A part-time Roscommon farmer with a suckler to beef herd, has repaired a freestanding three-bay single storey outbuilding under the GLAS Traditional Farm Buildings Scheme, evoking childhood memories.

John Kelly from Scramogue, was keen to preserve the outbuilding on the farm left to him by his father, evoking memories from his childhood. “He farmed it all his life and used the outbuilding as his main shed for housing his cows and calves. It was the only shed he had at the time and it served its purpose well,” he said.

The building is a random rubble stone structure with extensive early render having survived on the roadside frontage. The roof is pitched and of timber rafter and collar tie construction, gabled to both ends and covered with galvanised sheeting.

“it is a long shed taking up about 90 sq m and it is divided in three sections. One part of it was used as an old cow byre, the other part was used as a calf shed and the last part was used as a store for farm tools and a turf shed. Also there is a loft space at one end of it,” said John.

Roscommon farm building

“It is on a local busy road just off the main N5 route to the west heading to Westport and it’s just a few metres from the side of the road beside the family home which is an old traditional farm house as well,” he said. The various sections date from 1837 to 1842 and 1888 to 1913.

“I decided to fix it up because it has such sentimental value and I would love to see it restored to its former glory and to keep all the childhood memories alive.

The front and both gable walls were in reasonably good condition but the rear elevation and the roof were in very poor condition. The west gable was completely overgrown with ivy and the loft floor at the east end of the building was severely decayed and bearing onto a very fragile single leaf random rubble internal wall.

On the roof, all of the galvanised sheeting was in poor condition apart from an area at the rear of the east end which was covered in recent years. The timber rafters were generally found to be in good condition except at the west end where the roof was sagging at the front where rafters were said by conservation consultant, Aine Doyle, to be likely to be decayed.

The collar ties were in good condition but were found to be placed very high on the rafters. New collar ties had to be installed lower down the rafters following roof repairs.

A large section of the rear elevation was taken down and rebuilt due to a severe outward lean and a large loss of external leaf masonry to the west of the carriage opening.

The internal single leaf rubble was dismantled and rebuilt as there was a large hole in the centre of it. Ivy was cut at the base and allowed to die back before works commence on its removal. The stonework was also repointed.

Roscommon farm building

Repointing was also required on the front elevation to the west of the door opening and on the rear elevation to the east of the carriage opening. All newly rebuilt masonry required pointing with lime mortar.

New timber louvre windows were provided for the three square window openings which had been boarded up.

The traditional timber door in the front elevation was in need of repair. A new timber door was required for the opening in the north elevation and double doors fitted for the carriage opening.

The fragile internal wall had to be rebuilt to provide support for the loft floor. All floorboards had to be discarded.

Following repairs and reconstruction of leaning and damaged masonry walls and repairs to timber roof structure, salvaged and new galvanised sheeting and ridge capping were reinstated. The rear elevation wall which was leaning outwards was dismantled.

A new traditional timber plank single door and double doors were provided for openings in the rear elevation. All timber doors were painted with linseed oil based paint.

Following reconstruction of rear wall, new treated hardwood external and internal lintels were installed over the double opening in the rear wall and the masonry above was reconstructed.

All loft floorboards were replaced with boards of similar width and thickness.

Roscommon farm building

“My contractor Charles Stewart from Longford is doing a great job on it and he is progressing very well, weather permitting. We hope to have the work finished this week,” said John.

“I am very grateful to the Heritage Council which administers the GLAS Traditional Farm Buildings Grant for the conservation and repair of traditional farm buildings in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine,” John said.

“When the work is finished I will still be using the building for storage on the farm for all the farm tools and the meal bins and maybe a few small calves at times.”