When it comes to luck, it was considered a bad move to build in any direction other than lengthwise, so our cottages are never more than one room deep.
The most common two room type has an ‘upper’ & ‘lower’ room, with the hearth gable creating a natural dividing wall.
Our lower room is staked out at 11 foot (interior wall measurement) from the gable, drawn with acrylic paint upon the ground layer of blue til, which after three dry weeks has gone rock hard.
Having re organised all stone reserves on site, what remains of the large brutes are rolled into place for foundations.
Make sure they don’t rock under foot, leveling the earth and nipping off edges then filling with mortar, in this case lime NHL5 for strength.
A rare day for Donegal, as it happens to be stunning here while the entire rest of the island buckets with rain.
The lower room makes it’s shape.
Then our weather luck changes with the approach of massive dark clouds.
limewindow 
It’s like a window into Arcadia – brilliant blue sky and sign greenery, so different to earlier pics in this saga, the muck ankle deep and the workers besmeared & battered with mud & cold.
The new room seems almost as large as the original, flag floored, interior. What thoughts for its floor, is there sufficient suitable stone for flag also?
Such a view through the new eastern door, with its sexy shaped lintel, into the main room, then out of the western door.
The new hearth gable looks impressive – how will it complement the new room height/roof wise?
A single line of roof, E-W, would be simpler to construct and give a major increase in internal space, esp if it continued over the intended western extension as well.
Let’s hope the weather continues to be kind.
Lower room stands at roughly 1/2 the size of the thresher byre and shall match the gable height, making for a simple single line roof.
Flags are abundant surrounding Shane’s Cottage – yet there is great reluctance to disturb this ancient layout. SHane’s front door is faced west, where I discovered the vennel, and all is flagged beneath the rushes, northward.
Such a different scene now summer; the ragosa rose on cusp of bloom and the cuckoo grown hoarse from calling.