teacher's house

Detached three-bay single-storey teacher's house with half-dormer attic, extant 1893, on a symmetrical plan. Vacated, 1971[?]. For sale, 2009. Now disused. Pitched slate roof centred on pitched (gabled) slate roof with clay ridge tiles terminating in part creeper- or ivy-covered rendered chimney stacks having stepped capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on box eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Part creeper- or ivy-covered rendered, ruled and lined walls. Square-headed central door opening with concealed dressings framing timber door. Square-headed window openings centred on paired square-headed window openings (half-dormer attic) with cut-limestone sills[?], and concealed dressings framing two-over-two timber sash windows having horizontal glazing bars centred on one-over-one timber sash windows (half-dormer attic). Set back from road in unkempt grounds with rendered boundary wall to perimeter having lichen-covered coping.

A house representing an integral component of the late nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of the rural environs of Ballyhaunis with the architectural value of the composition, one erected to a standardised prototype for occupation by the teacher stationed at the diagonally opposing Coolnafarna National School (extant 1893; closed 1971), suggested by such traits as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on a canopied doorcase; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated tiered visual effect. A prolonged period of unoccupancy or neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, thereby upholding the character or integrity of a house making a pleasing visual statement in a sylvan setting.