Irish Thatch

The whitewashed, thatched cottage is one of the most familiar images of traditional Irish architecture. Thatched dwellings, together with related forms such as the blackhouse, belong to a building tradition in Ireland that is very old, and straw was among the most common materials of vernacular building on the island.

Construction

Traditional Irish cottages were long, narrow, single-storey buildings with thick stone or mud walls and a roof of timber couples (rafters) carrying a covering of thatch. Common thatching materials were straw from oats, wheat or rye and, near rivers and lakes, water reed. Thatch was often laid over a base layer of sods, and in exposed western districts roofs were frequently tied down with ropes weighted by stones or fixed to pegs set into the walls to resist Atlantic gales.

Thatch needs a steep pitch, generally about 45-55 degrees, and regular maintenance, with the ridge being the first part to wear.

Decline and survival

As slate, and later corrugated iron and concrete tile, became cheaper and more available in the 19th and 20th centuries, thatch declined sharply. Surviving thatched cottages are now often regarded as quaint, and many are rented to tourists as holiday homes. Examples can be seen in villages such as Kilmore Quay in County Wexford and Cahir in County Tipperary.

Slate

Slate largely replaced thatch on towns and farmhouses. North Wales, whose quarries dominated world roofing slate production from about 1780 to 1940, exported both slate and skilled workers to Ireland, and Irish quarries also produced roofing slate.

Conservation

Keeping a thatched roof in Ireland today involves the same issues as elsewhere in Britain and Europe: a shortage of skilled thatchers, the availability of suitable straw and reed, higher insurance costs and fire safety. Heritage grant schemes have been used in Ireland to help owners re-thatch traditional cottages, but the number of thatched homes remains small compared with the past.