Thatched Cottages

The thatched cottage is the standard image of rural Ireland and it is disappearing. Estimates put the number at around forty thousand in the mid twentieth century and somewhere near two thousand now, with a working thatcher population that has fallen below fifty. The reasons are practical: thatch needs renewing every twenty to thirty years, the materials - wheat straw, oaten straw, water reed, and in the west marram grass and rushes - are harder to source since combine harvesting shortened straw, insurance is expensive and often refused, and grants have not kept pace with costs. Regional building traditions differ: roped thatch weighted with stones on the Atlantic coast where wind would strip a comb finish, scallop thatch in the east and midlands. Museums at Bunratty, Glencolmcille and the National Museum of Country Life preserve examples, but the ones that matter are the lived-in houses along ordinary roads.

What you actually see

• The regional finishes - roped and stone-weighted in the west, scalloped in the east.
• The decline - around two thousand left from perhaps forty thousand.
• The materials - wheat and oaten straw, reed, marram and rushes.
• The museum examples - Bunratty, Glencolmcille and Turlough among them.

When to go

Any time. Most surviving cottages are private homes seen from the road; the museum villages are open seasonally or year-round depending on the site.

Honest expectations

Almost all of them are private houses - photographing from a public road is fine, entering a garden is not. Many that look intact are holiday lets or museum pieces. The craft is genuinely close to disappearing.

Nearby

Bunratty Folk Park in Clare, Glencolmcille Folk Village in Donegal and the National Museum of Country Life in Mayo all hold examples.