Ballybofey man rebuilds childhood memories in his back yard

Transforming your childhood memories into bricks and mortar could be challenging - maybe near impossible - but a Ballybofey man's practical approach proves it can be done.

Josie McCafferty has taken his family homestead, a two-room cottage, from its original setting in the townland of Knock, Ballybofey and moved it a mile or so up the road and rebuilt it in his back yard at Correfin.

He used his experience in the building industry and enthusiasm for stone masonry to make it happen.
Josie discovered the house was about to be demolished so he decided to dismantle it and take it home.

Josie in the old family cottage recalling good times from years gone by

The McCafferty family, his mother Mary, late father Attie along with brothers John, Tony, Paul, Michael and Desmond last lived in it from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

They enjoyed life there despite no water or electricity at the start. It lay derelict after the family grew up and they all went their separate ways.

"The man who owned the land was going to knock it down to widen a lane,” Josie said. “That was back in 2009. I thought it would be nice to retain all those great memories of growing up by taking the cottage apart, stone by stone, and rebuilding it in my back yard so the new owner agreed and told me to work away."

Josie says there was no formula involved. He just took the house apart, took it a mile up the road using a tractor and trailer and rebuild it. He finished the work in 2011.

"When we were living in it the walls were plastered but I decided to keep the stone look as that's the way it probably was when it was first built,” he said. “ I kept the stone on the outside too. The walls are two feet thick, indeed three feet in some places.

“Back in the day there would have taken a skilled stone mason to put a cottage like this together. It was also covered with lime mortar plaster and whitewashed."
Josie said he had a reasonable idea of the dimensions involved so just worked on the rebuild from memory.

"I remember we moved into the cottage when I was only two. It had an open hearth before we got a range and we had stone floors. It also had a tin roof back then so I decided to keep that part the same too. It was probably thatched in the olden days. It was a safe and warm house with many happy memories in it."

Josie believes the cottage (above) goes back around 200 years and understands from research that families by the names of McCosker, Gallen, Sharkey and McShane lived there.

"We were the last to live there so I wanted to preserve it. It was nostalgia on my part but I also felt there's a lot of history in small cottages like this and once they are demolished that piece of history leaves the townland forever. Many buildings full of history are disappearing from the locality which is a pity because they are part of who we are."

Josie says they now use the house for occasional family get-togethers as the cottage has no electricity or running water.

"The rest of the family didn't know what I was doing until I had it finished but they are all impressed to see their old home intact again. Mum only lives down the road and she loves it."

He is now hoping that more research might shed some light on the cottage itself. He has attempted to find out about the previous owners and is intrigued to discover where the stones to build it came from.

"No one seems to know. The towns of Ballybofey and Stranorlar and all the boundary walls around the towns are built with stone but I don't know where it came from as I don't think there are too many quarries in this area. I can't see horses and carts taking all the stone around the place."

Josie at the half door which was common in most cottages around this time

He is hoping someone who reads this story will be able to enlighten him.

Josie also believes a new initiative by the Ballybofey, Stranorlar and District Historical Society asking locals to take photographs of their old homesteads could prove an invaluable resource for the future.

The society is hoping to organise an exhibition of these old buildings in September or October to help not only preserve these memories but illustrate how people lived, worked and played in this area in the past. Your photos and stories can be e-mailed to bsadhs@gmail.com

If you are unable to do this contact a member of the society and they will get your story told.

In the meantime Josie is quite content with a job well done and a world of great memories in his back yard.