Tag Archives: McKernan Woollen Mills

A LANDMARK crafts company in Tuamgraney has secured permission for a new apartment development which has been commended for its sensitivity to the local streetscape. The green light has been given to McKernan Woollen Mills Ltd, subject to six conditions. While planners were assessing the designs, they raised concerns about the impact on the Architectural Conservation Area (ACA) in the scenic East Clare Village. Those concerns were allayed through Further Information (FI) supplied by McKernans. The revised designs were then commended by the Council’s Architectural Conservation Officer (ACO) as paying “homage to agricultural architecture of the surrounding hinterland”. The company lodged plans last June for conversion of an existing cottage into three self-contained apartments. In August, planners requested more details from the company, in relation to the potential impact on the character of the East Clare village. In their letter, planners said they had “serious concerns in relation to the overall design of the development and the impact of same …

SUCCESS came as something of a surprise to husband-and-wife team Anke and Eugene McKernan, who set up their woollen mills in Tuamgraney in the 1980s. “We really didn’t plan it,” Anke told The Champion. “We were originally weavers, but realised that it was the market for hand-crafted scarves that was really going best for us. In 1995 we replaced our handlooms with a 120-year-old cast iron shuttle loom, and in 2012 we purchased our first knitting machine. We just couldn’t have imagined how the business would grow.” Now, McKernan Woollen Mills, produces over 500 different product lines which combine the crafts of weaving and knitting in innovative designs, textures and styles. With 70% of the pre-Covid business coming for export channels – to countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, the US and Canada – the company has had to switch gears to some extent because of the pandemic, and put more of a focus on retail business in outlets including …