House design guide
What Roscommon wants your home to look like
Roscommon County Council wants new homes to blend seamlessly into the countryside by matching traditional Irish rural styles, scales, and materials instead of imposing blocky, suburban designs. The guidelines emphasize choosing low-lying, well-screened sites, utilizing narrow-plan shapes that follow natural land contours, and preserving native trees and hedgerows.
Accepted house types & forms
What they want to see
Encouraged by the guide
Narrow plan approach(45)
Use slim, narrow-plan forms (ideally 4.5m to 8m in width) to reduce overall massing, allow better solar gain, and look more in keeping with traditional Irish rural style.
Stepped floor levels on sloping sites(23)
On sloping grounds, home designs should feature stepped floor levels that reflect and work with the natural contours of the landscape.
Eave dormers(52)
If attic space is utilized for extra accommodation, traditional eave-positioned dormers are preferred over mid-roof dormers.
Retention and planting of native species(26, 27)
Retain existing mature hedgerows and trees. Replant or supplement boundary treatments using native species such as Holly, Hawthorn, Birch, and Crab Apple.
Symmetrical windows with vertical emphasis(53)
Choose windows where the overall height is greater than the width, with panes of equal size split by strong vertical divisions.
Chimneys on the ridge line(55)
Chimneys should be located at or as near as possible to the ridge line of the roof and be robust in style.
Conversion of traditional empty structures(32)
Encourages the reuse and conversion of empty historical structures such as barns, churches, schoolhouses, and mills using a minimalist approach.
What gets refused
Discouraged by the guide
Suburban house designs 'dropped' into rural settings(21, 44)
Rejects inserting suburban patterns, such as deep-plan bungalows, hipped bungalows, or houses with over-elaborate elevations into the open countryside.
Excessive excavation and artificial platforms(23)
Avoid digging out major flat platforms on hillsides, which results in highly conspicuous, unnatural-looking buildings.
Mid-roof dormer windows(52)
Avoid placing dormer windows in the middle of a roof plane, as they create a cluttered appearance.
White PVC materials and plastic details(40, 52, 54)
Rejects the proliferation of white plastic PVC doors, windows, eaves, downpipes, cladding, and box fascias.
Non-structural stone cladding and artificial stone(56, 57)
Avoid cosmetic stone cladding that reads clearly as non-structural, along with brick quoin details and artificial stone.
Ornate entrances and precast pillar cappings(24)
Avoid elaborate gates, metal railings, and disproportionate classical or precast concrete pillar cappings on standard rural sites.
Large, dominant industrial-style garages(37)
Avoid large steel and precast concrete garage structures that dominate the main house front elevation; use a series of smaller blocks if more space is needed.
Materials & finishes
- Local Stone (sandstone or limestone based on area)
- Traditional renders (stucco, lime render, lime wash, rough cast, or napped render)
- Pebble dash using sand and cement mix for local stone/pebbles
- Natural slate or thatch for roofs
- Durable timber shingles
- Metals such as Zinc, Lead, and Copper for roof details
- Timber doors and windows (painted, treated, or unpainted)
- Dark-colored rainwater goods, fascias, and soffits (preferably black or dark grey)
- Stone or concrete window cills
Roofs & form
- Gable-ended roofs with a traditional pitch of 35-40 degrees
- Simple edged roofs with minimal eaves
- Slight projecting eaves and verges formed with blockwork or concrete
- Narrow plan form with widths of 4.5m to 8m
- Avoidance of deep plan forms (8m and greater) that lead to excessively high roofs
- Extensions should step down or match the existing ridge line, never break above it
- Flat roofs are only acceptable on high-quality contemporary design extensions
Siting & landscape
- Integrate homes with existing topography using stepped floor levels rather than flat platforms
- Do not build on hill tops or ridgelines where the building breaks the horizon or skyline
- Retain existing roadside boundaries, mature trees, and natural stone walls
- Offset new vehicle access points from the home to maximize retention of existing roadside boundaries
- Use native trees and hedge planting (such as Alder, Birch, Hawthorn, Holly, Oak) to screen and blend the home
- Timber fencing must not be over-dominant and should be backed by a native hedge