Old Crowley Homestead Durrus where Catherine’s mother died c 1926
Reconstruction, note small windows.
Late 18th/Early 19th century house, Ahagouna (Áth Gamhna: Crossing Place of the Calves/Spriplings) Clashadoo, Durrus, West Cork, Ireland.
The nearby ford adn stepping stones was pre 1775 before the Ahagouna Bridge may have been built the main crossing point from the west of the peninsula. The areas was covered by a network of bridle paths some of which still survive. The rudiments of a road network probably date from the early 19th century and are indicated on the first Ordnance Survey maps, mid 1830s.
Buildings of this period often used horse hair and animal blood as a mortar to bind the stones. In one West Cork family (the Eadys from the Clonakilty area) who went to New Brunswick in Canada in the 1810s and 1820s there is a mention of their homestead. It was built in the 1740s and is still occupied and was reputedly one of the first stone houses in the area. There is reference in their papers to horsehair and blood used as a mortar. This was common and was known as purluw:
In the nearby area of Gearhameen townland is Durrus Court built by the Evanson family probably c 1720s. It was restored a few years ago by Mr. Deveny found that the structural timbers were probably of Douglas Fir and rough sawn. In the first floor some of the partitions between the rooms were constructed of turf between batons and plastered. The timber was generally of poor quality but the masonry good. The foundation of the house are partly built of on rock and a spring runs into the former hall
For a family homestead probably late 18th early 19th century that of the Daly family in Lisheenacreagh. About three miles as the crow flies over the hill on the Ballydehob side.
West Cork History 
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I’m an ancestral Crowley from Clonakilty Co. Cork. Interesting to look on a Crowley homestead
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Hi,
Thanks for this post – it’s very interesting. I am researching my wife’s Irish family links and I wonder if you might be able to help me at all. Her great-great-great-grandmother was Mary Sullivan (nee Cotter, d. 1926), whose daughter Bridget married into Crowleys of Durrus and died in 1966. Another of Mary’s daughters, Katherine, left for California and settled there. I’m from Bantry and have found their grave next to Durrus church.
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