School: Clunelly (roll number 15953)

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1. On Old Houses

   

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   On old houses.
   There are three kinds of old houses in this district, the houses with the slated roof, the thatched roof, and the boarded and felted roof. In former times the houses of the district were all thatched. The thatch consisted of rushes, cut on the hillsides, and it was kept on the roof by means of scallops. The scallops were made from briars.
   Some of the old houses were boarded and the boards were then felted and afterwards tarred to make the roof waterproof, most of these old houses had one or two beds in the kitchen. They were called outshot beds because they were set in a niche or corner, where the wall of the house projected outside the straight line of the side wall. The fireplace of the house was usually in the gable. In ancient times these fireplaces had no (brace?), but the smoke went up the side of the wall and out through a hole in the roof, which served the purpose of a chimney. It was made of sods which were cut in the bog. In some houses the fire was in the middle of the

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Shiels

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Cross, Co. Donegal