Escaping the city to commune with nature is not a new concept. Since the dawn of time people have withdrawn from society to live a simpler life. In 1854, American writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau captured that sentiment in Walden, or Life in the Woods when he wrote; "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
These compelling words have been written large on a plaque dedicated to the writer at Walden Pond, a lake in Concord, Massachusetts, where a replica of the writer's cabin can be visited.
Its simple set-up could be from a 2015 trend forecaster’s presentation. The bed is dressed in white linen and a simple grey wool blanket, the stove has a bare brick surround, the floorboards are bare, there’s a fireside rocker and a side table is painted the now on-trend sage green.
Nicola Ryan, one half of Dublin architecture practice Studio Red says there is something very comforting about the human scale of a cabin.
“It brings us back to both simple proportions of building elements, and materials that are found easily in nature and which are worked or manoeuvred easily by workmen, for example, the length of a timber lintel over a door or window.
A woodland cabin is an escape route beloved by many nationalities but best exemplified by the Scandinavians. Historically it hasn’t been a typically Irish getaway but as life gets busier, the need to take time out and commune with nature is growing. Many escape artists are inspired by their travels.
A trip to a cabin high in the Pyrenees influenced husband and wife Fergal and Annette Byrne to build their very own chocolate-box style construction in a field next to their own home. It offers a decamp of the staycation kind but enough to make the setting feel ultra peaceful, Fergal explains.
Clover Cabin has a wood-clad interior and some homespun details including large logs that form the base of its breakfast bar sourced from Graiguecullen Sawmills in Co Carlow and a splashback of pastel pink, yellow and blue kitchen tiles.
It was the same sensibility that prompted estate agent Robert Lowry to buy his cabin outside Belturbet, Co Cavan. Situated on a bend in the River Erne it is set on the edge of Cornearragh Forest Park.
Ideal for fishing, boating and kyacking you feel at ease while here, Lowry says. “Here stress just ebbs away.”
Many with a hectic lifestyle want a sense of escape but they don't want to feel utterly alone, notes Bernard McCartin who rents log cabins that he imported from Finland.
His cabins are on a site within a pine forest four miles from Ballyconnell, Co Cavan. Each is set on about one third of an acre and lucky visitors might spot some of the red squirrels and buzzards that have returned to this part of the country, as well as foxes and badgers. The idea is that you are isolated but not on your own.
When Eoin Foyle and Oda O'Carroll bought a set of rundown stables in Co Longford it was the setting, in the middle of a Coillte forest, that first attracted them. It was the same sensibility of being surrounded by trees, the sound of silence and the starscapes overhead that appealed.
The couple host an annual bonfire on midsummer’s eve to which they invite friends.
“Every year, late into the night as the fire starts to die, we all end up on the ground, on our backs, looking up at the amazing pure clear skies and count how many shooting stars we can see,” Foyle says. “It is one of life’s great and simple pleasures.”
So how do you make your basic cabin look like the architecturally-designed delights on show in images in Cabins, a coffee table book published by Taschen that features inspiring ideas from around the globe, and some of which are shown here.
Ease up on the all-wood effect inside and out, consuls Anthony Buggy of design practice Think Contemporary.
“Punctuate the interior with pieces of painted furniture to bring in colour and put cool hued linen on the beds in the sleeping quarters.”
Cabins by Philip Jodidio is published by Taschen, €49.95. taschen.com
See bernardslogcabins.com; stablesselfcatering.com; clovercabin.ie; failtelogcabins.com; thinkcontemporary.ie
