Survey Data
Reg No
15310007
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Wellington Barracks
Original Use
Barracks
In Use As
Barracks
Date
1810 - 1820
Coordinates
242832, 253153
Date Recorded
20/07/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Two multiple-bay three-storey military barrack ranges on L-shaped plans associated with Columb Barracks (15310007 to 15310019), built 1814. Ranges linked in the centre by a later wall/memorial, erected 1966, making a U-plan complex. Hipped and pitched natural roofs with ashlar limestone chimneystacks and a number of remaining sections of cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls over smooth rendered plinth. Ashlar limestone piers and a projecting string course at first floor level to five-bay end elevations to both ranges, facing east. Raised eaves parapet to eastern end elevation to northern range. Square-headed window openings having ashlar limestone block-and-start surrounds, cut stone sills and mainly replacement windows. Openings to east end of southern block widened and altered c.1980 with surrounds removed. Ground floor windows to east end elevation of both ranges set in round-headed recesses. Round-headed doorcases with ashlar limestone block-and-start surrounds, timber panelled doors and replacement fanlights. Single-bay full-height breakfronts to the northwest (rear) sides of both blocks having square-headed doorcases with block-and-start surrounds. Ranges are connected in the centre by a memorial arch/gateway, constructed of rusticated concrete with three-square-headed openings, commemorating the 50th anniversary of 1966 rising. Barrack ranges and memorial located to the west end of Columb Barracks with parade ground to the east formed by arms of barrack ranges.
Appraisal
Two very fine early nineteenth-century barrack ranges having classical proportions and retaining their early character and form. These substantial buildings retain much of their early fabric, despite recent alterations, including good quality ashlar limestone block-and-start surrounds to the openings. These buildings were among the first structures built within Columb Barrack and remain the most substantial buildings within the complex. Their form, with Classical proportions, is very typical of the military architecture of the time and similar buildings are to be found at Custume Barracks, Athlone, dating to the same period. The site for the barracks at Mullingar was purchased by the War Department in 1807. The barracks were built in 1814 and first occupied in 1819. The original barracks were built to accommodate 1000 soldiers and it is likely that the vast majority of these were housed in these two barrack buildings. It was originally named Wellington Barracks, like many of the barrack complexes built in Ireland at the time. The barracks was renamed Columb Barracks in 1922 after Patrick Columb, a member of the National Army who was killed on Mary Street, Mullingar in 1922. The 1916 memorial arch/gateway replaced an earlier pedimented limestone arch on the same site. These buildings form part of an important collection of structures within the Columb Barracks complex (15310007 to 15310019), constituting an important element of the architectural heritage of the area and are of considerable social and historical importance to Westmeath.