worker's house

Detached three-bay single-storey rubble stone former estate worker's cottage with dormer attic, c.1820, retaining early fenestration. Extended, c.1970, comprising single-bay single-storey flat-roofed return to rear to north. Reroofed, 1998. Now in private residential use. Gable-ended roof. Replacement artificial slate, 1998. Concrete ridge tiles. Stone-clad chimney stack. Timber eaves and bargeboards. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods, 1998. Flat-roof to return. Bitumen felt. Rubble stone walls. Granite quoins to corners. Square-headed openings. Granite sills and lintels (concrete sills to return). Diamond-leaded timber casement windows. Aluminium casement windows to return. Replacement glazed timber panelled door, c.1940. Set back from road in own grounds. Part overgrown grounds to site. Gateway to front comprising pair of cut-stone piers.

This former estate worker's house - originally built as accommodation for a labourer of the nearby Kilkea Castle Demesne - is a picturesque, small-scale building of modest appearance. Typical of the small-scale buildings on the lands of the Duke of Leinster the house is composed on a symmetrical plan and probably originally contained the basic accommodation necessary. The construction of the house is of interest and juxtaposes rubble stone and cut-granite to polychromatic effect - this is a feature shared with many further buildings built by the Duke of Leinster as part of his extensive building campaign in the nineteenth century. The stone masonry of the locally sourced cut-granite to the openings is particularly refined and is a somewhat unusual feature on a building of this type. The house retains some original features of interest, including the diamond-leaded fenestration to the front (south) elevation. Attractively set back from the road, the cottage is a prominent and picturesque feature on the streetscape and forms a neat group with the school (11903722/KD-37-22), church (11903721/KD-37-21), and further Kilkea Castle Demesne-related buildings nearby.