House design guide
What Monaghan wants your home to look like
Monaghan County Council wants new rural homes to reflect the simple, unadorned character of traditional local cottages and farmhouses. Homeowners should design simple linear or cube-shaped buildings with narrow gables, using uncomplicated slate or rendered finishes while avoiding fussy suburban details. New homes must be carefully integrated into the landscape, preferably nestled on lower slopes using natural contours to avoid harsh hillside excavation.
Accepted house types & forms
What they want to see
Encouraged by the guide
Siting on lower slopes of hills(37, 50)
New buildings integrate best if placed on the lower slopes of hills or on reasonably flat sites, which naturally shields them from the elements and avoids prominent visual exposure.
Narrow gable widths(69)
Keep overall gable widths as narrow as possible (maximum 7m for two-storey and 6m for single-storey) to minimise ridge heights and retain traditional proportions.
Re-using and converting existing buildings(34, 35, 49)
Renovating semi-derelict traditional cottages or converting old farm buildings like barns and mills is highly sustainable and reinforces regional character.
Direct Gain passive solar design(46, 78)
Position larger windows on the south and west sides to maximize free heating from the sun, while keeping north-facing windows as small as possible to minimize heat loss.
Traditional courtyard layouts(30, 37, 65, 83)
Arrange outbuildings or garages to form L-shaped or U-shaped groupings around a yard, which helps visually break down the bulk of larger homes.
Simple and unadorned roof lines(60, 92)
Keep roofs simple, continuous, and unbroken by complex dormers or rooflights, drawing on the minimalist quality of traditional local architecture.
Indigenous planting and boundary treatments(87, 92)
Use single-track gravel lanes lined with native hedges (hawthorn, blackthorn) and broadleaf trees (oak, ash, beech) to blend the site into the countryside.
What gets refused
Discouraged by the guide
Building on hilltops or skylines(50, 85)
Avoid positioning houses on prominent hilltops or ridgelines where they break the skyline and dominate the landscape.
Extensive cut-and-fill excavation(53, 82, 85)
Do not slice off hilltops or build up massive artificial flat platforms on sloping ground, as this leaves ugly, unintegrable scars on the landscape.
Ribbon development(29, 36)
Creating lines of detached houses directly fronting main county roads integrates poorly and ruins the open rural character of the county.
Suburban and fussy details(61, 62, 86)
Avoid complex or excessive dormer windows, bay windows, decorative barge boards, overhanging eaves fascias, porticos, and decorative pediments.
Non-traditional or synthetic materials(33, 62, 77)
Avoid using synthetic stone, concrete bricks, PVCu fascias/soffits, and excessive mixtures of materials like red brick with artificial stone.
Urban-style roads and hard landscaping(87)
Do not install concrete kerbs, extensive tarmac driveways, blockwork walls, timber panel fences, pre-cast concrete fencing, or ornate fountains and gates.
Projecting chimneys(62, 77)
Avoid chimney breasts that project awkwardly from external gable walls, and avoid placing chimneys off-center from the roof ridge.
Materials & finishes
- Rendered masonry (finished with a wood float, unpainted or painted in subtle greys, off-white, buff, and cream) [page 33, 38]
- Natural slate (blue/black or Bangor Blue) [page 33, 38]
- Corrugated iron (traditionally painted red, green, or left galvanised) [page 33, 38]
- Thatch [page 33]
- Locally sourced natural stone in an ashlar finish (matching local color and texture) [page 38]
- High-specification painted timber windows (avoiding PVCu) [page 77]
- Painted metal cills or insitu concrete cills (avoiding pre-cast concrete) [page 76, 77]
- Cast iron or cast aluminium half-round gutters with circular downpipes [page 77]
Roofs & form
- Simple linear farmhouse forms (long double-pitched blocks with narrow gable ends) [page 60]
- Small Country House form (cube or box shape with hipped roof) [page 26, 60]
- Traditional roof pitches ranging from 35 degrees to 45 degrees [page 68, 92]
- Narrow gable widths (maximum 7m for two-storey and 6m for single-storey) [page 69]
- Omission of barge boards on cottages or vernacular farmhouses [page 38]
- Simple, uninterrupted roof planes free of complex dormers [page 60, 61]
- Flat-roofed porches to allow first-floor windows to run uninterrupted [page 72, 92]
- Chimneys centred on the ridge, flush with the gable wall, with a width of 450–600 mm [page 77]
Siting & landscape
- Siting on the lower slopes of hills, utilizing natural hollows and avoiding exposed hilltops or skylines [page 37, 50, 82]
- Working with the natural contours of the site, stepping internal floor levels down rather than using heavy cut-and-fill to create flat platforms [page 53, 82]
- Siting linear houses with their long axis at right angles to contours on sloping sites to present a short gable end to the landscape [page 53, 80]
- Siting houses parallel to contours only if kept as narrow as possible to limit excavation [page 82, 97]
- Locating new houses adjacent to existing farm groups or in L-shaped/U-shaped farmyard courtyard layouts [page 30, 37, 65, 83]
- Using a single-track, hedge-lined gravel laneway for access rather than wide suburban tarmac roads [page 36, 87, 92]
- Using indigenous deciduous hedges (hawthorn, blackthorn) and broadleaf trees (oak, ash, beech) for shelter and screening [page 37, 87, 92]
- Avoiding suburban landscape treatments such as turning circles, concrete kerbs, timber fences, blockwork walls, and ornate gates [page 87]