worker's house

Semi-detached three-bay single-storey former estate worker's house, built c. 1830, with modern entrance porch and a single-storey extension to rear (west). One of a pair with the building adjoining to the north (13312011). Now in use as a private house. Hipped slate roof with central red brick chimneystack and cast-iron rainwater goods. Flat roof to porch. Snecked rock-faced stone walls, with flush dressed limestone quoins to the corner at the south end. Painted roughcast rendered walls to extension. Square-headed window openings with tooled limestone block-and-start surrounds, stone sills, and timber frame pivoting pane windows. Central square-headed entrance opening with tooled limestone block-and-start surround and replacement glazed timber panelled door. Painted concrete block walls to porch, with colonnettes. Set back from road to the north of Ardagh village centre with landscaped garden to front (east) and south. Random rubble stone boundary wall with rounded stone coping and wrought-iron gate.

This attractive small-scale former estate worker’s house retains its early form and character, despite the addition of a modern porch. It is well built using good quality stone masonry, particularly to the openings, which gives it a presence not normally found with such a small building. It probably predates the extensive works at Ardagh carried out between c. 1860 – 1865 by the architect James Rawson Carroll (1830 – 1911). It is one of a number of worker’s houses and ancillary buildings, of varying designs, in the village of Ardagh that collectively represent one of the most interesting collections of its type in north Leinster. The simple boundary walls complete the setting and add to this appealing composition. Associated with Ardagh House (13312039) and the Fetherston family.