The Swiss Cottage in Cahir is unique. A "cottage orné" or idealized rural cottage, it comes complete with a rustic façade of tree trunks and branches. The arts and crafts style was fashionable in the early 1800s when Richard Butler, First Earl of Glengall, had the cottage built to a design probably by John Nash. Highlights include a beautiful spiral staircase, a sculptural thatched roof and a salon decorated with Dufour Wallpaper, one of the first to be produced commercially. The cottage is now owned by the state, and an award-winning restoration was completed in 1989.
