Survey Data
Reg No
15400612
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Ballinalack School
Original Use
RIC barracks
In Use As
House
Date
1820 - 1840
Coordinates
235152, 264320
Date Recorded
16/11/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached two-bay two-storey gable-fronted former Royal Irish Constabulary barracks on T-shaped plan, built c.1830, with flanking single-bay single-storey wings to either side (northwest and southeast). Now in use as a private house. Pitched natural slate roof with raised limestone verges to gable ends and a projecting ashlar limestone eaves course that is brought across gable-fronted section as a projecting string course. Cut stone plaque to gable. Ashlar limestone chimneystacks to either gable end (northeast and southwest). Roughcast rendered walls. Square-headed openings having two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows to side elevation and replacement windows to the entrance front. Blind square-headed windows/recesses to first floor of entrance front. Square-headed doorcase to southwest bay of entrance front having flush ashlar limestone surround and a pedimented ashlar limestone canopy over supported on ashlar brackets. Timber sheeted door with plain overlight above. Set back from road with squared rubble limestone wall with crenellated coping over to road frontage. Located towards the centre of Ballinalack.
Appraisal
A highly appealing early nineteenth-century constabulary barracks, which retains its early form, character and much of its early fabric. This curious building is well detailed in good quality ashlar limestone and displays a high degree of architectural aspiration for such a small-scale and functional building. It is classically detailed and proportioned with the gable-fronted section to the entrance front treated almost as an eaves pediment. The fine cut stone doorcase with an unusual ashlar canopied porch over is a noteworthy feature of artistic merit. The level of detailing suggests that this building may have been built to serve as a court house in addition to a barracks building. This building is of social and historical merit on account of its former use as a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks and remains an important element of the architectural heritage of Westmeath.