durrow abbey co. offaly conservation plan - Offaly County Council

A sketch for the entrance hall shows a double
height Ar ts and Crafts style paneled room with
inglenook built around the existing fireplace and
gallery above. The main staircase was relocated to
the south with a paneled library beyond. The library
is depicted in a sketch with a moulded plaster ceiling
and timber dado paneling with glass fronted
bookshelves above. The dining room was relocated
to the nor th of the entrance hall with kitchen in
the west range.
At first floor level it was intended to locate four
bedrooms within the main block around the void
of the double height entrance hall and new stair.
The west block was to be re-orientated with the
corridor located to the nor th. The servant’s bedrooms
were to be located on the second floor of
the west block.
Two proposals survive for the reconstruction of
the house. Both involved the reduction in height
of the building from three storeys to two, although
each scheme differs significantly in character.
The first scheme is an Ar ts and Crafts style interpretation.
The eaves of the steeply pitched roof
overhang the building and the height of the first
floor windows has been reduced. A fur ther revision
of this scheme survives dated March 1926 whereby
timber boarded gables are introduced above the
bay windows on the east and southern elevations.
The second scheme for the exterior is similar to
the surviving Tudor Gothic shell. The windows of
the first floor retain their full height and the wall
head extends above.
Contract drawings - September 1926
The contract drawings for the project, dated 7 th
September 1926 indicate the scaled down project
which was implemented at Durrow. 31
At basement level the only intervention implemented
was the subdivision of the double height
kitchen space and the introduction of a stair to
ground floor.
At ground floor the layout remained almost the
same as the pre-fire arrangement. The additional
bay window to the south was not constructed and
the main stair remained in the central entrance hall.
The bay windows of the rooms to the south were
not re-constructed at ground or first floor. The
junction with the service block was resolved more
satisfactorily than previously with the introduction
of a spine corridor to the south at ground floor and
a similar stair to the nor th at first floor.
Durrow Abbey House, from south-east
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