Saint Brigid's National School

Detached four-bay single-storey rubble stone Gothic-style former national school, c.1830, on an L-shaped plan on a corner site with lancet-arch openings and four-bay single-storey replica wing to south-east. Renovated and extended, c.1980, comprising two-bay single-storey lean-to lower return to south-west. Now in use as outbuilding. Hipped roof with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Iron rainwater goods on eaves band. Random rubble walls to north-east and to south-east. Repointed, c.1980. Cut-granite quoins to corners. Rendered walls to remainder. Painted. Lancet-arch openings. Cut-granite chamfered surrounds. Hood mouldings over. Timber Y-traceried casement windows. Lancet-arch door opening. Cut-granite chamfered doorcase. Hood moulding over. Replacement tongue-and-groove timber panelled door, c.1980, with overpanel. Set in grounds shared with Saint Brigid’s Catholic Church on a corner site. Roughcast boundary wall to front (north-east and south-east) with sections of iron railings over.

Saint Brigid’s National School (former) – probably funded by the adjacent Catholic church - is a fine, modest-scale early nineteenth-century rubble stone structure that skillfully accommodates two separate classroom ranges (one for male pupils; one for female pupils according to prevailing social morals of the times) in an L-shaped plan that turns a corner site. Despite its modest scale, the school is much ornamented, primarily through the use of large lancet-arch openings with refined dressings reflecting the openings to the Catholic church to north-west. The school, although no longer used for its original purpose, remains well-maintained and retains much of its original character, features and materials, including fenestration and a slate roof – only the unsympathetic repointing is not in keeping with the original integrity of the structure. The school is prominently located in the centre of the village of Kill and is of considerable social and historic significance as one of the earliest educational facilities in the locality. The decorative railings to the boundary are also of some interest and are an example of early surviving iron work.