Collins Barracks

Detached thirteen-bay two-storey barracks, built c.1790, rebuilt c.1825, having three-bay full-height lean-to toilet block extensions built c.1900, and oriel windows to front (south) elevation. Now disused. Pitched slate roof, clay ridge tiles, red brick chimneystacks, granite eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods, cat-slide roofs with timber louvered vents to extensions. Dressed calp limestone walls with block-and-start quoins. Red brick, laid in Flemish bond, to toilet blocks to front, having dressed granite string courses over ground floor and at impost level to ground floor, red brick plinth course with granite capping. Square-headed window openings, granite sills, surrounds and six-over-six pane timber sash windows. Some cast-iron railings. Square-headed window openings having granite sills, lintels and steel- and timber-framed windows to red brick extensions, some openings blocked. Round-arched door openings to ground floor of extensions, red brick voussoirs, blocked. Square-headed door openings with dressed granite surrounds, timber battened doors and overlights. Square-headed door openings to rear having render surrounds and timber battened doors.

The construction of the Royal Barracks was initiated by the 2nd Duke of Ormonde at the close of the seventeenth century, and was funded by a tax on tobacco and beer. Such a large scale residential barracks was an entirely new concept, and until the departure of the Irish Army from the site in the twenty-first century, it was considered the largest and oldest occupied barracks in Europe. This block formed the north range of Horse Square, one of a series of stable blocks, which was built towards the close of the eighteenth century to the rear of the original ‘Horse Square’, subsequently renamed Cavalry Square. Its construction is indicative of the ongoing development and expansion of the Royal Barracks. The formal, functional plan of this building is complemented by an unadorned façade, with a regularity of design and proportion seen in the even fenestration arrangement. The use of dressed calp, enlivened by subtle granite detailing, provides a sense of uniformity with its neighbouring buildings.