Mill Cottage

The character of vernacular buildings is very fragile, and much of their charm depends on their setting – groups of trees, gardens, boundary walls and irregular ground levels. Part of the challenge of restoring them is to retain those features while providing modern vehicular access and avoiding rising damp.

At Mill Cottage the remains of the old water mill at Tobermoney, which had at one time ground a hogshead of corn a day, were retained and restored as a holiday cottage restoration for the family which has farmed the area for nearly three hundred years. Within the cottage the plan form was altered as little as possible and different levels within it were retained.

Shorty afterwards the owners decided to restore a more derelict former smithy which had become completely overgrown with ivy and partially collapsed, with trees growing out of its walls. The tiny building was restored as a one-bedroom cottage.