South Light North Galway

The owners of this beautiful early Georgian protected structure were interested in creating a contemporary addition to their home that would make the most of the sunlight from their south-facing back garden. The existing house had already been extensively restored by its owners, and this latest addition creates a garden room which sits harmoniously with this historic fabric.

Carrownacroagh House, near Headford in Co.Galway, was built by the Skerrett family in the late 17^th century. The Skerretts were a family of considerable antiquity, derived from a noble English family originally named Huscared. One of the fourteen tribes of Galway, they were owners of considerable land holdings in the barony of Clare, Co. Galway, which included the estate at Carrownacroagh. The house is mentioned in Hardiman’s History of Galway, and is one of the few remaining historic buildings in this part of the county.

The new garden room allows the house to adapt to contemporary living, using materials chosen to sensitively articulate its evolution. It has a polished concrete floor with an exposed triangulated steel structure and is clad in red cedar externally. This has weathered to a silver grey and now forms a backdrop for extensive planting. A cedar pergola extends the geometry to the terrace, where a rough concrete surface acts as a counterbalance to the floor inside. Internally, the rear wall of the house has a rough lime white-washed surface – the room is an exercise in textures of white with views through floor-to-ceiling windows to a newly planted Moorish garden beyond.