School in Lavagh

Detached three-bay two-storey school, built 1878, with pronounced hipped roof and central single-storey porch, single-storey wing to south-west. Now disused. Double-span hipped slate roof with internal valley, lead-roll ridges and wide oversailing eaves having timber soffits and moulded brackets. Similar hipped roof with wide oversailing eaves to porch. Pitched slate roof with one hip-end to wing. Rendered chimneystacks with decorative terracotta pots flanking central bay, cast-iron and uPVC rainwater goods. Roughcast render over random rubble and red brick walls. Original six-over-six timber sliding-sash windows to ground floor, three-over-three to first with convex horns, all with tooled limestone sills. Nine-pane fixed timber windows to porch. Square-headed door opening to east side of porch with timber boarded door and decorative door knocker. Timber-battened doors to wing. Set adjacent to St. Paul’s Church and bounded by wrought-iron railings and gate.

The National School system introduced in 1831 provided free education funded by the state but the schools, though legally multi-denominational, were mostly established under the patronage of the respective churches. This building was completed in 1878 and served as the Church of Ireland National School until 1967. The external expression of the building is domestic, in the manner of an elegant glebe house, unlike the readily identifiable appearance of most national schools of the period. The building is elegantly composed with classical proportions, the windows set well in from the ends and with smaller windows to the upper floor. It retains its historic form and fabric, including roughcast render, slate roof with lead ridges, eaves brackets and excellent sash windows, all of which make a significant contribution to the historic environment of Ballymachugh, enhancing the setting of the neighbouring St Paul's Church and the rural landscape near the banks of Lough Sheelin. The school is part of an ensemble including the church and a former Orange Hall which testifies to the Protestant tradition of Co Cavan.