N Scale Ballywillan, Co Longford.

[Patrick Davey]

Masterpiece!

[Kevin Sweeney]

This is the state of play with my next exhibition titled "The Irish House, 900 to 2026", I have set a deadline of October 1st to have it ready. I'm a bit more than half way there, as I'm planning to have 30 models, from a ring fort to a modern mansion.

The bottom photo shows the development of rural working class housing from 1600 to 1990.

[Camas]

10 minutes ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

This is the state of play with my next exhibition titled "The Irish House, 900 to 2026", I have set a deadline of October 1st to have it ready. I'm a bit more than half way there, as I'm planning to have 30 models, from a ring fort to a modern mansion.

The bottom photo shows the development of rural working class housing from 1600 to 1990.

Really impressive display. Best of success with your exhibition. Looking at your rural housing progression, that book 'Bungalow Bliss' by Jack Fitzsimons comes to mind as a useful resource. 

[Kevin Sweeney]

52 minutes ago, Camas said:

Really impressive display. Best of success with your exhibition. Looking at your rural housing progression, that book 'Bungalow Bliss' by Jack Fitzsimons comes to mind as a useful resource. 

I often think Jack Fitzsimons and Richard Lovett Pearse were the two most influential architects in irish histoy. Fitzsimons stated the bungalow revolution and Lovett Pearse the Palladian revolution. Lovett Pearse designed among others, Castletown House, 9 and 10 Henrietta Street, the Houses of Parliament on College Green and Bellamont House. Lovett Pearse definetly wins on aesthetics. 

[Kevin Sweeney]

Navan Station is installed on the customers layout.

[Kevin Sweeney]

A quick little modelling project, certainly simple compared to Navan Station. A Congested Districts Board cottage. Would be a suitable model for a west of ireland layout.

[jhb171achill]

On 2/5/2026 at 12:23 PM, Kevin Sweeney said:

I often think Jack Fitzsimons and Richard Lovett Pearse were the two most influential architects in irish histoy. Fitzsimons stated the bungalow revolution and Lovett Pearse the Palladian revolution. Lovett Pearse designed among others, Castletown House, 9 and 10 Henrietta Street, the Houses of Parliament on College Green and Bellamont House. Lovett Pearse definetly wins on aesthetics. 

Totally agree. He also built Seafield House, Donabate, though what is there today was substantially added to in the 1880s. In original style, a perfect example of Palladian symmetry, and a light-filled house as he had windows at the back facing the ornamental gardens when you walked in through the hall door.

Would you consider a standard Land Commission  / "Gaeltacht" 1920s house in 00 scale?

On 5/5/2026 at 6:57 PM, Kevin Sweeney said:

Navan Station is installed on the customers layout.

GNR paint scheme on the doors, by the look of it!

Edited May 12 by jhb171achill

[Mol_PMB]

2 hours ago, Kevin Sweeney said:

A quick little modelling project, certainly simple compared to Navan Station. A Congested Districts Board cottage. Would be a suitable model for a west of ireland layout.

That's a lovely model, and thanks for sharing the drawing which I'm sure will inspire others to build one too. In fact it would be quite easy to produce a laser-cut kit for the standard design.

A quick google found some photos of these in the NLI archive:

Holdings: [House of Mrs Bridget Kelly, Lisvalley Vesey, near Tuam, Co. Galway] :: Library Catalog

Holdings: [House and grass farm of Michael Turner in the townland of Cloonmoyle, Co.Galway] :: Library Catalog

Holdings: [Mrs Philban's house and farm, Ballymacragh, Co.Mayo, one of the first to be purchased by the Congested Districts Board in Mayo] :: Library Catalog

Holdings: [New dwelling house in Monivea, Co.Galway] :: Library Catalog

Interestingly, at first glance they don't look that much better than what they were supposed to be replacing:

Holdings: [Two cottages in Newtown village, Castlebar district, Co.Mayo] :: Library Catalog

Holdings: [View of a house in Graigue, Co.Galway that is to be improved by the tennant with the aid of a Congested Districts Board grant] :: Library Catalog

Holdings: [View of congested village of Graigue, Co.Galway, from where migrants were taken to holdings in Graigueachuillaire] :: Library Catalog

 

Many thanks again for the inspiration!

[Kevin Sweeney]

1 hour ago, jhb171achill said:

Totally agree. He also built Seafield House, Donabate, though what is there today was substantially added to in the 1880s. In original style, a perfect example of Palladian symmetry, and a light-filled house as he had windows at the back facing the ornamental gardens when you walked in through the hall door.

Would you consider a standard Land Commission  / "Gaeltacht" 1920s house in 00 scale?

GNR paint scheme on the doors, by the look of it!

I'm planning on a doing a land commission house at some stage.

[Kevin Sweeney]

Getting close to a finish with this model. It's Carnalway Glebe House, which is near Newbridge, in Co KIldare. It's a tudor revival house built in the 1870s, with a well executed late 20th century extention on the rear.

[Patrick Davey]

Another masterpiece Kevin!

[Kevin Sweeney]

I'm back modelling after a bit of a hiatus. I'm in a Plantation of Ulster phase at the moment. I'm getting close to finishing a model of Tully Castle in Co Fermanagh. Built in the Scottish Baronial style in the early 1600s, it was captured by rebels in 1641, burned and never rebuilt.

The two storey house is the Pendean farmhouse which dates from 1609. It is preserved in the Weald and Downland Living Museum, in Sussex. The cottage is a scaled down version of Peandan. 

[Patrick Davey]

Mighty stuff Kevin!

[Kevin Sweeney]

My latest project, Townley Hall, Co Louth. The glass cupola is one of the trickest things I've ever made.

I'm doing a talk next Saturday in the County Museum in Ballyjamesduff, about the history of Irish houses. I will have about 20 models on display.

The Evolution of House Dwellings in Ireland | Facebook

[Kevin Sweeney]

Townley Hall is finished.

 

[derek]

Stunning work again Kevin @Kevin Sweeney . Piece of art really

[Kevin Sweeney]

3 hours ago, derek said:

Stunning work again Kevin @Kevin Sweeney . Piece of art really

Thanks Derek. I'm pleased with but it a much simpler model than many I have built, it's a great piece of neo classical archicture but it has very clean lines and not a lot of complex features.

[Patrick Davey]

An absolute work of art Kevin - good luck with the talk.  Not too many talks on the subject will have precision models of some of the subjects on display!

[DJ Dangerous]

Literally works of art, I just don’t know how you can design and build them so well.

[Kevin Sweeney]

21 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Literally works of art, I just don’t know how you can design and build them so well.

I have lots of time on my hands. I find modelling is very theraputic. When I'm working on a model, my own troubles and the troubles of the world are far away. 

[Kevin Sweeney]

I've just finished a pair of semi detached art deco houses, which are in Glenageary. Although I just noticed looking at the photos I forgot to put the sills on the gable windows.

My talk in the County Museum went well, good turn out and I got to display my collection of house models.

My model of the County Museum is now on permeant display in a glass case in the museum.

I'm planning to have my next exhibition "The Irish House, 900 to 2027" ready by the end of the year. I have 4 more models to make, a gothic revival house, an arts and crafts cottage, a bauhaus house in Ranelagh, and as a great centre piece Kilkenny Castle. A total of 35 models.

The problem with my last exhibition is that it was all Cavan buildings, so once it finished in the County museum, there was nowhere else to go with it. The next exhibition can go to any county museum on the island of Ireland.

I'm toying with the idea of moving onto Irish churches next.
 

Edited Tuesday at 19:20 by Kevin Sweeney

[Colonel]

Great project and will certainly look forward to seeing it progress.

[Kevin Sweeney]

My next build is Luggala. A beautiful gothic revival house in the Wicklow Mountains. I found archictects drawings on the planning portal, but i wanted to model the building as it apperared on the 1901 OS map. So l uploaded the map and the planning drawings to Chatgpt and asked it to untangle the 1901 building from the modern one.

it came up with this set of drawings, which look great and will allow me to make a card mockup before I start the build. If these drawings are accurate I'm particulary interested in the curved roofs and the the bow walls. If Chatgpt got the geometry right I will be very pleased as maths is not my stongpoint and these kind of features take me a lot of time as I have to do it by trial and error. Time will tell, but the drawings look great. and even if the geometry turns out to be wrong I can still generate the texture sheets from them.

[Broithe]

I had a holiday in the '90s, around the Loire valley, visiting loads of chateaux, etc. They all sold kits of themselves in this form and I got a good few. I made a couple up in the initial fit of enthusiasm, but the rest are waiting for 'when I have time'...

Anyway, the point is that they were very good sellers, particularly for attractive buildings that are open to the public...

[Kevin Sweeney]

35 minutes ago, Broithe said:

I had a holiday in the '90s, around the Loire valley, visiting loads of chateaux, etc. They all sold kits of themselves in this form and I got a good few. I made a couple up in the initial fit of enthusiasm, but the rest are waiting for 'when I have time'...

Anyway, the point is that they were very good sellers, particularly for attractive buildings that are open to the public...

It will be interesting to see how good Chatgpt is at making this kind of kit.

I've used it a lot in recent months when searching for interesting buildings to model.