The Cabins

The cabins in which the ordinary people lived were wretched beyond belief, they were built with mud. The clay is taken from the very spot where the cabin is to be built; no foundations were dug which left them subject to all the damp. Most of them had a hole dug in the floor to make it easier to bail out the water. It was on these damp floors that most families slept, as they did not have a bed. Most of the cabins had neither windows or doors and hogs and hens shared the accommodation. With reference to County Meath the following is recorded in a survey of the time: The cottiers of Summerhill are well lodged, as are those in the employment of the Marquis of Headford at Kilmainham near Kells. John Gerrard Esq. of Gibbstown has built a good range of stonewall cottages.