Survey Data
Reg No
40909716
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
Lighthouse keeper's house
Date
1890 - 1910
Coordinates
171588, 374143
Date Recorded
09/11/2011
Date Updated
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Description
Detached five-bay single-storey former lighthouse keeper’s house associated with Rotten Island Lighthouse (see 40909715), built 1900. Now in use as stores and occasional dwelling. Flat (felt?) roof having moulded eaves course and two rendered chimneystacks. Smooth rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed doorways with timber doors. Located on offshore island to the south-east entrance to Killybegs Harbour. Site surrounded by high rubble stone boundary walls. Associated lighthouse (see 40909715) adjacent to the south. Still in use but no longer occupied.
Appraisal
These simple but well-built and well-maintained former lighthouses keeper’s houses and attached outbuildings/stores retain their early form and character. They were originally built to serve the adjacent St. John’s Point Lighthouse (see 40909717), with which they form an interesting pair of related structures. They are robustly built to provide shelter from the ravages of the Atlantic storms etc., while the moulding to the eaves adds the bare minimum of detailing to these otherwise plain structures. These buildings were originally constructed to provide accommodation for keepers (and their families) employed at the adjacent lighthouse, and now act as historical reminders of the dedication and harsh existence endured by the men who worked here. Although the lighthouse was originally built in 1837-8, the form of this lighthouse keeper’s house having flat roof with pronounced eaves cornice/moulding, suggests that it dates to or that they were heavily modified c. 1900. It is very similar to a number of lighthouse keeper’s houses in Ireland including that on Mizen Head (see 20915205), which was built in 1909, and at nearby Rotten Island (see 40909716). The form of the chimneystacks suggests that these buildings may have originally had pitched roofs. This building forms part of a pair of related structures along with the associated lighthouse, and is an important element of the built heritage and maritime history of Donegal. The simple boundary walls with cut stone coping over add considerably to the setting and context.