House in Lisnanagh

Detached three-bay two-storey house with attic level, built c. 1800. Pitched slate roof with some remaining sections of cast-iron rainwater goods. Rendered chimneystacks to either gable end (northeast and southwest). Painted roughcast rendered walls over smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings having rendered reveals, one-over-one timber sliding sash windows with painted limestone sills. Central round-headed doorway to main elevation (southeast) with, rendered reveal, timber half-glazed door and with spoked fanlight over. Detached multiple-bay single-storey outbuilding to the rear (northwest) having pitched natural slate roof with raised verges to gable ends and having cast-iron rainwater goods. Coursed rubble limestone masonry walls. Square-headed window openings with limestone sills and roughly dressed limestone voussoirs. Elliptical-headed door opening and segmental-headed carriage arch with dressed limestone voussoirs. Single-storey outbuilding attached to southwest gable end having pitched corrugated-metal roof, rubble stone walls and square-headed openings. Single-bay single-storey outbuilding to the northeast having pitched slate roof with rendered chimneystack. Coursed rubble limestone masonry walls. Square-headed opening with timber battened door. Single-bay single-storey outhouse to east, having pitched slate roof and rendered walls. Set back from road in own grounds to the northwest of Edgeworthstown. Building aligned at a right-angle to road alignment. Rubble stone boundary walls to road-frontage having crenellated roughly dressed limestone coping over. Rubble stone boundary walls to site with dressed limestone coping. Pedestrian entrance to the southeast of house comprising a pair of rubble stone gate piers (on square-plan) having carved caps and wrought-iron gate. Vehicular entrance to the rear having rendered gate piers.

This plain but interesting house retains its early character and much of its salient fabric. The form of this modest house is typical of the farmhouses in the midlands of Ireland. The pitched roof with end chimneystacks, the window openings at attic level to the gable haunches, and the large expanses of blank walling in comparison to the area covered by the small openings (particularly to the rear), all suggest that this building may be quite early, perhaps late-eighteenth century in date. This building is aligned at a right angle to the road alignment, which is a feature of the extended Irish vernacular tradition. The sparse front elevation is enhanced by the central round-headed doorway with simple spoked fanlight, which gives this simple building a subdued formal architectural focus on an otherwise quite vernacular composition. The two-storey rubble limestone outbuilding to the rear, which is probably of early nineteenth-century date (map information) survives in good condition and adds substantially to the setting and context of the house. The setting is further enhanced by the boundary walls to site, and by the simple pedestrian gateway. This unassuming building is an integral element of the built heritage of the local area, adding historic interest to the rural countryside to the northwest of Edgeworthstown.