A house on your land, designed for your family.
One-off houses, replacement dwellings and homes on family land across Northern Ireland and Donegal. I'll help you understand what your site allows, design a house that suits how you live and what you want to spend, and see it through planning and onto site.
Building a house in the country is a big decision, and a good one.
Often it's a site from family land, or an old homeplace that's past saving. Sometimes it's a site you've found and want to buy. Either way, you're picturing the house before anyone has drawn a line. My job is to get you from that picture to a house you can live in, with a clear plan at each step.
Four things we'll work out together, early
1. What your site allows. Owning land doesn't automatically mean you can build on it. Countryside planning depends on the route: a farm dwelling, a replacement, a gap site or another policy. I'll tell you which route fits and how strong it is.
2. Which rules apply. Derry and Donegal follow different systems, even a few miles apart. I work under both.
3. The practical side. Road access and sightlines, water, wastewater and drainage shape where the house sits on the site, and sometimes whether it can go there at all.
4. The budget. We shape the house around what you want to spend from the first sketch, so the design you fall for is one you can build.
From site to front door.
1. Free 15 minute call
2. Project Clarity Review: site visit, planning route, budget and a written plan
3. Design, developed with you
4. Planning application
5. Technical drawings and building regulations
6. Choosing a builder, then site visits to completion
The planning rules in plain words (correct as of October 2026)
Northern Ireland. Countryside housing policy now depends on the council. In the Derry City and Strabane District, the Local Development Plan 2032, adopted in July 2025, sets the rules. Building regulations are checked by the council's Building Control against the Technical Booklets.
County Donegal. One-off rural houses are assessed under the County Donegal Development Plan 2024 to 2030, which looks at your rural housing need and the type of rural area your site is in. Building regulations run through BCAR and the Building Control Management System, using the Technical Guidance Documents. Sites without mains drainage need a site suitability assessment under the EPA Code of Practice.