Estate school houses of this kind were a common feature of large Irish demesnes during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, built by landlords to provide basic education for the children of tenants and servants. That they existed at all reflects a paternalistic model of estate management, and that so many have survived, often quietly folded into the landscape of former demesnes, says something about the durability of their construction.

Garbally itself was the seat of the Clancarty family, the Earls of Clancarty, and the demesne was one of the more substantial landed estates in Connacht. The house and grounds passed through several hands over the centuries and today the main house functions as a boarding school, Garbally College, run by the Diocese of Clonfert. The presence of a dedicated estate school house within the demesne walls points to an earlier era of self-contained estate life, when the landlord's responsibilities, real or perceived, extended to the education of those dependent on the land.