Dick Macks Pub
Client: Dick Mack’s Pub Ltd
Type: Renovation and Addition
Gross Internal Area: 96 sqm / 1000 sqft
Status: Complete
Location: Co. Kerry
Date: 2022-
We were invited by Dick Mack’s — a Dingle institution since 1899 — to reconfigure and extend the ‘back bar’ area, introducing a new bar, additional seating, and upgraded toilet facilities. The project aimed to honour the distinctive character of the historic front bar without replicating it, avoiding pastiche while establishing a complementary identity for the rear spaces.
The new layout and material palette take cues from the original, reinterpreted with subtle variation. Timber, used both pragmatically and expressively, becomes the unifying element throughout. It lines the walls to soften acoustics and introduce warmth and texture, while also forming the fixed furniture: bar counters, shelving, seating, and snugs. Existing openings were retained where possible, and new ones introduced to strengthen spatial and visual connections between adjoining rooms.
A central design idea is the use of repetition as ornament. Along new walls, a veil of evenly spaced, CNC-machined solid oak battens wraps the interior like a continuous ribbon, aligned at a fixed datum. Below bar-counter height, the battens remain square and solid; above, they are scalloped at eye level, introducing a gentle play of light and shadow. Doors are discreetly integrated into this timber band, while fluted glass partitions in the snug areas provide a softly obscured boundary between public and private space.
Oak was chosen not only for its tactile warmth and enduring appearance, but also for its deeper cultural resonance — long revered in Irish mythology as a symbol of strength, wisdom, and resilience.
Elsewhere, new interventions reveal and celebrate the building’s layered history. Thick cement render was stripped from stone walls to expose the original textured stone fabric. Construction idiosyncrasies were embraced: a lintel formed from a length of old Dingle railway track is preserved and made visible; original brick reveals were retained and sensitively restored.
To the rear, a single-storey extension replaces a former lean-to, creating a new room that opens onto a south-facing yard with views toward Dick Mack’s Brewery. Clad in locally sourced recycled stone — a direct response to the exposed interior stone walls — the new volume draws on the scale, materiality, and proportions of the pub’s Victorian-era fabric, ensuring the addition feels both grounded and respectful.
Main Contractor: OL Construction
Joinery: Sean Kennedy (Kitchens)
Tiling: Tile Master Ardfert
Client: Dick Mack’s Pub Ltd
Type: Renovation and Addition
Gross Internal Area: 96 sqm / 1000 sqft
Status: Complete
Location: Co. Kerry
Date: 2022-
We were invited by Dick Mack’s — a Dingle institution since 1899 — to reconfigure and extend the ‘back bar’ area, introducing a new bar, additional seating, and upgraded toilet facilities. The project aimed to honour the distinctive character of the historic front bar without replicating it, avoiding pastiche while establishing a complementary identity for the rear spaces.
The new layout and material palette take cues from the original, reinterpreted with subtle variation. Timber, used both pragmatically and expressively, becomes the unifying element throughout. It lines the walls to soften acoustics and introduce warmth and texture, while also forming the fixed furniture: bar counters, shelving, seating, and snugs. Existing openings were retained where possible, and new ones introduced to strengthen spatial and visual connections between adjoining rooms.
A central design idea is the use of repetition as ornament. Along new walls, a veil of evenly spaced, CNC-machined solid oak battens wraps the interior like a continuous ribbon, aligned at a fixed datum. Below bar-counter height, the battens remain square and solid; above, they are scalloped at eye level, introducing a gentle play of light and shadow. Doors are discreetly integrated into this timber band, while fluted glass partitions in the snug areas provide a softly obscured boundary between public and private space.
Oak was chosen not only for its tactile warmth and enduring appearance, but also for its deeper cultural resonance — long revered in Irish mythology as a symbol of strength, wisdom, and resilience.
Elsewhere, new interventions reveal and celebrate the building’s layered history. Thick cement render was stripped from stone walls to expose the original textured stone fabric. Construction idiosyncrasies were embraced: a lintel formed from a length of old Dingle railway track is preserved and made visible; original brick reveals were retained and sensitively restored.
To the rear, a single-storey extension replaces a former lean-to, creating a new room that opens onto a south-facing yard with views toward Dick Mack’s Brewery. Clad in locally sourced recycled stone — a direct response to the exposed interior stone walls — the new volume draws on the scale, materiality, and proportions of the pub’s Victorian-era fabric, ensuring the addition feels both grounded and respectful.
Main Contractor: OL Construction
Joinery: Sean Kennedy (Kitchens)
Tiling: Tile Master Ardfert
