Survey Data
Reg No
41401329
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Scoil Náisiúnta Naomh Micheál
Original Use
School
Date
1940 - 1960
Coordinates
265984, 327279
Date Recorded
29/04/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached six-bay single-storey former national school, built c.1950, having flat-roofed single-storey projection to north and east, and single-storey play-shelter, and three-stage square-plan water tower, to north-east. Now disused. Pitched slate roof, with cast-iron rainwater goods, vent pipes, and harl-rendered chimneystacks to gable ends. Harl-rendered walls, with smooth-rendered plinth course, inscribed stone plaque to front elevation. Square-headed window openings, with replacement uPVC windows, slim rendered reveals, and painted concrete sills. Six bays of three-pane timber windows survive to clerestory in rear elevation. Square-headed door opening with timber battened door, to west elevation, and recessed square-headed doorway to centre of rear elevation with matching door. Harl-rendered walls and square-headed openings to water tower. Arcaded open-sided play-shelter having harl-rendered walls, and with round-plan columns to open side. Set back from road with roughcast-rendered wall to west broken by vehicular entrance and two stiles, with replacement cement block wall to south-west.
Appraisal
Opened in the mid-twentieth century, Saint Michael's National School bears the same dedication as the Catholic church to the south-west. The school replaced previous schoolhouses shown to the west and south-west on the first (1835) and second (1098) edition Ordnance Survey maps. The form and layout is typical of a mid-twentieth-century rural Irish national school, many of which were built at this time to a standard design by the Office of Public Works. The plan accommodated two classrooms for boys and girls, within a symmetrical building. Though a single-storey extension has been added to the north and east, the original character of the school remains. These school buildings share common characteristics, generally a single-storey symmetrical building with roughcast render, a water tower, a covered play-shelter and an enclosing wall with stiles, all features present at Saint Michael's. Over the years many of these ancillary structures have been lost, so the retention of the tower and play-shed on site is noteworthy. This former school is of social and architectural significance to the area, and is now vacant following the opening of a modern Corcaghan National School to the north in 2004.