Episode 5
Craughwell, Co Galway
Linsday and Kevin Deely, their young sons Sam and Tom and their two dogs have left their comfortable suburban home in Oranmore in search of country air and space. They bought a patch of land in Craughwell, which housed what appeared to be a 1980s bungalow and barn. When the cottage turns out to be a traditional cottage with thatch replaced by tiles, they throw themselves into a loving restoration and barn conversion. That means cutting costs by moving into a mobile home on site and taking on DIY demolition themselves. After months of hard graft with the help of French stonemason Laurik Matthieu, the house emerges as a stunning combination of old country charm with elegant architectural finishes.
Series Information
The Great House Revival returns with a whole new generation of budding restorers and ruinous wrecks. This year’s lineup reflects social media’s fascination with restoration: the cast are younger and their planned finishes are all the more contemporary and hashtag-happy. Projects range from a hulking ivy-covered mill in Co Louth and a castle on the verge of collapse in Co Wexford, to a house inherited from Nana, complete with her psychedelic furnishings, in Co Laois. Also featured is a barn in Co Galway, a Victorian villa on the banks of the Lee in Co Cork and a pub on the border in Co Monaghan. The homeowners face two years of construction shutdowns, lockdown-pregnancies and cost hikes but battle through to create six utterly original homes.