Survey Data
Reg No
31209068
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Barracks
Date
1825 - 1835
Coordinates
114855, 290364
Date Recorded
25/11/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached fifteen-bay three-storey officers' quarters blockhouse, sanctioned 1828; under construction 1831; extant 1838, on a symmetrical plan with pair of single-bay single-storey projecting porches to ground floor. Burnt, 1922. Restored, 1927-34. Now disused. Pitched slate roof with clay or terracotta ridge tiles, drag edged tooled limestone ashlar chimney stacks centred on paired drag edged tooled limestone ashlar chimney stacks having cut-limestone stringcourses below capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on eaves boards on cut-limestone eaves retaining some cast-iron downpipes. Repointed tuck pointed coursed or snecked limestone walls with drag edged tooled cut-limestone flush quoins to corners. Square-headed opposing door openings with drag edged tooled cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds framing replacement timber panelled doors. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills, and drag edged tooled cut-limestone block-and-start surrounds framing six-over-six timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central halls retaining limestone flagged floors. Set in shared grounds with tarmacadam parade ground.
Appraisal
An officers' quarters blockhouse originally built as one of a pair illustrating the development or redevelopment of the Castlebar Infantry Barracks complex in the early nineteenth century with the architectural value of the composition, 'a fine range…recently erected' (Lewis 1837 I, 289), confirmed by such attributes as the symmetrical plan form centred on Classically-detailed porches; the construction in a rough cut limestone offset by "sparrow pecked" dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship; and the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings on each floor: meanwhile, aspects of the composition illustrate the near-total reconstruction of the officers' quarters blockhouse following an attack (1922) during "The Troubles" (1919-23). Having been reasonably well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: the gradual introduction of replacement fittings to the openings, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of the composition.