Survey Data
Reg No
40901747
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Mulroy House
Original Use
School
In Use As
Outbuilding
Date
1865 - 1895
Coordinates
215195, 436717
Date Recorded
04/10/2010
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay single-storey former national school building with attic level, built in 1868 or 1890, having gable-fronted entrance porch to the centre of the main elevation (south). Now out of use and derelict, and in use as an agricultural outbuilding. Pitched natural slate roof with projecting eaves and exposed rafters, and with steeped rubble stone and brick chimneystack. No remaining rainwater goods. Roughly coursed rubble stone walls having slightly raised dressed granite block-and-start quoins to the corners of the main body of the building; yellow brick construction to porch with flush granite stringcourse, recessed red brick reveal and with timber weather boarding over doorway to gable apex. Square-headed window openings with yellow brick block-and-start surrounds and voussoirs, chamfered cut stone sills, and remains of timber windows. Square-headed window openings to the gable ends at ground floor level having yellow brick block-and-start surrounds, chamfered ashlar sills and lintels, and with cut stone mullions and transoms. Shouldered door opening to front face of porch having dressed ashlar granite capstones, cut stone step, red brick reveals, battened timber door and overlight. Modern opening to rear to accommodate use as agricultural outbuilding. Set back from the road along approach avenue to Mulroy House (see 40901747) within extensive mature state grounds; site now overgrown. Probable associated former schoolmaster’s house (see 40901746) located a short distance to the west.
Appraisal
This attractive former national school, dating to the second half of the nineteenth century, was originally associated with Mulroy House (40901712). Although now out of use\in use as outbuilding, it retains its original form and character and represents an attractive example of its type and date. It also retains much of its original fabric including natural slate roof while the attractive surround to the doorway with cut stone shouldered capping, the granite block-and-start quoins, the chamfered stone sills and lintels, and the cut stone mullion and transoms to the windows to the gable end indicate that this was a building of some architectural pretension with a high level of attention to detail. The contrast between the rubble stone walls and the yellow brick surrounds to the openings creates an appealing textural and tonal variation to the exterior, although it is likely that this building was originally rendered. This school was originally established in 1868 by the Third Earl of Leitrim but was apparently later rebuilt in 1890 (IAA, Report of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland) by the Fourth Earl. Sensitively restored this building would represent an integral element of the built heritage of the local area. This building forms part of a group of structures associated with Mulroy House that together form the most extensive collection of their type surviving in Donegal. It forms a pair of related structures with the probable former schoolmaster’s house (see 40901746) to the east, and is an element of the social heritage of the local area as an early surviving school.