Survey Data
Reg No
40910011
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Cully Orange Hall
Date
1905 - 1910
Coordinates
196558, 376872
Date Recorded
05/11/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay single-storey Orange hall, dated 1907 and extended c. 1950 and between 2003 - 7, having projecting gable-fronted entrance porch (dated 2007) to the east end of the front elevation (north) and with single-storey extensions to the west and east gable ends and to the rear (south). Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, terracotta ball finials to gable apexes, raised stone coping to gable end (east and west) having blocks/pedestals at eaves level. Corrugated-metal roofs to modern extensions; slate roof to porch to north. Smooth rendered ruled-and-lined walls to original building having cut sandstone plaque to the main elevation (north) incised ‘Cully Orange Hall, 1907’. Roughcast rendered finish to extensions. Pointed arched window openings with two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows with exposed sash boxes, plain glazed overlights and painted sills. Square-headed door openings to porch extensions with timber battened doors. Set back from the road to the north-east of Laghy. Rubble stone boundary wall with rubble stone coping over to the north of site.
Appraisal
Despite some modern extensions, this simple early twentieth-century Orange hall retains much of its early character and form. Its visual expression and integrity is enhanced by the retention of features such as the natural slate roof and the timber sliding sash windows, while the ball finials to the gables and the cut stone plaque add the merest hint of decorative interest to this otherwise plain building. The pointed-arched window openings lend this build the appearance of a contemporary chapel or meeting house. This building is of social interest to the local community as an Orange Hall, a function it still retains, and adds social and cultural diversity to the rural landscape to the north-east of Laghy. It is one of a number of Orange halls still extant and in use in south County Donegal (apparently seventeen are still extant). The date plaque to the front elevation records that it was built in 1907, and it apparently replaced an earlier Orange hall in the area, which was sited in the townland of Moyne adjacent to the south (site unknown). The lodge is still known as Moyne Lodge No. 1145, and was apparently originally established in the area in 1831. This building is an interesting if modest addition to the built heritage of the local area, and is an unassuming feature in the rural landscape.