House design guide
What Louth wants your home to look like
This guide helps homeowners design houses that respect County Louth's natural landscapes, historic towns, and rural heritage. It promotes building simple, rectangular homes using local, traditional materials, while positioning houses within natural land contours and shelter-planting to minimize visual impact and energy use.
Accepted house types & forms
What they want to see
Encouraged by the guide
Site houses in sheltered areas(75)
Homeowners should position houses away from prevailing winds, below the skyline, and within natural folds or contours of the land to reduce exposure and energy consumption.
Build simple, rectangular shapes(77)
The council encourages straightforward building forms with simple sloping roofs that look natural in the landscape rather than complex or bulky shapes.
Conserve existing trees and hedges(78)
Preserving existing field boundaries and mature plants is essential to blend new homes into their rural surroundings and avoid a raw, exposed look.
Create shelter belts using native plants(75, 93)
Planting groups of native trees and hedges can shelter the home from cold winds and driving rain, reducing fuel consumption by up to 20%.
Use traditional boundary walls(88)
Boundary walls in villages should be built from masonry, stone, or rendered blockwork that matches local historic styles, keeping heights between 90cm and 180cm.
Align buildings with existing streetlines(83, 88)
New houses in villages and towns should match the typical street frontages and minor setbacks of nearby traditional buildings.
What gets refused
Discouraged by the guide
Do not build on the skyline or ridges(81)
Houses must be kept off skylines and high ridges to prevent prominent silhouettes that disrupt the natural views.
Avoid complex or bulky designs(77)
Overly complicated forms, awkward low roof-pitches, bulky dormers, and fake features like plastic shutters are discouraged.
Avoid a chaotic mix of materials(77, 92)
Homeowners should avoid a visual 'hotchpotch' of competing materials on a single site, such as plastic porticos, concrete balustrades, or fake applied stonework.
Do not destroy roadside hedgerows for driveways(78)
Creating large, disruptive gaps in roadside hedges for driveways or replacing them with concrete, ranch-style, or post-and-wire fencing is discouraged.
Avoid asphalt driveways in rural settings(78)
Harsh ground finishes like asphalt are discouraged in natural, rural settings; natural gravel is preferred as it is less obtrusive.
Avoid ribbon development and urban sprawl(68, 70)
Dispersed ribbon housing along country roads is heavily restricted to prevent the blurring of town boundaries and protect rural areas.
Materials & finishes
- Natural slate
- Thatch
- Natural stone / stone walls
- Whitewashed or painted render / lime plaster
- Gravel (for driveways instead of asphalt)
Roofs & form
- Simple rectangular building form
- Simple sloping roofs
- Steeply pitched roofs (traditional houses often have a 40 to 55 degree roof pitch; modern houses 30 to 45 degrees)
- Dormers positioned within the roofspace
- Chimney gables
Siting & landscape
- Build below the horizon or skyline and in valleys or natural folds
- Integrate homes using existing mature trees, hedges, and land contours for shelter
- Align village and town houses directly onto the street or with modest setbacks of 2 to 5 metres
- Use indigenous/native planting for shelter belts to shield from wind and salt-laden sea air
- Respect a minimum plot size of 0.2 ha and house size limit of 140 to 150 square metres in designated scenic areas