To say that Dr Greg Stephenson is passionate about buildings is a bit of an understatement. His mother tells him his first word was a mispronunciation of “ruins”, and he was psychologically assessed “as I didn’t want to do anything but draw houses”.
The architectural historian has written many books on subjects, including 1930s houses, prefabricated buildings and, in conjunction with Dr Joseph Gallagher, The Traditional Cottages of County Donegal, which focused on the ongoing loss of vernacular architecture in the northern county.
A heritage campaigner and expert on traditional buildings in Wales, Stephenson runs the Irish Vernacular Architecture online group — which has 9,000 members — and was a series consultant for the BBC on restoration programmes, while also writing and presenting on architecture for Welsh television.
He came to Ireland “lock stock and barrel” in 2008 and established his business Under the Thatch, which today lets vernacular buildings in Ireland and the UK, but began by restoring some of the few remaining properties in Donegal. (It is estimated that there were 150,000 traditional cottages in Donegal in 1950, a number that dwindled to 150 by 2005.) “I was absolutely astounded by the stock of vernacular architecture, but it is better in Donegal than anywhere else in Europe,” says Stephenson.
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But faraway hills are always greener, and he says that he was naive at the time and “underestimated how difficult it was to find highly skilled labour in Donegal, not to mention the cost of it.” In 2009, he says, he was paying €25 an hour for labourers, whereas the cost in Wales was about €10. When the crash finally hit, he decided to move to Poland to restore authentic buildings there as “the danger in central Europe is they tend to over-restore, whereas I want to work on the retention of original materials”.
Stephenson says he has restored about 100 buildings including a 56-room cave in Andalucía, which was once a hangout for artists including Joan Miró and Georges Braque.
One of his projects in Donegal — which, incidentally, is not vernacular architecture — is now on the market. Three quirky holiday homes, all of which have one bedroom, are available through agent Campbell’s Auctioneers and Estate Agents in Dungloe.
The three units, which are being sold as one entity, are near Traighenna Bay along the Wild Atlantic Way and will appeal as rental holiday homes. Combined, they sit on a site of more than two acres, allowing each unit to have good privacy.
They have been rented out on short-term lets and Stephenson estimates that combined, they could bring in the guts of €100,000 a year, though that may be ambitious.
First up is a former shipping container, which has been repurposed as a waterside retreat, from its original use as transporting JCB parts from China to Omagh. Stephenson calls this building Frank, in homage to Frank Lloyd Wright and his love of cantilevered structures.
Frank, which overhangs the water, extends to 30 sq m (323 sq ft). It has a veranda, a bedroom, living area, bathroom and kitchen, but it will be the view over the water — and the proximity to the sea — that will attract buyers. Stephenson believes it is the first shipping-container “home” to come on the housing market in Ireland.
Luna is a shepherd’s hut, also overlooking the water. With a similar layout to Frank the shipping container, it has a separate outdoor “cube” livingroom with a wood-burning stove overlooking its own coastal lake.
Last up is a glamping pod — which doesn’t have a name and is known as Pod on the Bay — which was made in Northern Ireland, and has breathtaking views of the sea and Donegal countryside.
“One of the things that might be of interest is that the broadband on the decking of any of the units has a 100Mbps download speed — there are parts of Dublin that don’t get that. I really think the world is opening up to remote working so this place could be exactly what someone is looking for right now”.
Stephenson is working on two timber builds in Donegal, a 1977 bungalow in North Wales and an Edwardian home that needs lots of love.
His three, unique one-bedroom waterside holiday homes are on the market as one unit (for planning reasons) through Campbell’s seeking €349,950.
