Columb Barracks

Detached seven-bay two-storey former barrack chaplin’s residence, built c.1855. Now in use as married officer’s quarters. Pitched natural slate roof having a projecting cut stone eaves course and with raised verges and dressed limestone chimneystacks to either gable end (north and south). Constructed of coursed squared limestone over a projecting dressed limestone plinth with stepped clasping buttresses to the south corner of entrance façade (west) and flanking central doorcase. Pointed-arched window openings with chamfered dressed limestone surrounds and diamond-pane cast-iron windows with margin glazing pattern. Pointed-arched doorcase to the centre having chamfered dressed limestone surrounds and a glazed timber door with overlight. Located to the northeast side of Columb Barracks with a garden adjacent to the west having an ashlar plinth wall with cast-iron railings and a cast-iron gate to the south side. Associated former Church of Ireland church (15310008) to the opposite side of garden (west).

An appealing and well-detailed former barrack chaplin’s house, of mid nineteenth-century date, which retains it’s early form and character. This building is constructed in a Gothic-style, which contrasts attractively with the mainly classical style of the earlier original barrack buildings. This fine structure is well-detailed in dressed limestone and retains its early cast-iron windows. This well-maintained structure forms an interesting pair with the chapel (15310008) to the east. It forms part of an important collection of structures within the Columb Barracks complex (15310007 to 15310019), constituting an important element of the architectural heritage of the area and is of considerable social and historical importance to Westmeath.