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Galty Cottage was
built in 1858 on land that had
been occupied by the Dwyer Family which had also given up
some land for the building of the school..
Even though the house was built at the same time as
the school, from similar material and in a similar style,
the teacher’s residence was not vested in The National
Commissioners of Education.
It seems to have been a project sponsored by the
Irish Land Company under Alexander Brogden and probably
funded by a loan from the commissioners in Dublin. When the
Galtee Estate passed from Brogden to the Buckley family,
they became owners of Galty Cottage.
The
charming, well-proportioned limestone house with a
double-hipped slate roof is said to have been constructed by
local stonemasons named Jackson.
Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland (1851) shows one
Jackson family in Skeheenarinky – ancestors of Jacksons of
the pub. Just as at the school, the cut limestone is the
most striking characteristic of Galty Cottage. Around the door
and windows the stone quoins are cut and dressed.
The door and windows are further enhanced by
mouldings incorporated into the wall above them. In
architectural terms these are hood mouldings.
Hood mouldings are also seen over the windows of the
school and of Jacksons’ pub.
Cut limestone windowsills all around, and a ground
level plinth – which adorns the front wall of the house
– are features shared with the design of the school.
An interesting feature, that would be expected, is
that the front of the house faces the school.
A path from the front door used to lead to a gate in
the hedge through which the teacher walked each morning.
Additional
outdoor features of Galty Cottage are its double fascias and
plaster soffits, adding architectural interest where the
walls meet the roof. Cast
iron gutters have rested solidly for many decades on metal
spikes – many original – probably made by a local
blacksmith. Two
‘smithies’ are shown on the 1908 Ordnance Survey Map –
one at Creeds near Brackbawn Bridge, the other – the ruins
of which can still be seen – between Skeheenarinky Pool
and Tom Moloney’s house.
When some of the cast iron spikes and gutters had to
be replaced, care was taken that they be identical to the
originals. Fortunately,
the Victorian hoppers and downpipes are still serviceable.
The
chimney appears to be out of proportion to the rest of the
house. This may
well be an original feature, but there is some evidence that
the chimney was raised in the years after the house was
built. Recent work around the chimney - and that part of the
roof - revealed that the Red Deal roof timbers –
presumably from the local sawmill - are still as hard as
modern day hardwoods, and during those repairs hand made
nails were found in the floor of the attic.
Galty
Cottage originally had has four rooms...each 32 feet by
32 feet, with cast iron
fireplaces, brick lined chimneys, eighteen inch thick walls,
and 9½ foot ceilings. One front room has the original
cornice moulding on the walls and ceiling; the other front
room has the original picture rail and hooks.
All of the interior doors are believed to be
originals. The
window shutters are no longer at the windows, but some were
converted to paneling in the current sitting room.
The extension housing the kitchen and bathroom at the
rear was added in the 1950s, while a modern but sympathetic
extension was added in 2006.
The
garden, surrounded by stone walls and hedges, consists of
just half an acre on which sit cobbled stone sheds also
believed to have been built in 1858.
The original gate hangs on the original limestone
piers that were recently rebuilt, having been knocked by a
truck several years ago.
At this front gate on the castle road, a tall
evergreen tree stands guard.
It was planted by Stephen Morrissey on 16 September
1951. Outside
the gate, on what is now County Council property, are the
remains of the old pump where generations of Skeheenarinky
people got their water in the days before houses had piped
water.
A
hedge separates Galty Cottage from O’Gormans’ field.
There was once a gate in the hedge to provide access
to a tap that stood in that field. A saucepan hung by a chain from that tap; and at one time
children from the school would run across for a drink of
water.
In
1949, Anthony Harold Buckley and Teresa Lyons sold Galty
Cottage to John Leonard.
A year later, he sold it for £500 pounds to The Most
Reverend Daniel Cohalan, The Reverend Thomas O’Gorman, The
Reverend Thomas Cassidy and The Reverend Charles Lawn.
In 1951, teacher Mary Morrissey and her family moved
into the house, and after almost fifty years of being
resident at Galty Cottage, Mrs. Morrissey bought the
freehold property from the only surviving owner, The
Reverend Charles Lawn.
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