The School House Pottery
View of Portnoo bay from hilltop

Our Story

From Schoolhouse
to Studio

Jane Mawson on Portnoo beach

The Potter

Meet Jane

Potter, ceramic artist, and qualified senior teacher with over 25 years of experience teaching young children and people with special needs. Jane brings that same warmth, patience, and infectious enthusiasm to every piece she creates and every workshop she leads.

Based between Banbridge and Portnoo, her work is deeply rooted in the landscape of the Donegal coast — the turquoise shallows, the heather-covered hillsides, the ever-changing skies. These colours find their way into every glaze.

Her cups are ergonomic in shape, designed to embrace the ritual of tea, coffee, and whiskey drinking. They fit snugly in the hand — like a warm hug.

Est. 1933

The Old Schoolhouse

Black and white class photo from the 1930s outside the schoolhouse
Colour class photo from the 1980s outside the schoolhouse

Scoil Dallain Forgaill — a national school built in 1933 in the townland of Ballymackilduff, Portnoo, Co. Donegal. For decades, generations of local children learned within its stone walls.

Today, Jane and Matt Mawson are proud custodians of this beautiful building. They adore its location, perched on the wild Donegal coast; its history, written into every stone; and its fabric, lovingly preserved and given new purpose.

What was once a place of learning is now a place of making — and the spirit of sharing knowledge lives on through every workshop held within these walls.

Kilclooney Dolmen, a Neolithic portal tomb in the Donegal hills near The School House Pottery

Ancient Neighbour

Just 100 metres from the schoolhouse stands the Kilclooney Dolmen — a Neolithic portal tomb over 4,000 years old, and one of Ireland's finest megalithic monuments. Its massive capstone balances impossibly on slender uprights against the Donegal sky.

You can see it from the classroom windows. There's something quietly inspiring about making with your hands in a place where people have been shaping stone since the dawn of civilisation.

Aerial drone view of The Old Schoolhouse surrounded by green Donegal fields
Original 1933 stone plaque reading Scoil Dallain Forgaill Scoil Naisiunta 1933
The School House rusted metal sign on sage green wall

The Inspiration

Colours of the Coast

The colour palette in Jane's ceramics is drawn directly from the gorgeous Irish coastline that surrounds the schoolhouse — ocean teals, sandy creams, heather purples, and the soft sage greens of the Donegal hillsides.

Each glaze is layered by hand, meaning no two pieces are ever quite the same. Like the coast itself, every cup carries its own unique character.

Three handmade cups with coastal glazes displayed on a wooden stump in sunlight