Survey Data
Reg No
11902709
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Cultural, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Handball alley
In Use As
Handball alley
Date
1930 - 1940
Coordinates
270561, 205386
Date Recorded
--/--/--
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding mass-concrete handball alley, dated 1935, on a corner site. Mass-concrete walls (tall to east; sloping to north and to south; short to west). Unpainted. Cut-stone date stone. Square-headed door opening. Metal door. Metal viewing gallery, c.1980, to west. Road fronted.
Appraisal
This is a fine example of a mass-concrete handball alley that is still in use. Once a common sight across the country, having been initiated as part of the cultural nation-building of the early Irish Republic, many of these structures have subsequently been demolished, which means that the example at Nurney is an important and increasingly rare survival. Of considerable social and cultural importance the handball alley is also of vernacular interest, being a building type that is indigenous to the country. The construction of the building using mass-concrete is also of some technical/engineering merit. The handball alley is attractively located on a corner site and is a prominent landmark in the locality.