Survey Data
Reg No
31302408
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Lighthouse keeper's house
In Use As
House
Date
1885 - 1895
Coordinates
65071, 318627
Date Recorded
13/01/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
End-of-terrace four-bay two-storey lighthouse keeper's house, designed 1889; built 1890; extant 1897, originally three-bay two-storey on a T-shaped plan centred on single-bay single-storey gabled projecting porch to ground floor. Occupied, 1911. Sold, 1957. Renovated to accommodate continued private residential use. For sale, 2010. One of a terrace of four. Pitched slate roofs including pitched (gabled) slate roof to porch with roll moulded clay ridge tiles, concrete coping to gables on cut-granite "Cyma Recta" or "Cyma Reversa" kneelers, and cast-iron rainwater goods on yellow brick header bond stepped eaves retaining cast-iron downpipe. Rendered walls on rendered chamfered plinth. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed yellow brick block-and-start surrounds framing replacement uPVC casement windows replacing six-over-six timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): vestibule retaining tessellated "quarry tile" floor; camber-headed door opening into entrance hall with timber panelled double doors having overlight; entrance hall retaining carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors; and carved timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with carved timber surrounds to window openings framing timber panelled shutters on panelled risers. Set perpendicular to road with drag edged rock faced granite ashlar piers to perimeter having capping supporting iron gate.
Appraisal
A house erected to a design signed (1889) by William Douglass (1831-1923), Engineer to the Commissioners of Irish Lights (appointed 1878; retired 1900), representing an integral component of the built heritage of Contae Mhaigh Eo [County Mayo] with the architectural value of the composition, one adhering to a standard prototype seen also at Knight's Town (1901), County Kerry; and Rosslare Harbour (1890), County Wexford, confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on an expressed porch; the very slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a feint graduated visual impression; and the high pitched gabled roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: the introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of a house forming part of a neat self-contained ensemble making a pleasing visual statement overlooking Cuan and Fhóid Duibh [Blacksod Bay].