Diary:
Ruminations, Occasional thoughts & happenings - as they
arise
A
Thing of Beauty - 17 September 2003
Margaret's Cottage, Castle Place, Ardglass.
Back in 1979 I bought a single
storey fisherman's cottage - originally built around 1790, and for 119
years the home of successive lighthouse
keepers.
It was in a very decrepit
state and I had a notion that I would add a new First Floor with a single
large window to make the best of the view overlooking the golf course and
the Irish Sea, across the road.
I asked my old
friend Dan Mulholland - architect with the Ulster Bank for many years -
for his ideas. He immediately produced a thumbnail sketch of
such beautiful proportion that all I could say is "That's it
Dan!" - and so Margaret's Cottage got an added story, Dan making
a set of drawings that exactly echoed his initial
sketch.
With the help of local craftsmen
I created the mansard style First Floor that you now see,
transforming a very, very ordinary, stumpy dwelling into a thing of
beauty.
In year 2000 the cottage was sold to Chris
and Sue Avern, who spent a fortune renovating the interior - to an
amazingly high standard - and recently added that beautiful stone wall
along the front of the property.
I took this picture
a couple of weeks ago, and yesterday incorporated it into a web page that
I had designed for Chris and Sue.
It
works very well I think. Have a look at http://www.margaretscottage.com/.