A landscape transformed.
As we approach the shortest day and longest night of the year, our incredible grounds work team have transformed our landscape. The winter conditions have not deterred the team, led by Dermot O’Flatharta from M’OF Teo in Spiddal with the amazing team of Peter, Mícheál and co. I’ve watched them transform the site to integrate the landscape with the architecture of our home. They have used their skill and knowledge of this rocky terrain to reuse all the boulders and rocks in our field to make a piece of land sculpture. If the art schools taught students how to use earth moving machinery, these guys would give the masterclass.
But what you see as a final landscape hides all the hard graft to get the services into place from the road to the house. It’s easy to draw a drainage/service drawing, it’s a whole other world to make it a reality by digging trenches, connecting pipes, getting the falls right and co-ordinating with all the other services (rain water pipes, electricity, comms and water) in a rocky undulating landscape, while dealing with the onslaught of winter weather.
We didn’t want a tarmac island around are house, we wanted to bed the house back into the landscape, so we can enjoy nature through our big windows. But this approach takes planning in order to get all the services in, get concrete paths poured and topsoil back into the site, to allow the machinery retreat from the site.
Huge gratitude to Dermot, Peter, Mícheál and the team who have been so patient and hard working in really tough winter conditions to transform our landscape. This space will grow with us over time.
Design Inspiration – A Palette of Materials & Colors
Excavation Imagery
Site Imagery
Steel Work – 21 October 2021
Stormy Skies
