Building Sensitively and Sustainably in County Louth

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   Building Sensitively and Sustainably in County Louth LANDSCAPE, SETTLEMENT AND BUILDING TRADITION LOUTH COUNTY COUNCIL

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   BUILDING SENSITIVELY AND SUSTAINABLY IN COUNTY LOUTH by Philip and Delphine Geoghegan ISBN 0946846 359 © Louth County Council and the authors, 1999. All rights reserved. Produced for Icon Architecture & Urban Design by Gandon Editions Design John O'Regan, Nicola Dearey Photography Philip Geoghegan (all photos taken in Co Louth) Drawings Delphine Geoghegan Katherina Mueller Bernard Voortman Printing Betaprint, Dublin GANDON EDITIONS Oysterhaven, Kinsale, Co Cork tel: +353 (0)21-770830 / fax: 770755 e-mail: [email protected] web-site: www.gandon-editions.com Philip and Delphine Geoghegan ICON ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN Ballymurrin House, Kilbride Wicklow, Co Wicklow – tel/fax: 0404-48206 e-mail: [email protected] cover Existing building tradition informs the design of new housing in Carlingford back cover New sheltered housing in the shadow of the abbey tower in Carlingford frontispiece Farmhouse in upland location achieves shelter by positioning and planting LOUTH COUNTY COUNCIL County Hall, St Alphonsus Road Dundalk, Co Louth tel: 042-9335457 / fax: 042-9334549

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   INTRODUCTION – The character of the landscape and settlements in County Louth 6 1 THE LANDSCAPES OF COUNTY LOUTH 8 The Coastline 10 The Cooley Peninsula and the foothills of Slieve Gullion 12 The Drumlins 13 The Central Plain 14 The Ridge 15 The Boyne Valley 16 2 THE SETTLEMENTS OF COUNTY LOUTH 18 Termonfeckin – arcadian village 19 Whitestown – agricultural settlement 24 Baltray, Queensborough – settlements on the Boyne estuary 30 Clogherhead – coastal village 34 Collon – industrial landlord village 37 Castlebellingham – landlord and brewery town 40 Carlingford – mediaeval borough 43 3 BUILDING TRADITION IN COUNTY LOUTH 48 Tower Houses – 15th-17th century 50 Country Houses (i) – 17th century 51 Country Houses (ii) – 18th-19th century 52 Rural Cottages 53 Tenant Cottages 56 Village Houses 57 Modern, 20th-century Housing 58 Grouped Buildings 61 Conclusion 63 4 POLICY GUIDELINES FOR SETTLEMENT GROWTH AND BUILDINGS IN THE COUNTRYSIDE 64 Sustainable development in County Louth 66 Development Policies and the County Development Plan 68 5 DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR COUNTRYSIDE, TOWNS, VILLAGES AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRES 72 Design guidelines for single houses in the countryside 74 Design guidelines for towns and villages 82 Design guidelines for grouped development 90 APPENDIX 93

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   STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS Councillors Martin Bellew Declan Breathnach Jim Lennon Nicholas McCabe Tommy Murphy Micheál O'Donnell Tommy Reilly Peter Savage Architects Brendan Cashel Fergus Flynn-Rogers Michael McGarry Louth County Council Planning Section Michael Cummings Gerry Duffy Noel Grimes Patsy Fitzsimons

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   Foreword The commissioning of this book and the approval of its contents by Louth County Council marks an important step in the promotion of positive, sustainable planning in the county. The County Development Plan sets out a clear policy structure, with designated development centres around towns and villages in the county, and careful controls to limit inessential housing in the countryside. The council is committed to sustainable development. Whilst ensuring that the special qualities of the environment and the landscape will be conserved, the council will promote suitable development to further the social and economic well-being of those who live in the county. This book is intended to help that process. It identifies the characteristics of landscape, settlement and building tradition which make up County Louth, and promotes practical and positive design guidelines for developing in a sensitive, sustainable and an environmentally friendly way. I should like to take the opportunity of thanking the members of the steering group, who advised the authors over several meetings in order to bring this project to a successful completion. JOHN QUINLIVAN County Manager Drumlin landscape in the north of the county

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   INTRODUCTION Traditional farming practices shape the landscape. Upland areas are less enclosed and uninhabited. This valley has a diverse field pattern, and is punctuated with treesheltered farms. A detail from a sixteenth-century map which shows the notional limits of County Louth. ‘Caligfordia’, the modern-day Carlingford, represents the northern limit, and the river Boyne with ‘Drothera’, the present-day Drogheda, defines the southern limit.

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   Introduction THE CHARACTER OF THE LANDSCAPE AND SETTLEMENTS IN CO LOUTH Outside of the two principal towns, Drogheda and Dundalk, the landscape dominates and moulds the settlements of County Louth. There are inseparable links between settlement and landscape, and the towns and villages owe their position and raison d’etre to the nature of the countryside and coastline. The history of the living settlements in County Louth goes back to the Anglo-Norman invasion, but the original location of places can be traced to the much earlier, prehistoric and early Christian periods. The creation of eleven mediaeval boroughs set the pattern for the urban structure of the county. Not all of the boroughs thrived, but Carlingford developed as a major town in the county. The Cromwellian period of the 1650s brought further changes to the settlements. Ardee, for example, became a plantation town, replacing its mediaeval role as a walled borough. Whitestown, an agricultural village with mediaeval origins, retained its unique layout of houses, which is intact today. The nineteenth century was a period of change and growth in Irish towns, and many of the buildings which make up the streets of towns today are from this century. Towns and villages benefited also from the activities of landlords, who shaped and improved many settlements in County Louth. Termonfeckin, Castlebellingham and Collon have been chosen to illustrate this, whereas Clogherhead originated as a coastal village with a fishing harbour. By selecting a range of villages and towns, by relating them to the landscape in which they have grown, and by describing the patterns within the settlements, the future identity of growth can become clearer, ensuring that the quality of both landscape setting and settlement will be conserved. The consideration of individual buildings in the countryside demands also that their landscape context be appreciated and conserved. Landscapes have varying capacities to absorb development. The broad categorisation of the landscape of County Louth which follows will help in identifying an appropriate response. HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL Chapters 1, 2 and 3 are about the qualities of landscape and settlement which make up the special character of County Louth. New buildings should respect these qualities, not necessarily by copying them but certainly by being sensitive to location and the traditions of building, and sometimes by reinterpreting tradition creatively, using a modern design language. Chapters 4 and 5 give guidelines to applicants who intend to build in the landscape or settlements of County Louth.

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   Chapter 1 - The landscapes of County Louth An early map of Carlingford showing the original town walls The main landscape types of County Louth opposite The mediaeval fortified walls of Carlingford, now dismantled, helped contain the town within the landscape This chapter describes the diverse landscapes in County Louth. Despite being the smallest county in Ireland, it contains a wide range of landscapes and land uses. Its northern and southern limits are demarcated mainly by natural features. The deep length of Carlingford Lough and the foothills of Slieve Gullion make up the northern boundary, whilst the rivers Boyne and Mattock form the southern edge. Between these limits, it is possible to identify six landscape areas in the county, as follows: • The Coastline • The Cooley Peninsula and the foothills of Slieve Gullion • The Drumlin Area • The Central Plain • The Ridge • The Boyne Valley

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    LANDSCAPES The Coastline Much of the coastline has a high scenic quality, which is recognised by the designation of about two thirds of it as a Coastline of Special Scenic Quality. Other areas, not designated so, can be adversely affected by development because they are low-lying and exposed, with little protection from topography or landscape elements. Thus, the entire coastline is particularly vulnerable in terms of development, and there are already many examples of less than desirable development in the form of caravan sites, individual bungalows, and strings of houses along the coastal roads. Buildings, even single-storey dwellings, become prominent features in the exposed, low-lying areas of the Louth coastline The exposed, treeless coastline with a very gentle ground shape presents a beautiful, yet fragile and vulnerable landscape where development can have a disproportionately negative impact

Source Louth County Council: Building Sensitively and Sustainably in County Louth · Licence the publisher's termsText read from the publisher’s PDF; tables, maps and drawings do not survive as text, and page numbers are the PDF’s (its first page is 1). Check the original before relying on a passage.