From Illinois to Alaska to perching on a roof in an overcast sky, close to the seaside town of Tramore in Co Waterford, it''s been quite an eventful life journey for Sara Leach, one of only two female thatchers in Ireland.
On the day she meets Irish Country Living, she is in the middle of repairing a ridge on a roof of a relatively new thatched home at Mountain View Farm. To many people, a thatched cottage was, and still is, an enduring symbol of rural Ireland, embodying a very distinctive tradition of a bygone era.
“I wasn’t thatching when I came here, but it found me,” the Chicago native says, laughing after coming down the ladder in blustery conditions to chat. Height is no issue to her, and neither is working on her own, and, as long as her ears are warm under a headband, the wind doesn’t pose a problem either.
One of a rare tribe, Sara estimates there are fewer than 30 full-time thatchers left in Ireland. She is going into her sixth year, and, while still considering herself relatively new to the ancient craft, Sara loves the places it takes her to and the people she meets in the course of her work.
She has two giant Bernese mountain dogs for company on this job and two donkeys up the back field. “There are days I’m in a T-shirt [like last Monday], and the birds are singing, and there is nowhere you’d rather be,” she says. “It’s just heaven.
“I’ve always been outdoorsy, and I knew I’d find something like that, but I didn’t know I’d be on a roof. I love it,” adds Sara, chuckling.
“It’s brought me to so many places I never would have seen. After storm Éowyn, I went to Connemara because someone couldn’t find anyone to fix some damage [to a thatch]. The views, where you wind up – there’s always a story.”
It’s a far cry from Sara’s previous career in hospitality – in the oil fields of Alaska. She met her husband Conor at a wedding in Edinburgh in 2016, and their romance resulted in her moving here in 2018.
Thatcher Sara Leach working on a house near Tramore in Co Waterford. \ Patrick Browne
She later did a short course in mud-wall building over one winter in Co Donegal. However, it was a brief stay in a thatched cottage in Galway at the start of the pandemic that set her on a completely different career trajectory.
“I was like, ‘Okay, we could do walls [build mud walls]. How about a roof? Then I looked up thatching courses, and I found Matt Whelan. I took his course [at the Irish School of Thatching], which was really intensive [over four days]. It was just me and a reed cutter who cuts water reed on the Shannon, Mick Grimes.”
Sara just “got it” and found it so inspiring to learn about water reed and long straw thatching that she asked Matt to take her on as an apprentice, and he agreed. She worked for him over the next three years full-time before going out on her own. She regularly stays in touch with Matt and considers him an important mentor for advice on any “head-scratchy” jobs.
Natural materials
“I’ve always loved natural building materials,” Sara says when asked why thatching appeals to her. “Heritage is very important, and keeping thatched buildings is very important too. But what brought me to it first was natural building materials. That’s how I started with the mud walls. I’ve always been interested in building my own home, or at least a shed or something.”
Asked if it is a difficult skill to learn, Sara is direct: “It is, yeah. On the course with Matt, I just remember going, ‘I’m wrecked from just holding [the reeds]’ but then you get used to everything and with lots of repetition and practice, it comes together. " You also develop new muscles you never knew you had and have no problems sleeping, she jokes.
Sara is amazed by water reed which, as a material, is really hardy and in thatch provides excellent insulation. While she’d love to use native reed, quality and quantity for a regular supply are a problem.
“I’d love to use Irish reed and Irish reed only, but there are few reed beds being maintained, and the quality is iffy. It’s just not possible. The same goes for straw or wheat reed; getting a good quality product is very, very hard. This is all Turkish reed,” she tells Irish Country Living, taking out the long bales that she hauls onto the roof.
Traditionally, it would have been wheaten straw, oaten straw or barley straw or reeds used to thatch homes.
Thatcher Sara Leach working on a thatched cottage in Co Waterford. \ Patrick Browne
Cool layers
“Every single roof is different. Every cottage is different. This one has timber underneath – quite often I would be on the old cottages with the old layers of thatch.
"You can’t help but be aware of the history associated with these homes," she adds.
“I was thatching in a chimney – removing it and making it water tight again and when you see all the layers over all the years – that’s really cool. Or if someone is renovating an old cottage, you go in and see all the original timbers or raw branches,” explains Sara, who lives in nearby Kilmore Quay in Co Wexford.
While acutely aware that she is keeping an ancient tradition alive, Sara says the homeowners are the biggest custodians of heritage buildings, and they should be supported with information and help from the authorities in the face of increased maintenance costs to ensure the number of thatched buildings doesn’t dwindle further.
“You really need people who care and want to keep the home [thatched], but they have it really tough because it’s so hard to find people to do the work and to get insurance too.
If the householder can get cover, it is generally several times higher than a regular home, and more money is needed to maintain the thatch, which can last up to 30 years but will need ridge maintenance every seven to 10 years, she advises. A regular wash to keep mildew and moss from becoming a problem is also necessary.
Thatcher Sara Leach climbing the ladder with bundles of water reed. \ Patrick Browne
Challenges
While a self-professed optimist, Sara admits that it is “tough going” at present to keep thatching alive in the face of these challenges.
“This past year has been really rough because a lot of the thatchers are retiring. In this whole area – Waterford and Cork – they are slowing down or injured. I would say there are only 20-25 full-timers [left].”
Sara admits she doesn’t have the answers, but insists that there needs to be more regular training courses, like the one that started recently in Kilkenny after a gap of many years (see page 22).
That, coupled with what seems to be a revival in interest in traditional crafts skills among the younger generation gives her hope for the future.
“I know a few of the students [on the new Heritage Council thatching course] and they’re great, and I hope they like it and stick to it and don’t get discouraged or disheartened,” she says.
“I’m getting some placements, one if not two from the thatching course, in October or November, and I’m really looking forward to that.
“I would love to teach a little bit, but it’s tough when we are so busy; when taking on an apprentice you need time, and good weather.”
Like farmers, Sara admits jokingly that checking the weather is one of her “biggest pastimes”, given the nature of her work.
“It’s definitely taught me patience,” the US native says of thatching, which she also describes as a “lifetime of learning”.
Whatever happens, Sara wants to stick with her craft, but where that will take her, she simply doesn’t know. While she plans to continue with cottages, if that dwindles away, Sara has the idea of putting her skills into smaller buildings like gazebos or sheds – incorporating mud walls and thatch.
“In the Netherlands they do it all the time with new builds – they even clad walls with thatch. They build it in vertical panels – and because it is so thick and the insulation is very good, they do entire buildings with it.
“It is a viable career but we just need more support, from Government and councils,” she says.
See sarathethatcher.ie
From Illinois to Alaska to perching on a roof in an overcast sky, close to the seaside town of Tramore in Co Waterford, it''s been quite an eventful life journey for Sara Leach, one of only two female thatchers in Ireland.
On the day she meets Irish Country Living, she is in the middle of repairing a ridge on a roof of a relatively new thatched home at Mountain View Farm. To many people, a thatched cottage was, and still is, an enduring symbol of rural Ireland, embodying a very distinctive tradition of a bygone era.
“I wasn’t thatching when I came here, but it found me,” the Chicago native says, laughing after coming down the ladder in blustery conditions to chat. Height is no issue to her, and neither is working on her own, and, as long as her ears are warm under a headband, the wind doesn’t pose a problem either.
One of a rare tribe, Sara estimates there are fewer than 30 full-time thatchers left in Ireland. She is going into her sixth year, and, while still considering herself relatively new to the ancient craft, Sara loves the places it takes her to and the people she meets in the course of her work.
She has two giant Bernese mountain dogs for company on this job and two donkeys up the back field. “There are days I’m in a T-shirt [like last Monday], and the birds are singing, and there is nowhere you’d rather be,” she says. “It’s just heaven.
“I’ve always been outdoorsy, and I knew I’d find something like that, but I didn’t know I’d be on a roof. I love it,” adds Sara, chuckling.
“It’s brought me to so many places I never would have seen. After storm Éowyn, I went to Connemara because someone couldn’t find anyone to fix some damage [to a thatch]. The views, where you wind up – there’s always a story.”
It’s a far cry from Sara’s previous career in hospitality – in the oil fields of Alaska. She met her husband Conor at a wedding in Edinburgh in 2016, and their romance resulted in her moving here in 2018.
Thatcher Sara Leach working on a house near Tramore in Co Waterford. \ Patrick Browne
She later did a short course in mud-wall building over one winter in Co Donegal. However, it was a brief stay in a thatched cottage in Galway at the start of the pandemic that set her on a completely different career trajectory.
“I was like, ‘Okay, we could do walls [build mud walls]. How about a roof? Then I looked up thatching courses, and I found Matt Whelan. I took his course [at the Irish School of Thatching], which was really intensive [over four days]. It was just me and a reed cutter who cuts water reed on the Shannon, Mick Grimes.”
Sara just “got it” and found it so inspiring to learn about water reed and long straw thatching that she asked Matt to take her on as an apprentice, and he agreed. She worked for him over the next three years full-time before going out on her own. She regularly stays in touch with Matt and considers him an important mentor for advice on any “head-scratchy” jobs.
Natural materials
“I’ve always loved natural building materials,” Sara says when asked why thatching appeals to her. “Heritage is very important, and keeping thatched buildings is very important too. But what brought me to it first was natural building materials. That’s how I started with the mud walls. I’ve always been interested in building my own home, or at least a shed or something.”
Asked if it is a difficult skill to learn, Sara is direct: “It is, yeah. On the course with Matt, I just remember going, ‘I’m wrecked from just holding [the reeds]’ but then you get used to everything and with lots of repetition and practice, it comes together. " You also develop new muscles you never knew you had and have no problems sleeping, she jokes.
Sara is amazed by water reed which, as a material, is really hardy and in thatch provides excellent insulation. While she’d love to use native reed, quality and quantity for a regular supply are a problem.
“I’d love to use Irish reed and Irish reed only, but there are few reed beds being maintained, and the quality is iffy. It’s just not possible. The same goes for straw or wheat reed; getting a good quality product is very, very hard. This is all Turkish reed,” she tells Irish Country Living, taking out the long bales that she hauls onto the roof.
Traditionally, it would have been wheaten straw, oaten straw or barley straw or reeds used to thatch homes.
Thatcher Sara Leach working on a thatched cottage in Co Waterford. \ Patrick Browne
Cool layers
“Every single roof is different. Every cottage is different. This one has timber underneath – quite often I would be on the old cottages with the old layers of thatch.
"You can’t help but be aware of the history associated with these homes," she adds.
“I was thatching in a chimney – removing it and making it water tight again and when you see all the layers over all the years – that’s really cool. Or if someone is renovating an old cottage, you go in and see all the original timbers or raw branches,” explains Sara, who lives in nearby Kilmore Quay in Co Wexford.
While acutely aware that she is keeping an ancient tradition alive, Sara says the homeowners are the biggest custodians of heritage buildings, and they should be supported with information and help from the authorities in the face of increased maintenance costs to ensure the number of thatched buildings doesn’t dwindle further.
“You really need people who care and want to keep the home [thatched], but they have it really tough because it’s so hard to find people to do the work and to get insurance too.
If the householder can get cover, it is generally several times higher than a regular home, and more money is needed to maintain the thatch, which can last up to 30 years but will need ridge maintenance every seven to 10 years, she advises. A regular wash to keep mildew and moss from becoming a problem is also necessary.
Thatcher Sara Leach climbing the ladder with bundles of water reed. \ Patrick Browne
Challenges
While a self-professed optimist, Sara admits that it is “tough going” at present to keep thatching alive in the face of these challenges.
“This past year has been really rough because a lot of the thatchers are retiring. In this whole area – Waterford and Cork – they are slowing down or injured. I would say there are only 20-25 full-timers [left].”
Sara admits she doesn’t have the answers, but insists that there needs to be more regular training courses, like the one that started recently in Kilkenny after a gap of many years (see page 22).
That, coupled with what seems to be a revival in interest in traditional crafts skills among the younger generation gives her hope for the future.
“I know a few of the students [on the new Heritage Council thatching course] and they’re great, and I hope they like it and stick to it and don’t get discouraged or disheartened,” she says.
“I’m getting some placements, one if not two from the thatching course, in October or November, and I’m really looking forward to that.
“I would love to teach a little bit, but it’s tough when we are so busy; when taking on an apprentice you need time, and good weather.”
Like farmers, Sara admits jokingly that checking the weather is one of her “biggest pastimes”, given the nature of her work.
“It’s definitely taught me patience,” the US native says of thatching, which she also describes as a “lifetime of learning”.
Whatever happens, Sara wants to stick with her craft, but where that will take her, she simply doesn’t know. While she plans to continue with cottages, if that dwindles away, Sara has the idea of putting her skills into smaller buildings like gazebos or sheds – incorporating mud walls and thatch.
“In the Netherlands they do it all the time with new builds – they even clad walls with thatch. They build it in vertical panels – and because it is so thick and the insulation is very good, they do entire buildings with it.
“It is a viable career but we just need more support, from Government and councils,” she says.
See sarathethatcher.ie
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