Historian Allowed To Explore 1870 Nunnery, Can't Believe What's Inside

A historian made a unique discovery when he decided to look around an old mansion dating back to the 1870s.

Dr. Paul O'Brien, an academic from Limerick, Ireland, was exploring a property known as Fernbank House, which now houses nuns but once belonged to a person named Lady Cleeve, whose husband was well-known in the area.

With the permission of the nuns, he wanted to have a look around at some of the old features. He and his accompanying nun were subsequently surprised at one particular discovery.

A man discovers a hidden window feature in a nunnery. @limerick.eyes/TikTok

"The nuns altered the exterior of the house," he told Newsweek. "It was originally a sort of French chateau style. The interior is still perfect."

O'Brien shared a video of his discovery to TikTok, where it has received over two million views, showing a hidden window shutter that nobody knew was there.

O'Brien pulls it up from the window's ledge to reveal it. It has been under a small hatch on the bottom of the window. He shared the video with the text overlay: "hidden for 100 years."

"The nun beside us said she'd lived in the house for over 50 years and never spotted the hidden shutters before," he said. "She said that the person to open them was probably a servant of Lady Cleeve in 1920.

"It was mad to think that we were the first people to open the hidden shutters in over 100 years and I thought to myself, the last time these were open, the view on the outside was completely different."

A local historian in Limerick, Ireland made a unique discovery in a nunnery in the area. @limerick.eyes/TikTok

Limerick is a county in the west of Ireland and is home to a number of castles and old mansions. The area is famous for well-preserved old sites such as Glin Castle, Adare, Linfield House, and many more.

TikTok users were impressed with O'Brien's discovery and took to the comments to share their thoughts on the video.

"The craftsmanship back then," said Dave Russell.

Meanwhile, @leecook10 said: "[I've] not seen anything like that before."

"They are beautiful. Real treasures," Oma Stippel commented. "I love all these old features. [They] just don't make houses like they used to. Such a shame," said @ccarm410.

Sarah-Jayne Conway shared: "I have some in the house I live in! It was built in around 1860, and they are original to the house. Restored a couple of years ago. They are fab!"

"Imagine how much it'd cost to have these made today. What a great feature," said @smesh78256.

Charlie simply called the craftsmanship "extraordinary."

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