Huguenot Glass-Making Furnace (OF042-049----)

3D Model

17th-century wood-fired Huguenot glass-making furnace (OF042-049----), in the townland of Glasshouse, near Shinrone, Co. Offaly. Site was excavated in 1999 by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O’Brien under licence no. 99E0191. The glass-furnace originally stood at the western end of a large oak and ash woodland known as Clonlisk Wood which belonged to John O’Carroll who lived in nearby Clonlisk Castle. Several families of French Huguenot glassmakers from the Lorraine had been manufacturing glass in England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Members of two of these families, the Bigos and the Henseys (de Hennezels), are known to have held land in Offaly during the first half of the 17th century. Abraham Bigo operated a furnace at Clonbrone, Birr, Co. Offaly, in 1623. The Hensey family probably ran this glassworks as they owned lands surrounding the furnace in the mid-17th century. For more information on the glass furnace, visit: https://maps.archaeology.ie/HistoricEnvironment/?SMRS=OF042-049----