Coppingers Court

 

Coppingers Court – County Cork, Ireland

Finding random ruins on the side of the road is pretty easy in the county of Cork. On our second day in Ireland we drove around the town of Rosscarbery, Glandore and Skibbereen. We stopped at Drombeg Stone Circle, several small fishing villages and landed upon Coppingers Court. About a quarter of a mile south of Glandore road, this Elizabethan mansion is ‘protected’ by broken-down fences and grazing cows. No signs to lead you, no admission, no souvenir stalls.

For a home erected in the early part of the 17th century, attacked in the wars of 1641, and overlooked by historical societies, Coppingers Court is relatively in tact.  It is said that the tyrannous and eccentric Sir Walter Coppinger built the house with a chimney for every month, a door for every week and a window for every year. How fantastic it must have been in its grandeur.

We spent close to an hour imagining each of the windows and doors, while taking pictures of the overgrown moss and wet grass. Boots soaked in mud, sun reaching high, we climbed back over the fence and into our car, relieved that our first Irish castle was exactly as we had hoped – untouched, unadulterated and full of history.

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