Survey Data
Reg No
40852068
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical
Original Use
Store/warehouse
Date
1780 - 1820
Coordinates
187211, 361383
Date Recorded
26/10/2007
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay three-storey over basement former warehouse, built c. 1800, on L-shaped plan having wing attached to the south elevation having full-height loading bay to the south gable end. Possibly originally in use as a mill, now out of use and derelict. Remains of pitched natural slate roofs, now largely devoid of slates. Random rubble stone constructed having remains of roughcast render over and with roughly dressed flush quoins to the corners. Walls now largely overgrown with vegetation. Square-headed window openings with remains of fixed-pane timber windows and doors. Square-headed loading bays with remains of timber fittings to the south gable end. Building forms part of a complex of former industrial buildings located on the south bank of the River Erne, and located to the west/south-west of Ballyshannon town centre. Block to the north backs onto rubble stone quay with roughly dressed stone walls. Flight of cut stone steps to centre of quay to north. Located to the north of former warehouse/house (40852067) and to the east of former store/warehouse (40852088). Remains of single-storey outbuilding to the north.
Appraisal
Although now derelict and out of use, this substantial former industrial building retains its original architectural character and form. It is robustly built in local rubble stone masonry, which helps create an austere composition that is typical of utilitarian buildings of its type and date. Its survival, despite decades of dereliction, is testament to the quality of its original construction. This building dates to c. 1800, a period (late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century) when Ballyshannon was a prosperous regional market centre with a thriving port. This building(s) appears to formed part of a large industrial complex (also see records 40852069 and 40852088) which was known as ‘Erne Mills (Corn and Saw) c. 1906 (Ordnance Survey third edition six-inch map sheet 1906-7). It may have later passed into the ownership of the Myles family (members of same lived nearby at Inis Saimer and Stratherne House to the west c. 1900), a prosperous family of merchants who owned many of the (now largely demolished) warehouses, coal stores and a saw mill located on the south-west side of the River Erne in Ballyshannon during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Despite being out of use, this imposing industrial building is an important landmark structure along the main approach road into Ballyshannon from the west/south-west. This building forms the centerpiece of a large collection of associated structures that represent an integral element of the industrial heritage, and the social and commercial history of Ballyshannon. Sensitively restored or sensitively converted to a new use, it would make a strongly positive contribution to the streetscape to the south/south-west of Ballyshannon.