boathouse

Detached single-bay (three-bay deep) single-storey gable-fronted lifeboat house or lifeboat station, dated 1885; opened 1886, on a rectangular plan. Closed, 1914. Now disused. Pitched (gable-fronted) slate roof with roll moulded terracotta ridge tiles, lichen-spotted concrete or rendered coping to gables, and no rainwater goods surviving on exposed timber rafters. Part creeper- or ivy-covered cut-"Old Red Sandstone" banded tuck pointed snecked "Old Red Sandstone" walls with cut-"Old Red Sandstone" flush quoins to corners. Square-headed opening between rope twist-detailed terracotta panels ("RNLBI";"1885") with mass concrete infill. Square-headed stepped window opening in tripartite arrangement to gable with cut-"Old Red Sandstone" lintels framing fixed-pane timber fittings having horizontal glazing bars. Square-headed window openings to side elevations with cut-"Old Red Sandstone" lintels framing remains of louvered timber fittings behind wrought iron bars. Set in unkempt grounds.

A lifeboat house or lifeboat station representing an integral component of the later nineteenth-century built heritage of Fethard with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form; the construction in a ruby-coloured "Old Red Sandstone" demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the high pitched roofline. 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 lifeboat house or lifeboat station making a pleasing visual statement overlooking Fethard Bay: meanwhile, a recent plaque commemorates 'the local fishermen [and] their gallantry when the lifeboat was wrecked and nine of her crew perished on the 20th February 1914' (cf. 15619007).