Survey Data
Reg No
60250021
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Original Use
School
In Use As
School
Date
1940 - 1950
Coordinates
319121, 220555
Date Recorded
26/11/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached two-bay single-storey national school, dated 1945; opened 1947, on a U-shaped plan with pair of single-bay single-storey lower "pavilion" porches (north). Renovated, 2005. Hipped slate roof abutting hipped slate roofs (north) with clay ridge tiles, sprocketed eaves, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-granite eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Repointed coursed rock faced rubble granite walls on granite ashlar chamfered plinth with cut-granite flush quoins to corners supporting cut-granite band to eaves. Square-headed window openings in tripartite arrangement centred on cut-granite date stone ("1945") with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds framing six-over-six timber sash windows having four-over-four sidelights. Square-headed door openings (porches) with cut-granite thresholds, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds framing rubble granite infill. Set back from line of road in relandscaped grounds with granite ashlar piers to perimeter having cut-granite capping.
Appraisal
A national school erected to a standardised design by the Office of Public Works (established 1831) representing an integral component of the mid twentieth-century built heritage of south County Dublin with the architectural value of the composition, one succeeding a nearby school house (1833) marked on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey (surveyed 1837; published 1843), suggested by such attributes as the compact symmetrical footprint; the rock faced surface finish offset by sheer Barnaculia granite dressings not only demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also producing a steely two-tone palette; the definition of the segregated classrooms by tripartite glazing patterns; and the high pitched sprocketed roofline. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with quantities of the original or sympathetically replicated fabric, thus upholding the character or integrity of a national school making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.