House of the Week: Parsons House, Churchtown

As rooted as any house can be in its community... that’s Parsons House, in North Cork’s Churchtown village, writes Tommy Barker

Despite its winsome, ‘English’ village sounding title, it’s at the centre of a Golden Vale community that values its heritage, and heritage buildings, is steeped in horse lore, and also values its human inhabitants, past and present.

Set off the N7 Cork-Limerick road, a few kilometres from Buttevant and Charleville, in prosperous countryside, Churchtown was the birthplace of one Vincent O’Brien in 1917, the race horse trainer extraordinaire, and key co-creator of the Coolmore dynasty, whose equine influences now span the globe.