Lacy

Detached five-bay single-storey thatched cottage, c.1825, on a corner site incorporating fabric of earlier Catholic chapel, between 1670-90, with entrance windbreak. Renovated, c.1925, to accommodate part commercial use. Undergoing renovation, 2004-5. Hipped roof undergoing renovation, 2004-5, with replacement oat thatch having rope work to ridge, and rendered squat chimney stacks. Painted rendered walls over mud construction with slight batter, and rendered dressings, c.1925, to windbreak including fluted Ionic pilasters supporting fascia having raised lettering with moulded cornice. Square-headed window openings with cut-stone sills, and one-over-one timber sash windows having margins. Square-headed door opening with replacement tongue-and-groove timber panelled half-door, post-1994. Set in own grounds on a corner site.

Occupying a prominent position on a corner site a modest-scale range representing a component of the vernacular heritage of County Kilkenny makes a pleasing visual impression in the local landscape: having origins dating back to the core of a mid to late seventeenth-century penal chapel the cottage also represents an important element of the archaeological heritage of the locality. Rendered dressings applied in the course of adapting the site to an alternative use allude to the Classical tradition yet further enhance the vernacular importance of the composition on account of the naïve quality of the end product. Having been well maintained with sympathetic restoration works presently (2004) underway the cottage remains an important element of the architectural heritage of the area.