Thatch from scratch

THATCHER Matt Whelan is hoping to move up the property ladder, and the sale of Sandy Ropes in Wexford's Kilmore Key is step one along the way.

Already one of the best-known of the country's new generation of thatchers, he and his business partner Frank Scanlon are moving into the development of one-off houses - very one-off.

They have built this house from scratch just outside the popular Wexford resort village, and once it is sold they intend to move on site for another unique thatched home. This one is modelled on designs by the 18th century architect John Nash, and among his surviving works is the ancient Cottage Orné in Kilkenny owned by potter Nicholas Mosse.

Matt Whelan was the man responsible for re-thatching that Kilkenny gem, and he has imported lots of design ideas from there to here such as the pretty eyebrow windows and straw ridges (the bulk of the reeds come from Turkey, as Irish reeds are now too polluted, he notes).

"He did very ornate work and we are going to pick up or that level of design," he said of their plan to build one new thatched house a year as well as carrying on their regular thatching work (there are 300 to 400 thatched houses around Wexford alone, he says).

On the insurance front, Matt Whelan says his understanding is that newly thatched and property-built houses won't be affected by the general insurance clampdown.

"They are cleaning up loose ends on every front, from sports clubs to thatched houses, but there can't be a blanket ban on thatched houses. They are part of the country's heritage," he asserts.

Sandy Ropes is on the market with David Ashmore of HOK Country, who seeks €225,000 for the three bedroomed character-filled cottage. He expects it to be bought by a holiday home buyer, most likely from the East Coast.

It is on a half acre site and features include beech floors and solid wood doors, wood windows in a range of shapes, the bedrooms with hessian carpets and the bathroom has a Roman bathing mural, Indonesian sandstone floor and, in keeping with the international mix, the utility room has Chinese slate floors. The plastered stairs are Spanish in style, almost Gaudiesque, and externally the cottage is not typically Irish in appearance either.

"It mightn't be traditional, but it fits better into the Irish landscape than so many of the bungalows being built at the moment," says Matt Whelan.