Books on Irish vernacular architecture

We’re fans of vernacular architecture – and have published/ helped produce a few books ourselves on the subject (Welsh/Irish interest). We’ve an interest in vernacular architecture from any country, and obviously Wales. Here’s a list of books from a country that we have a particular soft spot for – Ireland. Ireland has a peculiar relationship […]

Making ‘Falun Red’ traditional Swedish paint – Falu rödfärg!

We’re such HUGE fans of traditional Scandinavian buildings, yet despite several visits we’ve never managed to find the right UTT in Sweden (or Norway, Faroes, Iceland, Finland… but we love them all!) So we’re building one nearer to home. We want to have it in distinctive the distinctive red oxide paint…but modern paints available in […]

UTT HQ on the shore – some fresh images

The Cobbler’s children are always the worst shod, they say…and we’re probably guilty of not photographing our own home like we do the UTT cottages – so here’s a few interior shots of UTT HQ – built in 2017

Things we saw and loved in Chester

Such a handsome city!

Architectural details we loved in Chester Cathedral

Liverpool waterfront architecture

A Victorian estate walk

Around Eccleston on the Eaton Park estate nr Chester. Mostly constructed 1860 to 1900

The Swedish House – a UTT newbuild by the sea

This sorry pile of blocks has been sitting on a beautiful piece of land overlooking the Atlantic for a decade…one of the many projects that froze as the ‘Celtic Tiger’ collapsed in Ireland around 2007. The house was never completed, but eventually the developers who owned it sold it on, and now we hope to […]

an island of traditional cottages

we took a boat over to Gola island in Donegal to see how the vernacular cottages were faring – we go every year to check on them 🙂

A daytrip to an unspoiled island

Lovely Gola in Donegal…just ten minutes off the coast and a great trip if you live traditional architecture. Recommended for any of our Donegal cottage guests.