- Lisnavagh School,
Lisnavagh Demesne,
- County Carlow.
The School House at the back entrance of Lisnavagh was
built between 1850 and 1855 by mason James Nolan and
stonecutter Patrick Byrne for a total cost of £206 10s 10d,
with a piggery and granite trough to the rear. William
McClintock Bunbury and his uncle Kane Bunbury continued to
carry out huge land improvements on their lands around
Rathvilly at Lisnavagh, Knockboy, Tobinstown etc during the
early 1850s.
The work includes rock removal, cleaving granite stones,
installing drains, sinking drains and building outlets. John
Byrne was paid 1s 8d for cleaving stones. Patrick Neill,
Edward Fitzgerald, Peter Nolan and Thomas Cody were paid 6d a
ton to cleave stones while the masons, John Griffith and
James Nolan were paid 2s 6d for building the outlets. Denis
Maguire and Patrick Byrne were paid one shilling a day 'for
stoning the drains' and laying tiles, respectively. But
labourers Michael Doyle, Joseph Hanlon and Thomas Hosey were
only paid 6d a day for sodding the drains.
Also, in March 1847, Lisnavagh's architect Daniel
Robertson wrote that the builder Henry Kingsmill 'had a full
complement of 130 men working on the new house'. This
workforce consisted of 35 labourers, 28 stonecutters, 30
masons, 23 stone cleavers, five brick makers and nine men
hired with carts'. That same month, Kingsmill submitted an
estimate of £4,820 to build the 'farm offices at Lisnavagh'
which seems to mean the buildings in the farmyard quadrangle,
including the Stewards House.
Turtle Bunbury
