Swedish Ethnologists, 1930s: Architectural Drawings of Irish Traditional Houses

County Galway, Baile an tSagairt, An Spidéal - Front elevation of a house

Wove paper, black ink drawing, coloured pencil. Height 374mm. Width 502mm.

This drawing shows the front elevation is of a hipped-roof thatched house. The footprint of the house is oval-shaped – a style known from the medieval period and once found throughout West Connaught.  The internal room is likely to be rectangular in plan. The door and two windows are placed non-symmetrically, a style typical of older houses.  The windows are also of different shapes.   In the doorway we see the bottom closed portion of a half door.  Half doors were characteristic of traditional houses, and served many functions including keeping young children inside and animals out. They also offered a window on the world allowing light, and air, into the living area which otherwise often only had small windows.