It’s been a long and winding road of forty years since I first reported on the restoration of Ardroe Cottage at Aughadreena near Portsalon. The cottage recently featured in Donegal’s Heritage Week and visitors simply discovered they had entered a different time zone in history with the original house in fine condition. And it has been restored and maintained to the highest standards by Michael McElwee who loves and lives this place with the kind of passion befitting of owning such a piece of our ancient heritage. And at the weekend as the clouds of early autumn drifted overhead, I was back once more to witness how this old thatched house had fared with the passage of time. Needless to say Ardroe with its thatch of flax sparkled in its original setting looking stunning almost four hundred years since it was first built. Earlier homesteads would have been built with clay and wattles. But in the 16th century, these houses had stone and lime… made to withstand the ravages of time. Ireland is a place that is steeped in history, myth, and legend. The green hills of Fanad gives way to a rugged coastline, but today the thatched roof is gone forever. Ardroe is special because it is the story of a mythical land - a symbol of the country’s rural heritage and way of life.
