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

County Waterford, Curragh - Plan, front elevation, isometric sketch of living room and section of house, 1945

Measured by John Cumming, Patrick Hamilton, and Robin Walker. Drawn by Robin Walker, 1945. Watercolour board, black drawing ink, pencil Height 715mm, Width 504mm.

The isometric drawing of the house is drawn to scale. If the house was lived in at the time of the survey the other compartment, shown in the plan, was most probably a bedroom. Two items of furniture are shown in the drawing: a low-backed settle-bed and a creepie- stool.  Settles were designed to take advantage of the wall space in traditional houses. They were bench like seats by day, and could be opened out to form an enclosed box-like bed at night.  Beside the creepie, a fan-bellows is shown.  This mechanism was designed to help light a fire, especially one where coal was used. By turning the handle on the bellows wheel, air is forced through an underground vent blowing air out under the hearth and providing oxygen to help to light the fire.

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.