Survey Data
Reg No
13313024
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Keenagh National School
Original Use
School
In Use As
House
Date
1820 - 1840
Coordinates
212488, 263375
Date Recorded
07/08/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey former Church of Ireland school, built c. 1830, having projecting single-bay two-storey bay to the centre of the front façade (southwest) and multiple-bay two-storey and single-storey extensions to the rear (northeast). Later in use as a national school, from c. 1900 until c. 1973, and now in use as private housing. Hipped slate roofs with rendered chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughly coursed rock-faced limestone walls with cut limestone string course at first floor level. Flight of concrete steps to front façade giving access to first floor level. Square-headed window openings with tooled cut limestone sills, cut limestone voussoirs and replacement windows. Square-headed door openings with timber battened doors, some double leaf. Set in own grounds adjacent to St. George's Church of Ireland church (13313025), having random rubble limestone boundary walls to road frontage. Located to the southeast end of Keenagh.
Appraisal
This former school, though much altered, retains an attractive façade with well executed stone detailing. Closed in the early 1970s, this school was a Church of Ireland run boarding school until 1900, at which time it became a national school. Located close to St. George's Church of Ireland church, this unusual cruciform-plan school may have benefited from the donations of local landowner families. Indeed, it was probably one of the parochial schools ‘principally supported by the Countess of Ross’ (Lewis 1837). The form of this school building suggests that it was originally a two classroom school, with a single classroom to each floor. This school and the adjacent St. George's Church of Ireland church (13313025) form a pleasant grouping of Church of Ireland structures at the southeast end of Keenagh village. The simple boundary walls complete the setting and add to this composition.