Participants in the Traditional Building Skills’ Field School on Gola Island in June 2010 pictured outside Teach Charlie Ned.
The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in partnership with Donegal County Council and the Gola Development Committee hosted a traditional building skills field school on Gola Island in June 2010. Under expert supervision, fifteen participants restored part of Teach Charlie Ned, a vernacular cottage on the island. Those taking part were given instruction how to dismantle and rebuild fragile chimneys, apply lime mortar to walls, re-slate a roof using natural slates, repair and renew timber sliding sash windows and apply the very latest technology in double-glazing to upgrade existing windows.
Many families left Gola in the 1960s but the fine, solid granite buildings they occupied still remain. Over the course of the weekend, almost 200 people participated in the free tours of the vernacular architecture of Gola Island which were held to coincide with the field school. The tours emphasized the form and function of vernacular architecture, local building materials, traditional building skills, cultural landscape character and clachan settlements. In the All-Ireland Traditional Building Craft Skills’ report in 2009, the National Heritage Training Group identified increased public awareness of the value and importance of traditional buildings and the conservation of vernacular buildings as key measures to creating a sustainable demand for traditional building skills. The Traditional Building Skills’ Field School was funded by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society; the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government; The Heritage Council and Donegal County Council under the County Donegal Heritage Plan (Action 4.2).
