All the houses of the small farmers in this district were formerly built of stones and mud and finished off with lime. The timber used for the rood was usually planks of bog-wood and the rafters were simply small pieces of bogwood cut to the required length. The thatch was either straw or rushes which grew in marshy places. The houses consisted of two apartments a kitchen and a room. There were usually two beds in the room and one in the kitchen. The latter one was in a recess in the wall. This recess was always at the back of the kitchen and quite near to the fire and was called an "autshot". The fireplace was usually placed in the gable end of the house although some were in the wall which formed the division between the room and kitchen. I have often heard of houses which existed in the last century which had no chimney. The fire wasRachel Martin