Sigginstown Castle
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Designs & Documents (related to Planning Permissions)
We've selected some of the most interesting drawings and documents to show here.
For a complete set, you can browse the Wexford County Council Planning Site and read to your heart's content!
Our reference number is 20180037
3D Models done in Sketchup by David O'Brien. These are really useful to visualize the buildings. The software does not always give the correct proportions, so the tower may appear a bit squat. It is meant to give a feel for the finished product rather than an exact picture.
David O'Brien
The tower vault will remain as is with some masonry repairs.
The 17th century house becomes our living area, with open floor plan and kitchen at right.
We will have a staircase going up to a partial first floor above the kitchen.
There will be a "new build" area in back for our master bedroom and bathroom, plus utilities. This allows us to live on one level as we get older!
In the agricultural building it will be open, to use as a garage, workshop or for small events. We hope this area will be as accessible as possible, and may have a small utility kitchen for cooking.
David O'Brien
The tower vault will be open to the next level with possibly a small gallery.
The house has a open gallery and walkway up to the tower 2nd level. There are two smaller bedrooms above the kitchen, and a bit of gallery to look over the open living room. The bathroom will be there but is hard to fit (like Hogwarts, things move around occasionally!)
Likewise, we plan a couple of smaller bedrooms above our Master Bedroom, with a bathroom and area looking over the open workshop space. This will allow us to have separate areas which can be used for different purposes or guests....eventually!
David O'Brien
These are the various elevations.
There was initial discussion of 6 over 6 paned sash windows, but after some feedback from the Department due to irregular sizes, we decided to do plainer windows for appearance and cost reasons.
The house roof is fairly massive. We are planning on doing natural slates. There was evidence that a first roof had earthenware tile.
If we get roofs, windows, doors on the building and can actually live in it, we will leave fancier renovations to those who come after us!
Proposed Sections of Tower & House
David O'Brien
The Tower will remain medieval. From other castle owners we have learned it can cost €100K to install heat in a tower. We can't afford that, plus we like the medieval feel of the tower!
The roof will not be 100% medieval because we will have glass planes on the gable ends to allow in light. Once the crenellations are rebuilt they may block a good part of the view, but the light will help make the upper floor a more welcoming space. The pitched roof will be timber with slates.
The two floors above the vault will be reinstated of timber. The rooms have wonderful large fireplaces which we plan to use for heritage cooking activities. We do not plan to run modern utilities into the garderobes (loos), but there may be a possibility of a small gravity-fed water cistern on the roof for hand-washing, or a compost/chemical toilet. This is only an idea at present.
We would like to have friends and families stay in the tower during the warmer months, and think a tower is a pretty cool place to sleep! But one does need a toilet (or chamber pot!)
Wexford County Council
Provides the final conditions in order to go forward with construction
RFI - Architectural Details and Impact
Michael Tierney
This contains most of the methodology information about the house, walls, roofs, slates, lime, floors, and various details requested by the Department.
Bena Stutchbury
This document is focused on the tower.
It details the roof, crenellation rebuild, floors, doors and windows.
We are going to keep it fairly simple!
Philip Lawlor
The septic tests and plans.
We had to revise the plans after the drip system would have meant a much larger impact on archeology.
John Creed
The average person may not think the floor levels are very interesting, but this topic caused a lot of dialog due to the impact on archeology and possible excavation! We hope that we can end up recording and preserving in place versus doing much excavation...