Check in to Craggy Cottages on a remote Co Mayo island

With panoramic views of Connemara’s Twelve Pins, and located just a stone’s throw walk from the magical lagoon of Portdoon, Inishturk’s two new modular cottages, aimed at the tourist sector, are the culmination of a huge communal commitment.

The idea to bolster the island’s tourism appeal, through this development, may have been “a long time in the making”, but, according to islander and community development co-ordinator, Mary Helena O’Toole, “embracing the many logistical challenges has proven to be an absolute success”.

“We knew we needed an innovative plan to resolve the shortage of holiday accommodation in a cost-effective and efficient way,” she explains. “So we reached out to the community to see if somebody would make a site available that would be easy to develop and an island family did just that.”

Fourteen kilometres from the mainland harbour of Roonagh, Inishturk has a population of about 62 permanent residents. At the heart of the island is the Community Club CLG, officially incorporated in 1991, which runs a restaurant, pub and shop, as well as other communal projects and events.

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After the first hurdle was crossed by the trustees of the community club, “then there began a complex bureaucratic process involving funding applications and drawing down the granted monies”, O’Toole recalls.

Ultimately, the project has cost €370,000, supported by significant grants through the Department of Community and Rural Development’s, a generous donation from the Tomar Trust, which supports rural sustainable projects, and a grant from Mayo County Council.

“We also received a loan from the Western Development Commission (WDC) whose personnel were extremely helpful to us,” she says.

“Our board of trustees agreed then that we would examine the possibilities of an alternative build, but we tendered for the usual block build too, in order to have a full picture of costs. Our priority was that we were compliant with Irish building regulations whilst spending the money wisely,” she says.

After Westcore Renewables, a Mayo-based company, was awarded the contract, they subcontracted the works to the Big Red Barn company, which has also developed a second strand for high-spec buildings, called Byrne Rapid Build (BRB).

Mayo man Donal Byrne established the Big Red Barn after his return home from London a decade ago. He explains that his company’s initial constructions were mainly for events or for garden sheds and studios. They were built with certified steel and pressure-treated kiln dried Scandinavian pine.

However, due to market forces and demand, the second strand of the enterprise now builds houses to a high-end planning specification standard, as is the case with the Inishturk cottages.

Byrne says: “The two cottages on Inishturk are A-rated steel-framed structures which are fully insulated with fibre-cement boarding and are rendered on the outside.”

He says they were built for about half the price of traditional block-built constructions and, moreover, were effectively built in six months, taking into account enforced breaks in the project’s progress due to stormy winter weather.

“We were able to bring all our building materials across the eight-mile journey by the regular cargo ferry. We also brought a teleporter and four-by-four to transport everything. Of course, the great support and help of the islanders was vital too,” says Byrne

Called Craggy Cottages, the state-of-the-art self-catering houses have large open-plan living spaces, two bedrooms, with one en suite, and can sleep up to six guests, when using a sofa bed. Prices start at €134 a night, and revenue from the cottages goes into the community club account.

There may have been stressful moments along the way, but O’Toole says the small community is very proud of the project.

“We are busy with bookings until September and people love the fact that this progressive form of building blends so well into our pristine environment,” she says.