The Fortified House: The Fortified Houses Of County Cork The Fortified Houses of County Cork: origin,

This analysis of the origin, fabric, form, function and social use of space of the fortified houses in county Cork examines some of the changes that took place within Irish society in the late medieval and early modern period. The rise and decline of the fortified house reflects the passing of the Irish social, political, military and religious (Catholic) order and the rise of the new English elite determined to settle in Ireland. The builder/owners of fortified houses were the elites of Irish society who needed to secure and protect their property and valuables. The fortified house met the para-military and residential need of early seventeenth-century Ireland. It was a uniquely Irish architectural form that bridged the transition from tower-house building to the emergence of the undefended Irish country manor. It can be defined as the initial architectural form that identifies Ireland’s move from the medieval to the modern world