The Underbelly of Muckross House, Ireland

When Jeffry and I were in Ireland in March, 2023, we went to Muckross House for the tour since we enjoy history and architecture of older homes and wanted to see this beautiful historic Victorian mansion. Muckross House sits on the shores of Muckross Lake in picturesque Killarney National Park. Designed by famed Scottish architect William Burn, it was built between 1839 and 1843 for Henry Arthur Herbert. It reminds me a lot of the popular TV series & movies, Downtown Abbey, though on a much smaller scale.

While the interior of Muckross House is beautiful, we found that we enjoyed ourselves the most exploring the basement where the staff worked, prepared meals, had their breaks, etc. As an interior designer, I do enjoy designing spaces for my clients but I’m really focused on how a space functions and what work best for them. I was interested to see the underbelly of the home and get some insight in how the staff operated the house and served the Herbert family. I will discuss about some things that I discovered that surprised me or that I found fascinating.

The main kitchen at Muckross House.

During our tour, we went to the kitchen where the staff worked to prepare the meals for the Herbert family and their guests, which at one point included a visiting Queen Victoria. This kitchen has a lot of character, is quite open and airy, and contains a lot of original pieces to the kitchen.

Old fashioned mortar & pestle at Muckross House

Mortar & Pestle

We saw an old fashioned mortar & pestle at this kitchen. I’ve never seen one quite this size before. I thought it fascinating that it was situated on top of it’s own independent burner so one could apply heat to what one was grinding at the time. you can buy modern blenders now that also heat up, so this was like a Victorian version of a professional Thermomix! The pestle has got quite a handle on it, being stabilized by going through an upper shelf. It looks like a hell of a work out if you ask me.

Old fashioned kitchen burners at Muckross House

Wood fired burners

I was really surprised to see these old fashioned burners that are built separate from typical old fashioned stove. It was naturally a wood burning range top and if you look closely at the picture I took above you can see where you’d slot in the wood to keep the fire going to control heat levels of different parts of the range top. A house of this size would be preparing large meals, so it makes sense they would need multiple burners going for multiple recipes simultaneously. What I really liked was the placement in the windows. The cooks would had wonderful views onto the lawn while they worked. I’d say this type of old fashioned burners actually a bit luxurious since it is so large, spread out, and more comfortable to use to cook than compared to the smaller old fashioned stoves that you’ll see in the next picture. I find this whole type of old fashioned burners fascinating.

Old fashioned double ovens and stove at Muckross House

Double Ovens & Stove

I am sure most of you already know what old fashioned stoves look like as shown in the picture above on the right side. This was a different kitchen than the main kitchen; perhaps just more space or the kitchen where they prepared staff meals? One thing I was so surprised to see is the double ovens on the wall actually existed far back in the 19th century. I always thought it wasn’t introduced until the late 40’s. I’d say they were pretty innovative at that time for having this double ovens concept for space saving and efficiency in the kitchen. The heat source was wood burning which is not shown on this picture. The workers put the firewood to feed the fire behind the wall.

Old fashioned kitchen sinks at Muckross House

Original Kitchen Sinks & Faucets

We saw this incredible old fashioned kitchen sink that were used to wash vegetable and fruits. I like the slight incline on the wood counter prep area to the left that can easily be washed down with water directly into the sink for cleanup. I was a bit surprised to see that they also have both hot and cold water faucets as I was expecting to see a water pump. In my understanding that type of faucets didn’t become common until around 1870’s. It was pretty cool to see how ahead this home with the time, though of course it could have been a future renovation to the plumbing added later.

The wine cellar at Muckross House

Wine Cellar

Who loves wine as much as I do? I probably am spoiled by seeing so many beautiful and luxurious wine cellars. It’s fairly typical for them to be showrooms or visually impressive nowadays. I was surprised to see how simple and underwhelming this wine cellar is at Muckross House. I had to remind myself that the wine cellar wasn’t visible to the Herbert family or guests and the only person in the house that had a key was the butler. However, the most shelves and below I believed was mostly for the barrels and some for bottles. Barrels were very common in the early days. What you can’t really see is on the left there is a metal box that had it’s own lock and key and would have held the most expensive vintages and rarest alcohols.

Did any elements of these pictures surprise you too? Please let me know what you think of these old fashioned appliances and gadgets with your comments below.