Bogles Round House

Many people who come to the Round House,  are amazed by the building and have many questions, here's an attempt to answer some of them.

As well as its function as a building, the Round House is also a piece or Art and  a Statement.                                                                                                                               As a piece of art please touch, enjoy it and feast your eyes.  As a statement it is simply saying that buildings do not have to be planned down to the last nail, they can be any shape that takes your fancy, and that they can be built from whatever materials come to hand. Anything is possible if you retain a completely open mind which does not allow itself to be dictated to by the 'norm'. In much the same way the same can be said of life.

The Round House was designed and constructed by Kim and Sue Russell, both in their forties and at present continuing their worldwide wanderings. They met in England in the mid-seventies and decided to step out of mainstream society to see if they could do something more satisfying for themselves.

They went to a very small island off the south-west coast of Ireland where they rebuilt a small croft and set about teaching themselves to live from the land and fishing as well as spinning wool and selling their craftwork. By 1982 they had three children and decided that it was time to move back to the 'civilised' world so that the children could have a taste of the realities that they would have to deal with in their coming lives.

In England they rebuilt an old fire engine which they used to pull a late 1800s circus living van. This was the first of many weird and wonderful homes. For the next six years the family travelled around Europe, sometimes in company of princes, sometimes with paupers. Sometimes rich, often poor, the variety of jobs and work they did to keep the family in food and footwear reads like an A to Z of employment. Occasionally the dream of a round house on an island next to a beach in the sun would surface, only to disappear under the pressures of day to day survival.

By the end of the eighties they were living  as a family on sailing boats. As the children were demanding some sort of stable education they decided to sail from South America, where they were at the time, back to their original starting place, Ireland. Carriacou was an island en-route where they cleared customs and thought they'd take a break for a couple of days. This was in January 1990. After only a couple of hours, they realised that this was the island of their dreams and decided to see, if they could find a way to stay and support themselves. Needless to say, they managed, chartering their boat and generally trying to become more stabilized.

In 1992 they bought some land and the construction of the Round House began. There were never any formal plans, a few sketches on pieces of waste wood, scratch drawings in the sand and numerous ideas running around in Kim's, now somewhat, rum soaked mind. The major stipulation concerning the construction was that there should be no straight lines, which immediately put the local builders merchants out of the running, so the search for building materials began. An agreed price was set for boulders which local people collected and then either delivered or collected from the bush. It is well known that one of the strongest natural constructions known to mankind is the egg, so it was decided that the cistern and roof should follow natures plan.    Kim and Sue decided to build as much as possible using local materials, also garbage and things that people don't appreciate or regard as rubbish. The base of the long seat in the Round House is the jawbone of a whale found whilst diving, the central tree support was dead and completely rotted out when found, fit only for firewood.....dig out all the rot, make sure all the termites were dead, turn upside down, fill with concrete and garbage and hey presto.....a beautiful central support. The spiders web, or dream catcher, windows  were made from off cuts of greenheart and reinforcing rods. The wheel windows were collected  from scrap yards in Grenada and St.Vincent and in the case of one, recovered from the public garbage bin at Tophill here in Carriacou. The bush timbers supporting the second floor are of 'Blue Mahoo' and were cut by hand out of the Grenadian rain forest amid much rum and hysterical behaviour!

The roof, which many people show great interest in, is a Ferro-cement system. This was constructed by forming a tight latticework of steel rods and chicken wire and then rendering over  inside and out  with 1:1 cement mix. It is extremely strong and is self-supporting, the str.............. from the fact that all the steel and wire is in a constant curve with no straight lines, which brings us back to the beginning of the story with the egg.

The Round House is a  result of Kim and Sue's dreams and attitudes towards life, some people think it's fantastic, others see it as a ridiculous folly, whatever your feelings it's made you think and ask questions and, in doing so, has already served one of its major functions.

So whether you're here for a few days or even just a couple of hours, enjoy your time with us and as you step out the door watch out for Kim and Sue returning from distant shores in their cosmic collapsible helicopter constructed from cereal packets and defunct nuclear power packs!!!!