Survey Data
Reg No
40904022
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Original Use
Lighthouse keeper's house
In Use As
Guest house/b&b
Date
1900 - 1920
Coordinates
164211, 418694
Date Recorded
30/10/2016
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Pair of semi-detached two-bay two-storey former lighthouse keepers' houses, built c.1910, having projecting flat-roofed porches to inner bays of front (west) elevation. Now in use as holiday accommodation. Flat roofs, hidden behind raised smooth-rendered parapets with moulded render eaves cornices, smooth-rendered chimneystacks, one to each end and one shared to middle, and with some surviving sections of profiled metal rainwater goods. Porches have flat-roofed water tanks above with moulded cornices to heads of tanks and to porches. Smooth-rendered walls over projecting smooth-rendered plinth, with smooth-rendered block quoins to corners, projecting smooth-rendered sill course at first floor level (brought around side elevations), and having render/stucco roundel/medallion to water tank to building to north. Square-headed window openings with smooth-render surrounds, stone sills and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Square-headed doorways to porches with raised rendered surrounds and timber battened doors. Corner fireplaces to interior of centre rooms and timber tongue-and-grooved panelling to walls. Located on north-west tip of Árainn Mhór [Aran Island] adjacent to Aran Island Lighthouse. Rubble and ashlar granite boundary walls with rubble granite and cement rendered copings to site. Enclosed yard to south. Gateway to southwest corner of site with rendered square-plan piers and wrought-iron gate. Gateway to west of porches comprises similar piers and wrought-iron gate. Detached single-storey former lighthouse keeper's dwelling adjacent to northeast.
Appraisal
These appealing semi-detached former lighthouse keepers' houses were built to serve Aran Island Lighthouse. Their well-proportioned and balanced appearance is enlivened by the attention to detail, as seen in features such as the pronounced eaves cornices, porch detailing, block quoins and surrounds to openings. Their visual appeal is enhanced by the retention of timber battened doors and timber sash windows. The flat-roofed forms and formal architectural character create an unusual and slightly incongruous feature in this rugged rural landscape, but are similar to late nineteenth and early twentieth-century keepers' houses elsewhere in Ireland. The buildings now act as historical reminders of the dedication and harsh existence endured by the men who worked here throughout the twentieth century and form part of a group of structures associated with the adjacent lighthouse and are significant elements of the maritime history of Dún na nGall [County Donegal].