Survey Data
Reg No
13305028
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
House
In Use As
Hotel
Date
1770 - 1790
Coordinates
233246, 280986
Date Recorded
23/08/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached three-bay three-storey former house, built c. 1780, now in use as hotel. Hipped (southwest) and pitched (northeast) natural slate roof with three rendered chimneystacks, two to the centre and one to the northeast end. Painted lined-and-ruled rendered walls over plinth with ornate eaves course and with quoins. Square-headed window openings with painted block-and-start surrounds with one-over-one timber sliding sash windows to first and second floors. Tripartite windows to ground floor having block-and-start surrounds and one-over-one timber sliding sash windows. Limestone sills throughout. Central segmental-headed tripartite doorway with architraved surround having vermiculated blocks to base and at lintel level, sidelights over vermiculated panels, timber panelled door and a fanlight over with decorative timber joinery. Flight of limestone steps to entrance. Cast-iron and glass canopy to doorway. Road fronted to the north side of Main Street, Granard.
Appraisal
This large and well-proportioned hotel has a regular, classically inspired façade enlivened by diminishing windows that emphasise the vertical thrust of the structure. It retains much of its salient fabric and its early character. The ground floor is enhanced by the tripartite window openings with block-and-start surrounds, which complement the ornate doorway. The fine architraved tripartite doorcase is well detailed and provides a central focus to this imposing structure. The finely cut limestone steps to the entrance underlines the status of this hotel as one of the grandest buildings on Main Street. The hipped roof to the west end, adjoining the former market house (13305027), suggests that it was originally at the end of the terrace and that it may well predate the adjoining building, built c. 1780. It was in the ownership of an Edward Cahill in 1881 (Slater’s Directory) and probably a Thomas Moxham in 1846 (Slater’s Directory 1846). It was in the ownership of the Kiernan family during the early-twentieth century. It has important historical connections with Michael Collins (1890 – 1922), who first stayed at the hotel in 1917 and became a regular visitor to the town between 1917 and 1922. Collins was engaged to Kitty Kiernan, the daughter of the hotel owner at the time. The hotel was apparently burnt down by the Black and Tans in 1920, during the War of Independence. Part of the first floor was in use as magistrates and barristers 'rooms' associated with the adjacent market house and court house during the mid- to late-nineteenth century, entered through a 'convenient doorway' in the party wall (Slater's Directory).