A farmer, 78, has died following a fire at the farmhouse where he lived alone near Kibehenny on the Cork-Limerick border.

The man died when a blaze broke out at the farmhouse at Castlequarter in Co Limerick sometime before 11 O'clock last night.

The emergency services responded and fire units from Kilmallock and Mitchelstown attended at the scene, where the man was pronounced dead by a GP at 11.50pm.

The man's body was removed to the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick for a post-mortem.

Meanwhile garda technical experts have begun a forensic examination of the scene to try and establish the cause of the blaze.