A new handbook for homeowners shows how it's possible to renovate traditional rural houses to meet contemporary needs, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

Images of thatched, white-washed houses nestling in the landscape used to be part-and-parcel of Bord Fáilte brochures and John Hinde postcards. But traditional Irish houses have become so rare now, compared to the ubiquitous modern bungalow, that they qualify as an endangered species.

Encouraged by the Sustainable Rural Housing guidelines, the tide of development sweeping the countryside is creating a new Irish vernacular "architecture" to replace what went before - though it is highly improbable that tourists would be seduced by images of what is being built nowadays.

In the Dunfanaghy area of north Donegal, it is estimated that nearly half of the once-typical single-storey "longhouses" are gone and only 12 per cent remain intact, the rest having been altered often beyond recognition, according to a case-study by Clive Symmons and Seamus Harkin published last year.

They describe this loss as "an irreversible tragedy for the Donegal landscape" and blame it, at least partly, on a "deep-rooted folk memory of harsh conditions". Indeed, they note that most of the "rescued" cottages of north Donegal are now owned by "blow-ins", including the authors themselves.

Symmons and Harkin complain that none of the surviving vernacular buildings has been listed in Donegal County Council's Record of Protected Structures, which means that many more could vanish in coming years - unless, of course, they find sympathetic new owners, "blow-ins" or not.

In Sligo, senior county council planner Brendan Carolan has warned that even photographs of thatched cottages would become collectors' items because so few of them are left - only 33 in the entire county - and councillors have "de-listed" them so as not to place a "burden" on elderly owners.

If there was significant grant-aid available to assist with re-thatching and other conservation work, it wouldn't be so much of a problem. But there isn't. Only €2.9 million has been made available this year in grants for all protected structures, and this is surely a pittance compared to the scale of need.

"There isn't much time left to us if any significant numbers of traditional buildings are to be saved", according to the authors of a new homeowners' handbook. And it's not just because of the depleted numbers, but due to the unprecedented scale and speed of changes now taking place in the rural environment.

Dick Oram and Dawson Stelfox believe this is happening "not because these older buildings can no longer serve a useful purpose; it is because at this point in time we, as a society, do not need to count the cost". And they say, regretfully: "How future generations will judge us we can only guess."

Stelfox, conservation architect and Everest climber, noted that the annual output of one-off houses in the North has risen threefold over the past decade from 2,500 - equivalent to the total for England, Scotland and Wales - to around 7,500. And that's only a quarter of the Republic's prodigious output.

"One of the most disturbing aspects of new houses in the countryside is that all too often all traces of historic setting are swept away to create a clean flat site", Stelfox and co-author Oram write in the handbook. "The result is a building disconnected with the cultural and natural landscape".

Traditionally, as they note, the gardens of traditional houses in the countryside were often enclosed by walls or hedges and "designed for private enjoyment rather than public show". Thus, homeowners should "avoid the temptation to provide suburban garden enclosures or pretentious statements".

The handbook, published by the Mourne Heritage Trust, was obviously inspired by a determination to safeguard the rich vernacular heritage of the Mournes, which had long been designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). However, its advice clearly has an all-Ireland application.

Official planning policy in the North since 1999 has recognised that vernacular architecture is "an important part of our heritage and regional identity. It is therefore sensible to sympathetically rehabilitate and improve such vernacular buildings, rather than to replace them or allow them to fall derelict".

That may seem like so much guff, but at least it is more positive than the devil-may-care attitude adopted south of the border. Yet it is a fact that of the 8,500 listed buildings in Northern Ireland, only a small proportion could be classified as vernacular architecture and, of these, about 150 are thatched.

In the Republic, some showpiece projects have been completed, such as the Heritage Council's conservation of a remarkable two-storey thatched farmhouse at Mayglass, in south Wexford. But the council's budget is very limited and there's no equivalent of the North's Heritage Lottery Fund.

It was through this fund, among other sources, that the Mourne Heritage Trust managed to raise more than £1.6 million for a pilot project to show how traditional houses in the countryside could be restored and sympathetically extended without sacrificing their essential character.

The Mourne Homesteads Scheme selected five houses for the pilot project, ranging from a two-room cottage near Castlewellan, Co Down, to more substantial traditional houses. All of them were derelict, but lay within the designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covering the Mourne Mountains.

A legal mechanism was devised under which each house was bought from its owners for a nominal sum on condition that they were bought back at a pre-agreed price after the work was carried out. It was also a condition that they would be occupied full-time, rather than used as holiday homes.

The Mourne scheme came about after several years of campaigning and alarm over the accelerating loss of traditional buildings throughout Northern Ireland. According to official estimates, nearly 1,000 traditional buildings have been lost since 1980 through neglect or replacement by new houses.

It is ironic that one of the culprits has been another arm of government - the North's Housing Executive, through its replacement grant scheme.

This actually encourages people to buy derelict houses in the countryside, demolish them and build new houses in their place - with government grant-aid.

At the recent launch near Kilkeel, Co Down, of the homeowners' handbook, a senior official of the Housing Executive said this much-criticised grant scheme was no longer being operated quite so indiscriminately. Now, an assessment of the heritage value of older houses is carried out first.

In Ireland, seeing is believing, and the handbook features a number of traditional buildings, with before-and-after photographs to prove that it is possible to convert and/or extend them in a ways that "deliver 21st century standards of accommodation while preserving the historic character".

One of the most remarkable is Carrickspringan Farmhouse, near Moynalty, Co Meath. Its restoration by Shaffrey Associates was inspired by the last writings of the late Maura Shaffrey on the future of vernacular buildings in Ireland and it is dedicated to her memory. It is now lived in by her son.

The Disappearing Irish Cottage: A case study of north Donegal by Clive Symmons and Seamus Harkin, is published by Wordwell, price €17.50.

Traditional Buildings in Ireland: Home Owners Handbook by Richard Oram and Dawson Stelfox is available from the Mourne Heritage Trust - email them at mht@mourne.co.uk