Birr Castle

Detached double-height gate house, built in 1848, at the northern edge of a star-shaped moat with retaining walls which encompass the nothern limits of Birr Castle. Gate house roof hidden behind castellated parapet. Snecked limestone walls with string course. Coursed cut stone retaining walls to moat. Tooled limestone crenellations and bartizan with machicolations and plaque bearing coat of arms which reads: 'Pro Deo et Rege' which translates: 'For God and King'. Round-headed window and blind openings. Stone oriel window to first floor with mullions and transoms. Balistraria and loop-like window to front elevation. Segmental-headed integral carriage arch and pedestrian portal with cast-iron gates. Vaulting to ceiling of integral carriage arch. Timber pedestrian bridge over moat to side.

This building has had a most interesting history. The moat was rebuilt as part of the Famine relief project 1847-8, to a design by Captain Wharton-Middleton, uncle of Mary Countess of Rosse. It served as the Birr Meteorological Station from the time of the fourth Earl until the establishment of the independent Met Station in Clonoghil. The moat and gate house referred to today as The Keep display features associated with medieval castle building such as the bartizan with machicolations, slit and loop windows and crenellated battlements. The design for this structure was recognised as of such importance that it was displayed in the international exhibition of the RIBA 'Drawing on Diversity: women in architecture from the sixteenth century on'. The ground plans and the designs for the buidling by Mary Rosse are preserved in Birr Castle Archives. Commemorative plaque to entrance gate reads: 'In Memory of William Conroy Aged 20 Years / Patrick Cunningham Aged 22 Years / Colum Kelly Aged 18 Years / Executed Here 26th January 1923 / Following Summary Court Marshal / During the Civil War / Rest In Peace / This Stone Erected On The / Eightieth Anniversary Of Their Deaths / 2003'.