From architects who have been preaching, teaching and practising urban design for the past
thirty years it may seem surprising that life on the urban edge should be the chosen lifestyle for
the Geoghegan family. So many factors enter into a decision to live in the countryside. Certainly,
the realities of dealing with rural issues have gradually pushed the rural sustainability question
to the top of the agenda.
We moved from Sandycove in 1994, returning from a five–year spell in Jersey, having advised a small government on big issues – those of architecture, conservation and urban design, and having helped to shape an integrated environmental policy for this small, overpopulated island. Jersey then was threatening to become a ubiquitous extended urban environment, replacing the fragile, delicate and beautiful Norman agricultural landscape with the kind of development which could be found anywhere in the United Kingdom. Returning to Ireland and County Wicklow in 1994 was a refreshing experience by comparison, where much of the county was still outside the commuter belt, its rural landscape yet to be seriously compromised by the widening arc of suburbanisation around Dublin, even though the trend was quite clear.
Ballymurrin House, the core buildings of a Quaker farm settlement dating from the 1670s,
seemed a very good exchange for our Victorian terrace house on Albert Road at the time. Its
acquisition generated for the family a prolonged and ongoing love affair with a remarkable historic
building –‘an extremely rare example of a pre-1700s dwelling of the middling sort’ according to the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage of the OPW. The main living area was in good condition,
however the outbuildings had been unused and neglected for many years; beautiful stone and
slate farmyard structures awaiting a new use as their only passport to sustainability.
Long view of Ballymurrin House, a Quaker farm settlement dating from 1670, with Wicklow mountains behind. The main house is in
the centre of the picture, the Old Dairy/studio is left of centre and the old milking parlour, shown during restoration is the outbuilding, is to the left. The old Stables are right of centre
The Old Dairy
The first target for restoration was the old dairy, a building which in its time had been far more
than that, comprising a carriage house, a living room and large kitchen on the ground floor, and a
bedroom beside the loft on the upper floor. Its earlier connection with the main house was reestablished
and the loft became the architecture, conservation and urban design practice base. At this stage the real gain was to put a roof on a part of the building which had deteriorated sharply through rain ingress over decades, but despite this the structure and floors were reasonably intact and the extraordinary wattle and clay beehive chimney and bread oven could be saved. This first project was a major step towards the future sustainability of the place, but without the overriding concern for energy conservation which impacts upon us now, although the studio sits warm under its tea-cosy wrap of insulation in the roof.
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