Ardcavan Cottage

Detached three-bay single-storey farmhouse with half-dormer attic, extant 1875, on a cruciform plan centred on single-bay full-height gabled projecting breakfront; single-bay (single-bay deep) full-height return (north). Occupied, 1911. Refenestrated, ----. Pitched slate roof on a cruciform plan including gablets to window openings to half-dormer attic centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof, clay ridge tiles, rendered panelled chimney stacks on chamfered cushion courses on rendered bases having stringcourses below chamfered capping, timber bargeboards to gables with timber finials to apexes, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on rendered eaves. Part creeper- or ivy-covered rendered, ruled and lined walls. Square-headed central window opening in tripartite arrangement (ground floor) with cut-granite sill, timber mullions, and concealed dressings framing replacement casement windows. Square-headed opposing door openings to "cheeks" with cut-granite thresholds supporting cast-iron bootscrapers, and concealed dressings framing timber panelled doors. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement casement windows. Set in landscaped grounds with roughcast-panelled rendered piers to perimeter having "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed shallow pyramidal capping supporting replacement mild steel double gates.

A farmhouse erected by James Hayes (d. 1875) representing an integral component of the mid nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one refronting a tenant farmhouse erected by Robert Wigram Hughes (1807-59) of Ely House (Rowe and Scallan 2004, 20), suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on an expressed breakfront; the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated tiered visual effect with the principal "apartments" or reception rooms defined by polygonal bay windows; and the timber work embellishing a multi-gabled roofline. Having been reasonably well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: however, the introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of the composition. Furthemore, adjacent limewashed outbuildings (extant 1903) continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a self-contained ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan street scene.