If the walls could talk in this cluster of coastguard cottages in Dún Laoghaire, imagine the tales they could tell. Nestled between the west and east pier, the coastguard station and terrace of cottages for the workers’ families were the first of a new generation of stations to be built around the coast in the late 1850s. The first six cottages were completed in 1859, while two more cottages were added in 1864.
When the 1911 census was conducted, 10 couples were living in the cottages with their 26 children. During the War of Independence, the authorities were concerned enough about the safety of the coastguard station workers and their families that they advised the men to be prepared to have their wives and children evacuated at short notice. The coastguards left their stations when the Irish Free State was formed in 1922 and the buildings became occupied by staff working at the harbour.
Three of the cottages have since been occupied long term but now, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has breathed new life into four others in order to provide social housing. The two- and three-bedroomed cottages had been vacant for more than 20 years but one of them enjoyed a brief moment under the Hollywood spotlight. It served as the interior of the childhood home of Saoirse Ronan’s character Eilis Lacey in the movie Brooklyn.
The years of underuse had begun to show on the protected buildings when restoration work began in 2022. “They were in bad disrepair,” says Ciara D’Arcy, senior executive architect with the council. “They were damp and they were mouldy. They weren’t in any way insulated.” The eighth cottage, which had been used by an arts group, is next on the list for renovation.
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The architect, who specialises in conservation work, says the buildings are an excellent example of a historic Irish coastguard complex, so it was essential that the restoration respected the buildings’ integrity.
Today, the blue front doors open to reveal cosy and characterful homes that have been refurbished to the same utilitarian standard they would originally have had, albeit with the addition of modern conveniences such as bathrooms. Careful conservation work has saved the original cast iron fireplaces, timber joinery and all of the surviving original doors. Free-standing wardrobes were selected instead of built-in units to allow the walls to breathe.
The team also managed to save more than half of the black and red chequered quarry tiles – an impressive feat, given their age and fragile nature. “I really wanted to keep those and that was difficult because of the nature of them. They’re very breakable but they have a lovely character to them,” she says.
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The original cottages had no floors, just earth under the quarry tiles. “So there was no insulation at all in the floors. We thought about just leaving it as it was but felt we should really upgrade to get some thermal quality to the floor. So that involved quite a big job.”
The floors are now made up of sustainable recycled glass ball insulation under a limecrete slab. “It’s a breathable concrete, which is a little more difficult to install than your standard concrete,” D’Arcy explains. “This means the moisture won’t be trapped and forced to come up the walls. It lets it breathe out. And then, of course, the quarry tiles are the same, allowing the moisture to breathe through them.”
The walls were upgraded with a cork and lime-based breathable insulating plaster and a permeable paint to avoid moisture being trapped. The cottages have retained their original windows after a painstaking restoration and draught-proofing process. The insulated walls and windows mean the homes are a peaceful haven, despite their busy harbour location.
D’Arcy says every intervention has been carried out with the intention of allowing the buildings to breathe. Instead of coring holes for vents in the historic granite walls, the old chimney stacks were opened up to provide ventilation in the same way the homes would have been ventilated 150 years earlier.
Despite the coastal location, and the age of the building, the roofs did not need much remedial work as they had been well-maintained. The attic spaces were insulated with sustainable recycled earthwool between the joists and woodfibre insulation at the eaves area.
Each cottage comes with an outhouse, which previously housed the toilet and fuel. They have all been renovated and now provide more storage space for the residents.
One of the most difficult elements of the project was the installation of the new water main. “Most of the coastline along Dún Laoghaire is rock so in order to bring our water main up to new modern standards, it had to be buried in the ground and that meant breaking out the rock,” she says. That took longer than anticipated.
Refurbishing the homes in this manner was more expensive than a normal retrofit, she agrees, but it means these historic buildings have now been preserved for future generations. “And it’s really about bringing back the empty houses into use and reducing vacancy. We need to make sure all our existing buildings are used before we build new ones. And of course it’s more sustainable, especially when they are high-quality buildings like that with stone walls and good materials from the beginning.”
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is also working on a number of other historic projects in the area, and has completed sensitive restoration works such as the underused Park House, beside the People’s Park in Dún Laoghaire.
It has been refurbished to provide four new social homes with a commercial unit on the ground floor.
“Located in an Architectural Conservation Area, it showcases how we can deliver high-quality homes within existing town centres by supporting living over the shop,” says D’Arcy. Blackrock Park’s historic tea room kiosk, which dates to the 1890s has also been refurbished.
Plans are now afoot to make use of the former coastguard station. The building and its lookout tower once surveilled the coast for smugglers, but soon it will provide a centre of excellence for sailing and a permanent home for Ireland’s Olympic sailing team.
