Remarkable restorations and a wonderful new house in the countryside featured in Clare County Council's design awards, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

No more than anywhere else in Ireland, Co Clare has seen its share of building blight in recent years - one-off houses creeping along rural roads or crawling across hills to capture views, suburban housing estates sprawling around Ennis and other towns, and all sorts of other stuff devouring the landscape.

But there are good things happening too. And Clare County Council deserves enormous credit for recognising this by becoming the first local authority in Ireland to inaugurate an awards scheme to foster and reward excellence in the built environment and raise public awareness of good design and conservation.

Those of us who served on the Clare Design and Conservation Awards jury were certainly impressed by several of the projects we short-listed - none more so than the remarkable restoration of a three-storey 17th century house near Ennis, which had lain in ruins for more than 100 years, roofless and overgrown with ivy.

Tom and Fiona McNamara's friends thought they were mad to take on such a project, instead of going for a new-build bungalow. But they changed their tune on seeing the result - a bright, comfortable and stylish family home, with a fine entrance hall and grand staircase (true to the period) rising through three levels.

Aided by Gilbert Stucky Architects, consulting engineers P Coleman and Associates and building conservation specialist Liam Byrne, the McNamaras restored Toureen House by reinstating the external walls, lime-rendering them and installing period timber windows. To look at it now, you'd never think it had been derelict for so long.

The "Best Residential Refurbishment / Extension" award was shared by Brendan Daly and Siobhàn Mulcahy, who was also the project architect. They rescued and restored a derelict 250-year-old thatched cottage and barn at Affick, near Tulla, turning it into a traditional-style long house designed for self-catering holiday accommodation.

The conservation approach was that the materials should match the original building as far as possible while recognising that the new work was part of its ongoing history, so there should be no need to freeze the house in a time warp. One unusual feature is an opening in the barn gable to cater for the Lesser Horseshoe Bat.

Pat and Mary Cody, another couple with young children, won a high commendation in the "Best Conservation Project" category for their "courageous reconstruction" of a 16th century lakeside tower-house on Lough Derg which had last been used in the 1820s as a poitín distillery - until the RIC called in the British army to shell it.

One of Castlebawn's walls came tumbling down, leaving it to become another picturesque, ivy-clad ruin that resembled a medieval handball alley. The missing wall was rebuilt from rubble found on the site, which also included several pieces of stone window mullions and a corbel with a head carved on it; these were also re-used.

With Fergus Quinlan as architect, the roof was rebuilt with large Bangor Blue slate salvaged from a church, laid on new Irish oak trusses.

The Codys use the tower as a holiday home, to the delight of their three boys; the small great hall, with its big fireplace and gothic decoration, could be used for Dracula home movies.

The restoration of SS Peter and Paul's Cathedral spire in Ennis was also highly commended. The work carried out under the direction of Carrig Conservation (architects) and P Coleman and Associates involved thoroughly cleaning and re-pointing the spire as well as re-bedding the top 3.5 metres of its stonework.

The old clock mechanism and the old clock hands were located in the attic and were also sent for repair. These are now on display in the cathedral's old Baptismal Room, creating "a feature of particular interest for visitors" to a building which had been "sensitively restored in keeping with its prominent position on the skyline".

Inevitably, the award for "Best Conservation Project" went to the refurbishment of Ennis Courthouse, a fine neo-classical edifice dating from 1850.

It had to be fully upgraded for the Courts Service to meet contemporary needs, including modern technology, heating, fire regulations and universal (disabled) access.

The original courtrooms were also modified in a minimalist way. But the key challenge, as Dermot and Sean Merry Architects said, was to integrate additional office space in the building, without disguising its modernity.

They deservedly won praise for doing all of this "without any significant compromise of the building fabric".

Crosbie's Craft Shop on The Square, in Ennistymon, won the "Best Traditional Shopfront Award".

The brief was to maintain the mass, scale and character of the existing building and return it to its original appearance by replacing artificial slate with natural slate, modern gutters with cast-iron and PVC windows with timber sashes.

Old photographs were used by M Leahy and P Conway Architects to identify the lost detail and a new shop window was also formed by Robert Crosbie himself, copying the details of a particularly fine original example nearby.

The end result was described as "a comprehensive visual addition to the townscape of a very high order".

The Square in Scariff has also been transformed by a scheme that won the "Best New Infill Development" award. With its varied mix of uses - a small supermarket, restaurant, commercial units, offices, apartments and townhouses - the aim was to bring about the restoration, consolidation and improvement of the village's fabric.

Developed by the local Rodgers family under the Scariff Town Renewal Scheme, it is unashamedly traditional in style - and none the worse for that. The citation characterised it as "a very fine example which other towns might follow and also an example of good practice in an applicant and the planning authority working together".

Highly commended in this category was Clòs na Manach, on the main street of Quin, where a site occupied by derelict sheds with a large rear garden was redeveloped to provide a pair of semi-detached houses on the street frontage and four terraced houses to the rear - "a good example of the intelligent use of village backlands".

There was no award for "Best New Housing Estate", even though lots have been built in Co Clare in recent years. However, a sheltered housing scheme for the elderly by the Kilmihil Voluntary Housing Association, built on a site provided by the Diocese of Killaloe within walking distance of the village, won a commendation.

The Clarecastle GAA Club was highly commended for its new clubhouse, designed in a contemporary style by M Leahy & P Conway Architects. It was seen as "a fresh approach to a sports facility for a successful local hurling club". An "unusual but welcome feature is the vibrant use of colour", which includes canary yellow.

In the most controversial area of all, "Best New House in the Countryside", we had no hesitation in giving the award to a wonderful house at Castlequarter, near Cratloe, designed with great flair by Richard Rice, of Limerick-based Healy and Partners, for himself and his partner, Marie Madden, and their children.

Though built on a sloping site, the usual method of hacking into the hill to create level ground was avoided by constructing it on a platform, which extends outwards to form a deck.

Full-height glazing gives views over the countryside from the living areas - a long room, with screens for the kitchen - while the bedroom block is to the rear.

As the citation said, this "innovative solution is simple and restrained and well-screened from the road with a knowledgeable use of landscape".

Unashamedly contemporary, using glass, steel and timber as materials, it was "an excellent design, perfectly placed on the site", all the more so because it "treads lightly on the earth".

The awards scheme was organised by an energetic young planner, Gordon Daly, who is shortly moving to Offaly County Council as senior planner. It came complete with an Oscar-style awards ceremony in Glór, the Irish Music Centre, in Ennis last week. All that was missing was a red carpet. Other local authorities please copy.

The jury for the awards consisted of Cathal O'Neill, former professor of architecture at UCD; Billy Houlihan, Cork County Architect; Freddie O'Dwyer, architectural historian and senior architect with the Department of the Environment; Gabrielle McKeown, senior planning adviser in the DoE, and Frank McDonald.

Last week's column referred to DIT's "Faculty of Architecture"; its correct title is the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, Dublin School of Architecture, DIT Bolton Street