Curragh Village, Ardmore Bay, County Waterford, 1945: Architectural Drawings of Irish Traditional Houses

County Waterford, Curragh - Plan and farmyard layout, elevation to S.E., section, details of dresser, windows, wooden bolt, part elevation of gate, 1945

Wove paper, pencil, black drawing ink, white gouache. Height 700 mm. Width 499 mm.

This was originally a two-roomed thatched house. The hearth is located in the gable wall. A slated later addition was described at the time of survey as an outhouse. It may have originally have functioned as a bedroom.  The house has windows to the rear of the house only and none to the front.
The 'fiddle’ front dresser illustrated is 18th century in style. A gate and gate hinge mechanism is also illustrated.  A projection at the bottom hinge fits into the stone in the ground known as a 'spud'. This mechanism allows the gate to be opened to a wide angle.

John Cumming, Patrick Hamilton and Robin Walker (later of Scott, Tallon and Walker Architects), surveyed the 38 houses in the village of Curragh, Co. Waterford during the summer of 1943 when they were architect students at University College Dublin.

The houses of Curragh were a mixture of one, two or three roomed homes at the time of the survey. Built of stone and yellow clay,  most of the houses were whitewashed on the outside. 
According to a report by Robin Walker in the Irish Times of July 9th 1943, the surveyors found ‘fine specimens of early nineteenth-century carved dressers and settles, rich with classical decoration’. The dressers had carved pillars at the side crowned with cornices, and decorated panelling on the lower portion. The surveyors also noted old style canopied beds, known as ‘covered cars’ in many houses.

Today, the sites of this well situated village are highly sought at prices unimaginable to the original dwellers.