The building of a replica Iron Age round house is the key component of a ‘Traditional Building Skills’ project for the National Lottery Fund funded Ring of Gullion Landscape Partnership Scheme Legacy Phase (RoGLPS). The purpose of this project is to train groups in the traditional building skills required to work with natural woodland materials, so that these skills aren’t lost from the Ring of Gullion area. Young people will also be involved in the final stages of the build, adding wattle and daub to the walls.
The round house will be situated in a clearing at Bluebell Lane Glamping, 49 Tullymacrieve Road, Mullaghbane, BT35 9RE. Bluebell Lane Glamping began in 2018 with the aim of providing high quality glamping combined with a wooded area where families could explore the natural environment and learn useful outdoor skills such as friction fire starting. The round house will be used to augment the learning environment and provide a wet weather training space.
A round house was chosen as it complements other RoGLPS projects and nearby sites. The size of the round house is modelled on the post holes of a ‘guard house’ found in an archaeological excavation of nearby Dorsey Entrenchment.
Newry Mourne and Down District Council has appointed Welig Heritage Crafts to build the round house using traditional techniques/materials and provide training workshops for groups of volunteers and school groups from the area.
Workshops will cover the following building techniques and volunteers should get hands on experience: wood preservation (charring), upright posts installation, wall installation, vertical staves and using traditional techniques and materials weaving wood; and wattle and daub.
If you are from the Ring of Gullion Area/ are a school from the Ring of Gullion, contact the Ring of Gullion Partnership Office on [email protected] to express your interest.
