1. dúchas.ie
  2. The Schools' Collection
  3. Mullach Dubh

School: Mullach Dubh

Location:
Lisgorman, Co. Leitrim
Teacher:
Pádhraic Ó Blioscáin
Browse
Mode:
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0203, Page 200

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0203, Page 200

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Mullach Dubh
  2. XML Page 200
  3. XML “A Sweat-House”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. A Sweat-House

    Share Share Post
    About eighty or ninety years ago there was a cure for rheumatism and colds in our neighbourhood. The people of the district made a small house in the ground. The walls were built with clay and roofed with flags and had clay on top of that to keep the sweat house air tight. The floor was made of flags.
    There was a very small door on the south side of the house. This door was so small that the people had to creep in on their hands and feet.
    This kind of a house was called a sweat house. The younger people used to bring turf and put on a very big fire in this house and leave it burning for hours till all the turf was burned into coals. The door was then shut until the coals were burned down. There was straw then scattered on the floor. The people who were
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    History Edit
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Brigid Mc Manus
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Boggaun, Co. Leitrim
    Informant
    Mrs Mc Manus
    Gender
    Female
    Age
    45
    Address
    Boggaun, Co. Leitrim