House of the Week

COMING up on the 100th anniversary of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic, Cobh’s large Carrig House has proven itself a survivor of all it surveys.

One of the most historic houses in the Cork harbour town, Carrig House is steeped in Queenstown/Cobh shipping lore and its emigrant past.

It was built 180 years ago, in an Italianate style, as a private home for a local merchant, John Atkins, and has had a host of uses since. Its most notable and distinguished role was as the American Consulate in the late 1920s and 1930s. That role is remembered still inside Carrig House, where a stained glass window on the grand stairwell carries an image of a ship and the initials ICA, Irish Consulate of America.