Collins Barracks

Pair of detached four-bay two-storey former officers' houses, built c.1900, having gabled end-bays to rear (north) elevation, recently renovated and now in use as offices and joined by central glass extension. M-profile hipped slate roofs, terracotta ridge tiles and finials, red brick chimneystacks, cast-iron rainwater goods. Half-dormer windows to front (south) elevations. Timber bargeboards to dormers. Red brick, laid in Flemish bond, to walls, cast-iron ventilation openings. Segmental-arched window openings with red brick voussoirs, granite sills and timber sash windows: eight-over-eight pane to front, one-over-one pane to side (east and west) elevations, six-over-six pane and four-over-four pane to rear. Four-over-four pane single sidelight to each door to front. Segmental-arched door openings to front, red brick voussoirs, half-glazed timber panelled doors, timber canopy having timber consoles and dentillated cornice over. Cast-iron bootscrapes to front of 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 pair of houses provides considerable variation to the architectural tone of the complex, constructed in red brick in contrast to the predominant calp limestone. They were constructed to provide accommodation for the barracks chaplain and doctor, and were of some social significance in the life of the barracks as a consequence. Recently restored, they retain much of their form and character.