House in the Woods, Marble Hill, Co. Donegal

Given this site’s location in the Sheephaven Bay Special Area of Conservation (SAC), a painstakingly detailed and thorough family home design was devised through many sheets of sketch roll and physical and digital models. In order to protect to the mature trees of this densely wooded site, the house squeezes in between the hazels and oaks without the need for a single tree removal.

The site is steeply sloped, so the house has been elevated on columns, stepping with the ground level to minimise foundation excavations, and to create balcony and terrace levels which sit wonderfully among the canopy of the surrounding trees. The charred larch cladding prevents the building from standing out among the trees, with the flora and fauna of the site having taken priority from the very beginning of the design process.

When the deciduous trees shed in winter, a panorama is revealed from Clonmass Island all the way to the tip of Rosguill Peninsula across Sheephaven Bay, forming the horizon over the Marble Hill blue flag beach just across the road. A lone, proud Scots Pine stands watch over the beach towards the bottom of the site.

While no bats actively roost on the site, the area is a common grazing ground for a number of protected species, so the prevention of any disruption is paramount in importance to us. No hard ground finishes or landscaping other than gravel paths will perforate the site, staying true to our duty of care to retain the character of the woods and protect the established flora and fauna.