Reg No
15004181
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Previous Name
Athlone Barracks
Original Use
Hospital/infirmary
In Use As
Barracks
Date
1800 - 1810
Coordinates
203597, 241501
Date Recorded
10/10/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Detached ten-bay three-storey former military hospital, dated 1808. Now in use as infantry barracks. Pitched natural slate roof with raised verges, five rendered chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls with ashlar limestone quoins to the corners. Square-headed window openings with limestone block-and-start surrounds and cut stone sills, all now with replacement windows. Round-headed doorcases to third bay from either end with limestone block-and-start surrounds, replacement timber doors and plain fanlights over. Rendered wall with cast-iron railways to north side of building. Located to south end of Custume Barracks.
An attractive early nineteenth-century barrack building which survives with its original character and massing intact. It is typical of barrack buildings of the period in Ireland. The limestone block-and-start surrounds are a common feature of the mid-to-late-Georgian buildings in Custume Barracks and are of artistic merit. This hospital is said to have been originally built by French prisoners and remained in use as a hospital until 1968 when it was converted for use as infantry barracks accommodation for female soldiers. It remains an important component of Custume Barracks.