house, Close Lane · NIAH 40833028

This simple two-storey building retains much of its early form and character despite some later alterations and currently (2013) being out of use. Its visual expression is enhanced by the retention of timber sliding sash windows. This building was formerly in use as a school during the mid-to-late nineteenth century (Valuation map of c. 1860). There were two schools located along Close Lane in Raphoe during the second half of the nineteenth century (a girls school and a Robertson school are recorded here in Slater’s Directories of 1881 and 1894). It is possible that this was originally a Robertson school are these are commonly of the two-storey form and originally generally had an external staircase giving access to a doorway at first floor level (possibly later removed here). A Robertson school is recorded in Raphoe in Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of 1837 (location unknown). There are a number of surviving examples of this type of Robertson school still surviving in Donegal, albeit in altered form (examples can be seen in Killybegs and Tamney). Robertson schools are a building type particular to Donegal, and were built wholly or partially using funds bequeathed in the will of Colonel Robertson (died 1790), who stipulated that £15 be made payable to each parish in Donegal to fund the salary of a schoolmaster to ‘instruct children of all denominations’. Later this fund increased and this enabled the trustees to grant £40 per annum per parish for the erection of a school house. It is estimated that the fund supported upwards of a hundred schools in Donegal during the mid-nineteenth century. This building appears to have been converted to some commercial use sometime after c. 1905, and the porch dates to after this date. A later school was built a short distance to this building sometime during the second half of the nineteenth century (not on Valuation map of c. 1860 but on Ordnance Survey twenty-five inch map of 1904-5. This building appears to be still extant (not investigated). This simple building is an interesting addition to the built heritage and social history of Raphoe, and if sensitively restored would make a positive contribution to the streetscape to the north of the town centre.