Castlecomer Barrack

Detached nine-bay three-storey over part basement barrack, built 1801-2, on a symmetrical plan centred on three-bay three-storey breakfront; nine-bay three-storey rear (west) elevation. Repaired, 1837-8. Vacant, 1901; 1911. Now disused. Hipped slate roof on strutted King post timber construction with terracotta ridge tiles, rendered red chimney stacks having cut-granite corbelled stepped chamfered capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta tapered pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on cut-granite eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Part creeper- or ivy-covered roughcast walls on rendered base on lichen-spotted chamfered plinth; roughcast surface finish to rear (west) elevation with rusticated rendered piers to ends. Segmental-headed central door openings with drag edged tooled cut-limestone step thresholds, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones with fittings boarded-up retaining fanlights. Square-headed window openings with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones framing six-over-six timber sash windows without horns. Square-headed window openings (top floor) with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones framing three-over-three timber sash windows without horns. Square-headed door openings to rear (west) elevation with cut-granite step thresholds, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones with fittings now boarded-up. Square-headed window openings centred on square-headed window opening in bipartite arrangement (first floor), cut-granite sills, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones framing six-over-six timber sash windows without horns centred on six-over-six timber sash windows. Square-headed window openings (top floor) with cut-granite sills, and cut-granite block-and-start surrounds centred on keystones framing three-over-three timber sash windows without horns. Set in unkempt grounds with limestone ashlar piers to perimeter having mass-concrete chamfered capping.

A barrack erected to designs by Whitmore Davis (Tighe 1802, 57) representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of County Kilkenny with the architectural value of the composition, 'a neat range of buildings...adapted for 8 officers and 126 non-commissioned officers and privates with suitable offices' (Lewis 1837 I, 292), confirmed by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on a shallow breakfront; the restrained doorcases showing simple radial fanlights; and the diminishing in scale of the widely spaced openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with those openings showing silver-grey granite dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, including shimmering glass in hornless sash frames, thus upholding the character or integrity of a barrack making an imposing, if increasingly forlorn visual statement in Barrack Street.