Hi Mickey,

I just sent you a book list by email attachment re Timber Building.

There are mountains of books written on English timber frame development but little on Irish or Scottish tradition. As far as the books that I have come across re I&S the content seems to revolve around cruck framed black houses where the interior cruck frame is built into slots in the masonry walls to form the primary roof support.

Eire also has its fair share of tower houses which have timber framed roofs and a number of these have recently been replaced to make the towers habitable once again. This has featured in recent Mortice & Tenon magazine issues.

The Irish & Scots were also into building crannogs and it would be nice to hear more about how, when, where and from what (alder piles ?) that these were built.

There are a fair number of articles in the Vernacular Architecture back issues which discuss various I&S research programmes and findings but nowhere near enough.

Since Ireland was the country which spawned the missionaries who came to Scotland, Wales and parts of England (as we know and understand the borders today) I wish you well in your researches and look forward to being amazed at your findings.

Regards

Ken Hume
visit http://www.kfhume.freeserve.co.uk