Survey Data

Reg No

50080065


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Historical, Social


Previous Name

Royal Hospital Kilmainham


Original Use

Stables


In Use As

Garda station/constabulary barracks


Date

1860 - 1880


Coordinates

313004, 233760


Date Recorded

01/05/2013


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Castellated screen wall of courtyard, built c.1870, with adjoining pair of three-bay two-storey lodges to interior (south) elevation. Now in use as garda station. Pitched slate roofs having red brick chimneystacks, limestone coping, timber eaves courses and cast-iron rainwater goods, half-dormer windows to east lodge. Yellow brick eaves course to lodge to west. Raised castellated cut limestone parapets to north-facing gables, stepped cut limestone chimneystacks abutting north-facing gables. Snecked calp limestone walls, some dressed stone, some rubble. Segmental-arched window openings, cut limestone surrounds and sills. Timber sash windows with three-over-three pane to first floor, six-over-six pane to ground floor, eight-over-eight pane to west lodge. Segmental-arched door openings, cut limestone surrounds, timber battened and steel doors, some having overlights. Snecked cut limestone to front (north) elevation of screen wall, blind arcades of Tudor arches with chamfered limestone voussoirs and stepped buttresses, flanking central carriage opening, now blocked. Limestone plinth course having carved limestone coping. Carved limestone string course, castellated parapet over. Coursed rubble stone to interior of wall.

Appraisal

Forming part of the Kilmainham Garda Station, this screen wall once enclosed the stable court of the Royal Hospital. This part of the complex was designed by R.J. Stirling in 1866 and partially lines the west avenue, and forms an integral part of the grounds of the Hospital. Well designed, with highly skilled stone masonry evident in the execution of the blind arches, castellated parapet and buttresses, this elegant feature enhances the grand appearance of the avenue. The gables of the houses to the rear enhance the symmetry of the site.