Survey Data
Reg No
40836004
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Public house
In Use As
House
Date
1800 - 1840
Coordinates
173481, 390520
Date Recorded
17/11/2010
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached five-bay two-storey former house, built c. 1820, having modern shopfront to ground floor. Later in use as a constabulary barracks, c. 1905 (Ordnance Survey twenty-five inch map), and later as a public house until c. 2000. Also in use as a hairdressers, c. 1995. Now in use as a shop with modern extension to the rear (east), c. 2008. Pitched replacement natural slate roof having projecting smooth rendered eaves course, and with rendered chimneystack to the sough gable end. Smooth rendered ruled-and-lined walls over smooth rendered plinth course. Modern painted timber fascia panels to either end above ground floor openings. Square-headed window openings at first floor level and to the south end of the ground floor level having painted stone sills and replacement six-over-six pane timber sliding sash windows. Enlarged square-headed window opening to the north end at ground floor level having replacement fixed-pane display windows. Central square-headed doorway having replacement battened timber door with overlight; square-headed doorway adjacent to the north, serving shop, having replacement glazed battened timber door with overlight. Road-fronted to the centre of Ardara overlooking The Diamond to the west.
Appraisal
Despite recent extensive alterations, this attractive and well-proportioned former house, which probably dates to the first decades of the nineteenth century, retains much of its early character. Although the fittings to the openings and the natural slate roof have been replaced in recent years, the modern replacements are in keeping with the removed earlier fabric and fail to detract substantially from its visual appeal. Its integrity is diminished by the modern alterations, and the large extension to the rear. This building was probably originally built as a house; its scale suggests by someone of note within the local community. It was later in use as a constabulary barracks, c. 1905 (Ordnance Survey twentieth-five inch map), and possibly as a revenue police barracks in c. 1860 (building in this area indicated as such on Griffith’s Valuation map). An Owen Fallon, district inspector, may have been in charge here in 1894 (Slater’s Directory). It was attached by the IRA in October 1920 during the War of Independence by the attack was beaten off by a reinforced Royal Irish Constabulary force stationed here at the time. It was attacked again in 1921, again without success. It may have remained a barracks until a new Garda station was built in Ardara in 1970. This site, like much of the centre of Ardara, was owned by the Revd. George N. Tredennick of nearby Woodhill House at the time and leased to various individuals. It was later in use as a public house, known as The Central, until c. 2000. Although altered, this building is one of the better surviving traditional buildings in the centre of Ardara, and is a modest addition to the built heritage of the town.