Survey Data
Reg No
40800406
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Technical
Original Use
Store/warehouse
Date
1850 - 1870
Coordinates
222830, 421332
Date Recorded
10/06/2014
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay four-storey former warehouse\store, built c. 1860, having gablet over central bay to the main elevation (west). Six-bay rear elevation (east) with gablet offset to the north side of centre. Now out of use and derelict. Pitched natural slate roof, now partially collapsing, having projecting ashlar eaves course, surviving sections of cast-iron rainwater goods, and clay ware ridge tiles. Pitched natural slate roof to gablet. Roughcast rendered rubble stone walls with flush roughly squared rubble stone quoins to the corners; cast-iron pattrice plates and wrought-iron tie bars to the front (west) and the rear (east) elevation. Square-headed window openings with rubble stone voussoirs, and remains of battened timber shutters. Ground floor window openings now blocked; rendered block-and-start surrounds to some ground floor openings. Central square-headed loading bays to the west elevation (beneath gablet), now largely collapsed. Central shallow segmental-headed carriage-arch to the west elevation having cement rendered block-and-start surround, battened timber double-doors, and with rock-faced granite wheel guards to either side having pyramidal heads and roughly drafted margins. Road-fronted to the north\north-east end of the Quay, Ramelton. River Leannan adjacent to the west. Complex of former warehouses\stores adjacent to the south (see 40800407 to 40800412) and warehouse to the north (see 40800405); section of rubble stone boundary wall attached to the south having rubble stone buttresses to the west face, and with integral segmental-headed carriage-arch to the south end having rubble stone piers (on square-plan), dressed and squared rubble stone voussoirs, and with a pair of wrought-iron flat bar gates. Yards to the north and south. Possibly incorporating fabric of castle and bawn to site to site (see RMP DG046-005007-) or possibly built using stone salvaged from same.
Appraisal
This impressive and imposing former warehouse\stores forms part of an important collection of buildings of this type aligning the historic quayside at Ramelton. The robust rubble stone masonry used in its construction is a typical feature of buildings of its type. It has been sadly out of use for a considerable period with the roof and floors now partially collapsing. Its integrity is enhanced by the retention of salient fabric such as the natural slate roof and battened timber doors, albeit in an increasingly dilapidated condition. This building dates to c. 1860, and was constructed around the same time that many of the former warehouses\stores to this end of the quay were erected, and around the same time that the quayside adjacent was rebuilt. It serves as an historic reminder of the town’s industrial and maritime heyday during the nineteenth century. Ramelton prospered during the eighteenth and nineteenth century as a major port with trade with Britain, Norway, America, and the Caribbean, particularly important (there are accounts of ships from the Caribbean anchored in Lough Swilly and unloading exotic cargoes at Ramelton in exchange for linen, corn, meat and fish). Ramelton had the most important linen works in Donegal and many fortunes were made in the locality in its trade. The Watt family ran the largest linen works in the area by the start of the nineteenth century and were heavily involved in its trade (Samuel Watt moved to Jamaica in the early 1800s and began importing linen from Ramelton, with his brother James as agent). Corn was another major commodity in the area during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with a number of large mills still surviving in the area. The surviving warehouses, particularly aligned along the north-east end of the quay, attest to the level of trade and commerce in the Ramelton area. Slater’s Directory of 1846 records that ‘vessels of up to one hundred and fifty tons burthen can come up to the quayside [at Ramelton] at high water, and others, almost of any tonnage, can approach within half a mile of the town’. The town and port declined in importance towards the end of the nineteenth century, and the establishment of a railway line to nearby Letterkenny in 1909, with no rail link being built to Ramelton, hastened the decline. This building possibly incorporates fabric from an earlier castle and bawn to site (or possibly built using stone from same), (see RMP DG046-005007-), which was originally built by Sir William Stewart (the original proprietor of Ramelton) by 1619. This former warehouse\store forms part of an important collection of industrial structures that contributes substantially to the almost unique character of the town of Ramelton, and is an integral element of the built heritage of County Donegal. The section of rubble stone boundary wall with carriage-arch to the south adds to the setting and context. If sensitively restored, it would add significantly to the streetscape to the north-east of the centre of the town.