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| Home InformationReports, Surveys, etc Thatch Owners Photo Gallery Care Of ThatchDating Our CottageNews & Views Thatchers' Nook | Name Melanie and Jeremy's beautiful thatch cottage in Fartown, Glenamaddy, Co. Galway.
Address Fartown, Glenamaddy, Co. Galway
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This is our very first thatch cottage from Galway. Hi Robert After I received this email from Melanie, I contacted her and asked her to send me more photos and tell me more about her house. Melanie replied to me as follows and very kindly gave me permission to feature her reply on the web site. Thanks, Melanie! Whatever you do, make sure you click on the winter/snow picture below. It would make a wonderful christmas Card. ... Robert
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1. Hello Robert, I don't have much informations about the cottage itself. It belonged to Martin Daly, and old bachelor, who moved back from England to take care of his elderly mother. She died in 1976 I think, and Martin died in 1996, it was left unhabited for 4 years when 2 friends bought it. They later decided to go back to France (where they originally came from, like me and Jeremy), that's when we bought it, in 2004. The cottage remained in good condition thanks to the love and care of our neighbours who lit a fire every day after Martin had died, to make sure the house remained. Every year we have the visit of some of Martin's brother and sister who love to come back to the house they were born in (there were 5 children + the parents living in our house), we've asked them informations about the house, but as far as they could remember (great great grand fathers, so I'd say at least early 1800) the cottage had always belonged to their family. There used to be a door, right in front of the main entrance, we were told at one stage that animals and humans used to cohabit. Also there is a loft above the smallest of the rooms (right handside of the house), we can see details of the thatched, and the turf that was used to hold the thatched on the structure, the beams are black which would indicate that turf smoke filled the house at one stage. |
2. These indications seem to go towards the house being very old. Our thatcher also said that it was the oldest thatched he had every worked on... Obviously I'd love to know more, so if you have any idea of who to contact and where to go to, to find out more, I'd be grateful for your advice. Due to the elderly scheme taking place in county galway, a bathroom was added just before Martin died, at the back of the house. This year we have demolished the bathroom to build an extension also at the back of the cottage. We've seek advice from the heritage council and our thatcher to make sure we were not going to denature the cottage, everybody thinks we've made a good job out of it, we've tried to respect the room sizes, window sizes and aspect of the cottage. And what was important for us was not to see the extension from the front of our house. We've managed that bit !! Earlier in the year, our cottage was listed as part of a survey from county Galway heritage council. We've met Fidelma Mullane who's specialised in vernacular architecture and is very passionate about thatched houses (links from your website, Report on the Present and Future of Thatched Structures in Ireland). |
3. She knows a lot about thatched houses and has a lot of contacts. She might be interested to know about your initiative. I went to one of her lectures about thatch roofs in the summer, and I met with a woman working for the heritage council of Co Galway, and she said she was looking into setting up an association of Thatched houses home owners, in the idea of maybe putting a bit of pressure on the irish government not to loose the heritage. I must contact her again and check with her if this project is gonna go ahead. |
4. I hope the forum is soon going to be, I would be interested in checking out the insurance possibilities, mine is so high !! |
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