Castlehyde

Castlehyde House is situated on the banks of the River Blackwater in Fermoy, Co. Cork. The house dates back to 1760 and, as the name implies, was the one time home of the Hyde family, Sir Douglas Hyde being the first President of Ireland appointed under the Constitution of 29th December 1937. The house is now owned by Mr. Michael Flatley.

Information

Client: Michael Flatley
Quantity Surveyor: Declan Malone
Architect: Frank Murphy & Partners
Structural Engineers: Horgan Lynch
Services Engineers: Malachy Walsh & Partners
Conservation Consultants: TKB & Associates
Main Contractor: Cornerstone Construction

At the time work began, only two floors of the house were habitable, the upper floor deemed unsafe to live in with the roof leaking causing water to seep down through the fabric of the building. The basement had suffered rampant dry rot throughout caused by the ingress of water from the River Blackwater. The house required complete restoration and sympathetic conservation therefore Cornerstone Construction was employed as Main Contractor on this ambitious restoration project in 2001.

Castlehyde House is a protected structure and a number of the rooms are protected by a covenant meaning that any work carried out was to be in accordance with the very best of conservation and restoration practice and guidelines. Every window in the house was restored rather than replaced; every slate on the roof came from salvage rather than reslating with brand new slates.

Cornerstone Construction successfully completed this project in 2003. Castlehyde has been sympathetically restored to its former glory.