Feehan’s Road, Cashel

Deaton Lysaght Architects designed a small local authority housing scheme […]

Deaton Lysaght Architects designed a small local authority housing scheme at Feehan's Road in Cashel. Located at the corner of Friar Street, the site is beside the fourteenth-century town wall, with the grounds of Cashel Cathedral immediately adjacent. It presented an opportunity to repair the streetscape and open up to the public the section of town wall which was previously a private boundary. The scheme was designed as a courtyard with the city wall and cathedral trees as its backdrop.  The courtyard is linked to Friar Street by a pedestrian way, which follows the line of the town wall.  The streetscape to Friar Street was designed as a mix of one, two and three-storey terraced houses, the latter being used as a foil to screen the adjacent petrol station. The houses were designed in an adaptation of the local vernacular style with grey tiled roofs, painted stucco walls and timber windows.  Rubble limestone walls are used to anchor the scheme and to integrate it into the existing town fabric. Private open space was provided by town gardens to the rear of each unit, sized as appropriate with the smallest gardens and patios given over to houses for older people.  The houses are street houses with paved communal courtyards to the front and flower beds and "pocket-handkerchief" gardens. The mix of house types (large family, small family and single person) reflects the Town Council's policy of social integration of the overall community, and the promotion of the town as a place in which to live and work.