(Pretty Swiss Cottage)

My mother and I went to visit the Swiss Cottage near Cahir on Saturday. It was built in 1810 for Lord and Lady Cahir and is a Cottage Orne. A playhouse for the rich. It was built for tea parties and to look pretty. It looks very pretty. It fell into disrepair but was restored in the 1980’s. Not much of the original survived, some wallpaper and one small window, so the restoration recreated the original and did a beautiful job.

(Veranda going around the cottage)

You get to it via a walk along the very picturesque river Suir (pronounced sure), over a bridge and through an underground tunnel into the basement servant’s quarters (now a reception area.) When you’ve bought your ticket you walk up the servants stairs and through a hidden door to the hallway of the cottage. Here there’s an oak staircase painted a dull brown – the idea was everything had to look rustic, peasant-like, not expensive. So the oak was disguised.

(Cute flower covered balcony)

I forgot my camera… again, but the cottage can’t take an ugly picture. Although it’s very pretty it’s not real. Come to think of it sometimes real is not pretty.

(No photography allowed inside the cottage, this is a weird shot looking in one of the windows)

(The one original pane of decorated glass)

From a rainy Greystones, Mairead.