Mud Heritage Irish Thatch Cottages, Very Few Left!

Spotted this oil painting in a gallery window. Cliften by Fergus O'Ryan, RHA (1910 - 1989). The price is a fraction of my #Thatch #Cottage yearly #insurance policy which has so many restrictions on it that it gives me no peace of mind. Now, if I purchased this picture instead

I've seen it time and time again. In the background you'll see that the roof and walls of mud-walled #thatch #cottage are long crumbling away ... while the original cottage inhabitant's much-loved wild #roses still #bloom on. Wild roses and thatch are always found together.

Older mud-wall gable at one end - see how #walled thatch 'tea-cosy's - down to protect the top of the mud wall. The other end has a stone gable with modern flashing over the thatch. Guess the mud house was built C1870, or even MUCH earlier and extended in stone at a later date.

Something niggled me about that mud-wall gable of the last #thatch #cottage photo that I took at the back of #Bray Head Co. #icklow. So went back to look at the other gable. It's a stone gable with modern flashing. I guess the mud cottage was extended in stone at a later date.

Hey! Look what I spotted today walking at the back of #Bray Head on the road to #greystones Co. #wicklow - a genune mud-walled #thatch #cottage By my guess C. 1875. What you are looking at is a gable wall. The thatch comes down over the gable to protect the top of the mud wall.

Isn't there something 'timeless and serene' about this mud-walled #thatch #cottage situated on the bend of the road outside #enniscorthy co #Wexford I guess the little window facing the road is a later add-on but it helps to show that the cottage floor level is below the road.

Hey! A #thatch house that I've never seen before. South #Wexford on the road to #kilmore quay. The thatch is interesting because the line on both sides of the chimney is a different hight, as also are the ground floor windows. I suspect it was a dwelling and a byre. It's lovely.

Primroses and mud-walled #thatched #cottages... the perfect #spring companions in #Ireland . Yippee... #Spring2025 is here!

This #Connemara painting 'Lake and Mountains' by #Paul #Henry is due for auction today with an estimated price of €250K - €350K It last sold in 1979 for €2K which is not very far from what it would cost to #insure a #thatched cottage for a year today... if you could insure it

"The Heritage Council promotes policies and priorities for the identification, protection, preservation and enhancement of the national heritage, including wildlife habitats, flora and fauna. We provide heritage policy advice to a range of government agencies and departments." ?

In case you haven't noticed. #spring is just around the corner!

Anois Teach An Earraigh (Now Comes Spring!) Tomorrow is St. Brigid's Day, the first day of #Spring ...the day when last year's St Brigid's Cross - hanging inside my #thatch #Cottage front door to keep evil out all year - must be replaced with a freshly gathered green reed one

It survived! I thought it would. And now the #dafodils are laughing. The relationship between #Thatch and #rain and #Windy #Weather is always complex. A 45% angle roof is necesssary - 55% more desireable. But a higher the angle the more the thatch costs. 10% extra = 20% more

After surviving centuries of #storms , famine, evictions, night of BIG #winds and #floods... Will my mud-walled #thatch #cottage survive tonight in #Wexford ? Hope so!

I suspect that if I painted the door 'RED', we would have a massive queue of potential buyers What I have problems coming to grips with is that a large number of people #worldwide love #irish #thatched #cottages but our government ain't very interested from a tourist viewpoint.

The aclaimed benefits of a #thatched #roof is that it's a warm and snug dwelling in #WINTER and nice and cool in #summer. Try telling that to the owner of this abandoned mud-walled cottage in Co. #Offaly. And yet! For the price of a car it could become a warm snug #home.

Red Paint on #Irish #thatch #cottage doors. Why? Some say it's to ward off evil spirits or faeries. Others say it's a sign of rebellion. Nostalgic nonsense It's the cheapest paint of all. Red iron oxide earth mixed with linseed oil & turpentine, or indeed eggs! And you have it!

The Hay Stacker by Paul Henry 1876 - 1958. Just like my last post. Here is a picture of #Irish #thatch cottages with that all-important hay stack in the front yard. Hay Stacks were expertly roofed like a thatch #roof, using very long ladders, usually by the woman of the house.