Abstract

Examinations of the basements of Irish country houses are underrepresented in current scholarship, and few historians use as sources the architectural drawings that depict them. This thesis aims to address the resulting gaps by using a sample of 43 floor plans for the basement levels of 29 country houses across the island of Ireland to analyze the work of architects and how these sources can be used to study these buildings that have fascinated the general public for centuries. The plans are examined based on their materiality and as visual layouts, and the considerations facing architects when designing country houses are discussed.
New statistics are produced about aspects of Irish country house basements such as their depth relative to ground-level, how many rooms they contained, and their general functions. Despite its scope remaining within the realm of architectural planning and based solely on floor plans, this thesis generates research useful to architectural and social historians, especially those conducting “history from below,” and suggests several avenues of further research.