The old green An Post box set into a Carrigart stone wall, ivy alongside — letters and communication.
Davey John’s Forge · Journal

From the forge.

Notes on restoring the place: what we’ve built, and why. Two stories to start: the sauna in the old peat shed, and the games room in the forge itself.

The finished cottage from the gravel courtyard — white render, slate roof and the red door.
The cottage

Renovating the cottage

Before any of this began, the cottage was much as it had been left. The good room, the bedroom that became the kitchen, the surprise window behind the plaster: how the old rooms became one.
The finished sauna terrace in Donegal Quartz crazy paving, looking down to Mulroy Bay.
5 July 2025 · The sauna

Renovating the sauna

The hot tubs proved how much guests wanted to slow down, so the old peat shed became a hot-stone sauna: dry-stone walls, Donegal Quartz paving, and a copper shower with the bay in front of you.
The finished games room — burnt-pine walls, a pale tongue-and-groove ceiling and a light oak floor.
19 July 2025 · The games room

Building the games room

Three stays needed one shared room. We built it in the forge, opened up to the bay, walled in burnt pine around a preserved dry-stone feature wall. Free, and open whenever the weather turns.