Survey Data

Reg No

40909718


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural


Original Use

Lighthouse keeper's house


In Use As

Lighthouse keeper's house


Date

1880 - 1910


Coordinates

170331, 369127


Date Recorded

02/11/2007


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Pair of attached three-bay single-storey former lighthouse keeper’s houses associated with St. John’s Point Lighthouse (see 40909715), built or altered 1900, having single-storey outbuildings attached to the south-east and north-west ends forming courtyard to the north-east of lighthouse. Now in use as stores and occasional dwellings. Flat (felt?) roofs having moulded eaves course and with rendered chimneystacks having battered bases. Smooth rendered walls over smooth rendered plinth. Square-headed window openings with stone sills and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed window openings to outbuildings having six-over-three and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Central square-headed doorways to former dwellings having replacement doors. Square-headed door openings to outbuildings having timber sheeted doors. Whitewashed walls to site having cut stone coping over. Gateway to the north-east comprising a pair of rendered gate piers (on square-plan) having cut stone capstones over, and with modern metal gates. Located on the tip of St. John’s Point with sea views to three elevations. Located to the south/south-west of Dunkineely.

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.