Sometimes a tweet takes a life of it’s own and I’ve watched with interest how a recent Tweet by Dr. Marion McGarry (whose forthcoming book on Irish Cottages I’m eagerly anticipating) has been liked and retweeted over and over again!
Image from Dr Marion McGarry. Image links to blog
The image shows the traditional Irish Cottage that is prevalent across the entire area we work as architects; namely Counties Mayo, Sligo, Clare, Galway, Roscommon, Leitrim and I’m sure the same form occurs across Ireland.
The cottage is described by Dr. Marion McGarry as:
“Direct entry #Irishcottage with floor plan. Raised gables and tied down thatch, typical of #Atlantic coastal counties”
I have written about the form previously HERE and HERE is a great post on the same subject.
In essence, the key aspects are:
• Central space for cooking, eating, dancing, singing & granny or grandad to sleep
• Two bedrooms either side
• Small windows due to Window/Glass Tax – WIKI DETAILS HERE
• Raised gables – these are now constructed in concrete but I have also seen fibre-glass versions!
• Tied down thatch – originally thatch then following fires they moved to corrugated iron and now the familiar material is blue/black or grey slate.
The only difference I’d make to the image is to have a half-stable door at the front which bypassed the window tax law.
We are regularly restoring, refurbishing and extending cottages of this type. If you have a cottage like this and are looking to work on it in 2017 – why not CONTACT US… (The phot below shows a curved, modernist extension that connects to a traditional Irish cottage exactly of this type):
For more information on Irish Cottages, the forthcoming book and the work of Dr. Marion McGarry CLICK HERE