Killymarly National School, Killymarly townland, Co. Monaghan

(dated c.1840)

NGR: 270176, 333199

Travelling east from Monaghan Town toward the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland, there is a small rural townland named Killymarly located on the northern side of the N 72. The surrounding landscape is characterised by elongated low drumlin hills, interspersed with damp bog-lands and small lakes. On the western side of one of these low drumlins, and set just off a narrow local road, are the crumbling remains of a two-storey school house dating to the mid-19th century. The building is marked on both the First Edition 6 inch Ordnance Survey Sheet (1834-1846), and the later 25 inch Ordnance Survey Sheet (dating to the turn of the 20th century), and the school was probably constructed in the 1840s.

Killymarly, Co. Monaghan – First Edition Ordnance Survey Sheet

Killymarly, Co. Monaghan – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Sheet

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Corvoy National School, Cornahoe townland, Co. Monaghan

(dated c.1902)

NGR: 272335, 324722

Through the closing decades of the 19th century, there was a notable increase in the construction of new school houses in Ireland. During this time a number of ‘to-standard’ designs were utilised across the country including the detached eight-bay single-storey school house like example featured here from Corvoy in Co. Monaghan (built in 1902). Further almost identical schools can be found at Carrigan Co. Cavan (built in 1897) and Brooklawn Co. Galway (built in 1885).

Built in 1902 and replacing an earlier school house once located adjacent to the local Roman Catholic Church (see the First and Second Edition Ordnance Survey sheets above), this detached eight-bay single-storey school remains in good condition both internally and externally, and so it is a fine example of this ‘to-standard’ design’. It has a standard double entrance, one entrance for boys and one for girls. Sometimes there were local variations in the design, like the example from Gortahose, Co. Leitrim (built in 1890) with it’s centrally located doorway. Corvoy School includes a pitched slate roof with single red brick chimneystack to mid-roof, and cast-iron rainwater goods and harl-rendered walls, having carved stone date plaque to the centre of the front (west) elevation.

Inside, it is white-washed and bare, bright, but empty. It retains the majority of it’s original features including a built-in cloak cupboard inside the northern doorway. Outside, the surrounding rubble limestone boundary wall also separates girls’ and boys’ yards, and includes a post-Independence postbox, another common feature of schools of this era.  Continue reading Corvoy National School, Cornahoe townland, Co. Monaghan →

Latton National School, Latton townland, Co. Monaghan

(dated c.1941)

NGR: 268647, 314073

In the village of Latton in Co. Monaghan there has been a progression of four school houses since the first school building was marked on the First Edition Ordnance Survey in the 1840s. The national school featured in this blog post dates to 1941, and was replaced by the modern school building situated closer to the centre of the village.  Broadly similar in form and fabric to the school at Gortadooda in Co. Tipperary, this was a standard design by the Board of Works that was used throughout the country in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Latton National School, Co. Monaghan 1941

Latton National School, Co. Monaghan 1941

Latton National School, Co. Monaghan 1941

Latton Co. Monaghan 1941 Classroom with windows to the left of the desk arrangement

Latton Co. Monaghan 1941

Now standing in open pasture, the structure is gradually giving way to the elements. To the front of the building there is an inscribed limestone date and name plaque reading ‘Scoil Mhuire Leacht Fhinn Scoil Náisiúnta 1941’. However, inside many of the fixtures and fittings remain, and each classroom retains much of the original furniture giving the environment a particularly spooky feeling.

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