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Survey of Thatched Houses in County Limerick County.
Thatched houses were an indispensable feature of the traditional rural landscape of county Limerick. They were good houses that as the eminent Limerick folklorist Kevin Danaher said ‘sheltered many a generation of brave men and fine women.’
They were usually long, low buildings, one storey high, of a rectangular plan. They had strong thick walls, which supported a strong thick roof. The walls were usually of stone and lime mortar, or stone and clay mortar. Each room usually occupied the full width of the house. The thatched roof was made of strong reed, which was cultivated especially along the Shannon and Bunratty rivers. A common type of thatched house was a three roomed farmhouse with a kitchen in the middle and a bedroom at each end. According to Kevin Danaher there were many variations to the general pattern of thatched house. Local building methods and traditions and the availability of materials could account for this.
The selection of thatched houses shown here were photographed as part of a survey compiled by Michael Higginbotham in 1994/95 for the Office of Public Works. The survey recorded details such as the type of materials used in the roof, the walls, the windows and whether the houses were well maintained, occupied or in ruins. As you will see some of these thatched houses have been altered e.g. modern aluminium windows and/or doors added etc, etc.
Note that this is not a comprehensive survey of all thatched houses in County Limerick. Other houses have been recorded by the Ballyhoura Architectural Survey team at Hospital, Co. Limerick and by members of Limerick County Council staff. This survey has been published by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (Dept. of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government).
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