Survey Data
Reg No
20871031
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Engine house
In Use As
Surgery/clinic
Date
1880 - 1885
Coordinates
169629, 69375
Date Recorded
24/05/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached single-bay two-stage former water tower, built 1883, now disused. Squared coursed limestone with dressed limestone quoins surmounted by cast-iron tank and having further cast-iron tank attached to east. Round-headed window openings with dressed limestone block-and-start surrounds, limestone sills and fixed-light windows. Square-headed door opening with double-leaf timber battened door.
Appraisal
Completed to designs by Richard Murray, Saint Patrick's Woollen Mills were the last purpose-built woollen mills to be built in county Cork and was the second largest of its type in the county. The complex consisted of three main blocks with a central engine house, flanked by two blocks containing preparing, carding, and spinning rooms in one block and weaving and finishing shops in the other. Built of limestone with red brick to the surrounds, the single-storey form of the complex is unusual amongst mills. Though altered the engine house retains its original form while the water tower is particularly striking and retains its original tank. It represents an important element to Cork's industrial heritage.