Abbey Hall

Detached eight-bay double-height national school, built 1861, on a T-shaped plan centred on two-bay double-height pedimented breakfront; single-bay (two-bay deep) double-height lower central return (east). In alternative use, 2004. Hipped slate roof on a T-shaped plan centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof (breakfront), ridge tiles, rendered "wallhead" chimney stack (east) having stringcourse below capping supporting yellow terracotta pot, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-granite eaves with cast-iron downpipes. Roughcast walls with cut-granite quoins to corners including cut-granite quoins to corners (breakfront) supporting bellcote-topped monolithic pediment; cement rendered surface finish (east). Shallow camber-headed window openings in shallow camber-headed recesses with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings with timber casement windows now boarded up. Set back from street on an elevated site with roughcast boundary wall to perimeter having concrete chamfered coping.

A national school representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century built heritage of Graiguenamanagh with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on a Classically-detailed breakfront showing a clock face supplied by J. Booth and Son of Dublin; the gentle ""sweep"" of the slender openings originally showing conventional Georgian glazing patterns as captured in a photograph by Robert French (1841-1917) of Dublin [NLI L_ROY_10500]; and the simple bellcote embellishing the roof. NOTE: A monument (1949) commemorates Sean ""Jack"" Hartley (1897-1921) and Nicholas Mullins (1893-1921) 'OF THE ACTIVE SERVICE UNIT 5TH BATTALION KILKENNY BRIGADE IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY' who were 'KILLED IN ACTION IN THE FIGHT FOR FREEDOM AT COOLBAWN CASTLECOMER 18TH JUNE 1921!'.