house

Semi-detached three-bay single-storey local authority house with attic level, built c.1900. Now in use as a private dwelling. One of a pair with the building adjoining to the west. Pitched natural slate roof with gabled dormer window to western-most bay, a central brick chimneystack and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls over smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with rendered surrounds, cut stone sills and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Projecting gable-fronted entrance porch with natural slate roof and bargeboard to east end of main façade with square-headed doorcase with rendered surround and replacement panelled timber door. Located to east of Kilbeggan in own grounds with mature gardens to front (south). Rubble stone boundary wall to south.

An attractive, well-built, modest-scale house which retains its early form and fabric. It is the best surviving example of a pair of houses, the other having been modernised in recent years. It was originally constructed as part of a scheme of social housing at the end of the nineteenth/early twentieth-century . This was a time when many houses of this type were being built throughout Ireland, by the various local authorities, following the passing of various Labourers' Acts by the British Parliament. These houses were usually built to a high architectural standard and it is rare to find an example in such good condition. This structure is very similar in form to a number of social housing schemes on the outskirts of Mullingar, notably at Springfield Cottages, near Dublin Bridge. This appealing building remains an interesting reminder of a phase of Irish architectural history and is an important part of the architectural heritage of Westmeath.