Cork Queens of the Stone Age scoop award with sturdy design

Meet the queens of the Stone Age, who’ve proved they just don’t build them like they used to anymore.

Students in an all-girls secondary school built a replica Stone Age house which withstood one of the most violent and destructive storms to batter Ireland in recent years.

And their project has just scooped first place in a schools’ heritage competition.

The 1.2 history class in the Ursuline Secondary School in Blackrock, Cork, decided to build a life-sized replica Stone Age house, dating from the Mesolithic period, in the school car park.

Using tree trunks donated by Coillte, wooden struts, and wattle, they built an exact 15ft high replica of one of the dwellings used by some of the country’s earliest inhabitants.

And as storm Darwin lashed the country early last month, the students’ home survived intact.

The students charted their work online, and in a video blog which has helped them win first prize at the Discover Heritage History competition in Cork.

“It started with wondering what a Stone Age house was like to live in,” first-year history teacher Brian Stokes said.

“And following some calls and a very supportive principal, 16 first years began building a life-sized replica of a Stone Age house in the school car park in the first week of January.

“It’s been a learning curve for me and for them.”

Student Emma Dunphy said: “It’s taken us six classes and we probably have two more to go but it’s been brilliant to see what the first people in Cork had to deal with to build Cork’s first home.”

Project manager Laura O’Sullivan said: “We knew we were junior builders but we did a better job than most new buildings by surviving the storms.”

Her classmate, Katie McCarthy, thanked Coillte for donating the timber logs. “I really can’t imagine how hard it would have been to cut all the timber with a stone axe,” she said.

The school is celebrating on the double after another first year history class, 1.1, won second place in the Junior Certificate Class category for creating an illustrated guide to the walls of Cork City, using an animated cartoon guide, Archie the Archaeologist.

Mr Stokes and fellow teacher Aoife Lordan said they are delighted the students’ imaginative and hard work has been acknowledged.