farmyard complex, Clonmult

Farmyard complex, built c. 1830. East range of farmyard comprising ten-bay two-storey outbuilding with pitched slate roof, and rubble stone walls, square-headed window openings with timber louvers and stone sills and voussoirs, square-headed door openings with timber battened half door and corrugated metal door, having cut stone voussoirs. Segmental-arched door opening having wrought-iron gate and cut stone voussoirs. Carriage arch with cut stone voussoirs. Barrel-roofed barn to east. Open-sided single-storey building with corrugated-iron flat roof, rubble stone walls and square-headed openings to south side of yard. Detached T-plan three-bay single-storey house, built c. 1820, with flat-roofed porch to front (south) elevation. Now in use as farm building. Hipped artificial slate roof with rendered chimneystacks. Rendered walls. Square-headed openings with timber sliding sash windows and render surrounds. Square-headed opening with timber battened door. Wrought-iron double-leaf gates to site entrance.

The simple forms of these structures reflect the utilitarian nature of their function. They create a pleasing architectural group on the roadside, and add architectural interest to the road north of Clonmult. Steeply pitched roofs and simply finished gables are typical of the vernacular tradition, as is grouping with outbuildings to the front, rather than the rear of the house. The orientation of the house, facing south rather than the road is also typically vernacular. The cut stone voussoirs, however, are evidence of highly skilled nineteenth-century craftsmanship.