What appears at first glance to be a plain rural structure is, in fact, a National School that was already in existence by 1842, when it was recorded on the Ordnance Survey six-inch map alongside a Roman Catholic chapel. The two institutions sat side by side, a pairing that was common across rural Ireland in the decades following the establishment of the national school system in 1831, when the state began funding non-denominational primary education and local communities often built their schools in close proximity to existing places of worship.

The building itself is constructed from random-rubble limestone, a technique in which uncut or minimally shaped stones are laid without regular coursing, giving the walls a rough, varied texture. The corners are finished with quoins, larger squared stones that provide structural reinforcement and a degree of visual order. The front elevation, facing southeast and running five bays wide, would originally have presented sash windows to the road. The gables are topped with chimneys of ashlar stone, that is, finely cut and smoothly dressed masonry, which stands in deliberate contrast to the rougher rubble of the walls below. Later additions have accumulated at the southwest gable and along the northwest elevation, and the original door, presumably on the side or rear, has been absorbed behind these newer elements. The building's long axis runs northeast to southwest, a practical orientation for a narrow rural site.