gone and replaced by a sleeping loft.

Mountain Farmhouse

A more upscale interior

Underneath the loft is another bedroom, presumably for the parents.

Bedroom

Across from the bedrooms is the kitchen, much like the set up in the Byrne Dwelling. The equipment is a little more elaborate.

Fireplace/kitchen

The room behind the fireplace is now a dining room with more furnishings than the dirt poor first house.

A nice dining area

A third house is the Shannon Farmhouse. It was reconstructed from a farmhouse that was on the main runway of the Shannon airport. It is one of the first buildings put in the Folk Park and features some nice improvements over the first two farmhouses.

Shannon Farmhouse

The Shannon loft is enclosed for more privacy and has a much nicer cupboard full of dishes and kitchen utensils.

Even more upscale!

The kitchen also boasts of a more elaborate set-up, with an enclosed fireplace and a little staircase on the left up to another storage area.

Shannon kitchen

Behind the fireplace is a fine dining room which might also be a guest room with its Murphy bed.

Dining room/extra sleeping area

Several other houses, such as a fisherman's house and a landless laborer's house (one room, very bare), can be seen at Bunratty.