As the faithful reader will know we have a grá for the three-roomed, traditional Irish Cottage. We have done numerous restorations, refurbishments and extensions to this ubiquitious, traditional architectural form across Ireland. It was of great interest therefore that I read of the forthcoming book on Marion McGarry on this very topic which should be out in October through Orpen Press.

But first, what is the traditional 3 room Irish cottage? Here’s a rough sketch of the typical form in our area (across Connacht):

Essentially the cottage has a central space which includes an ‘outshot’ typically slept in by Granny or grandad and two rooms either side. There’s a great description of the form HERE which explains the outshot in lovely detail together with typical construction etc…

What caught my eye in a recent tweet by Marion McGarry regarding her new book was although the form is similar across the country; the example below includes a ‘spy window’. You can also see that the large room to the right was divided equally into two rooms – this is also common in Connacht.

Image Copyright Marion McGarry

So what should you do if you have one, thinking of buying one or are looking to restore or extend one?

1. We’ve put a checklist together HERE that may help

2. You could take on an ‘Initial Consultation’ that gets you started on the right track; details on this are below:

https://www.markstephensarchitects.com/shop/initial-consultation/

3. If you’re thinking of extending or remodelling then you could take on the ‘iniitial design’ service we provide, details below:

https://www.markstephensarchitects.com/shop/half-day-design-workshop-remodellingextensions/

4. Watch this space. We are about to roll out some ‘stock plans’ that give design drawings of great ways of extending your traditional Irish Cottage – details on this to follow…