Belderg National School

Detached three-bay single-storey national school, dated 1879; opened 1879; extant 1901, on an L-shaped plan with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting lower porch. Closed 1965. Now disused. Pitched slate roofs on an L-shaped plan including pitched (gabled) slate roof to porch with clay ridge tiles, rendered coping to gable with rendered chimney stack to apex (south) having chamfered capping supporting terracotta pot, and no rainwater goods surviving on exposed timber rafters retaining cast-iron downpipes. Rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Set back from road in unkempt grounds on a slightly elevated site with rendered piers to perimeter having chamfered capping supporting wrought iron gate.

A dilapidated national school erected to a standardised design for the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland (cf. 31300707; 31301408) representing an integral component of the later nineteenth-century architectural heritage of Contae Mhaigh Eo [north County Mayo]. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, thus upholding the character or integrity of a national school making a pleasing, if increasingly forlorn visual statement in a rural setting.