Photographs by James Fennell.
That the voice of the sea speaks to the soul is something few would deny.
The lives of a thousand generations have been caught somewhere between the
thundering crash of stormy waves and the silent ripples of calmer dawns.
A two mile beech avenue wends its way through green fields and yellow gorse
before abruptly terminating near Dunany Point on the south coast
of Dundalk Bay. The air, laden with manure a few fields inland, now
swims with soft aromas of salt and sea. To the north, across the bay, the
shrouded mountains of Cooley, Carlingford and Mourne. In about 1840 this
dramatic location inspired the owners of the surrounding estate to build
a scenic lodge. It was a retreat, nothing elaborate, just a small place
where local gentlemen and their families could come with picnics and rugs
and cast their minds away from the daily pressures of civic disorder and
economic decline. At the time a coastal road passed right beneath the house
connecting the village of Annagassan to the fishing village of Clogher
Head; old men still recall the milkman using this road with horse and trap
but the road is now long gone.
Alicia Chawner first saw the house while walking along the strand
in the 1970s. The house looked unloved and was in danger of dereliction.
Windows were broken, gutters down, doors off their hinges. The grounds to
the rear had been overpowered by brambles. Negotiations began with the previous
owners and the deal was struck.
The house has since been restored in a manner both intimate to the desires
of Alain and Alicia and at one with its original function. "People
often say "What a wonderful house! Look what you've done! but the fact
is it has always been a wonderful house".
The original architect of the house is unknown but his creation was a small
masterpiece. The four room building appears to have been designed almost
entirely in tune with the passage of the sun. "In the morning the
sunlight explodes into the house through the eastern window and then slowly
revolves around the house throughout the day" To reflect sunlight
into the bedroom and kitchen, all walls have been painted white and mirrors
hung to reflect the light. The four poster bed was elevated to ensure its
occupants could gaze from their pillows directly across the changing tides
to the mountains beyond. Chairs and tables were selected with equal regard
for location, their design simultaneously evoking a hint of the beachcomber.
It is the sound of the sea and the winds upon it that so entranced Alicia
when she first found the house. Now she is hooked, as defined by her location
as the sea kale on the rocky shores or the winkles on the strand.
This story featured in The Irish Times Magazine, May 2003.