McCan Barracks

Detached H-plan three-storey former military barracks, built c.1813, with projecting three-bay central block with pedimented entrance breakfront topped by cupola and flanked by seventeen-bay blocks. Twenty-two bay three-storey wings to north and south of parade ground to front of main building and former church to southeast. Now in use as national training college for An Garda Síochána. Pitched artificial slate roofs. Ashlar limestone cupola to main building, having weather vane. Roughcast rendered walls with render string courses to entrance block of main building. Recessed round-headed window openings to entrance block and square-headed elsewhere in complex, with replacement uPVC windows and with stone sills. Round-headed double-height opening to entrance block, with glazed entrance. Ashlar limestone block-and-start surrounds to doorways of north wing. Coursed rubble limestone boundary walls with chamfered corners to northwest and southwest, pill boxes to northeast and southeast and integral carriage arch to south perimeter. Ashlar limestone piers with lamps and flanking quadrant walls to main entrance with cast-iron gates.

Built after the rebellion of 1798, Richmond Barracks, as it was originally called, was built to accommodate 1,000 officers, hence its large size and proportions. The building was refurbished in 1963, when it was made the national training centre for An Garda Síochána, opening to recruits in 1964. The complex is of obvious architectural merit, the formal symmetry enlivened by the pedimented central breakfront. The juxtaposition of the limestone masonry of the cupola forms an interesting textural contrast with the roughcast rendered walls.