Re: Re: ‘Dutch Billys’

@ctesiphon wrote:

Sorry for the delay. I will confess I’m stumped on this one.

Unless it was your good self, sir?)

:confused:I’ve no architectural link, professionally, just have an interest in buildings.:)

The ruin is that of Rossdohan House, and is between Kenmare/Sneem, near Parknasilla. The first house of note on the site was designed by John Pollard Seddon (architect of Univ. Coll. Wales, etc. ) about 1880. It was rather an odd building from the photos I’ve seen, a cross between gingerbread cottage and mock gothic. Thankfully much of it was ivy-clad. It was burned in late 1922 and ownership later passed to a Nicholas Fitzgerald, (born Sauer, in South Africa).
Fitzgerald/Sauer successively commissioned various architects – reputedly about 12 – to design him a Cape Dutch house. One was his cousin, Magda Sauer, whose proposal was declined as impracticable, as it called for the slaughtering of several oxen for thongs to tie the timbers in lieu of nails and blood for the plastering. The job was eventually taken on by Michael Scott, (yes, that one) who came up with what looks like a copy of Groot Constantia, complete with a thatched roof. Built in the late 1940’s, the main stonemasons were the Egans, same family as the Kerry footballers. It’s been a ruin since 1955, when it was again destroyed by fire. .According to local legend some butter-paper thrown on a fire, floated up the chimney, landed on the thatch and up it went.
Incidentally, Magda was the first female qualified architect to practice in South Africa and was married to the Scandinavian engineer who designed the Table Mountain cablecar.
Her bio is here http://books.google.ie/books?id=rl8nkyID3WsC&pg=PA223&lpg=PA223&dq=magda+sauer&source=web&ots=AHm-i3zz6W&sig=_WLXMCWPGfN0pnQa3EbEjtj7Maw&hl=en

KB.