Survey Data
Reg No
40907935
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
School
Date
1850 - 1870
Coordinates
226406, 391046
Date Recorded
07/11/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay single-storey former national school, built c. 1860. Now out of use, in use as an outbuilding associated with Alt Presbyterian church\meeting house (see 40907916) adjacent to the west. Pitched natural slate roof with grey clayware ridge tiles, and with smooth rendered brick chimneystacks to the gable ends (north and south). Cast-iron rooflight to the rear pitch (west). Roughcast rendered walls over rubble stone construction. Smooth cement rendered walls to the south gable end. Square-headed window openings with stone sills and six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed doorway to the south end of the east elevation having replacement battened timber door. Road-fronted adjacent to Alt Presbyterian church\meeting house with later single-storey school adjacent to the east.
Appraisal
This simple but well-preserved former national school building, of mid nineteenth-century date, retains its early form and character, despite being no longer in use. Its visual appeal and integrity is enhanced by the retention of salient fabric such as timber sliding sash windows and natural slate roof that help add a satisfying patina. It is robustly-built in local rubble stone masonry, and its survival in relatively good condition is testament to the quality of its original construction. Its location adjacent to Alt Presbyterian church\meeting house (see 40907916) suggests that it may have been also in use as a Sunday school. This was probably superseded by a later national school (see 40907936) to the north-east, which in turn was superseded by a modern school building adjacent to the east (not in survey). National schools of this type are a feature of the rural landscapes of County Donegal, adding a layer of social history to the physical environment, and are indicative of significant local population in a period when transport was more difficult. Its form also suggests that it was probably originally built as a two classroom national school, possibly with separate classrooms for girls and boys, which was a common feature of many national schools built in Ireland during the nineteenth century, reflecting the strict social thinking of the time. This building is of social importance to the local area as an early surviving example of a national school where generations of local children were taught, and is an addition to the built heritage of the local area.